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

I'm singing in the shower again!

For someone who dedicated most of her young life (and according to her family, should currently dedicate more) to singing, I almost never sing in the shower.

It could be because I am concentrating on the finer details of whichever soap I am using, but whatever...

So, with my many many soaps to try, I know just shove my hand into my wicker basket of unused soaps and pick one. One (way too early for its good) morning I stuck in my hand, fished around a bit and pulled out...

Coconut Lemongrass by Sea Sprite Soaps.

I'll confess that I was pretty stoked for a number of reasons.

The first reason is that I have been wanting to try out one of these soaps for some time. I dig, the soapmaker's blog (she links to Book Slut, hello?) and her banner and packaging is among my favorite on Etsy. It caught my eye from day one. At any rate, it took me far too long to try one of the soaps.

Sooooo...take one is a blend of two GREAT scents: lemongrass and coconut!

As a side note, I once made a soup with lemongrass in it and it completely overwhelmed the other flavors. So there was a small part of me that was afraid that all I would smell is lemongrass.

But I was wrong.

Ok, so I love love love this soap. The scent is nicely layered. It actually blooms! At first you smell the lemongrass but it mellows out to the soothing scent of the coconut that dries on your skin just enough to make you feel as though you are heading to the beach as opposed to Wall Street (although I suppose both have sharks).

This soap has been chilling in my soap dish and, I must admit, I have to force myself not to reach for it in the morning. There is something so cheerful and sunny about it. The soap is downright optimistic.

In fact, this is my new favorite good morning summer scent. The only thing that would make it better is if I could get up at 10am to shower then and if my piña coladas didn't get watered down in the shower.

But I'm singing that darned Harry Nilsson song again!

And the first soap I tried...

Ugh. What a week. I know I say this a bunch but ever since I became the Executive Babysitter.....erm, Director, of the Miss New York Organization my weeks just gets more and more exhausting.

So I started the great soap test with black raspberry vanilla from Burnt Mill

And of course I have some random musings:

So my first random musing is about black raspberries themselves. How are they different from the blackberries that grow on the side of the road in Georgia? Is there a difference?

Second not-so-random musing is that you MUST go to Etsy and buy this from Burnt Mill. It is less than $10 and CHOCK FULL of soap samples.

But now on to the good stuff. How did I like it?

Well, first of all, Burnt Mill cuts all of their soap samples like chunky crinkle cut french fries, which makes me immediately smile.

The soap is this amazing swirl of color and smells lightly of juicy black raspberries and fresh vanilla. Now, I am not a big fan of the smell of vanilla. In fact, I find it to be particularly cloying. But this is not like that at all, in fact the scent is nice enough to scent the shower in a wonderful way but it doesn't cling to the skin after the shower.

Also, the lather is really nice. I find this to be a good night time soap because the scent is quite relaxing.

And, on another note, this is the first soap I have used with activated charcoal in it. All of my research shows that this stuff is GREAT for drawing out toxins in the skin. I know it is often used to clear out the gastric tract and can even be used in the case of poisoning.

Neat, right?

In soap, it is a gentle exfoliant and absorbs excess oil and other stuff you don't need from the skin.

So far, I like it.

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.