Thursday, October 28, 2010

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.

5 comments:

  1. Soap that doesn't smell like anything is definitely a waste of time. Even my husband wants soap that smells good - function is only one part of the shower experience!

    Speaking of good soaps, I picked up Summer Pudding from Lush a while back and just got around to trying it. It's a nice, scrubby soap with a cherry-almond scent - the scrubbies come from ground almonds. Smells yummy, and it's a good exfoliator, too.

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  2. I don't have that one. Le GASP. I just saw a picture of Vampire Pam from True Blood holding Charity Pot by Lush. I swooned.

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  3. Hurrah for Vampire Pam! I am trying to convince Santa that I really need some Creme Anglaise and Lovely Jubblies for Xmas.....

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  4. Soaps do lose their scent after some time, depending on what fragrance was used. Mine sometimes 8 months, sometimes 1 year. But, I've gotten soaps to review that have lost their scent after 4 months!

    I still have a bar of mine that I stuck in a drawer because I loved the scent and it's still going after two years. It really all depends on the fragrance quality and strength....

    I wrote a novel. Sorry.

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  5. That's really good to know. I wondered if that may be the case. I am trying to be more organized so that I get to everything before it loses it's perfection.

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