Yeah, it has been a while since my last
soapy post, but no, I haven't gotten tired of it. I've actually gone through quite a few more bars since and no signs of slowing down yet, not that I really want to anyway :P
Anderson Soap Company-
Tweed Soap: the 4th addition to my favorite soap bars from Dennis, hooray! This Tweed bar definitely reminded me of the
Celsius Shea Butter Soap, not just in appearance but also scent-wise. The only difference was that the Celsius bar's fragrance was warmer and this Tweed bar was a bit more brisk. It actually had a touch of the original
Iris Spring in it, just a touch.
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Kyomai Salty Bar: This bar smelled like a sharper and stronger version of
Vaseline Total Moisture Lotion, with a touch of floral. Unfortunately, this was also the most drying bar of soap I've ever got from Dennis, which is surprising since his soaps are normally on the milder side. Perhaps it was the salt? This was my first salty bar from him, and sadly I will not buy this bar again.
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Calendula Wilderness Soap: this bar took me by surprise, actually, and sadly not the pleasant kind of surprise. It smelled like...*drum roll please*...baby wipes! It is a powdery musk, but unfortunately not the baby powder but rather the wipes. I won't be buying this bar again either. Sigh.
I guess many people don't mind baby wipes, but I have a different relationship with them. You see, I have a baby brother who's almost 13 years my junior. For several years until the kid could manage on his own, my younger sister and I pretty much raised him while both of our parents work full time. Yep, that means we fed him, sent him to bed, bathed him, and changed his diapers. The experience wasn't traumatic or anything, in fact, most people are so impressed when they see me with kids now they never fail to inquire how many of my own do I have (zero, thank you very much). I love my baby brother dearly (at least when he was still an adorable little chubby cheeks), but the imagery of dirty diapers every time I wash my hands wasn't exactly enchanting.
KcSoapsNmoreIt has been a while since I
last reviewed a bar of soap from KcSoapsNmore. I only bought a few bars from this Etsy seller and haven't used them all yet, simply because they're too pretty. Sounds absurd, I know, but it's true! So how did this one bar sneak in? Hubby picked it randomly, so I had to fork it over. Anyways, I did go back to check out the seller's store many times since, but there wasn't any more of these pretty bars. The seller only had fun-shaped soaps or soaps in generic bar shapes, which was really too bad. I guess he/she got tired of making pretty soaps? :P
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Brown Sugar & Fig Goat's Milk Soap: you're probably thinking what's so pretty about this bar. Well, it wasn't
that pretty, but in its cellophane packaging tied with a white ribbon, on the whole it was pretty to look at. But I wasn't sorry I used it at all! The good news is that this particular bar didn't just look pretty, it was an awesome bar of soap! Really mild, lathered beautifully into a thick and creamy foam, and best of all, it smelled heavenly! And the bad news? None.
This scent was actually really nostalgic for me. Its reminded me of the very first makeup item I owned (but barely used) in my later middle school years - a CoverGirl pressed powder compact. When I used the bar as hand soap, all I could smell was this powdery scent with a touch of flower. After the hand wash, it even had a lingering fragrance of a fresher, lighter, and more powdery Rice Flower & Shea. As a shower soap though, I could finally smell the brown sugar and, faintly, the fig too. Loved it and would definitely buy it again in a heart beat!
KreatedbyKarinaMy relationship with KreatedbyKarina soaps is definitely on a roller coaster. It started out very rocky due to the soaps arrived smelling like cigarettes and also the annoyance with the loose powder colorant being sprinkled onto the soaps instead of coloring them. Then it got really pleasant with the experience of the
Orange Dreamsicle Shea Butter Soap. Unfortunately, after that it took a plunge for the worst and kept getting worse still since.
Suffering through the 2 bars
Kiss & Make Up and
East Meets West (reviewed below), the current conclusion is that I'll finish up however many bars I have left from KreatedbyKarina but after that, there will be no more buying until they tune way, way, WAY(!!!) down the intensity of the fragrance in their soaps. Each of those bars must have had an entire bottle of perfume oil in them or something, but subtlety was pretty much nonexistent! Neither hubby nor I mind scented products, but we struggled to cope with the suffocating soap fragrance, even after sealing them in ziplock bags (I kid you not)! So yeah, no more buying from KreatedbyKarina. I'm normally very patient with a product. Even if I don't immediately appreciate it, I'd give it many chances over and over (case in point -
Heathen's Hearth soaps) or I'd try using it in different ways, just in case I was using it "incorrectly" and thus, might have been "unfair" in my opinion of it. But really, these 2 bars of soaps below completely did away with my endurance, and that's saying something.
