Irish Spring is one of the most iconic and well-known bar soap brands around. With its distinct green packaging and fresh clean scent, it’s been a bathroom staple for generations. But as many consumers have become more conscious about the ingredients in their everyday products a common question arises – does Irish Spring soap contain pork?
This article will dive deep into the ingredients of this well-known soap to see if there are any animal-derived substances hiding inside. We’ll also talk about the brand’s history and give helpful tips to people who are vegetarian, vegan, or halal and are looking for soaps that are suitable for their lifestyles.
A Brief History of Irish Spring Soap
Irish Spring soap first hit the market in 1972 and was created by the company Colgate-Palmolive. The name was meant to evoke a fresh, invigorating scent inspired by the clean air of the Irish countryside. Over the years, they have expanded the Irish Spring line to include body washes, deodorant and other personal care items for both men and women
The smell that makes Irish Spring unique is a mix of citrus, sandalwood, pine, and light floral notes. Their line now has different scents, such as Coastal Cool and Active Sport, but the original is still the most popular. The Lucky the Leprechaun mascot on the green and white packaging is also famous and easy to spot in any drugstore.
So how did this beloved soap come to garner the reputation over time that it may contain pork? To understand that, we have to take a closer look at some common ingredients used in soap making throughout history.
The Use of Lard in Conventional Soaps
For centuries, animal fats like lard or tallow were commonly used in making soaps. Lard is pig fat, while tallow comes from cattle or sheep. These rendered animal fats help create a hard bar soap with a creamy lather. In the past, lard was appreciated for being widely available from meat processing and relatively inexpensive.
Most mass market, conventional bar soaps were traditionally made with a combination of animal fats and vegetable oils. Up until recent decades, it was standard practice, so many consumers assumed most bar soaps likely contained some quantity of animal byproducts.
There are some animal-based ingredients in Irish Spring, but pork is not one of them. Let’s analyze the ingredients list.
Key Ingredients in Irish Spring Original Soap
Here are the primary ingredients found in Irish Spring Original bar soap:
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Sodium Tallowate – This is the sodium salt of beef tallow. Tallow is rendered fat from cattle and sheep.
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Sodium Cocoate – This is the sodium salt of coconut oil. A cleanser derived from plants.
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Sodium Palm Kernelate – The sodium salt of palm kernel oil. Another plant-based cleanser.
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Water – Adds moisture and assists with creating lather.
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Perfume – Proprietary fragrance blend including essential oils and synthetic fragrances.
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Sodium Chloride – Natural salt that acts as a cleanser.
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Titanium Dioxide – A naturally occurring mineral used here for whitening the soap.
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EDTA – A preservative and stabilizer.
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Limestone – Helps make the bar firmer.
As you can see, the animal-derived ingredient present is beef tallow, added in the form of sodium tallowate. Pork or lard is not used in this particular formula.
While sodium tallowate (beef fat) seems to be the primary cleanser, there are also substantial amounts of the plant-based cocoate and palm kernelate.
Is Irish Spring Soap Suitable for Vegetarians or Vegans?
Given the presence of the beef tallow, Irish Spring original soap would not be considered vegetarian or vegan. Anyone wishing to avoid animal byproducts would need to choose a different soap.
However, Irish Spring has recognized the demand for plant-based options and they now offer a selection of vegetable oil-based soaps. Look for the type formulated with palm oil and coconut oil only, without the tallow. As long as the fragrance is synthetic and not animal-derived, these would be suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Is Irish Spring Halal and Pork-Free?
For Muslim consumers following a halal diet, pork and alcohol are prohibited. In addition, any meat products must come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic guidelines.
The original Irish Spring bar does not contain pork. However, the beef tallow ingredient is likely not sourced from certified halal meat. Colgate-Palmolive does not make any claims about its halal status.
For this reason, observant Muslims may wish to choose a halal certified brand of vegan soap to be assured of meeting dietary compliance. There are many great options available including Amadeus soap, Sunlight bar soap, and Olivia Care products.
Why Some Consumers May Wish to Avoid Tallow
Aside from concerns about animal welfare from vegetarians/vegans, some also wish to avoid tallow for other reasons:
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Allergies – Some people are allergic to bovine products and must avoid beef tallow. An allergy is also possible from the proteins that remain in the tallow during rendering.
