Aloe Vera White Soap from A Misty Dimness Soap

Well, here it is... I'm finally reviewing one of my own soaps. So I guess it's not really a review so much as advertising...

Aloe Vera White Soap from A Misty Dimness Soap is my first original recipe. It's currently available in the store as a clearance item. I have reformulated the recipe just slightly and when it comes back into stock it will be called White Soap. (It's a slight FDA violation to call it Aloe Vera soap when there are other ingredients, so I'm trying to comply as much as possible.) It will also be in the standard bar form that all of my soaps come in. I've stopped using single cavity molds unless it's a test recipe or a special order.

The bar that I have in my shower looks different from the store because it was made from an over pour (I had more soap batter than mold space) so I grabbed the first single cavity mold I could get my hands on. I had enough to make three bars, so those went into my personal stash. So, now that I feel I have any confusion cleared up... here's what's what...

Ingredients: Aloe Vera Juice, Sodium Hydroxide, Coconut Oil, Lard, Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Castor Oil, and skin safe Titanium Dioxide.

First Glance: I still am a little bit in awe when I pull out one of my own soaps. It's like... dude, I made that. This is a nice evenly colored bar, nice size and smooth looking. No fragrances were added, so soap has a natural light scent. Bar is of medium weight.

First Use: Big creamy bubbles. Smooth skin feel. Rinses clean but not squeaky clean. Unscented.

Overall Thoughts: This is one of my favorites, even with the old formula. It's a nice unscented bar. Not one of my longer lasting bars, but it did go further than I expected. This is a great soap for anyone who likes a clean skin feel and clean scent.

The new formula will improve the usage life. I've done a lot of playing around and have finally settled on a standard that uses more lard, less coconut oil, and the addition of soybean oil to balance the other oils and butters. I have added aloe vera gel to the recipe to increase the goodness of the soap, and I have removed the titanium dioxide. The extra boost of white coloring just isn't needed.

If you're curious about my other soaps, head over to my online store!

Italian White Sage, Geranium & Yarrow Soap from Pangea Organics

 I first found Pangea Organics when I was searching for something to add to my oil cleansing method skin care routine. I wanted something that didn't have a lot of unnecessary ingredients and was affordable. Pangea Organics delivers big on the ingredient part, but I struggled with the price tag. I jumped into their multi-level marketing because it helped with my personal costs. Unfortunately the MLM was very badly handled and they have since discontinued this type of sales. Great products, just a poorly managed company. Their soap bars remain one of my favorites.

Ingredients (from package): Palm Oil, Palm kernel oil, sodium hydroxide, water, glycerin, geranium oil & citrus oil, sage oil, sodium chloride, citric acid, rosemary leaf extract, rosemary leaf powder.

First Glance: Packaging is very earth friendly, made from recycled materials. Soap carton contains seeds that can be planted to grow spruce trees. Bar size is a nice fit in the hand. Smooth surface with nicely rounded edges. Very shiny and creamy looking bar. Stamp in the center is a nice touch. Light and pleasing fragrance, not too floral or spicy.

First Use: Because I have been using this soap for four or five years, it's difficult to remember what my first impressions were. I intentionally didn't use the soap for about six months, hoping to refresh the experience. Soap lathers easily with medium sized bubbles. Very smooth lather. Bar is slightly slimy after use. Scent is very light even in water. Pleasant after skin feel with a squeaky clean rinse.

Overall Thoughts: This soap fits somewhere between a commercial soap and a handmade soap. It's a nice transition between the two types. I had three handmade soaps in my shower at the time, and found myself going to them more often. This is a nice soap, and I would buy this before I picked up any other commercial bar, but it can't compare to a nice handmade soap on any day.

Dead Sea Spa Bar from Great Cakes Soapworks

 Here's the last bar of my Great Cakes Soapworks stash. I had received a sample in my first order and I liked it enough to add a full-sized bar to my second order. I am going to review it based on my thoughts of the full-sized bar.

Ingredients: Saponified Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Tallow, Castor Oil, and Cocoa Butter, also Dead Sea Mud, essential oils of lemon, grapefruit, tea tree, and patchouli, kaolin clay, and titanium dioxide.