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Kiss & Make Up Shea Butter Soap: the below is the description I took from the listing of the bar...
"Lightly touched with floral jasmine and violet and subtly sweet powder, this scent reminds me of hung linen blowing gently in the breeze over a field of marigolds...that oh, so fresh scent reminiscent of childhood, fun, and youth."
Sounds nice, right? Let's just say I took one whiff of the soap and immediately went back to my computer to check the Etsy listing as well as my invoice again because I seriously thought I had purchased the wrong bar! When this bar was dry, it smelled like extremely potent berry
Starburst candies. When it was wet, it smelled like super strong cherry Starburst, only leaving a very, very faint lingering of jasmine afterward. There was no violet, no hung linen, and definitely no "subtle" sweet powder, unless by "subtle" they meant bashing my nose in with a glass bottle. If that sounds violent to you, that was how violently strong the fragrance was.
Remember
this Skittles commercial? Imagine a parallel nightmare in which it rains Starburst
syrup instead of Skittles, and you will get the horror of this soap bar. Was it reminiscent of youth? I would say yes, but probably only the rotting teeth part, for showering in Starburst syrup, of course! Anyway, hubby banned it at the sink and didn't even want it out in behind the shower curtains, so I had to store it in a ziplock bag after each use. Even then, our bathroom was still overwhelmed with the smell. Sheesh!
Anyway, to be fair the soap was great! It lathered well and was not drying at all. Too bad the ridiculously strong fragrance utterly destroyed the experience for me.
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East Meets West Shea Butter Soap: again, the description below was taken from the actual listing of the bar...
"This vegan soap bar has a light, fresh, floral-herb scent and helps to calm and soothe your skin. Peony and carnation add a fragrant mixture to tumeric, ginko seed and other herbs. East Meets West Vegan Soap is a light, but lasting fragrance. Absolutely divine. Imagine you're standing in a meadow in the early Spring and a gentle breeze wafts over you. With it comes just a hint of fresh grass and wildflowers. You feel refreshed and invigorated. That is East Meets West."
You know, I seriously was all ready to write off what happened with the Kiss & Makeup bar above to some weird mix up in which the seller accidentally mismatched the descriptions with the actual soap bar listed for sale. But then I read the description to this East Meets West bar and thought, no, that was no accident. Somebody's nose just isn't working properly, and it isn't mine. Have you ever heard of
Bee & Flower brand soaps? This East Meets West bar smelled like a dupe of 2 popular Bee & Flower soap fragrances (sandalwood + jasmine) mixed together. The result was
agarwood/aloeswood (沉香 - trầm hương - じんこう) plus
sandalwood core stick incense plus a head banging floral note, all on crack cocaine (to reach the actual intensity of the fragrance).
Let me tell you, I grew up with a mother whose idea of scenting the house was to choke it with burning incense in every corner, and I
still could not take this bar of soap. It was
that strong. And since I put up with the Kiss & Makeup bar, it was hubby turn to endure showering and storing the soap in a ziplock bag. Poor guy...
LostRiverRagsThe various
soap samples I got during the holidays got me going a bit crazy. Well, okay, I actually went nuts and bought a bunch of stuff from LostRiverRags. The soap samples smelled so damn good, plus they all went to the people at my office and I didn't get the pleasure to keep any to myself to use. What the hell, right? Of course I had to fix that, going back and buy...everything. Okay I didn't buy everything, but I did buy a good chunk. Although the soaps in the shop were all quite pricey given their actual sizes, there were so many tempting fragrances so I couldn't resist despite the price.
***Note to other Etsy soap sellers - offering small batches of soap samples for sale is an extremely effective trap for the soap-obsessed like me.***
Unfortunately, like KreatedbyKarina, I think I might have yet another love-hate relationship with this soap shop. I love their soap samples, most of the scents they offer, and I like their soaps in general. I'm particularly impressed with their Goat's Milk Hand & Body Lotions and it's some of the best stuff I've used! But then I also have a bit of an issue with the observed disparity between the size of their soaps and the attached prices. When my big order of soaps arrived, I was taken aback by how much smaller the LostRiverRags bars were in comparison to my other soaps, even though they were supposed to be the same size based on the weight described in their respective listings. And yet at the same time, the LostRiverRags bars were more expensive, even at the sales price or with discounts.