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Sustainability – Rendering beef fat requires extra resources and energy. Plant-based soaps have a smaller environmental footprint.
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Health – Tallow remains high in saturated fats. Some may prefer plant oils like olive or coconut for perceived health benefits.
Excellent Plant-Based & Halal Soap Alternatives
Thankfully with today’s greater ingredient transparency and wider range of soap options, it’s easier than ever to find high quality vegan and halal soaps including:
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Dr. Bronner’s – All vegan and halal. Known for main ingredient of organic coconut, olive, hemp and palm oils.
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J.R. Liggett’s – Vegan and halal soaps handmade in the USA from organic oils like coconut, olive, jojoba and palm.
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EO Botanica – Beautiful vegan and halal soaps made with essential oils and plant extracts.
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Herban Cowboy – Vegan and halal soaps in masculine scents like Dusk, Forest, and Lime.
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One with Nature – Lovely vegan soaps made with triple-milled goat’s milk, perfect for sensitive skin.
The Bottom Line
While Irish Spring Original contains beef tallow, it is pork and alcohol free. This makes it suitable from a halal diet perspective, but the tallow is likely not from a certified halal source. Vegans will want to opt for their vegetable oil formulas without the animal fat.
If avoiding any animal ingredients, there are now many high quality vegan and halal soaps widely available to meet your personal needs or dietary restrictions. With a little label reading, you can easily find a cruelty-free soap you can feel good about.
So while Irish Spring may evoke fond memories for many, today we have more options than ever when it comes to choosing an animal-friendly soap we can lather up with. With a little research, you can find the perfect bar that leaves you feeling refreshed without compromising your values.
Irish Spring Original Body WashIngredients explained
Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it at the very top of the list of ingredients, which means it’s the most important thing in the product.
It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water.
It does not moisturize from the outside; putting pure water on the skin (hello, long baths!) dries it out.
Also, the water used in cosmetics is cleaned and deionized, which means that almost all of the mineral ions are taken out. Like this, the products can stay more stable over time.
It’s probably the most common cleansing ingredient of all. Big bubbles in cleaning products are usually caused by the Chief Bubble Officer. The foam it makes is a bit airy and loose, not as dense and luxurious as the foam that the notorious SLS makes.
As for mildness, it goes somewhere in the middle. It’s often confused with sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), but they are absolutely not the same. The SLES molecule has a bigger water-soluble head part that makes it milder and much less irritating. In the amounts found in cosmetics, it is perfectly fine, but if you want a gentle face wash, you will have better luck with one that doesn’t contain SLES. For an average shower gel? SLES works just fine.
Super common ingredient in all kinds of cleansing products: face and body washes, shampoos and foam baths.
Number one reason for its popularity has to do with bubbles. Everyone loves bubbles. And cocamidopropyl betaine is great at stabilizing them.
The other reason is that it’s mild and works very well combined with other cleansing agents and surfactants. Finding the right balance between properly cleansing and over-cleansing is usually the art of cleansing. Cocamidopropyl betaine can help you find this balance.
Oh, and one more nice thing: even though it’s synthetic it’s highly biodegradable.
More info on CAPB on Collins Beaty Pages.
What it sounds like: nice-smelling ingredients are added to cosmetics to make them smell good too. In the US, fragrance is called parfum, and in the EU, it’s called fragrance. Fragrance is a general term for the list of ingredients that usually includes 30 to 50 chemicals, but it can have as many as 200!
No matter how much you read about what you put on your face, fragrance is not your friend. You can’t be sure of what’s in it.
Also, if your skin is sensitive, fragrance is again not your best friend. It’s the number one cause of contact allergy to cosmetics. If you have sensitive skin, you should stay away from this and all scents, because natural scents can be just as irritating as synthetic ones.
Sodium chloride is the fancy name of salt. Normal, everyday table salt.
Like us, you might read the label on your shower gel while you’re in the shower. You may have noticed that sodium chloride is almost always on the list of ingredients. This is because salt is a great thickener for cleaning products made with ionic surfactants like Sodium Laureth Sulfate. A couple of percents (typically 1-3%) turns a runny surfactant solution into a nice gel texture.
