Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged soap

How to Make Soap Without Burning Your Face Off

The ever-present danger of burning one’s face off is, in fact, one of the reasons I have hesitated to take up the hobby of soap making. Raleigh Briggs’s How to Make Soap zine helped to make the process seem less daunting and intimidating. While the zine is relatively short, at ten pages, it is chalk full of useful tips and information for beginners. The overall tone is lighthearted and fun, with a sprinkling of sarcasm and a wee bit of sass. Briggs does a wonderful job maintaining the cheery air, yet is still able to stress the importance of following all safety precautions and explaining some potential dangers of working with lye. Lye is a key ingredient in soap making, and if not handled with respect and caution, can be quite harmful.

Apricot Freesia Soap

Since I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2000, I have been shopping at The Soap Factory. Supporting a local, woman-owned business is a pleasure, and using the store's products always feels indulgent. Prior to finding this company, I had given up on scented personal care products, due to allergic reactions.

Soap Sampler & Solid Body Lotion

I discovered Soap Lady Oregon products at—of all places—a chocolate festival in Portland, Oregon. While the products obviously aren't edible, they smelled better—and had healthier ingredients—than many of the food products that my partner and I sampled at the event. I believe you can vote with your pocketbook, and it was nice to know that the company uses all-natural, vegan and cruelty-free ingredients.

Rhubarb N Blueberry Spice Soap

I am a soap snob, but not without good reason. I don't want to imbibe chemicals into my skin, and just about everything with scent tends to make my skin dry out or cause an allergic reaction.

Spearmint Soap

Who doesn’t love soap? Besides a Chilean pal I had in college who insisted “Americans bathe too often,” I’ve never known anyone who took issue with washing. I have a complicated relationship with bathing, though. It takes me a while to deal with my hair once washed, and for this reason, I’ve been experimenting with less frequent showering this past year. Some people think this is a ‘green’ habit. For me, it’s mostly about convenience and comfort. I grew up loving baths, and my current apartment features only an awkward shower with two levels.

Glycerin Goat’s Milk Soap

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry says, “I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.” One of my simplest pleasures is gained by placing an aromatic bar of soap in my dresser drawer and later slipping on a crummy T-shirt that smells like a lavender sachet in a cedar chest. This has the potential to alter the entire course of my day.

D:tox System

Half a million women in the world die every year from breast cancer. One in eight American women will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer in her lifetime. Judging from these startling statistics, it’s not difficult to see why corporations that cater to women have begun creating lines of products that support the fight against this disease.

Baby Care Gift Set

Everyone likes good shampoo. Even though I am neither a baby nor an African American, I am delighted to use pure organic hair cleansers with a fragrant blend of rose petal, rosemary, and sage. African American Baby Care offers a full range of infant care products made from pure organics, natural botanicals, and rare herbs.

Sunscreen Soap 10 SPF

No one wants skin cancer. But if lighter-skinned people avoid the sun, there's vitamin D deficiency. What to do?

Shea Butter Lotion Fruit Slices / Goats Milk Glycerin Soap Orange Sherbet

When you unwrap a package made, wrapped, and tied by another person’s hands, it’s immediately evident. It might be a splatter of color where there wasn’t one intended, or a crooked label, a smudge. But whatever the indication, it has always given me a moment’s pause and endeared me in a special way to whatever it is I’m holding. So it was with Norma’s Bath and Body Products—a sense of the person who’d put something of herself into making the thing I was about to enjoy.

The "Happy" Collection

As if anyone needs an excuse to spend more time under a hot shower—well, here's another, or five others—each a more compelling reason to recreationally cleanse. LUSH produces fresh, hand-made cruelty-and-lard-free and frequently vegan personal care products. All bathbombs, gels, soaps, shampoos, and other innovative items are individually made by skilled suds people—Sara, Czarina, and Reggie contributed to my 'happy' package.

Chocolate Body Treats

Buddhism instructs us that suffering is caused by desire. Alright, I have established that I desire chocolate. I can consume it copiously and repeatedly. With utter abandon, and complete abandonment of moderation and concern for my health. I can consume chocolate indoors, outdoors, in the kitchen, from the nightstand, at the theater; while trudging down the sidewalk, operating a motor vehicle, or taking the train. In the park, at work, at play, in celebration and commiseration.

Green Apple Soap

Green Apple Soap comes in a plain package with information about the product and the maker, Karina. There are no logos, and you won’t find any fillers or chemicals in the soap either. The little, translucent green soap bar has a very pleasant smell to it. When it’s wet, it smells a bit stronger than dry (or so I’ve noticed), and as an interesting aside, when the light shines through the wet bar, it’s nice to look at.

Complexion Bar

I stumbled upon The Soap Factory in Longview, WA while exploring the downtown area nearly seven years ago. I fell in love with the shop and its products instantly, and have continued to order them online after leaving the job in Longview. The Soap Factory's Complexion Bar is a tried and true favorite of mine. While it's not cheap ($6.99), the four-ounce bar lasts a long, long time. (I just bought a new one, having purchased the previous bar in 2006.) With real avocado fruit, carrot juice, shea butter and a host of essential oils, it smells good enough to eat.

Shea Butter Gift Set

Packaged in a cute bag, this little gift set arrived smelling great! After a long week at work, a few hours pampering were needed, and this set delivered a great scent and relaxation. Better than the scent is the feeling of soft and smooth skin that comes after a bath using the Botanical Bath Salts, a product that left this woman feeling great. Best of all, this is an all-natural product made from homegrown herbs and natural oils—no preservatives, synthetics or byproducts. A spa experience in a bag, I started out running my bath with the Botanical Bath Salts.
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