I went to Savannah and I bought soap

Hey ya'll!  I just got back from a trip to Savannah.  I went specifically to see my very best friend of all time, Caroline.  I have loved Caroline from snarky comment 1, which occured one afternoon in the sixth grade.

We ate and ate and ate.  We went on some tours of our home town like tourists and we went...SOAP SHOPPING. 

Savannah has some pretty great places to buy soap, including a super cute store called Nourish where I have shopped before but I got a bit more carried away this time.  All in all, I bought six bars of soap. 

One I left at Caroline's house because she was using something non-handmade.  But the other five I brought home to try.  Here is a picture of my loot:

I hope you are excited as I!

Love, Love, Love

So I just got in from the Shining Stars event for the NGLCCNY.  It was fun.  I enjoy getting dressed up and having someone do my makeup.

But, wonderfully enough, my day started earlier than usual at 6am.  I got out of bed and went, book in hand, to the shower.  I sat on the side of the tub while the bathroom filled with steam and I just inhaled the warm air while reading a few chapters of A Girl's Guide to Vampires, which by the way, is hysterical. 

Then, after finally deciding I had dawdled enough, I climbed into a steamy shower with my newest bar soap acquisition...

The Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooove Bar...was making its virgin round.

Doooo dooo do dooooo doo dooo

You get the point. 

Shaped like a heart and smelling like rose and jasmine, Love Soap was a special edition for Lush deal.  So if you want it, run to the closest Lush store and hope they didn't sell out yet because they are going, going, gone.

At any rate, it has been so long since I broke out a new Lush soap and this was delightful indeed.  I must confess that, like a small child, I enjoy soap that has colored foam.  Using this soap is like painting yourself orangey red like a demon....muahahahaha.

Anyway, ahem, it was fun.  Lush nails things like texture, scent and color like no other large batch soap. 

This is a real winner.  I wonder why Lush won't just break down and make a full time soap that smells like Sex Bomb. 

At any rate, I'm sleepy and off to bed.

I went to Lush today and kept it under $25

Ok, so I clearly need new soaps.  So when the roomie announced she needed to go to SoHo to visit the Genius Bar at Chez Steve Jobs I tagged along.  I needed shoes for the Shining Stars event tomorrow night and SoHo is ALWAYS fun.  Of course, after the Great Bidet Disaster and my realization that I need to cease being the world's crappiest blogger and actually write some blogs, I needed inspiration.  And what is more inspirational than Lush?

Ok, so maybe buying from awesome Etsians...but Lush has some things that Etsy doesn't.  For example, hipster sales girls who don't judge me for my soap obsession (and who get extra points for being A-DOR-ABLE) and that smell.  You know the one.  Tourists complain about it and it gives you total headache after 5 minutes but it is still incredibly.

Plus, being the day after VD, I knew something would be on sale.

Well, miracle of miracles, I only spent $22.  This has a bunch to do with the fact that I already own just about everything, but I was pleased with myself nonetheless.

Here is what I got!

 

It's red.  It sparkles.  It's small.  And it smells like Sex Bomb.

Tom Jones once said, when referring to a Sex Bomb: Now you found the secret code I use to wash away my lonely blues. So I can't deny or lie cause you're the only one to make me fly.

And who I am I to argue with Tom Jones?

Riiiiiiiiight.

Second, I bought B Electro...this is some limited edition madness with which I am now COMPLETELY obsessed.  It smells like flowers (such as jasmine and rose) mated with things that make you want to wake up in the morning (aka fennel and grapefruit) and had a bastard love child that neither wants to claim but will one day take over the world.  One sniff made me want to go to the gym.  Appropriate gym soap is hard to find but this one is perfect.  Here is what it looks like:

Kinda like the green goo under the streets of Gotham City in Batman.  But you get the point.  Love Love Love it. 

Tomorrow I have to feel sexy, which means soap with some Jasmine (hmmmm....Love Soap?) followed by Bulgari.   Bulgari allows me to convince myself briefly that I look like Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Which, I don't.  And never will.

But I digress.

Soap reviews later.

When Depressing Things Happen to Soap Loving People

So, a few weeks ago I went to Vegas.  We won't discuss the trips because it was frankly dreadful (nothing nice to say...say nothing at all...blah blah) but something TRAGIC happened while I was away.

The neighbors upstairs improperly installed a bidet and, when the hot water pipe melted, the result was an indoor rainforest in my apartment.  Everything was basically fine in the end but alas, my favorite soaps in my favorite soap dish were destroyed.

RIP Nectar, RIP Jasmine Jubilee, RIP Wasabi, RIP McCarren Park, RIP I Heart Bacon and...RIP Tiny Bubbles.  I think that's all. 

