Sunday, January 25, 2015

By Unknown
Purchased

All About That Soap
More Bubbles

Today, we’re going to be looking at a couple of solid soap bars that I have accumulated over the past couple of weeks/months. I’m not a huge fan of bar soap, I find it slightly drying on my skin, and yet, I continue to keep finding it.  We’re going to be looking at a couple of bar soaps from Arcana Soaps and the amazing delightful carved soaps from The Charming Frog.


Arcana Soaps

I stumbled across Arcana when they re-tweeted a review of ours. So exciting! This led me to The Soap Box Co, which might be the worst thing I’ve ever discovered. I can buy products from multiple companies at once! And then spend so much more money than I should ever spend on bath and body products. I’m still cringing at that first tab.


You’ll notice I cut these. There’s a couple of good reasons for this. The first being that it gives you a smaller piece to use, so it’s easier to soap up. I have very small hands, as you’ll see later on. The other- if you have let your soap sit too long, or it was cut a significant amount of time before you receive it, it won’t have a lot of scent. Cutting it releases the scent for a dry inhale before you use it, allowing you to determine if you like the scent before you put it on your skin.


These are some beautiful soaps. There’s a marbling in color that runs through the whole block of the Breakfast in Hollywood soap, a delightfully sweet scent of champagne and strawberries. It’s a lovely subtle scent, feminine but soft and not a little overwhelming. It’s a great late night shower soap, to soothe and delight you off to dreams. The Yurt soap is an exploration of earth scents. It’s blended wonderfully to create a warm earth scent without any scent sticking out more than another. I’m loving it as a hand soap.

Purchase Link (Breakfast in Hollywood)
Purchase Link (Yurt)

The Charming Frog


Are these not the cutest?! I love them! These were a Christmas gift from Kristin that I just cannot get over. They are beautifully carved, and I didn’t open them for almost a month because I just did not want to even open them. I love love love them and am going to be so sad seeing them no longer look as amazing as these. These are perfect for gifts or guests bathrooms if you want a little flare. They are carved delicately enough that I would keep them out of hot light or heat. While I was taking photos of them, the melted enough that they rubbed off on my fingers a little while I unwrapped them.

I’m leaving this a little vague. I’m sure Kristin will add in the necessaries. I don’t want to go Google them and find out how much they were or anything like that since they were a gift. The flowers all smell like roses, one of my favorite florals, and the otter smells earthy like patchouli and something else. Don’t you just love that shimmery glitter on the flowers? They bubble up nicely and I just adore them so much. I cannot get past how much I love these. I would not put them in the shower though- they will melt and destroy quickly.

Kristin adds: The otter soap is supposed to be "a wonderful smoky patchouli and musk" and the blue roses are scented in "baby rose" by default. The Charming Frog gives the option of customizing the scent to one of the many listed in their profile. I chose to let the otter stay as he was but went with "Rustic Rose" for the rose soaps. I was comparing the different rose scents with the owner and was told that "Rustic Rose" had more of a "fresh-cut" scent than the others.

Purchase Link (Roses)
Purchase Link (Otter)

BONUS! 

Villainess Soaps
Villainess Signature Scent Soap


I picked this up during my foray into The Soap Box Co, figuring I’d try it out and oh well if I didn’t like it. “Ball gowns and combat boots” is a great description for this soap. Leather and vanilla, masculine and feminine, florals for depth. I enjoy the idea of it being everything a woman is- hard and soft, angular and rounded.  The leather takes this scent from something mundane and regularly feminine into a depth that you don’t generally see in a mainstream feminine scent (I am discovering this is more normal in an indie brand.)

Purchase Link

I have probably never been so excited about bar soap as I am about these. They were all a delight to discover and enjoy. What are some of your favorite bar soaps and hand soaps? Have a favorite scent or a favorite brand? Share in the comments, so we can discover your favorites as well!


2 comments:

  1. I love bar soap but I find it dries out my skin too. Is whipped soap less drying?

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    Replies
    1. Personally, I don't find whipped soap as drying. If you like using bar soap, look into Paintbox Soapworks. I haven't found as much of a drying issue with them, especially when combined with their scrub. A lot of whipped soaps use a moisturizer, like Haus of Gloi, which has shea butter in it. If you're not going to moisturize when you get out of the shower, I would suggest a cleansing product with a moisturizer in it. You could also try a shower smoothie type product. After washing, you just rub all over and then rinse before getting out of the shower. I find most of these products have too much oil for my naturally oily skin to absorb. I hope this helps.

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