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Rose Goat's Milk Sample Soap Set-70: I sent LostRiverRags a message and asked if I could buy a batch sample of every scent they offer. That was a no-go, but they had a 70-piece sample set available, so I settled with that instead. If you're wondering what in the hell I did with them, well, I put them all in a basket and put them in my bedroom :) Oh yeah, my bedroom smells reaaaaaaally nice. There are nights when I'm drifting into a deep sleep and can smell lingering fragrance in the air. Definitely my kind of aroma therapy! And plus the guests, if there are ever any (my apartment is waaaaay too small anyway!), can always grab a few to use.
Rose Goat's Milk Sample Soap Set-70:
1 Winter Mint Sample
1 Winter Dreams Sample
1 Relaxation Synergy Sample
1 Serenity Sample
1 Eucalyptus Sample
1 Sandalwood Sample
1 Lilac Sample
1 Citrus Vanilla Sample
1 Pink Sugar Sample
1 Amber Romance Sample
1 Juniper Berry Sample
1 Rice Flowers & Shea Sample
1 Plumeria Sample
1 Oatmeal Cinnamon Sample
1 Cinnamon Snap Sample
1 Apple Brown Betty Sample
1 Country Kitchen Sample
1 Victorian Christmas Sample
1 Fresh & Clean Sample
1 Sweet Pea Sample
1 Bay Rum Sample
1 Pine Cone Sample
1 Sandalwood Vanilla Sample
1 Enchanted Roses Sample
1 Baby Powder Sample
1 Gardenia Sample
1 Creme Brulee Sample
1 Peppermint Sample
1 Oranges & Cream Sample
1 Coconut Lime Verbena Sample
1 Pikaki Sample
1 French Vanilla Sample
1 Pumpkin Spice Sample
1 Orchid with Shea Butter Sample
1 Coffee & Cream with Shea Butter Sample
1 Lemon Meringue with Shea Butter Sample
1 Iced Cookies Sample
1 Oatmeal Cookies Sample
1 Lemongrass Sample
1 White Lace Sample
1 Coconut Sample
1 Jasmine Vanilla Sample
1 Green Meadows Sample
1 Sweet Sandalwood Sample
1 Enchanted Pear Sample
1 Ginger & Frankincense Sample
1 Berry Cheesecake Sample
1 Sex on the Beach Sample
1 White Tea & Peach Sample
1 Tropical Smoothie Sample
1 Sugar Plum Sample
1 Beautiful Estee Lauder Type with Shea Sample
1 Lemongrass & Jasmine Sample
1 Midnight Sample
1 Rose Jasmine Sample
1 Frosted Snowdrops Sample
1 Rosemary Mint Sample
1 Chai Tea Sample
1 Sea Breeze Sample
1 Melon Ginseng Sample
1 Harmony Sample
1 Lavender Sample
1 Cozy Comfort Sample
1 Peony Sample
1 Forest Pine Sample
1 Herbal Lavender & Lemongrass Sample
1 Mint Sample
1 Eucalyptus & Sage Sample
1 Vanilla Sample
1 Yucca Sample
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Harmony Goat's Milk Soap: this is the description taken from the actual listing of the bar...
"Indulge yourself in this Sense Soothing Goats Milk Soap. With herbal tones such as, eucalyptus, lavender, & sage."My take is that it didn't smell like anything really. It had a very faint scent of generic soap, and when used the shower, there was also a tiny bit of nag champa. I couldn't detect any eucalyptus, lavender, or sage at all. Eucalyptus and lavender aren't exactly fragrances that blend in easily, so if their concentration was adequate, I wouldn't have missed them. There was this strong musty old cabinet odor in the soap though, and it arrived smelling that way so it wasn't my cabinet. Besides, my cabinet is full of soaps, so if anything it should have had a bit of other soap scents, but nope.
It was a strange experience going from one really strongly perfumed soap to one so scantily scented there was barely any smell. Perhaps the KreatedbyKarina soaps had blunted my sense of smell, that or LostRiverRags needs to get some hints from KreatedbyKarina and put a bit more fragrance oils in their soaps (just don't over do it please). The soap itself was good despite the lack of fragrance. It was a big round bar (round bar? is that even politically correct?) and the lather was thick and smooth. It did not dry out my skin. Still, I wasn't too impressed with the lack of fragrance and will definitely not re-purchase.