If you’re not interested in chemistry, we understand; just skip this paragraph. The reason for this is that electrolytes (like Na and Cl- ions) block the electrostatic repulsion between the head groups of ionic surfactants. This helps the formation of long micelles (rather than spherical ones) that tangle like spaghetti, and voila! A gel is created. However, too much of it causes the phenomenon called “salting out”, and the surfactant solution goes runny again.
In addition, salt can be used to stabilize water-in-oil emulsions, which are made up of water droplets mixed in with the oil (or silicone) phase on the outside. Last but not least, if salt is at the top of the list of ingredients (and hasn’t been dissolved), the product is probably a body scrub. Salt is what scrubs the skin.
A cleansing agent whose main thing is adding viscosity and foam to cleansing formulas.
Chemically speaking, it is the little sister of Cocamide DEA and has similar properties to that guy. However, the fact that Cocamide MEA is a monoethanolamine instead of a diethanolamine means that the nitrosamine problem does not apply.
The sodium salt of salicylic acid. If you look at CosIng, the official EU database for cosmetic ingredients, this ingredient is called a denaturant and it helps keep the product fresh. However, some manufacturers say it can remove dead skin cells and kill microbes. As you may know, the salt form of an exfoliant is a less strong form, so if you want to exfoliate, use the pure acid.
A helper ingredient that helps to make the products stay nice longer, aka preservative. It works mainly against fungi.
It’s pH dependent and works best at acidic pH levels (3-5). Because it’s not strong enough to use by itself, it’s always mixed with something else, most of the time potassium sorbate.
Citric acid comes from citrus fruits and is an AHA. If these three letters don’t tell you anything, click here to read our full article on glycolic acid, which is the most well-known AHA.
If you want to get rid of dead skin cells, citric acid can help, just like other AHAs. It can make your skin smoother and feel younger.
Also, some research shows that regular use of citric acid (three months at a concentration) can help sun-damaged skin, make skin thicker, and add something nice to the skin called glycosaminoglycans that keep it moist.
But a study that was done in 1995 found that citric acid is not as good for your skin as glycolic or lactic acid. That’s probably why citric acid isn’t often used as an exfoliant. Instead, it’s used in small amounts to help make a formula’s pH more stable.
We dont have description for this ingredient yet.
A handy helper ingredient that helps products to remain nice and stable for a longer time. It does this by canceling out the metal ions in the formula (which usually come from water) that would otherwise make some not-so-nice changes.
We dont have description for this ingredient yet.
Ci 19140 or Tartrazine is a super common colorant in skincare, makeup, medicine & food. It’s a synthetic lemon yellow thats used alone or mixed with other colors for special shades.
FDA says its possible, but rare, to have an allergic-type reaction to a color additive. As an example, it mentions that Ci 19140 may cause itching and hives in some people but the colorant is always labeled so that you can avoid it if you are sensitive.
What does Irish Spring soap repel?
FAQ
Which soap has pork in it?
Does Irish Spring soap have animal products?
What ingredients are in Irish Spring soap?
Does Ivory Soap contain pork?
Is Irish Spring soap vegan?
Irish Spring soaps are generally not considered vegan as the company Colgate-Palmolive tests/tested most of their products on animals. While that’d be fine if they simply washed an animal with the soap to make sure it doesn’t cause a rash, that’s not how animal testing is.
Does Irish Spring soap make your skin dry?
The long-term use of Irish Spring Soap without proper moisturization and skincare afterward may eventually cause your skin to become stripped and dry. However, a good, fortified moisturizer, can make all the difference! Personally, I have very sensitive skin that gets dry very quickly so I avoid using it anymore.
Does Irish Spring soap bleach your skin?
Irish Spring soaps will not bleach your skin. However, they do exfoliate and clean your skin well. Over time, this can make your skin look lighter (but not significantly). After years of using Irish Spring soap as a growing child, I never noticed my skin getting lighter in any way.
Does Irish Spring soap keep bugs away?
Irish Spring Soap is often touted as an effective natural deterrent for insects and mice. The method is simple: grate the soap bar next to your plants and its distinctive scent will keep the critters away. But is this hack too good to be true? We asked pest control experts. ‘Tis the season for swarming mosquitos, flies, and ants.