Pears transparent soap is a brand of soap first produced and sold in 1789 by Andrew Pears at a factory just off Oxford Street in London, England. It was the world's first transparent soap. Under the stewardship of Thomas J. Barratt, A. & F. Pears Ltd. company initiated a number of innovations in sales and marketing. According to Unilever records, Pears Soap was the world's first registered brand and is therefore the world's oldest continuously existing brand.
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Andrew Pears, the son of a farmer, was born in around 1770 and moved from his native Mevagissey in Cornwall to London in about 1787 to train as a barber. He completed his apprenticeship in 1789 and established a barber's shop in Gerrard Street in Soho and began to produce cosmetic products. At that time Soho was a wealthy residential area, and Andrew's clientele included many wealthy socialites who took great pride in their appearance. The fashion amongst the wealthy of the period was for pristine white (alabaster) complexions; tanned faces were associated with those who laboured out of doors. Andrew found that his powders and creams were frequently being used to cover up damage caused by the harshness of the soaps and other beauty products (many of which contained arsenic or lead) that were in general use at the time. Pears began to experiment with soap purification and eventually managed to produce a gentle soap based on glycerine and other natural products. The clarity of the soap gave it a novel transparent appearance which provided a marketing advantage. To add to the appeal, Andrew gave the soap an aroma reminiscent of an English garden.
In 1835, his grandson Francis Pears joined the business and created the company A. & F. Pears Ltd. In 1838 Andrew Pears retired, leaving Francis in charge of the company. In 1851 the company was awarded the prize medal for soap at The Great Exhibition.
Francis' son-in-law Thomas J. Barratt, sometimes referred to as the father of modern advertising, eventually managed the firm.
In 1862, production of the soap moved to Isleworth, and three years later Francis' son, Andrew, joined A. & F. Pears Ltd. as joint proprietor and ran the factory, whilst Thomas ran the head office in London.
In the mid 1910s, A. & F. Pears Ltd. became part of Lever Brothers and moved production to Port Sunlight in north west England.
Pears soap is now made in India by Hindustan Unilever a company in which Unilever controls a fifty-two percent stake.
Pears soap was made using a process entirely different to that for other soaps. A mixture of tallow and other fats was saponified by caustic potash (potassium hydroxide) in industrial methylated spirits. After saponification was completed the resulting glycerol was left in the batch. Batches were made not in huge pans, but in small kettle-like vessels and as soon as the translucent amber liquid had cooled enough to solidify it was extruded into opaque oval bars that were cut into bath- or toilet weight tablets ready for beginning their long drying spell in the drying rooms (ovens). The hot liquid soap fresh from the vessel had a total fatty matter (TFM) of 45% compared with the TFMs of 70-80% usual in soaps made by the conventional method. The TFM increased considerably as the alcohol content fell during drying.
The entire Pears plant was a small almost self-contained annexe situated at the rear of the administration block. The plant was run by a handful of staff who not only had experience of the specialised process, but had developed immunity to the effects of breathing the alcohol-laden atmosphere in the plant building.
The concave shape of the soap is formed by shrinkage while the soap is drying, and is not due to deliberate moulding.
Bars of soap produced in the factory come in two sizes: 75 g and 125 g. Nowadays this soap comes in three colours - the classic amber, the green, and mint (blue color). Each variety has a unique aroma. The soap now comes in two new sizes: 69 g and 119 g.
Recent changes to quality of ingredients used in the manufacturing process (see "Changes to the Formula" below) have resulted in a noticeably different shape (flatter rather than concave) and difference in scent with the classic transparent amber bar. The aroma, which used to be a characteristically mild, spicy fragrance, is now a very strong frankincense-like smell. In the UK the same has been noticed in 2009 with a scent almost like coal tar and with a reduction in the moisturizing properties, and in a differently shaped bar.
From the late 19th century, Pears soap was famous for its marketing, masterminded by Barratt. Its campaign using Millais's painting Bubbles continued over many decades. As with many other brands at the time, at the beginning of the 20th century Pears also used their product as a sign of the prevailing European concept of the "civilizing mission" of empire and trade, in which the soap stands for progress.
In the late 19th century, Pears used coins countermarked with "Pears Soap" as a way of advertising its soap. The coins used were French, imported by Pears. About the same size and shape as the British pennies at the time, these French coins were generally accepted as pennies in Britain.[2]
Lillie Langtry's famous ivory complexion brought her income as the first woman to endorse a commercial product, advertising Pears Soap. Her fee was allied to her weight so she was paid 'pound for pound'.
