Another story from the bargain bin.

This is an interesting soap product.

Yes, it is a hand soap meant for children, and is by Kandoo. It popped up a basket of sales at the grocery store. My mission: Make an uneducated guess as to why.

I can say a couple of things in its favor right off. First, there's no dadblasted Disney character present. Although the turtle on the label looks like a bit like a cartoony Teenage Mutant Ninja type to me.* The bottle, a friendly shade of green, is shaped like a happy frog, so they have all your amphibian needs covered. The spout and the soap itself are purple, the soap being a lighter colored foam. Essentially they came up with an eye-catching kids' product that used just purple, green, and white instead of the usual panoply of colors that looks like clown barf.

The base of the bottle is wide and thick, which is very helpful for the tykes. Those who have to reach up high to get to the top of the sink, and approach the bottle at a bad angle, are as likely to send the bottle flying off the vanity as they are to get some soap out of it. This makes it as easy as could be hoped for a kiddie pump bottle.

I'm sure they product-tested the squirt soap on the little squirts, but I find the scent rather odd and hard to place. Sort of like Miscellaneous Berry. It supposedly contains fruit extracts, so that's exactly what it might be. When I wanted extra cleanliness and mixed a handful with some Purell, the combined scent was powerfully reminiscent of beer wort from fruity homebrews. Haven't smelled that in maybe fifteen years, but it took me right back.

It is an odd soap in other ways. I find that the color stays on the towel if you don't rinse off properly, but that's not a bug, it's a feature---the idea is to teach the kids how to wash their hands. I guess I need some rinse reminders myself. The color comes right off in the wash, so don't worry about staining the good guest towels.

I think it may have wound up in the bargain bin just as a sale, to drum up interest in the product, and I hope so. Hoover's says the parent company, Nehemiah Manufacturing of Cincinnati, is a smallish outfit of $27.3 million in annual sales---a plucky David compared to the self-care Goliaths that fill our supermarket shelves. So if you have little kids, or even if you don't, try the Kandoo soap and see if you like it too. And if you are a homebrewer, try the Purell thing and let me know if I'm right.

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*As it turns out, it's Captain Clean, a super-strong frog.