Talk:Noxzema

message: Francis J. Townsend Sr. was a pharmacist in Ocean City, Maryland.  He employed Dr. George Bunting who was privy to Dr. Townsend's formula for "Perscription 22 Sunburn Cream".  This cream was package in a small blue jar, was white in color and had the distinct odor of what we refer to today as Noxema.  As to wheter these products are one and the same...you make the call!
I am sure Procter and Gamble has no interest in mentioning this fact on their website and I doubt they have any knowledge it.
John R. Townsend
Jrtownsend (talk) 18:14, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Francis J. Townsend 

message: I would find discussion of the actual product, and its history, more interesting than the corporate horse-trading that is presented first.  Have we any dates for its development, etc.?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rootlet (talk • contribs) 15:30, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  dates? 

message: I’ve never used the product, but my grandmother did “all the time.”
Her bathroom was right off the kitchen in her house.  At times I’d go into her kitchen, and I could smell it very heavily, mixed with another smell that was awful.  I’m assuming it was body odor, because I associated it with the word, “NOXIOUS!”  It was such a strong odor, because after she left the bathroom, she’d leave the door open.  The bathtub was small, and she was very heavy.  I don’t belelieve she used the tub, and there was a shower in the basement, which I KNOW she didn’t use, because she was heavy enough that she didn’t use stairs, except the few to get in and out of the house.  Grandpa’s “hideout” was in the basement of the very old home.  There had been an old coal furnace in the basement, a dingy, cold place.
The bathroom off the kitchen was the only place my grandma ever used, and it smelled so heavy of Noxema, SO frequently, that I don’t think she was using it for her face, but more likely she was using it for her skin folds in her perineal area and under her belly, to prevent gaulding by bacteria due to otherwise poor hygiene.  The smell of the combination of female body odor and Noxema combined was absolutely horrible.  Particularly in the kitchen, where there was food and meals served.
She wasn’t terribly old when she decided to use a wheelchair, even though she was able to walk.  She got to a point where she COULDN’T walk anymore because of the frequent wheelchair use.  She was terribly diabetic, uncontrolled, as well.  So that added to the noxious smell.  She WANTED to be on insulin so that “she could eat whatever she wanted.”  That obviously isn’t the way to manage diabetes, so she died at age 76 from the complications of obesity and diabetes.
I looked up Noxema today, just to see what it was originally used for.  The fragrance was repugnant to me, because of the foul body odor I associated with it.  I was the kid who had to always sit in the chair by the bathroom door; children’s olfactory sense is much more sensitive than that of adults, so it was a double whammy for my poor nose and mind!
I guess because of that, I could NEVER buy the product, or even consider using it on my face, or otherwise.  Apparently it’s used successfully by many others, although I never have smelled it in any other setting.  The use of it for 104 years kind of shocks me, that it’s still around!  I’m sure there are all kinds of faces which have used it for makeup removal, and for sunburn relief, etc.  
I’ve now been a nurse for over 30 years, and I’ve never smelled Noxema in the care of my patients (and their bodies), and I’ve never smelled it in any bathroom.  So I can only guess how my grandmother used it, before she passed away in 1988.  She had NO IDEA how much that affected me and my beliefs about a simple skin cream!  
I’m grateful Noxema isn’t a fragrance that’s common.  It may well be an excellent product, when used as a facial cream and relief for sunburn and CLEAN skin irritation.  
Unfortunately, every time I think of my deceased grandmother, I have a bit of a flashback of that noxious odor of uncontrolled diabetes, poor feminine hygiene and Noxema, combined.   
Thank you for letting me share my Noxema story.  Also for Wikipedia and learning how Noxema is actually supposed to be used on the skin.  
 ChristieSwitz88001 (talk) 20:39, 30 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Noxema- I remember ... (1960s-70s) 

message: Ownership changed hands for this product and its line extensions several times, but to the general public, it is their packaging that is most visible; advertising is secondmost. Changes in management, such as son taking over in 1949, are less visible far less visible, hence a subsection of History: ownership. Pi314m (talk) 03:55, 21 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Advertising not a subsection of History

message: The first sentence of this section says, 'The original formula for Noxzema was invented by Dr. Francis J. Townsend (1875-?), a physician/druggist by 1900, in Snow Hill, Maryland; by 1910, in Berlin, Maryland; and by 1920, in Ocean City, Maryland.'  What does this sentence mean? Townsend invented it 'by' three different dates in three different places? SrLoco (talk) 23:46, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  History