First Glance: This comes packaged in a nice box with a window for smelling, aside from the errors in the ingredient label it is a professional looking packaging. The bar is a large bar, probably the biggest I have gotten from Great Cakes, and heavy. Bar texture is a bit grainy. Colors are muted gray, olive, and white in a nice swirl pattern. Fragrance is a light ocean scent - not tropical but very "lake" or "water where fish are" smelling, in the pleasant sense, not the "there's a dead fish somewhere" sense. (some day, I promise, I'll work on my ability to describe fragrances.) Essential oils are very complementary to the bar.

First Use: This bar requires a bit more water than normal to lather. I assume that there is quite a bit of dead sea mud which would inhibit the lathering affects of the soap. It's not difficult to get a lather once enough water is used. Lather is low and creamy. Slight grit feeling when applied to skin - not blast your face off, but not completely smooth feeling. Leaves a light film on skin when rinsing.

Overall Thoughts: I added this into my morning face wash rotation. It's a nice indulgence that pops up every few days. I don't think it's one that I can use daily because of my skin type (cystic acne prone) and my sensitivity to tea tree oil. This is a very hard bar that I have used about 10 times and it shows no signs of wear. The fragrance takes a bit of getting used to, but I'll own up to not being a fan of "water" scents, so that may be why I notice it more.

Lemon Pepper Soap from Great Cakes Soapworks

 I received a sample of Lemon Pepper Soap in my last order from Great Cakes Soapworks. I like lemon pepper on chicken, but in soap? Color me intrigued!

Ingredients currently unavailable on website and none on packaging.

First Glance: A generous chunk of soap for a sample. Very pretty light yellow and gray variations. I would have like to have seen a whole bar, it looks like the design concept might have been very cool. Smooth, creamy looking bar. Smell was very faint.

First Use: A nice sudsing bar. Very smooth, good slip, not slimy or soft. Fragrance became stronger when wet, but still a lightly fragranced bar. Couldn't smell any pepper notes, but lemon notes were sweet - more like lemonade than sour fruit. (if that makes sense...)

Overall Thoughts: As far as soap goes, this was nice. Fragrance wasn't that great - maybe why this bar is no longer available in the store?? - I was able to pick up some pepper notes as I used more of the bar. A very well colored bar that gave white lather. I was glad I tried it, but I was expecting a stronger and more masculine scent from the lemon pepper.

Black Raspberry Vanilla Salt Bar from Shari's Handcrafted Soaps

 My first month as a member on the soapmaking forum, one of the most talked about soaps was (and still is) salt bars. I went "Whaaat?" and began to read numerous threads on the topic, and then I Googled and read some more.


So here's the basics of a salt (or spa) bar. It's soap with salt grains in it. It's reputedly good for your skin and can make bathing in hard water feel like soft water. The soap bars, when made well, are rock hard and long lasting. I was intrigued.


I ordered one from Shari's Handcrafted Soaps, and the dear sent me two. The one I had ordered was "only" four months old. Salt soaps really come into their prime with age (which is really true about any handmade soap), so Shari added an older salt bar, Black Raspberry Vanilla.


Ingredients (from package label): Coconut Oil, Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Coconut Milk, Sea Salt, Avocado Oil, Fragrance, Mica, and Tussah Silk.


First Glance: Molded in a lovely flower mold and a fitting shade of purple for the Black Raspberry Vanilla (BRV) fragrance. A very heavy and solid bar of soap. The soap fits nicely in the hand.


First Use: I'm going to admit to being a bit disappointed. Totally not the soap's fault. It had a huge setup based on my interwebz reading. I was expecting an angel choir, heavenly light, and to suddenly have the body of my 23 year old self. Needless to say... I had to adjust my expectations. Reality is that this is a nice bar of soap. A lovely creamy lather that is very gentle on skin. I used the bar directly on my legs and definitely got some light exfoliation from the salt. It was scrubby but not scratchy. Left a slight skin scent after showering.


Overall Thoughts: I am not a BRV girl. It's much too sweet for me. I use this about once a week simply because of the fragrance. It's such a nice bar of soap, I can't let it go. Showering with a salt bar is definitely an experience not to be missed - one that I look forward to more often once this bar is gone.

