I got so excited I forgot to take a picture!

I had a fantastic shower this morning.  Alyssa, one of my wonderful blog readers, recommended that I purchase Pumpkin Apple Butter Soap from Lippincott Soap Co. And OH MY GOD am I glad I did.  Before I launch into a total love fest analysis of my morning shower, a little about Lippincott.

My newest favorite soaper is based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania (interestingly, home of some of my favorite clients) and they use food grade oils in making soap.  It's cold process and they are moving toward using only organic palm oil.  No yucky SLS to be found. 

No, onto Pumpkin Apple Butter Soap.  I took it out of the plastic and sniffed.  It smelled nice but nothing to write home about.  Then I got it wet.  Seriously, the entire shower was a cloud of warm, spicy yumminess.  I tried to ignore it while I washed my hair but kept picking up my little sliver of soap sniffing it.

When the time came to finally lather up I lathered and lathered and lathered because this soap just smells so good.  Maybe my nose wasn't sensitive enough to differentiate between the many many scents described by the soap maker but I can describe Pumpkin Apple Butter as fruity, like a warm pie or cobbler without the bread smell...so I guess like the filling of the aforementioned.  And the fruit is heavy on the cinnamon. 

The lather on this soap is like a dream.  Abundant, creamy and silky.  I used it to shave my legs and it worked like a charm.  There is also something in the soap that is softly abrasive and served to gently exfoliate, which I appreciate.

Post shower, the scent doesn't linger much, which is fine because that prevents a mix with my perfume.  However, my skin is soft and feels hydrated. 

This soap is definitely on my top 10 favorites list and that is saying something.  Thanks for the recommendation, Alyssa.

When soap smells like...well, soap

Lately, I have been going through my soap collection and cleaning house.  I'm getting rid of stuff with SLS and soaps I don't like.  It's a shame you cannot donate soap to a shelter or something.  I always cut my soap into chunks because I like to preserve and because I like the soap to fit in the palm of my hand so it is fresh.  This means I have a hundred little (meticulously labeled, in most cases) baggies of soap. 

At any rate, between the past their prime soaps, the soaps I don't like and the soaps that have fallen victim to either the bathroom humidity or NYC bug problems, I am throwing out massive amounts of soap.

Of course, I am also discovering some never used/never reviewed bars of soap.  That part is cool. 

At any rate, I came upon an unmarked bar of soap in my stash.  It is brown and white and looks like it should have some sort of chocolate scent.  I suspect I know where this came from: some odds and ends I ordered not thinking that, due to the fact that they are odds and ends, they aren't labeled.  I sent most of these to soap loving people who don't take "tasting" notes but this one must be a left over.

I won't announce where I suspect it came from because I don't know for certain.

But this soap...well, it sucked.

It was pretty enough but it smelled like nothing.  Like detergent.  It reminded me of the soap smell in the showers in my cabin at summer camp.  Just plain clean the dirt away soap.  I suppose, in theory, there is nothing wrong with soap that smells like soap but I am the girl who prefers her dish soap to have a unique scent (like lavender and lemon grass is that so wrong?) so for me it was like a wasted shower.

I get that some people have allergies (I do too) but why would one want a detergenty smelling soap?  I don't get it.  But a peruse of my old stand by Etsy shows me that many soapers have a scent free soap.  Does scent free mean "smells like soap" or something different?  I COULD order one and find out but that would be a waste of money for me. 

I tossed this soap out immediately.  It was too pretty to smell of nothing. 

I must be some kind of aromatherapy addict because it just started my day off wrong.

*Happy Dance* *Happy Dance*

I just bought SOAP!

I won't spoil you too much by telling you exactly what I bought but I bought from two stores I have been eyeing for some time and who have highly covetable soaps!

Lippincott Soap Co. (thanks for the recommendation Alyssa)

AND

Naiad Soap Arts 

Can't wait!

OFM...Old Favorite Mondays

This morning, as I was contemplating my giant bag of soaps (I really should take a picture of the GBS...it really is huge) and I caught sight of an old favorite.  At first I thought it was the amazing Lush Demon in the Dark but it was actually another old favorite: Sea Vegetable or just "Sea Veg" for those of us who are hopeless Lushies.  I got kind of excited when climbing into the shower with my old friend. 

As the lovely lavendar scent surrounding me and my skin started to feel that clean yet hydrated feeling I adore about Lush soaps, I was at least temporarily pulled from my Monday morning slumpfest.  And it got me to thinking.

Perhaps I should bathe every morning with an old favorite.  Hence, OFM.  It sounds like a dirty gangsta rap group but is really very very clean.  I dig it. 

Interestingly, after getting out of the shower, I notice the shower rash.  Not as bad as previously blogged about but there nevertheless. So, I consulted the Lush Web site and yes, SLS.   I wonder if  I am developing a tragic reaction to SLS. 

This week, I intend to invest $20 in new soaps to try.  It's like Christmas...but with SOAP.

Stuff From All Over

Part of learning to be a less lazy blogger is checking out the tremendous backlog of my favorite blogs.  Here is some of the awesome stuff going on in soapy cyberspace right now!


The incredible Tierra Verde Soaps is having a ROCKIN Soap giveaway.  There are some massively lust worthy fall soaps over there and some lucky person is going to win three bars.  I hope its me as I have my eye on Lemon Poppyseed, Autumn Ambrosia and Star Anise!  Hop on over by clicking the link above and enter to win!

