Of Toys and Co: Soap Crazy Part XII

Wow, has it really been 3 years since the last Soap Crazy post?!? O.O And that post was 2 months before I left Yokohama in 2012 too, and here we are in Tokyo again! Crazy how life goes!

Anyway, within the past 3 years we've used up a whole lot of soaps, though mostly I've been forgetting to keep track of which. Below are what I managed to remember to note down the scent and set aside the photos. These soaps aren't listed according to when I used them but rather alphabetically by name.

- Caudalie Vinotherapie Fleur de Vigne French-milled Soap: a tiny little guest soap bar that I used as a hand soap when we first moved to SF in January 2013. It didn't have much of a scent, that or it was so old, being from 2010 and the scent faded -.-' Either way, it was similarly drying as the L'Occitane Bonne Mere Rose below and it cracked shortly after we started using. Every time I washed my hand, I rushed out to put on some hand lotion afterwards for relief. This was from the Vinotherapie Spa in a Box.

- Chashan Fang: this Green Tea Hand Soap Link is hanging from the faucet of our bathroom sink right this minute. It was from the Chashan Fang Haoli Gift Set bought in fall of 2012 during a day trip to Tamsui. My sister and I bought multiples of this set but I kept only one and gave the rest away.

Overall this is a really nice soap, very mild and not drying at all! That said, the link setup is impractical. It's great in theory but unless you have a lower sink and faucet it'll be a bit messy. We ended up losing 2 cubes of soap because, well, with our regular hand-washing they melted right through the string :( Basically, the soaps don't wear evenly.

- L'Occitane Almond Exfoliating Soap: loved loved loved this almond scent! It was so soothing and calming but it too started cracking half way through, even in San Francisco. It still foamed just fine, although it made me think perhaps these L'Occitane soaps aren't meant for use anywhere but in humid locations.

I actually had 2 of these bar but again gave one away. My bars were from the Mystery Gift Set (top row) and the Almond Voyage Kit (bottom row).

- L'Occitane Amber Soap: After the Cherry Blossom Soap fail below, I didn't expect much from this Amber one but it turned out to be quite a nice bar of soap! It foamed well and wasn't anywhere as drying as the other soaps from L'Occitane or Caudalie. Also, out of all the L'Occitane soaps I'd used recently, this was the only bar that did not crack at all and remain in one smooth piece all the way down to the little nub it became. It had a mild, warm and soothing scent of amber that was more on the woodsy side. Over all a really lovely bar of soap, but then L'Occitane discontinued it!! Gah!!!

- L'Occitane Cherry Blossom Soap: from A Delicate Embrace Set. I loved this light but crisp flowery scent. It brightened up and scented my whole bathroom! However, the soap itself was terrible. It was drying, not as bad as the Bonne Mere Rose below but still pretty bad. About half way through it started cracking, stopped foaming, and turned into a block of slippery wax. Yuck.

- L'Occitane Bonne Mere Soap Rose: from the Blossoming Embrace Set. It was nicely scented with rose and even had bits and pieces of dried rose petals to provide a bit of exfoliation here and there. That said, it was a disaster, being excruciatingly drying for my skin, so drying I can feel my whole body withering up as soon as I step out of the shower. Not a good feeling at all.

- L'Occitane Shea Butter Extra-Gentle Soap Milk: Been using this off and on for years, since 2009 when I first discovered it, and I still haven't gotten tired of the lovely creamy powdery scent yet. We used the Bonne Mere Lavender before, which hubby liked but I found the soap too drying for my skin. The Bonne Mere Rose above was horrifically drying for me in San Francisco. Then Tokyo happened and lo-and-behold this soap's working out okay. I have this Milk bar in my shower right now, and it actually helps me feeling cleaner and less sticky in this humidity, so I'm back to loving the soap in addition to the scent.

- Anderson Soap Company Apricot Surprise Exfoliating Soap: Anderson Soap Company had closed earlier this year, sadly. The owner, Dennis Anderson, decided to move on to other things. It was a good run with his soap business and I still have a few bars left, believe it or not, because I just bought that many at the peak of my soap frenzy.

Used this Apricot bar after moving away from San Francisco. It smelled sooooo good, although I had a hard time differentiating this scent with another Kumquat bar. I did like that the exfoliating particles (the apricot seeds) were much smaller than the larger poppy seeds used in the other exfoliating bars. They felt a tad harsher on the skin, but I used this bar as hand soap and my hand was always super duper clean with the apricot seed scrubbies.

- Anderson Soap Company Luc Del Sol Shea Butter Soap: this bar had a more masculine and somewhat musky scent, which I didn't mind but didn't love either. Shortly after I started using it, the 3 different colored sections of the soap broke apart :( It was kind of annoying to have 3 long and thin bars instead of one bigger bar of soap to use.

- Anderson Soap Company Lime & Coconut Exfoliating Soap: I liked the lime and coconut-y scent, very soothing and refreshing at the same time.

- Anderson Soap Company Cran-Orange Blueberry Seed Exfoliating Soap: this one smelled mostly of sweet citrusy orange. I couldn't discern the cranberry at all, but it still smelled nice.

- KreatedbyKarina Mango Smoothie Shea Butter Soap: another Etsy shop that shuttered over the years. This bar didn't smell anything like mango at all. Instead, it was a lovely orange cream ^.^ The soap was a tad drying though, so I had to slather on hand cream afterwards.