Homemade soap concoctions are much more likely to cause foliage problems than the commercial products. Insecticidal soaps are milder on plant tissue than the dish soap detergents with all of their additives....and a lack of directions on the label.

What kind of Ivory did you use? Bar soap, dish detergent?

I used the dish detergent, about a tablespoon in a quart of water.

Ivory dish detergent is not a true 'soap', unlike commercial insecticidal soaps. It contains additives that may cause plant tissue damage, though maybe it was the combination with your orange cleaner, as well.

Morni,
I too have aphids on my Salvia, ONLY the blue bedder among 6 varieties.
I've been using detergent in water - didn't know I could cause any harm. Having read the above posts, I'll stop using it.
At this point there are only a few so I'm just going to watch closely.

ellen

If you knocked the Aphids off your plant, or killed them, they did not return but the next generation moved in. Aphids reproduce, birthing live young, almost as soon as they are born themselves so by the time you see one you could have 5 or more generations of Aphids. All that is really needed to knock Aphids off any plant is a sharp stream of water, and a hand held sprayer is all that is needed.
If one wants to mix up an Insecticidal Soap they do need real soap, not any detergent, and the mix is 1 teaspoon of soap to 1 quart of water and even this should never be sprayed in bright sunlight or on hot days becasue of the potential of burning the plants leaves.