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Bergamot & Kumquat Goat's Milk Soap: This bar also had the same musty old cabinet odor, although not as strong. I could smell the sweet kumquat somewhat when I used it as hand soap, although I would have liked the fragrance to be a bit stronger. I love kumquats :)
Luckily, the kumquat came out much better in the shower than as hand soap. The kumquat was citrusy but sweet, with a touch of herb. I wasn't too sure about the bergamot though. I guess I don't know what bergamots really smell like, so I can't say. Over all, I liked it, but I probably won't buy it again. There are plenty of other nice-smelling and excellent soaps out there I still haven't tried.
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Fresh & Clean Goat's Milk Soap: When I bought this soap, its listing was sparse with description. It basically said, "
The name says it all, it's very clean and refreshing!" And so being a sucker for fresh and clean scents, I bought both the soap and the Goat's Milk Hand & Body Lotion (below) in the same scent. When they arrived, I tore into the package and sniffed...and was terribly disappointed. Actually, I was a bit upset. That listing and the little descriptions it had lied to me!
The truth is Fresh & Clean didn't smell like anything fresh and clean. Instead, it was a nauseating floral fragrance, very very flowery, and I don't deal well with most floral fragrances. hubby likes flower fragrances, however, and I gave it to him to smell, but he hated the scent too! So naturally, I found someone else who would appreciate the scent better than hubby and I would and the soap and lotion found its new home rather quickly. But still, I felt tricked.
Anyway, just now I checked the listing for the same soap again, and funny how one more sentence was finally (and very belatedly) added to its one line description, "
A very uplifting and subtle floral fragrance. The name says it all, it's very clean and refreshing!" Uh huh...I guess somebody was finally being forthcoming. I hope it was a result of someone complained how misleading the description was. I know on my part, I wouldn't have bought either the soap or the lotion had I known it was a floral fragrance. And now that I know, I will never ever buy it again!
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Fresh & Clean Goats Milk Hand & Body Lotion
Paradise Body ShopOkay, it's official now. Paradise Body Shop has become another one of my favorite soap shops, right up there with Anderson Soap Company. I wish Candice introduces newer fragrances more often since I always looking to try new soaps. That said, the current selection she carries is fantastic! I think I've bought them all, save for a few bars and even then, this situation is going to be rectify the next time she runs a promotion ^.^ Loooooooove her soaps!
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Cinnamon Bun Goat's Milk Soap: The Cinnamon Bun Goat's Milk Soap isn't the first bar of soap I bought from Candice, but it was the first that I actually used (the first several bars were given away as gifts during the holidays). But I'm totally hooked, thanks to just this one bar. Let's just say I enjoyed every last bit of it until it disappeared into my big foamy bath puff and not a crumb is wasted. It was mild, washed well, non-drying, very foamy, just pure love.
And scent wise? I got exactly what I bought - a cinnamon bun. Even hubby was turned off, saying it smelled "too much like the real thing," and that he preferred his soaps smelling more "soapy". Actually, in my opinion this soap smelled
better than a real cinnamon bun, because I could even smell the delectable butter in this bar, serious! If there was ever a cinnamon bun that smells this good, I'd probably buy it by the dozen and eat it for breakfast every morning. I still get freakin' goosebumps when I think about it. There were times in the shower when I was
this close to take a bite out of it! Crap, it smelled soooooooo delicious it wasn't even funny!!
sunbasilgarden-
Royal Cherry Ruffle Soap: now this is a beautiful bar of soap! Because it was so pretty, I was also reluctant to use it for the longest time. Again, hubby picked it out, otherwise I might have framed it and put it on display or something. It was a gigantic bar too, although better as a shower soap than hand soap because it was just a tad drying, being a simple glycerin bar. Anyway, this bar achieved what
Anderson Soap Company Cherry Blossom Soap in Jar was trying (and ultimately failed) to do - this actually smells like cherry blossom, a mixture of fresh leafy scent with a tinge of cherry. Very nice!
My only complaint with this bar was that towards the end, it disintegrated into a gooey slimy mess similar to the fashion
Heathen's Hearth bars did. I'm not sure why, because it's still pretty dry in my apartment right now so the wet and humid atmosphere isn't to blame. Could it be the soap base? I guess I'll never know! What a shame!
