Vintage Products That Leave You Wanting

[Bruce Wayne]

I picked up a bar of Lava soap this afternoon to replace one that my sister bought for me about 12 or so years ago (I had misplaced it & recently rediscovered it) the new bar seems to have less pumice in it. So I am wondering what, if any products that have been around for years that you have noticed a change in?

Thanx!!!
Charlie

 

[F. J.]

Brylcreem and Gold Bond . . .

They’ve reformulated Brylcreem. I don’t remember the details, but I recall seeing differences in the ingredients listed on the new box versus the old.
When they first came out with the redesigned packaging for Brylcreem, I thought it was just marketing until I opened it. The stuff was quite runny. That tube was probably just a lemon as every one after that was that signature Brylcreem consistency, albeit slightly whiter than it used to be.

I also have an undated original twleve-ounce tin of Gold Bond Medicated Powder. I fill it up with the modern stuff and use it.
On the back it says:

G O L D B O N D
MEDICATED
POWDER

A SOOTHING APPLICATION FOR THE RE-​

LIEF OF BED SORES, CHAFING, SUNBURN,
PRICKLY HEAT, NONPOISONOUS INSECT
BITES, CHAPPED HANDS, AND MINOR SKIN
IRRITATIONS.

FOR BURNING AND ITCHING FEET,​

ATHLETE’S FOOT AND MINOR FOOT IRRI-
TATIONS APPLY THREE OR MORE TIMES
DAILY AND SPRINKLE FREELY IN THE SHOES.

IT’S MEDICATED

________
MADE BY
GOLD BOND STERILIZING POWDER CO.
LABORATORY: FAIRHAVEN, MASS., U. S. A.


On the side it says:
“ACTIVE INGREDIENTS—BORIC ACID, SALICYCLIC
ACID, STEARATE OF ZINC, THYMOL, MENTHOL,
METHYL SALICYLATE, EUCALYPTOL, AND TALC.”

On a recent bottle the ingredients are:
Active ingredient..............Purpose
Menthol 0.15%................Anti-itch
Inactive ingredients talc, zinc oxide, acacia
senegal gun, eucalyptol, methyl salicylate, salicyclic
acid, thymol, zinc stearate

The difference seems to be that the modern stuff doesn’t have boric acid, but does have acacia senegal gun and zinc oxide. Overall, it seems that Gold Bond hasn’t changed much in 107 years.

 

[vintage.vendeuse]

I picked up a bar of Lava soap this afternoon to replace one that my sister bought for me about 12 or so years ago (I had misplaced it & recently rediscovered it) the new bar seems to have less pumice in it. So I am wondering what, if any products that have been around for years that you have noticed a change in?

Thanx!!!
Charlie

Funny you should mention Lava soap... I recently picked up a half dozen vintage 70s bars from the local thrift.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Fels Naptha Soap has definitely been reformulated within the past few years. The bar used to be very hard, with an almost crystalline structure that made it much easier to chip. It's now softer, and chipping it is like grating a hunk of cheese. I get around this by keeping the bar in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to firm it up a bit.

Some time ago they changed the formula for 7-up, and made it much sweeter. I used to love it, but now I can't stomach the stuff.

Before Bromo-Seltzer disappeared completely from the market it went thru a long series of reformulations. In the 70s they took out the bromides which gave the product its name, and then in the early 00s they added an artificial sweetener, xylitol. Why an antacid needs to be sweet is beyond my comprehension, but after a lifetime of using the stuff I had to abandon it when they added that ingredient. I don't especially like sweet tastes, especially not cloying artificial sweet.

 

[3fingers]

I agree on the Lava soap. It is still a decent product, although there are others available now that work as well or better in a liquid form. I still use it at home more for the smell than anything. That and I prefer bar soap over liquid. My grandfather used it when I was a child and the smell is a very pleasant memory for me.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Fels Naptha Soap has definitely been reformulated within the past few years. The bar used to be very hard, with an almost crystalline structure that made it much easier to chip. It's now softer, and chipping it is like grating a hunk of cheese. I get around this by keeping the bar in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to firm it up a bit.

Something must have changed in Fels Naptha in recent years, as it doesn't seem to get the job done as well. It used to be the best, and only thing, to get the clay stains out of my baseball uniform. When I was a kid, I always had the dirtiest uniform after the game and a sparkling white one for the next. Now, I still have the dirtiest suit on the field, before, during and after. I just can't seem to get it clean. Or perhaps it's just one more thing on the list of things at which I'm not nearly as good as my mother.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I mix Fels Naptha chips with about a quarter of a cup of washing soda per load, and that will get the crud out of just about anything. I'm always coming home stained with popcorn oil and such, and it comes right out.

