Company Overview: Arcana Soaps

By Unknown

A few Arcana perfumes, a bar of soap, and some completely unrelated but pretty jewelry

Purchased

Arcana Soaps is a producer of lovely-smelling soaps, bath and beauty products, and perfume oils rich with literary allusions (Great Expectations, The Song of Songs, Lord Byron, Tess of the d'Urbervilles... the list goes on). They're a little unusual among the indies I've purchased from in that they don't do any direct sales from a website or Etsy, only via third party retailers. You can also contact them by email to purchase directly if you already know what you want, though I've never tried this myself. They do have contact with customers via Twitter and a Livejournal community, Arcana Soaps Love (look for the "Julia Says" tag) which also serves as a forum for reviews, second-hand sales, and decant circles.

I've purchased their goods via the now-defunct Scent Addict and The Soap Box Company, and also browsed their wares in person at a local soap shop (though I didn't end up wanting the one soap that was stocked locally). Note that the links to specific items in the rest of this review will be chosen randomly from different retailers--I have no affiliation with any of them and just wanted to spread the linkage around.

Packaging: 
The packaging is simple, aesthetically cohesive, and attractive. All the products I've seen feature a vintage, old-books feel, with black and white line art printed on matte, unbleached, yellowish paper labels. The perfume oils come in a fairly standard amber glass bottle (more on this later) while the soaps come in surprisingly small and chunky hand-cut blocks with a paper sleeve. I can't speak to the overall packaging for shipment, of course, due to their being sold and shipped only by third parties.

The swirly top of a bar of Zingiber soap

Selection: 

Arcana offers cold process soaps, lotions/body creams, facial masks, sugar scrubs, solid lip gloss in a tin, and perfume oils. The widest variety is in their soaps and perfume oils; the selection of the others seems to be quite limited and sometimes limited edition. There is a subsection of soaps, the single-note St. John's Apothecary soaps--I'm not sure if these vary in formula or if they are distinct only in being scented with a single note rather than a blended scent.

Like most indies, they do limited edition seasonal or themed releases, although the "limited edition" scents tend to be available indefinitely afterwards from the various retailers, so you can generally find them until they sell out--no forced scarcity from a scent only being available for six hours, while the planets are in conjunction, or anything like that. I've particularly enjoyed their tropical summertime Cocos Nucifera collection and would recommend checking that out, especially Bloom, a rich, tropical-fruity vanilla perfume, and Zingiber, a soap that smells like strong, spicy ginger ale.

You'll have to click around to the various online retailers to see the variety of products available from each. In the "Cost" section, I've listed the ones that seem to have the widest selection.

Samples: 
Samples of perfume oils, presumably in the standard 1 mL glass vials, are available from The Soap Box Company for $3.25. In addition, for their full bottles, Arcana offers both the standard-sized 5 mL bottles and a smaller, cheaper 3.7 mL bottle. Not all the retailers carry both sizes, unfortunately--Pretty Indulgent does, and I believe the Soap Box Company did at some point but doesn't anymore.

You can buy 7-gram sample packets of the face masks from The Soap Box Company for $3 each; each one is good for 3 or 4 uses. I am intrigued by the packaging. I've never seen these in person, but online, they look like those single-serving mayo packets you get with deli sandwiches.

3.7 mL bottle next to the standard 5 mL bottle

Quality:
I've been impressed with the quality of all the perfumes I've tried from Arcana--they tend to have a strong throw, good lasting power, and distinct personalities, unlike perfumes I sometimes try only to find that multiple scents all wind up in a similar-smelling vague miasma. Not all the scents I've tried have agreed with me, but I think the "hit rate" is mostly pretty high for me with this brand.

I've found the soaps hit or miss. Some of them, like Zingiber, smell wonderful, while others I've tried, like Murder Ballad Blues or Tropica, have smelled like almost nothing and felt sort of oddly waxy. I would take a gamble on ordering one online if a scent sounded really great, but I don't order Arcana soaps with the feeling that they'll always be amazing. I'm not too picky with bar soaps when it comes to their other qualities, so I can't speak to whether they may irritate sensitive skin or cause body acne. They're always perfectly acceptable for washing my body with, but just feel like a waste of money if I can't even smell the fancy scent in my fancy scented soap when I'm taking a shower.

I haven't tried any of their other products, like the lotions or masks.