Hummingbird Soap Bar from Shari's Handcrafted Soaps

I raved about Shari's Patchouli Bar last fall and I was excited to get another bar into my shower rotation. I've been using the Hummingbird Soap Bar from Shari's Handcrafted Soaps since Christmas, in rotation with the other soaps in my shower. The fragrance is described as tart kiwi, lilac, tiger lily, pineapple and pears. This soap is a delightful experience. I adore everything about it.


Ingredients (from package label): Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Buttermilk, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Fragrance, Sodium Lactate, Skin Safe Mica & Tussah Silk


First Glance: Packaged in shrink wrap with front and back labels, always a generous sized bar from Shari. A beautiful Caribbean Blue bar with a single white swirl through it. I studied this one for quite a while trying to figure out how she did it. I think it's a spoon plop with a hanger swirl (but I'm willing to be wrong. I'm still not the best at identifying soap color methods). The top is beautifully swirled with blue and white and a fun sprinkling of mica. One side of my bar had a dolphin  jumping through the waves shaped swirl (Can you see it?).

First Use: Smooth and silky lather, this bar is a bit softer in the shower than the Patchouli bar, so I've been extra careful to keep it well drained and out of the shower spray. The scent is super sweet, almost too sweet for my taste, but I still find it pleasant. I can really smell the lilac and pineapple with just a hint of pear remaining on my skin afterwards.

Overall Thoughts: I love the condition my skin is in after using Shari's soaps. The tussah silk really leaves my skin super soft (I can't stop touching my arms!) and the buttermilk creates a super creamy lather. I can't wait to use the other soaps and tell you about them!


Disclaimer: In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review.

Camel Olive Oil Soap

I picked up a couple soaps in India. This one I did not use while I was there (if I had, I wouldn't have brought it home).

As you can see from the picture, the label is not in English so I can't read the ingredients. A Google search proved to be fruitless. From using the soap, I would venture to say that it is 100% Olive Oil and (sadly) there is no camel milk or any type of milk in the recipe. I'm willing to be wrong if someone can prove me otherwise!

First Glance: This is a big hunk of soap. Very heavy and hard. Very rough looking. No coloring or  fragrance (not even a natural soapy smell).

First Use: The shape and size of the bar are very awkward to use, a more rectangular or thinner bar would have been easier. The bar is hard and the edges are very sharp. No lather was present when soaping hands. I tried a bath sponge, shower loofah, and shower brush. I did manage to get some very dense lather with the brush. Fragrance when wet was mild and sweet - I had to have the bar right up to my nose to smell it and it left no skin scent. Washed clean, but left skin feeling a little dry. I followed up with moisturizer, which I normally don't have to do.

Overall Thoughts: I used this bar a few more times, trying it once on my hair, before I binned it. The edges never softened so it was a very hard bar to handle. It never lathered well, but it wasn't snotty as some olive oil soaps can get. I was glad that I had picked it up for (literally) only a few cents, as it was not a good quality soap.

Disclaimer: In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review. 


The (Un)Shampoo Bars from Great Cakes Soapworks

I am embarrassingly behind on posting about the rest of the soap I received from Great Cakes Soap Works. I posted my first review of the Sandalwood Goat Milk bar w-aaaaaa-y back in June, promised to post the reviews of the other three soaps that I bought, and then just disappeared.

I have attempted to write the reviews for the shampoo bars that I bought, and then completely deleted what I wrote. Several times.

Long story short: The shampoo bars didn't work for my hair and that was what I struggled with for an entire summer. Mid-August I finally admitted to myself that these shampoo bars weren't right for my hair. Sometimes that's how it goes. Hair is a fickle creature and getting away from commercial shampoo can be a challenge for anyone. Pantene has a good thing going. The search for the Perfect For Me shampoo bar continues!

On that note, I will be reviewing the shampoo bars as body bars. I only have pictures of the Coconut Honey Shampoo Bar because the Beer and Seaweed Bar pictures were on my other phone - which died a slow agonizing death in the Smoky Mountains this summer (better it than me).




Beer and Seaweed Ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, beer, aloe vera juice, sodium hydroxide, castor oil, hemp oil avocado oil, patchouli essential oil, cedarwood essential oil, lemongrass essential oil, seaweed, rhaussoul clay, silk.


