Beyond the Badge: the Girl Guides of Canada Soap

After a couple of years of collecting, I’ve ended up with some pretty weird Girl Guide items. I have a soft spot for unusual items and I love finding out about countrywide fundraisers that didn’t include cookies. I now try to pick up older Canadian Guider magazines so I can flip through and find ads. Last week I found an ad on the back of the May and June 1990 issue of the Candian Guider of the Girl Guide Soap and that instantly turned into a grail item for me.

The 1990’s ad that introduced the new Girl Guides of Canada Soap showed a beach with a bar sitting in a seashell. The soap looks very similar to a Dove bar, only with the Girl Guides of Canada trefoil etched into it. The soap was marketed as being environmentally friendly, 100% vegetable-based, and was the first of its kind in Canada. It was formulated for the Girl Guides by the Canadian Soap company, Taylor Soap Limited to help reduce contamination in Canadian waterways. The soap was sold as a three-pack and as a singular pack. The singular pack was introduced in the January and February 1995 issue of the Canadian Guider and came in a blue box with a picture of the soap, while the three-pack had a painting of a forest as a nod to its environmental benefits. The 1995 ad offers the soap as a fundraiser for units with units able to keep 0.82 cents for every sale of the $2.00 bar with a minimum order of ten cases with 36 bars per case. It was an item any Girl Guide could be proud of with no animal testing and the packaging was recycled and recyclable. It was on sale at selected Guide shops.

When I posted a scan of the ad to the Ontario Girl Guides- Leaders Only Facebook page it received 91 comments and 36 likes within two days. Although a couple of Guiders seem to dislike it, it seems the soap was well-liked among Guiders who remember it for its high quality. One Guider who still had a bar said it still gave off a muted fresh or spring smell like if Blue Dawn and Irish Spring had a baby. Another Guider said it was the only soap her unit used at camp because of the environmental benefits and a couple of others who had mechanics as family members said it was great getting grease off them and it was great on sensitive and newborn skin.

The Girl Guide Soap was well-liked among the Guiders on Facebook but its downfall was that it was a hard sell. Most people are used to buying cookies from their local Girl Guide and soap just didn’t hold the same charm. I’m not sure when the soap stopped being manufactured but Guiders on Facebook said it was around the mid to late 1990s. I joined in 1995 as a Spark and my parents don’t remember my unit selling it, so my unit either didn’t sell it or I just missed it. But now that I know it’s out there, I’m determined to add a box to my collection.

Special thanks to Kris Mcgee for sending me her photos.

Special thanks to all the Guiders who shared their memories.

Thanks for Reading! - Em