Andrew Pears complexions. After much trial and error he found a way of removing the impurities and refining the base soap before adding the delicate perfume of garden flowers. His product was a high-quality soap, and had the additional benefit of being transparent. Soap refined in this way is transparent and makes longer-lasting bubbles. The transparency was the unique product plus that established the image of Pears soap. His method of mellowing and ageing each long-lasting Pears Bar, for over two months, is still used today where natural oils and pure glycerine are combined with the delicate fragrance of rosemary, cedar and
Pears (soap) article and under Marketing below. Following Barratt's death in April 1914 Lever Brothers took a major shareholding in A & F Pears. The takeover process was completed in 1920 and marketing and other secondary functions moved to Port Sunlight in north-west England, but production continued at Isleworth. In the mid to late 1950s each batch of soap, about 12 a day, was tested to ensure the absence of excess alkali or free fatty acid. Production moved to Port Sunlight in the 1960s when Unilever, successor to Lever Brothers, set up a cosmetic development laboratory on the Isleworth site. A major