A Perpetual Clean Diva Favorite, Burnt Mill Candles & Soap is making Lumps of Coal Soaps for Christmas!  Check out the pictures over at Burnt Mill's Blog!  Sign me up.  I think I will make this my bathroom soap for the Christmas Season and maybe even buy some for stocking stuffers. 

Super cool soaper, Kylee Lane of Luxury Lane Soap is looking to buy a home outside of her price range so we all have to help her expand the business by buying something.  Allow me to make some recommendations.  I think the Winter Frost soap is perfect to ring in the quickly approaching winter.  The brand new Companion Soap Cube is a super cool innovative soap.  If you are more of a "simple bar of soap" type of person, I think that Dirty Hippie looks awesome.  But let's help this wonderful soap artist buy her house!

I'll be back to tell you about new shower experiences next week.  Until then, enjoy the nippy weather and remember to buy Hand made.

Gardenias again, I must be homesick

Today I did it!  I actually got out my back of not yet tried soapies and tried one.  I stuck my hand in the back and pulled out...

Gardenia by Mistral

At first I couldn't remember where on Earth I picked this up...but then I recalled.  It was November of *ahem* 2008 SoHo NY with my BFF Viv and the Amazing John who had come to visit from Chicago.  Good times.

I have previously blogged about how much I love gardenias...second only to Jasmine, they remind me of Savannah and early feminine and wonderful about soap.

And Mistral delivers.  The soap is obviously manufactured and I am a sucker for home made but it's nice.  The bar is hefty (it should be at $8) and the scent is heavy.  Plus, it says Provence on the bar.  Since I will be in Provence in about a month, I was stoked to see that and it helped me temporarily forget that I have to actually work during that month.

The lather is good enough for even the biggest lather lover and it left my skin soft and smelling of flowers. 

I'd recommend it, and I may even use it again. 

A Long Overdue Soap Review

Ah...I'm so glad to be bad to back at this blogging business, not the least of all is that I missed all of my little soaps.  I've been using the same old same olds down to nothing, not because I adore them but because I have been too busy to change them out. 

This morning I reached for a soap that I bought back in August.  I was in Las Vegas with a colleague for training and we stopped by Basin White at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and were instantly awed by their adorable soaps.  We picked up a Birthday Cake bar for another colleague (that's a completely different story) but one soap in particular caught my eye.

Take a look at the promo shot from Basin White's Web site:

Yes indeed, its a soap called Rubber Ducky and it claims to smell of sweet apple.  I hadn't tried it until now but, truth be told, I never did smell these supposed sweet apples.  So, you ask, how was it?

Well, the lather was phenomenal.  Just a few swipes between the old hands and I had tons of bubbles.  It's really darned cute and it did seem to get me clean (hell, even my feet smelled ok for most of the day) but it didn't pack a punch of scent and I really do like a heavily scented soap. 

If you like adorable soap that won't compete with your natural or man made scent, this may be for you.  Alternately, I recommend it for guys with a secret love of duckies but who don't want to smell like girls all day. 

And, just to make sure you get the full impact, I'll leave you with a picture of my little baby duck posing with my bar of Rubber Ducky.

Be warned, what you are about to witness is obscenely cute:

Happy Monday!

Horror of Horrors

One of the ways in which I am incredibly girlie is that I have always had a go-to perfume.  When I was in my late teens and through my late twenties, it was ALWAYS, ALWAYS Chanel No. 5.  I thought that anything worn by Marilyn Monroe and immortalized by the incredibly amazing Andy Warhol (see below)

had to be the ultimate in femininity.  As time went on, I started to see the draw of jasmine, a middle note of No. 5,  which seems to be my Achilles Heel of scents.

Anyway...

I was at JFK about to board a plane to Germany in the Fall of 2008 when I came upon Bvlgari's Jasmin Noir at the Duty Free shop.  Liking the smell from the bottle, I sprayed a bit on myself and then hopped the flight.  6 hours of being cooped up in the plane later, I could still smell this scent.  It's different from No. 5, warmer and homier somehow and it lingers in a way that's not heavy handed or overwhelming.  Long story short, I had discovered a new signature fragrance.  To this day, I love it, even if I do leave it mainly for night time as it is a slightly naughty fragrance.

I like it so much that I even bought the shower gel.  I've been using it for those special nights out for almost 2 years.  It helps to layer the scent and has a nice, yummy texture.  It's liquid and probably a smidge harsher than my normal soaps but it smells so nice.

I've had two occasions lately that called for the shower gel.  Two Saturdays in a row, as a matter of fact. 

Both times, I have noticed a red rash on my arms, chest and neck.  Could I be allergic to my shower gel?  And why would it happen all of a sudden? Why am I having such a horrible time with soap lately? 

I wonder if I can find a more natural, less chemically soap that smells something like Jasmin Noir?

Pathetic

So, my feet stink.  I mean REALLY smell.  People are always telling me that its because my soles are cloth or because I buy cheap shoes.  So I buy some uber expensive leather soled shoes and...guess what...they still got smelly.

*SIGH*

How can someone who is complete obsessed with soap have such smelly ass feet?  And what are the tricks to make it stop?  Please don't tell me to always wear socks, that just isn't logical.  I went to the local drug store looking for something that can help.  Sprays barely mask, odor eater soles are bulky and unbearably uncomfy.  

...there are some smelly foot soaps but we all know how I feel about store bought liquid soap from drugs stores...shudder.

What's a smelly footed gal to do?