As you can see from the pictures above, I have a big blob of used-to-be soap in my favorite dish purchased for me by my favorite mother.  It makes me SO ANGRY because I typically don't buy soaps twice because I like to try new ones.

These were my feel good soaps, my go to soaps MY FAVES. 

Ugh.

Stupid neighbors.  Who puts a bidet in their bathroom in Brooklyn anyway?  I could have given them some amazing heinie washing soap for the shower if they had only asked.

Would I be a freak...

So cats and kittens...

I am firmly ensconced in my new work abode in Midtown Manhattan. I am presently loving it more than words can express. From the several times my boss made me laugh so hard I teared up to the FREEDOM of being trusted to do what I am supposed to do when I am supposed to do it I am all a-twitter with happiness and excitement.

Sadly, changing jobs threw my payment schedule off so I have not had the spare soap money I normally have. So someone else has had to singlehandedly keep the soapmakers in business lately. Sorry soapmakers.

I have been using some of my faves to the nubbies and contemplating a Best of 2009 soap gift for those people on my Christmas list. 

So, that's what is going on in the life of The Clean Diva.  Well, that an an ever increasing hatred of the soap that companies stock in bathrooms.

So would I be a freak if I replaced the soap in the work bathroom?

The Clean Diva's July and August Picks

I bathe every day. Like most of you, I suppose. However, lately I have been showering at the gym because of my morning work outs. So handmade soaps have been making the journey with me. I have even used some soaps several times. But July turned up a few faves and I'd like to mention them briefly.


I am currently working through a sample of Dirty Loves Clean's soap, 7 Up Poundcake because it is just a work of genius. Vanillaey and cakey and limey and not at all cloying, it just makes me smile in the gym shower. And it goes really well with the Lush Vanilla something or other kinda lotion I bought a few weeks ago.


Speaking of Dirty Loves Clean, I have been abusing the Sweet Tea scent too. I still don't see it on her site, so maybe I need to slow down. But I also just noticed that she is making a McCarren Park lotion that seems like heaven in a jar. Every time I log onto Etsy to link to her site I discover something new that I desperately need. For instance, I just noticed strawberry rhubarb crumble. Trust me when I say that I have not been unsatisfied with a single item from this Etsy seller.

One of my other new obsessions is Nectar by Atlanta based Rinse Bath & Body Co. If you buy one bar of soap this year, this one would be pretty high on my top 10 list. Beyond being from my home state and super cool, the owner of this lovely little company was awesome enough to warn me to let the soap sit a few weeks before using. I did and I have not taken it out of my shower since. Sometimes when I use it, I smell something wonderful and start looking around for the source before I realize that it is ME. The smell stays on your skin all day long but it blends pretty much with any perfume that has even the slightest hint of vanilla. I like to slather on Lush's Vanilla Delite lotion. It makes me want to spend time alone with me, which is always great, right? Yikes, that reads dirty.

My final fave pick over the last little while is by Etsian DeShawn Marie. I have been reading her blog for many moons and she is also a fave of Jackie's over at Etsy Item of the Day. DeShawn Marie wrote a blog several months ago about how her business had once upon a time gotten to be a bit too large and out of control. So she took that control back and made what she wanted out of HER passion of creating. I was so touched. THEN, she wrote a blog about her Jasmine Jubilee soap and how she came to find the PERFECT jasmine fragrance oil for it. Now, if we know one thing about Erin it's that I love love love jasmine. So I bought the soap.

It's fabulous, as is DeShawn Marie's presentation. From the whole day it took me to get my purchase to the little gold box the soap came in, I was completely in love. And I think she has a scent for everyone.

Well folks, lots more to tell but those have been the mega highlights of the past two months.

Round up

So, I have been away from this blog for way too freakin' long. I've been doing some interesting things lately. Tomorrow my life is going to change incredibly. I'll probably blog about it when it is over but until the news is official, I keep the excitement to myself.

However, I am pleased to report that my gluten free life is better than ever. I am down over 30 lbs and working out 5 days a week. Not because I think I have to do it but because I have learned to really enjoy my gym time.

We crowned a new Miss New York. Her name is Alyse Zwick and she is pretty awesome.

I've bought soap. Only one bar from Etsy, which is a CRIME. I also bought a Gabbriella's Sampler, which was awesome. Then again, her samplers always are. Kathleen sent me some soaps but I want to make sure to discuss them in a blog all of their own. She is quite the soap maker but her perfumes and lotions are also to DIE FOR, I swear it.

I finally broke down and bought some soap from Etsian DeShawn Marie. I have read her blogs for months and am forever impressed by her scent descriptions and product pictures but her words on how she formulated her jasmine scent blew me away. So I had to have a bar. More on that in another blog.

At any rate, I've been nutso busy.