Between 1891 and 1925 Pears issued their now famous annuals, now highly collectible. From the early 20th century Pears was famous for the annual "Miss Pears" competition in which parents entered their children into the high-profile hunt for a young brand ambassador to be used on packaging and in consumer promotions. Many Miss Pears subsequently entered acting or modelling.
Beginning with 2003, a British company called Cert Brands is in charge of marketing and distribution of Pears soap.[3][4]
Pears' unique manufacturing process required the soap to be dried for up to thirteen weeks in order for the alcohol used in the process to evaporate and be re-used. The soap bars were laid out on wooden trays in drying rooms known as "ovens" about the size of a domestic garage. Bars were placed on trays with both sides open to the air. Ovens were graded in warmth from around 100F (39C) to 70F (21C) and as drying proceeded trolleys loaded with trays were moved to progressively cooler ovens. In practice the soap often became opaque, and Unilever explored a variety of options to prevent this from happening, all of which would have added to the cost:
In 1971, a team from the Pears soap advertising agency, Foote Cone and Belding, visited the Pears soap factory in Port Sunlight in order to have a better understanding of how the soap was made, in the hope this might provide some insight for their next advertising campaign. During the visit they attended one of Unilever's product meetings, at which point Richard Oldcorn, the agency account director, suggested a novel solution. He had read chemistry at Cambridge University and had previously worked for Unilever, with a company that made industrial margarines. There had been a problem with lard going rancid due to oxidation, and Oldcorn remembered that Butylated Hydroxytoluene had been used as an antioxidant which successfully overcame the problem. He suggested this during the meeting, and the solution was adopted. It allowed not only different coloured transparent Pears soap is to be produced, but also Pears shampoos.
In October 2009 the formula for the transparent amber soap was altered from the original formula to become 'Gentle Care' wrapped in an inner cellophane covering. The new soap was slightly softer in texture and lasts half as long, the most noticeable difference was the scent. The aroma of the classic transparent amber bar, which used to be characterized by a mild, spicy herbal fragrance, was altered to a stronger aromatic scent. The "Hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic" claim was dropped due to the new ingredient additions. Furthermore, the 3-month aging process described on the original box does not appear on the box of the 'Gentle Care' formula, suggesting that the "improvements" made were motivated by the desire to produce the soap more quickly and with cheaper ingredients, therefore increasing profits.
On 6 January 2010, after a Facebook campaign, it was reported in the media that Pears planned to abandon the new formula and that by March 2010 a new version would be available that is "much closer to the original".[5] On 8 January 2010, it was reported in the media that Pears will not abandon the new formula but will "make further improvements, by delivering a scent that more closely resembles the original formula.[6]. However, this has not occurred.
An analysis of the current ingredients list indeed reveals items such as limonene, whose variant called L-limonene is characterised by a "turpentine-like odor" also typical of frankincense. Ironically, it is an insecticide as well. However, this item has already been present in the pre-2009 formula. Therefore the perceived change might be explained not only by different ingredients, but also by different proportions of ingredients.
The latest 2009 modification mainly breaks down to an addition of artificial colouring and substances whose hypothetical function is either as detergents (i.e. cleaning substances) or stabilisers (i.e. product longevity enhancers). However, even the pre-2009 formula was a far cry from the original one. The latter was completely free of industrial cleaners, free of synthetic colours and (apparently) free of synthetic odorants, whose place was occupied by natural herbal fragrances. However, one unknown in the original formula is the "Pears fragrance essence": because of it, the customer cannot be certain whether the "new" fragrant compounds are indeed all new—or simply formerly unlisted items.
During production at Port Sunlight the glycerol (glycerine) content was a result of not removing that formed during the manufacturing process.
| Old-stock soaps | Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Cert Brands-distributed[3][4] bars | New soaps | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1789–2009 | 2003–2009 | October 2009 – now (March 2010?[5]) | |||
| Group I: Traditional ingredients | |||||
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| Group II: Trivial introductions | |||||
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| Group III: Detergents, stabilisers/preservatives, emulsifiers | |||||
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| Group IV: Colouring agents | |||||
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Group V: New fragrance agents | ||||