Coconut Honey Shampoo Bar Ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk, water, sodium hydroxide, castor oil, hemp oil, avocado oil, honey, rhaussoul clay, silk, and essential oils of orange, bitter almond, fir, litsea cubeba, and ylang ylang.


First Glance: The bars are round! (Does that make them no longer "bars"?) I love round soaps for their great hand fit. More soap should be round. Nothing extraordinary about the color, a very uniform natural and smooth soap. The Beer and Seaweed was the first that I tried. I loved the earthy smell of the seaweed and patchouli. In comparison the Coconut Honey Shampoo Bar was a very mild scented soap.


First Use: The beer and seaweed was difficult to lather, but once it started there was plenty of bubbles. When I used it for shampoo, my hair smelled strongly of patchouli (not a bad thing when in the presence of other patchouli lovers). Slight scent when used on body but not long-lasting. The coconut honey bar lathers quickly. No lingering scent for either hair or body.


Overall Thoughts: As mentioned, these didn't work for me as shampoo soaps. I did, however, order a second round of the Coconut Honey just to use as body soap!

Give these bars a try instead of your regular shampoo - even though they didn't work for me they might for you.


DisclaimerIn accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review. 
 
 

Dirty Little Secrets

Soap currently in the witness protection program.

I have a secret.

Okay, it's not really a secret because everyone who knows me knows about it, we just don't talk about it. No one ever stages an intervention - they should, but they don't - they just let me do my thing.

I am an obsessive compulsive hoarder.

You knew that already. What was it that gave me away?

My 130+ TBR shelf?

My 12k+ Pinterest Boards?

My lists and half finished projects?

My discarded hobbies?

My latest obsession has been growing over the course of two years. It's so bad that I have a secret  Pinterest board for it. I have two shoe boxes in my bathroom closet to hide it. When we had The Diva's birthday party a few weeks ago, I spent hours stashing stuff cleaning up so my extended family wouldn't see it. Because of all my obsessions, this one I'm the most embarrassed about.

The shower rack. A total of eight soaps currently in play, plus one muslin bag filled with soap scraps.

I love soap. I love to smell soap. I love to use soap. I love to make soap.

My bathroom sink: A lovely charcoal shea butter bar, a lavender spa bar, and a little piece left of the lavender clay bar I sell in the store.

But seriously... how am I gonna ever use up all this soap?

 

 

Shari's Handcrafted Soap

This summer I joined a soapmaker's forum and it's been "interesting". I mostly use the forum from an android app on my phone. One day I happened to be on the laptop when I noticed that some (most) of the users have signature lines. Some of them even have links to their soapy blogs and / or ... gasp!... the website where they sell soap! Insert excited little girl scream here.

I chose my first seller carefully. I wanted to buy from someone who not only seemed knowledgeable and open minded, but also was nice about giving advice, criticism, and corrections on the forum. I finally chose Shari's Handcrafted Soap - having the same name helped!

I hopped onto her website and immediately put one of every bar she had into my cart. Reality handed me a big fat check upside the head, so I geeked out on her website for a week before choosing which bars I would buy. I convinced myself I could narrow the list to four, I put five in my cart, and at the last minute I added a note to Shari that I found her website through the forum and my own user name.

When my box arrived, there were six bars, a shower poofy, and two lip balms! Oh lovely lovely handmade soap and lip balms! The Diva and I oohed and aahhed over the box for a good hour, then she grabbed one of the lip balms for herself and dashed off to do whatever divas do when their mom is distracted by pretty soap.

Shari's lip balm: I didn't get to try The Diva's Gooey Caramel lip balm - but she told me it is "utterly divine". She has it stashed in her school bag and I see her with it several times a day, so it must be good! The lip balm I managed to keep for myself is margarita flavored and isn't on Shari's website. I'm not sure if that means it's an obsoleted flavor or a new one - I have to make a note to ask because I love it and I'm going to be sad if I can't buy another one (or ten) now that it's gone. Aside from the flavor, the balm has great glide and staying power. My lips feel instantly soothed and softened. I will definitely be checking out her other flavored lip balms (Pizza! Rootbeer Float!) to tuck into the kids' Christmas stockings.

