A worthwhile discovery
Initially, I was skeptical of this product because I could not tell exactly what was in it, and being fiercely allergic to olive oil (which manages to get into most things deemed good for you), I wrote to the manufacturer to clarify. No olive oil, thank heavens! They responded promptly and kindly, and if you're wondering, here's what's inside: Purified Water, Artemisia Argyi H.Iv. & Vaniot, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Tea Tree Oil, Shea Butter, Decyl Glucoside, Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, Ethylhexylglycerin, Glycerin, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, PEG-150 Distearate, Phenoxyethanol, Polysorbate 20, Potassium Sorbate, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Extract, Citric Acid, Amino. Being an avid gardener, I recognize quite a few of the plants used and am especially impressed to find wormwood (I'm a big fan of sagebrush, also Artemisia) and willow in here. The scarier-sounding ingredients all check out as safe, pretty boilerplate stuff in personal care products. First purchase was back in March, and I've been using this soap ever since. The scent is a little medicinal (think tar soap or selsun blue) but the suds are nevertheless delightful to bathe in. You get the lovely tingle of, say, a castile soap without the saponified olive oil or the harsh drying that can happen with those and commercial big-name soaps, all of which, for the most part, I loathe. This soap rinses clean as well, with no residue or flakiness. When I step out of the shower after using this soap, I feel not just clean but somehow purified, like I've been Forest-bathing. Whatever scent I decide to put on afterwards has nothing residual to contend with, so I'm fine with the scent of it. I've even used it as a shampoo, to good effect. So, yeah, I'm sold on it, even put others with skin complaints onto it. Definitely worth a try. Update: For some reason, perhaps the inundation of advertising, I returned to big name soaps, pulled by promises of moisturizing, healing, gentleness...after all, this one tauts honey, that one tauts aloe. Good for you skin, right? Any healing that my skin had accomplished was destroyed after a week of using commercial, big name brands. My skin was stripped, raw, cracked, and maddeningly itchy. It reminded me of the cradle cap my baby would get any time I strayed from a lesser, albeit more expensive brand. I'd switch back to the boutique stuff and the scalp would heal. What's astonishing to me is how drastic the change is, sou h so that I had to add to this review. It's no lie, this stuff is great. I'm wondering if the big name brands can't make a decent product because their goal is simply to make money. They are so huge that all that matters is that bottom line, period. Ironically, they cannot make good product, they can only advertise bad stuff well. I have a hefty bottle of their stuff which is now relegated solely to washing my hands, but I'm rethinking even that, as my hands cracked and dry. Perhaps I could scrub the tub with it. Read more
