Company Overview! The many molds of theCharmingFrog!

By Kristin

Nothing to Disclose

I stumbled upon theCharmingFrog (or The Charming Frog?) in my search for adorably shaped soaps and the shop definitely delivers. They have a huge assortment of shapes in extravagant detail and coloring and at a very reasonable price. Think of every gift soap that you've seen, the ones that are so pretty that you're loathe to be the first one to use it and muss the artwork. Now imagine all of them in one place and that's basically theCharmingFrog.

Rose Soap Packaging

But past the huge selection, I think theCharmingFrog goes above and beyond in the smaller, unlisted details.

The soap listings are posted with a "default" scent but the shop owner also allows any soap to be made in any of their listed scents (or totally unscented) at no additional cost.

And everything comes fastidiously packaged. I made a purchase of two soap listings and a lip balm and I opened the mailing box to find everything in perfect gift-able form. The image to the left is a set of three rose soaps and the box in the top image had a single otter soap. Even if I were trying really really hard, I don't think my packaging attempts would have come out even close to as beautiful as these came.

Even the single lip balm came in its own plush velvet bag with tags.

Count me impressed.

Packaging: 

I've already gushed over how beautiful the packaging is in the previous section but on the more practical side, all of the soaps came individually shrink-wrapped and the lip balm came with a safety seal.

Lip Balm Packaging

Unfortunately the plush velvet bag shed-ed all over my lip balm in a static clingy manner but I'm still too impressed by the effort to care to much about it.

Selection: 

Large and varied. And that's just in the soap category. As of this writing, there are 423 items listed in the Etsy shop. Of these listings, only 36 are lip balms and there are 16 body scrub type products. That leaves 371 listings for soaps. Now it's true that there are some listings that are the same design in different colors but from what I can see, it's not an excessive duplication (as in, there aren't 20 of the same design). 

As I mentioned above, the soap listings are posted with a "default" scent but the shop owner also allows any soap to be made in any of their listed scents (or totally unscented) at no additional cost. The scent list is nice and varied and the shop owner is helpful in helping to explain the differences between ones that sound similar. Rose Bouquet vs Rustic Rose for example (Rose Bouquet which smells more floral whereas the Rustic Rose smells like fresh cut roses if you're interested).

Here's a shot of the front page of their Etsy shop just to give you an idea of the kind of gorgeousness that they produce. 

From their front page

theCharmingFrog also does a bunch of seasonal soap shapes. Currently, they have a bunch of Easter themed soaps but prior to that, there were tons of roses and hearts for Valentine's day.

Other than soaps, they also offer lip balms in interesting scents like zucchini bread and dill pickels. The one that I picked up is on the more tame side in Chai and Lemon (currently not listed in the Etsy shop). 

In the bath products section, they have "loofa soaps," salt scrubs, and bath salts. There is an organic loofa scrubby thing in-bedded in each loofa soap and it looks a little scary to use truth be told. The listings advise using it for especially rough patches like heels, elbows, or knees. They look a little too rough to use regularly in all locations. The salt scrubs look to be made of more scrub than anything else but do contain a mixture of oils to ease in the rubbing. Also potentially too rough to use regularly in all locations.

Samples: 

theCharmingFrog doesn't exactly offer samples but they have a listing for three miniature soaps that is intended for scent sampling. You can pick three different scents and try them out before investing in a different soap in a larger size.

Quality: 

Some of the soap designs are on the more delicate side and fall apart easily but I think that's the type of thing that goes hand in hand with the detail. The more solid looking soaps don't have that kind of problem. 

Jessye reviewed a few of the soaps a couple months ago. 

I've been enjoying the lip balm that I picked up. It's more solid than a lot of other indie balms but nicely moisturizing. This particular Chai and Lemon scent is more lemon with a hint of the tea in it.

Cost:

Given the gorgeous packaging and customization options, I think this shop is very reasonable.

Customer Service: 

I contacted the shop with a question about scents and the owner responded quickly. After I placed the order, I received a quick thank you note via Etsy that I thought was a really nice touch.

TAT: 

Turn around time is listed as 3-5 days on their shop policies page. I received a shipping notice 4 days after placing an order and it was in my hands 3 days later.

Shipping: 

Shipping in the US starts at $3.75 and follows the Etsy model where multiple items get discounted shipping. The page states that any shipping charge over $1 over the actual cost will be refunded.

Personal Thoughts:

Though I don't think I'd buy anything from this shop for personal use - I'd just end up hoarding them without wanting to use them - I think they make fantastic gifts. They have so many designs that I think anyone could find something for anyone here. I love not only the designs but also the care in coloration.

One thing to note though; several of their designs have shimmery/glittery elements to them. If glitter in soap isn't appealing to you, make sure to ask the seller to leave that out.

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