This is a memory of another soap but I only realised it was the smell of a soap when I moved into my house 10 years ago. Our house had been a C19 general store and in the old stable at the end of the garden we found a crate of Sunlight soap. One whiff and I was transported back to my great grandmother's house. This was my Gran's smell: she washed with it, scrubbed with it and swore it was the best thing for washing underwear.First made in 1884 it was a naturally-derived soap and now only made in Canada, although celebrated at Port Sunlight:
http://www.portsunlightvillage.com/
For me it conjours up one of the beloved figures of my life: her wicked smile, the floral dresses my mother regularly made her - always from the same pattern, the hydrangeas and gladioli she grew in her garden, her budgie, seed cake and the way her hearing-aid whistled when she turned it off.