Sometimes toughing out the drama on a special interest forum is a good thing. I know using Shari's soaps and lip balm have been a special little treat for me that I wouldn't have found otherwise.

Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review.

Stress Relief Bar from Great Cakes Soapworks

The Stress Relief bar was one of the free samples in my first Great Cakes Soap Works order. I used the small soap ball as a facial bar. I didn't notice a scent at the time, but loved the feel of the bar. Curious to try a whole bar, I added two of them to my second order.

I'm glad I did. The Diva went through my soap stash one night and found one of the bars. She took a big whiff of it, proclaimed it hers and to the upstairs bathroom it went. Once there, The Spawn claimed a co-ownership of the bar. After that, there was no way I was getting my hands on that soap. See? Good thing I ordered two.

Ingredients: tallow, olive oil, coconut oil, water, sodium hydroxide, shea butter, castor oil, cocoa butter, essential oils of eucalyptus, spearmint & peppermint, sodium lactate, and dried peppermint leaves.

First Glance: This is a brilliantly white bar studded with peppermint leaves. One deep whiff of this bar makes me think of starlight mints. The eucalyptus is a very mild background scent - my kids only notice the mint. This bar is bigger than the Sandalwood - or at least it seems that way. I looked at my notes and it seems that they're the same size... but for some reason the Stress Relief bar feels heavier and looks like a bigger cut bar.

First Use: Creamy bubbles abound with this soap bar. I think this bar may have a higher lye discount, because it feels super moisturizing. The mint essential oils are not overpowering and did not cause any skin sensitivity. Very refreshing to use as a face wash. Amy doesn't advertise it as an acne bar, but it did dry out and heal up a recent seasonal acne breakout without stripping moisture out my face.

Overall Thoughts: My kids and I are both loving this soap in our showers. An eucalyptus mint dupe is going onto my What To Soap Next list. In the meantime, we'll continue to use and buy Amy's awesome soap.

DisclaimerIn accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review.

Patchouli Soap From Shari's Handcrafted Soap

1995 called and they miss me. I've been madly in love with anything Patchouli (and Sandalwood) all summer. It's been taking me back to my incense burning high school days. The colors in this soap are just an awesome tribute to Autumn, earthiness, representing a time to just settle and gather yourself (returning my inner hippie to her box in the corner) so I thought this would be a great time to try the Patchouli Soap from Shari's Handcrafted Soap out.

Ingredients: Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Buttermilk, Unrefined Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Fragrance, Sodium Lactate, Skin Safe Mica, & Tussah Silk

First Glance: This bar is stinking huge! I didn't even look at the bar weight when I ordered, but when I took the bar out of the box I was floored by the size. It's manageable for small adult hands, but it's a thick cut bar with a good weight to it. The website says it's 5 ounces, but I'd guess that's a general minimum. I didn't weigh it to check. Packaged in stiff heat shrink with two open ends for sniffing capabilities, I could see most of the bar even with the two stick-on labels on the front and back.

 

The soap itself is lovely. Beautiful swirls that made me think of falling leaves blowing across my yard. The colors are solid and consistent, no graininess or unmixed color blobs in the swirls. The bar had a very glossy sheen and beautiful planed edges.

 

First Use: The soap lathered immediately with big luxurious bubbles. The bar is super hard, so there wasn't much change at all to the appearance of the soap. I was kind of disappointed in the smell - it didn't seem very "Patchouli" to me. I had to work to really pick out that scent. It almost seemed like there was a light citrus and powder scent covering up the patchouli. I do like the scent, it just wasn't what I wanted from a patchouli soap. No lingering scent after showering - which is ok and expected.

Overall Thoughts: This is a great soap, and while the scent wasn't what I expected, I am still ecstatic with my purchase from Shari's Handcrafted Soap. I look forward to using the other five bars that I bought from her. (Reviews coming! I promise!)

Disclaimer

In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Sherry's Stuff. All products I review are either purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for an honest review.

Sandalwood Goat Milk Soap

I love soap. I really love handmade soap. In my research for making my own soap recipes, I stumbled on Great Cakes Soap Works. I'm not sure what drew me back to Amy's blog and website over and over again. Maybe it was her tagline: A great cake of soap can cleanse your body, but only a great God can cleanse your soul.  - See I John 1:9 or maybe it was just the simplicity of her soap.

