Irish Spring - Hold The Hots!

I stopped off at Wal-Mart the other day for some cheap entertainment and also to pick up a few things. One of those things happened to be my beloved Irish Spring shower gel. I didn't realize until I used it that this was not my usual plain Jane Irish Spring. It turns out that I picked up a variety known as "Intensify".

I knew something was wrong as soon as I splashed the green gel onto my skin. I immediately felt a burning sensation all over my body, and especially in those places where you never want to feel a burning sensation! 

It felt like I had lathered up with Ben-Gay. Rubbing what felt like pepper out of my eyes, I struggled to read the back of the bottle. The description stated, "An electrifying scent experience that invigorates all your senses." I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I can tell you, it felt like I had a fire-breathing dragon bearing down on my ass! According to the ingredients, this particular bottle contained something called eucalyptus. The only other time I've heard this word was in cough drop commercials. So, what the hell was it doing in my bottle of Irish Spring? I'm definitely going to have to pay attention the next time I go shopping for soap!

Growing up, there were only a limited amount of soaps to choose from. A few that I remember are Ivory, Zest, Dial and some industrial-strength stuff called Lava. Probably because it was the cheapest soap on the market, we always had Ivory soap. It always had a unique, clean scent but it also had the tendency to severely dry your skin out. After taking a bath with Ivory, you had to stay away from any open flames because there was always a potential for spontaneous combustion.

Zest came with another issue. After bathing with it and drying off, you still felt like there was a soapy film on your skin. Compared to Ivory, Zest was probably the lesser of two evils, but I didn't care for either one.

As for Lava, I never used it. I'm not sure why, but I always had this image of Lava taking off three layers of skin. So, I just avoided it.

I was intrigued by the first Irish Spring commercials. Remember the close up of the knife shaving off the edge of the green and white bar? And the Irish girl saying, "Manly, yes. But I like it too!"? The first time I used it, I was hooked. I've been using it for years with no issues until now. So, I guess you can understand why I was shocked by this most recent bottle.

Whether you use traditional soap of a shower gel, just be sure to read the label before you buy it. You don't want any surprises like the one I experienced!

kw