A Trip to the Seaside Spa...in my own shower

A few months back, I was tooling around Williamsburg, Brooklyn and came across a booth at a market where a woman was selling soaps.  I instantly started sniffing them and my companion told me to pick some out.  I think I got three or four bars total but one in particular really called out to me.

More on that in a moment.

I began talking to the lady at the booth and, as it turns out, they are her soaps.  I told her about my blog, we bonded a moment and I went along my merry way.

The name of the soap company is The Southampton Soap Company.  Made in the Hamptons, these are small batch soaps made with loving care and no animal products.  And you can tell that in everything from the soap maker's smile to the presentation.

I was beyond excited to give one bar a whirl.

The first one I tried was Seaside Spa.  It is made with water local to the Hamptons, sea clay, and sea vegetables. 

Embedded in it is what appear to be black sesame seeds.  I cut off a chunk and fired it up. 

And ended up using it until it was all gone.  I like this soap a bunch.  It took some adjustment at first as it doesn't get super slippery when wet (I know, I kno...bad reference).  But the moisturizing properties of the clay start to really work and you forgive the extra effort to rub the soap on your skin.

The seeds provide an exfoliant that isn't too abrasive but gets the job done nicely.  And the scent is great for those who like something light but that doesn't cling to the skin.

As I said, I used the sliver until it was gone...and it lasted awhile.

I have a few others to try, which I will totally review.  In the meantime, if you don't live in NY, you can order through Southampton Soaps' Etsy Store.

My First Handsoap Review

Recently we ran out of hand soap in the bathroom.  The other person in my abode is a big fan of Method Foaming Hand Soap which is totally cool if you aren't a complete and total soap snob.  Also, Method contains SLS and we all know I am not a fan of that.  While SLS is certainly not the devil, I do find one thing I contained on the Method Web site interesting.  It lists the ingredients and notes the following with regards to SLS and it's "Health + Environmental Summary": "low skin irritation in use and non toxic; readily biodegradable; derived from coconut oil."  I'm fairly certain that this cannot be patently UNTRUE or the legal team for Method wouldn't let them post it on the site.  All up, however, it isn't what I want for my family.  So I convinced my co-decision maker to let me shop for some handmade hand soap on Etsy.

Thanks co-decision maker...

I came up with two that were nice, well made, reasonably priced, and had scents that were refreshing but not too feminine.

I'll discuss the second one when it arrives and we use it.  But our first new hand soap is Citrus Basil Foaming Liquid Soap by the cleverly named Foam on the Range.  Hailing from Kansas (The Sunflower State) all of the products contain sunflower oil, which is nifty.

Here is a pic from the Etsy posting of this soap.  I will show you my pics as well but I think our friends at Foam on the Range are much better photogs than I:

The bottle is cute enough to just plop on the counter

The soap arrived and, after we finished up what we currently had, we busted out the Citrus Basil.  I was instantly surprised by how clean the soap left my hands feeling. I know that Foam on the Range doesn't use harsh chemicals as their blog is as adamant about ingredient quality as any I've seen.  But the lack of commercial detergents does not show itself in this product.  My hands felt squeaky clean after washing.

The co-decision maker said he liked the soap claiming it had a refreshing scent that was clean and safe for a man but not too manly.  We like this soap.  We like it a bunch.  And the price is so reasonable.

Here are some pics of the soap in my humble bathroom.

I genuinely love the labels

neatly blending in

July 2012 - The Best in Soap Blogs

I'm not feeling so amazing, lovely readers.  I am doing a 9 day Isagenix Cleanse and, while I am sure it is doing my body worlds of good, the not eating much (which for me is REALLY not much, considering I don't eat much to begin with) I'm just run down.  It has been a hellacious week.

So, I amused myself by catching up on many of the blogs I follow.  ANd I found some awesome things to pay forward.  So, here you go folks...July's best soap blog information...gleaned from the vast expanse of the interwebs by yours truly.

Over at the blog for Aunt Nancy's Soap, she has shown some new soaps on the curing rack.  One of the new ones, Green Cactus looks amazing.  It isn't up on her site yet I will claim a bar as my own as soon as it is...I mean LOOK:

On another blog, I found mention of an Etsy shop that isn't soap but still has me obsessed!  Real Fruit Jewelry makes, you guessed it, jewelry out of real fruit.  For example, this pendant made from a tomato.

Coming soon to NYC's FiDi...The Clean Diva in this necklace.

I can easily think of three or four people who would love this stuff and, at $24 including the chain, so affordable.  I'm sold.

I haven't ordered from this next place but I've been meaning to do just that for quite some time.  Margarita Bloom is like a bath and body store MADE for me.  Since becoming a much thinner and healthier me, I find that embracing the curves given me by nature (not french fries) is important.  I don't want to be a skinny bitch and I am proud to be healthy.  And my natural shape has led me toward a very 1950's pin up girl style fancy.  Marilyn is my style icon with Bettie and Rita hot on her heels.  I also like to throw in a decent amount of June Cleaver for good measure.  So imagine my excitement at a home page thatincludes quotations from all of my favorites.




Sake Rose Blossom Soap anyone?  Yes, please!



A Lady in the Garden?  Only when I must be...