Reading Amy's blog was interesting to see her transition from a palm based soap to tallow and from fragrance oils to essential oils - tallow and EO's are what I love about handmade soap. I finally decided to stop lusting after her bars online and ordered four bars. Two shower bars and two shampoo bars. I will eventually be reviewing each of the bars, plus the two sample bars that Amy sent me.

Before I start the review for the first of the four bars, just let me say this about Amy's customer service: awe.some and ah.may.zing. I ordered my bars on a Wednesday and they were in my mailbox  on Saturday. I opened my box to this:

And under the handwritten note was this:

She threw in two samples of her spa bar and stress relief bar - it looks like she's reformulating a recipe! Or maybe she's just trying to sucker me into buying more soap ;)

Sandalwood Goat Milk Soap

I fell in love with the scent of sandalwood while I was in India. When I came home, I wanted sandalwood soap. I struggled with choosing this soap because the sandalwood fragrance in this soap bar is from a fragrance [read: synthetic] oil. I did some research and discovered that sandalwood essential oil is expensive -  Like $60-100 per half ounce expensive (and about a half ounce is what you use per pound of soap) - so I stopped being such a snob and put the bar in my shopping cart.

This was the first soap that I used from what I ordered. In fact, I'm still using it. I had wanted to review it after one week, but... well, weird things were going on, so the review is happening at the three week mark.

Ingredients: saponified tallow, olive and coconut oils, shea butter, castor oil and kokum butter; also fresh goat’s milk, fragrance, pulverized elderberries, cocoa powder, sandalwood

Yes, it does bother me that this picture is upside down...

First Glance: This bar comes in a professional looking box, with a see-through smell-through window. I was a bit disappointed with the bar size at first (in my head, 4.5 oz is bigger). There's also some discrepancy between the box (it says 4.25oz) and the website which says 4.5 oz. I never did weigh it to see what I actually got.

Oh, my, it's a beautiful soap though! Three layers, one with just a bit of exfoliation material in one of the layers - possibly the pulverized elderberries or some sandalwood powder? I'm not sure, the bits dissolve so nicely while using it I couldn't snag one of them for a closer look. I dream of making a bar of soap this pretty. My pictures don't do it justice.

First Use: I was really happy with the lather on this bar. The bubbles are small but plentiful. The bar stayed very firm in the shower with no mushy spots or slimey stuff developing. [Note: I keep all of my bar soaps on a wire rack in the shower so that they air dry completely between uses and do not sit in water.] The bar has nice slip and worked well for shaving. It rinsed a little too clean for my liking, and I was worried about my skin being too dry afterwards.

Thoughts Overall: I almost stopped using this bar one week in - I started to break out across the top of my chest, my arms, and my back. At first I thought it was from the soap bar and a reaction to the artificial fragrance as I haven't used store bought soap or handmade soap with artificial fragrances in two years, then I discovered I had a major sinus infection [that I'm still fighting off] that likely contributed to the breakout. I said I had weird stuff going on, yeah? Anyways, after 3 weeks and no new outbreaks [getting the old outbreaks to heal is another story as my immune system right now sucks worse than a Hoover], I'm 90% certain that it was from my general health and not so much from the soap itself (although I'm not ruling out the reaction to a fragrance oil completely).

I'm super happy with the hardness of this bar, I've used up probably half the bar so I know I'll still get another few weeks out of it yet. That's a pretty good life span for a daily shower bar! I'm also still super happy with the lather in this bar, it's really nice for shaving [I also ditched shaving cream two years ago]. I'm still not digging the squeaky clean rinse that this soap leaves, but I haven't had to use moisturizer when I get out of the shower either. This soap leaves a light scent on the skin, but it doesn't linger.

Will I buy this soap again? Absolutely! Right now I'm not into making soap with goat's milk, I'm pretty happy to leave that to people who do it right. Of course, I said that about soapmaking in general about three years ago and see how that panned out for me...


Interested in checking out some of Amy's other soaps? Head on over to Great Cakes Soap Works!