Bar Of Soap

Unilever Soap Sale Wins U.K. Approval of Alberto-Culver Purchase

Unilever’s offer to sell its newly acquired bar-soap business to win U.K. competition approval for its $3.7 billion takeover of Alberto-Culver Co. (ACV) was accepted by Britain’s antitrust regulator.

The Dutch manufacturer will sell Alberto-Culver’s bar soaps unit, including the Cidal and Wright’s products, to a brand- acquisition company called Lornamead, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading said today in a statement. Unilever made the divestment offer in March.

“We are satisfied that this divestment will ensure there continues to be effective competition in this market,” Ali Nikpay, a senior director at the OFT , said in the statement.

The takeover, which avoided a referral to the U.K.’s Competition Commission, will be Unilever’s biggest purchase in a decade. It’s part of the Rotterdam- and London-based company’s effort to double sales by expanding its range of products. The OFT initially said the deal could hurt consumers by reducing competition for Unilever’s Dove brand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in London at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.

Choosing a Bar of Soap | The Perfect Bath

Erick Rexrode, our Outside Sales Consultant in the Philadelphia area, is our resident soap expert. He has written this post for The Perfect Bath. Thank you Erick:

Over the past several years I’ve had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about soap and the art of how it’s made. Although a fascinating tale that I won’t get into here, the history of soap has many twists leading to the abundance of choices we have today. What to do with that choice is the question I’m going to attempt to answer.

Most of us fall into one camp or the other – liquid soap or bar soap. Liquid fans are fond of the sanitary nature and cleanliness of a dispenser at the sink. Personally I’m more of a traditionalist with soap; it needs to be a solid bar. I love the different shapes, colors and weight of a bar of soap in my hands. I keep liquid soap in the bathroom my guests use so as not to put anyone in the position of handling someone else’s lather. However in my own bathroom I only keep bar soap at the sink, in the shower, and on the shelves. I’m also a bit obsessed with different soaps and how they act as pieces of art in the room.

The most important consideration to me when choosing soap is the ingredient list. Most soap used to be made from tallow (animal fat – yes really). In fact many of the better known brands (think supermarket soaps) contain some type of tallow. Although popular for the ability to moisturize, cleaning with animal fat isn’t going to happen for me. Secondly you should avoid sulfates, particularly sodium laurel sulfate. This ingredient is an industrial cleaner and proven skin irritant. Yet it’s one of the most cost effective means of creating the foaming action we like so much. The third thing I personally look for is all natural ingredients (including only essential oils for the scent – not perfumes or “fragrance,” and mineral pigments for the color).

Following this list will still leave you with a wide selection of soaps to choose from. It will also help if you find your skin irritated or sensitive to your current soap. The perfect bar of soap will also become a staple in your bathroom and one you’ll want to display for its beauty. I now have a rotation of a few different soaps I use depending on the season and my mood. A good-looking bar of soap can also be good for you.

Barbara Sallick is co-founder and Senior Vice President of Design at Waterworks. She brings a lifelong interest in design to her philosophy of modern bath style, employing formal principles of architecture and decoration to make this utilitarian environment as rich and livable as any other room in the home.

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