Cost:
Not all the companies listed under the retailers on their website seem to still carry their products--the online retailers that do seem to currently carry them, and some comparisons of their non-standardized prices, are:

• Buy Olympia (a small selection of soaps for $7 a bar)
• Dress Like a Pirate (a small selection of perfume oils for $11.50 or soaps for $7.50)
• Magical Omaha (a few soaps for $6.99, perfume oils for $13.99)
• Pretty Indulgent (based in Canada; they have an exclusive scent called "Pretty Lollies," available only from them, as body cream, perfume, or sugar scrub--"Pomegranate, sparkling citron, pearl musk, pink musk, sweet milk, ylang ylang, vanilla, and a hint of peppermint." For comparison shopping purposes, they sell soap at $7 CAD, perfume $14 CAD, with a large selection of both, along with other bath and body items.)
• The Soap Box Company (they have a few exclusive perfumes and soaps, including Sthenno, "Rich amber resin, whiskey, tobacco, coconut meat, and white musk." They have a large selection that includes some bath and body items, with soaps generally costing around $7 and perfumes generally around $14.95, though this varies by scent.)
• The Rhinestone Housewife (they have a few exclusive scents, including Genteel, "Aniseed, 2 vanillas, dry amber, sugar, and cashmere musk with wisps of fine sandalwood and cedarwood." They carry soaps for $7.50 and perfumes for $13 to $16, varying by scent.) 

So, pretty low-cost for indie perfume, but maybe a little on the high end for soaps (to be honest, if I'm spending $8 on a bar of luxury soap, most of the time I'm probably usually going to pick up a bar of the non-indie Le Mistral triple-milled soap, which is larger, feels nice, and smells divine... sorry, indies!)

I didn't research the differences in shipping prices and policies between these retailers, let alone coupon codes, loyalty points, free samples, or any other perks of ordering from one or the other. You can see from the prices above that you may be able to pay a bit less for a product if you order from some of the retailers with a smaller selection.

You can also check Arcana's list to see if you have any local retailers, so you can save the cost of shipping and check out the wares in person before buying.

Customer Service, TAT, Shipping:
N/A. I've never contacted Arcana directly, and I think the policies for each individual retailer would be more relevant here in any case. I know that at least Pretty Indulgent and The Soap Box Company will ship internationally; possibly others will as well.

Personal Thoughts:
I think Arcana is one of the higher-quality perfume indies out there, so I would absolutely recommend buying a sample or bottle or two, and/or trying out their soap if a scent appeals to you.

My favorites include:

• Alec d'Urberville, from the Tess of the d'Urbervilles collection: "The profligate essence of an aristocratic libertine. Amber resin, charred Madagascar vanilla, French cognac, clove, sandalwood, and dark musk." This perfume appalled me with its sheer clove-iness at first, and I sold it, but my thoughts kept returning to it and I ended up repurchasing it. It's a warm, dark, sexy, spicy clove and vanilla scent... I wouldn't wear it every day, but it's great to dab on for the occasional foxy swagger.
• Bloom, from the Cocos Nucifera collection: "Madagascar vanilla, tuberose, monoi, starfruit, and vintage patchouli." Hnnnnngggh fruity vanilla. I guess this is kind of a trashy thing to enjoy, but I also enjoy my Cosmos and pina coladas, OK? It smells bright and fresh and fruity, but a real-smelling, citrussy, slightly mysterious fruitiness from the starfruit note, and it's buoyed up by creamy vanilla and fragrant tropical white flowers. I really love this one. 
• Philtre #4: Consumed: "In its wake, this potion is said to leave a trail of ravenous longing and insatiable lust. Three gingers (fresh ginger, ginger extract, and gingerbread) are blended with a cheesecake accord, French cognac, butter co2 extract, caramel, black pepper, sugared milk, copaiba balsam, a pinch of ho wood, and a shameless slap of cassia." Foodie lovers: if you've ever wanted to smell exactly like ginger cheesecake, this is IT. Look no further. This smells AMAZING but also EXACTLY like cheesecake, which may or may not be what you want in a perfume. Unsophisticated but delicious.
• Devilish: "Shaking off vanilla’s unfair reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone. The devil really does have all the best scents." Simple, but smells more expensive than it is. A smoky, long-lasting, and vaguely marshmallowish vanilla along the lines of CB I Hate Perfume 7 Billion Hearts. 

I know Queen Crossbones, a soft honey-coconut-Egyptian musk scent, has quite a following, so you might want to put that on your short list as well--it seemed nice but unremarkable to me, but I can see why someone might fall in love with it.

Also, if you're looking for last-minute gift ideas, I think Arcana's products are packaged beautifully, generally tastefully scented, and would be good for gifting--there are certain indie products, bless their hearts, that I would be embarrassed to give as a gift, due to amateurish or tacky labels or raunchy names. Swashbuckler or Mutiny soaps would be nice gifts for men who like pirates. Croque Mitaine for a kid? Miss Havisham for a friend suffering from a recent breakup? I don't know, I'm not great at picking gifts for people, but I do think these are nice-looking things, they smell good, and the soaps make you clean. What else do you want?!

Note that their products are vegetarian, but not all vegan (the bar of soap I have lists Tussah Noil silk as one ingredient).

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