The soaps are made with ingredients I love such as coconut oil and goat milk.  Everything just looks so appropriate for my fantasies of being Ms. Monroe.

Brambleberry has a recipe for making candles out of actual lemons and I think they are just adorable. 

Doggy Soap is something I actually need right now.  I love my little pups and especially adore them when they smell clean.  Ta-da!  Sirona Springs has the perfect thing for my boys and I am stoked to try it out soon.  I'm no lover of liquid soaps and this will be perfect for my tiny guys.

Only sweet smelling pups en mi casa!

Next on my list is a blog written by The Nova Studio.  This awesome post talks about the different kinds of soap and why each of them have their place in our clean little community.  Read it, its worth it.

My new favorite soap selling Web site may be Amathia Soap Works only because the descriptions are so good.  I'm particularly coveting the Moxie Cucumber Jasmine (seen above) as I love jasmine and I think cucumber is a great summery refreshing fragrance.  (Have you tried Skinny Girl Cucumber Vodka...yum)  But what I love about the Web site is that they tell you everything you could ever want to know about the soap.  If you have allergies, personal issues with certain ingredients, or are just overly curious, this is your dream spot. 

Erin over at Naiad soaps did a month long soap a day project on her blog (you'll see I also ganked the real fruit Etsy store from her too) that can only be believed if seen.  My favorite was Day 20.



So sparkly and blue and I want it now!

 I like the soap options on the Bella Fresca site so much that I had to just pick one and this one made me laugh.:

This one has the scent of dirt in it...like Camp Snoopy in the summertime.  But if I put this in my shower, how will I be able to see it?

My final note from around the internetz is an article on The Natural Beauty Workshop blog.  It tells you about ingredients in things and how they can impact you.  Since I am always babbling about these things I thought it might be interesting to see someone put it more eloquently than I.

That's all I have.  Up soon when I have a chance to breathe, I have to tell you about my new digs as well as the hand soap I ordered...

The Day a Blog Changed My Purchase Plan

One morning in early March, I was cruising my long list of blogs while taking a quick break from working working working. One particular one caught my eye.

It was about small businesses and the economy. It sucks out there, folks. People are really struggling and it infuriates me that some of the soap makers who bring me such joy are worrying every day that they may not be able to pay their bills or feed their children.

And now the MTA in NYC announces that our monthly Metrocard is going to increase in cost from $81 to $103 per month. This is a pretty big chunk of my soap buying money and my mother keeps telling me to tighten my purse strings. But I just feel so torn...I need my soap!

But I digress again, a blog that caught my attention led me to buy some soap. I went on the Hartley Soaps Etsy site and saw so many things I wanted to buy. I picked up a Jasmine Mango Body Butter Bar, a Cinnabun CoCo Butter Body Bar and a Foaming Sugar Scrub. Unfortunately, none of these are currently listed on the site but I am sure that what is currently offered is there. And I will review these soaps later as I use them.

In my box of product from Hartley there was a generous sample of Chocolate Drizzle soap. For some inexplicable reason, this is the one I used first. I was feeling the need for something decadent and so I gave this soap a whirl.

I've used brownie soaps and chocolate cake soaps and the like but this one is in a completely different. I love Philosophy and you can, of course, spend $20 on Classic Fudge Cake or Double Rich Hot Cocoa but you can also pay $5 for Chocolate Drizzle and it's even better. Plus, there are no chemicals or nasty stuff and the person who made it has a name and a face.

I could give you a run down of how amazing it is to shower with a Hartley Soap and I am sure I will with one of the others but the point here is a different one. The point is that the economy sucks. People have no jobs. Everyone is panicked.

But every single one of you has to bathe.

In teasing me about my soap obsession yesterday, one of my frequent companions mentioned his penchant for Dove. Allow me to share with you the ingredients in a bar of Dove White.

Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Tallowate, Or Sodium Palmitate, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate, Water, Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).

Now, allow me to share with you the ingredients in a bar of Hartley Soap Jasmine Mango Body Butter Bar

mango_butter, sweet_almond_oil, coconut_oil, olive_oil, palm_kernal_and_palm_oil, distilled_water, sodium_hydroxide, fragrance_oils, mica_color

I'll let that speak for itself.

So here's my point and then I promise to get down off of my soap box.

You have to bathe, so buy handmade soap. I don't want to read that these amazing Artisans are going out of business.

In praise of soapmakers

I met up with a friend from high school this past weekend. I had not seen him in 14 years. It was interesting because I have both changed and not changed in all of that time. Strangely, he has two. So it was like instantly being transported back to high school. Only with adult thoughts and opinions.

None of this is really relevant except that he let me babble on for 20 minutes about why I love soap. This is a rare treat for me. Not many people have the patience to hear me talk about why soapmakers are artists for that long.

And that brings me to the point of today's blog. I currently follow about 40 blogs and I read them every single day. It delights me so much that there so many amazing people making soap by hand.

This morning I took a brief lukewarm shower with Lush Greenwash soap. I had all of about two minutes of warmth before the shower was freezing cold. So the jolly green lather didn't bring me its normal joy.

Luckily, the blogs I read did make me happy. So thanks blogger for a happy Tuesday.