I believe, however, that if Fels Naptha still contains actual naptha there's a lot less of it than there used to be.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I mix Fels Naptha chips with about a quarter of a cup of washing soda per load, and that will get the crud out of just about anything. I'm always coming home stained with popcorn oil and such, and it comes right out.

I believe, however, that if Fels Naptha still contains actual naptha there's a lot less of it than there used to be.

A quick google search reveals that Fels Naptha no longer contains naptha, Stoddard solvent, nor mineral spirits of any kind. Which means it's just "soap" now, though it's more "green", if that's what you're after.

 

[Foxer55]

Fragrance additives! Used to love Old Spice toiletries for men but there is only one product left of the originals as far as I know and that's been perverted with some new formulation. I don't know if its me, my aging frame, or what, but new products of all kinds have been loaded with stinking fragrances that cause me allergic misery. Everything has fragrances, terrible stuff, added to it. The perfumes women wear these days seem to reek of intense chemical smells that are not at all pleasant and, in fact, downright repellent. Bath soap and laundry soap are full of this stuff and I use the fragrance free wherever I can. I can tell you one thing driving these changes is money. If you can change a product and save several hundred thousand or a million dollars doing ot, management will make that change. With fragrances, for example, if you can push a product like a fragrance additive and sell it to a soap maker you can make a fortune selling that raw material by the quart gallon, pound, or ton.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A quick google search reveals that Fels Naptha no longer contains naptha, Stoddard solvent, nor mineral spirits of any kind. Which means it's just "soap" now, though it's more "green", if that's what you're after.

I'll start adding a few drops of Ronsonol lighter fluid to each washload. That's pure bottled naptha.

 

[Hercule]

A while back I was given a recipe for home made laundry detergent* that included Fels Naptha. Given that it's probably just "soap" now, any suggestion for a replacement ingredient? Maybe a shot of Lestoil?

* 1. One Bar of Fels-Naptha soap
2. One Box of Borax.
3. One Box of Washing Soda.
4. Water to fill (makes a five gallon bucket worth of detergent.)

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

Chanel No. 5. It's sillage and longevity have suffered and it breaks me out now.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'll start adding a few drops of Ronsonol lighter fluid to each washload. That's pure bottled naptha.

Well, I just went out to buy another bottle of Ronsonol, and I find that it, too, no longer contains naptha. It's been reformulated sometime since I bought my last bottle, five or six years ago, and it's no longer what it was. It's basically the same thing as Zippo brand fluid, which is made up of a mix of synthetic hydrocarbons, not the real stuff, and doesn't work anywhere near as well for what I use it for as the old Ronsonol did.

This is unfortunate for a lot of reasons -- the original Ronsonol was one of my favorite household utility products. It was great for getting Goodwill price stickers off book dust jackets and record labels, or masking-tape residue off used furniture, for loosening up stuck camera shutters, and even for flushing popcorn grease out of my watch.

I guess the last alternative is finding a can of industrial naptha at the hardware store and trying to pour it into the old Ronsonol bottle -- when you only need a tiny drop at a time, a big can isn't the easiest way to get it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Well, I just went out to buy another bottle of Ronsonol, and I find that it, too, no longer contains naptha. It's been reformulated sometime since I bought my last bottle, five or six years ago, and it's no longer what it was. It's basically the same thing as Zippo brand fluid, which is made up of a mix of synthetic hydrocarbons, not the real stuff, and doesn't work anywhere near as well for what I use it for as the old Ronsonol did.

This is unfortunate for a lot of reasons -- the original Ronsonol was one of my favorite household utility products. It was great for getting Goodwill price stickers off book dust jackets and record labels, or masking-tape residue off used furniture, for loosening up stuck camera shutters, and even for flushing popcorn grease out of my watch.

I guess the last alternative is finding a can of industrial naptha at the hardware store and trying to pour it into the old Ronsonol bottle -- when you only need a tiny drop at a time, a big can isn't the easiest way to get it.

"Naptha" is an imprecise term that refers to a general mixture of light petroleum distillates. I'm not sure exactly what was in the old Ronsonol v. the new formula, but there is no exact formula for naptha. Have you tried Coleman fuel, or "white gas"? It's basically the same thing. Or at least it used to be.