Christian's Cupboard Review

Hey Everyone! Today I am coming at you with another exciting review of handmade bath products from Christian's Cupboard.

Christian's Cupboard was launched in 2011 by Christian Phillipson and offers a wide range of soaps, bath products and jewellery all of a high quality and at an excellent price point.

The products I received are the fresh rose butter, coconut dream, banana & coconut smoothie, honey & oatmeal soaps and a vanilla jumbo bath bomb. As you can see from the picture below the products are visually stunning and artisan in appearance and they smell exactly the same as the ingredients within their names due to fresh natural ingredients with no nasty stuff! 

So let's get started! First we have the fresh rose butter soap. 

What the site says: Gorgeous rose bud studded bar speckled with ground rosehips and perfumed with a heady flowery blend of rose geranium, petitgrain and sexy ylang ylang essential oils. 

I say : A beautiful floral scent, creamy texture and pretty appearance with the rose bud speckles.

Next up is coconut dream which may just be my personal favourite.

The site says: This coconut scented soap is handmade from the highest quality ingredients and cut fresh from the loaf. An amazing fragrance and perfect as a gift.

I say: Really pretty soap to have in your bathroom for a luxurious girly treat, smells amazing and leaves your skin feeling clean and soft.

Now we have the unique smelling banana and coconut smoothie. 

The site says: This banana and coconut scented soap is handmade from the highest quality ingredients and cut fresh from the loaf. An amazing fragrance and perfect as a gift.

I say: very unique and distinctive scent, not something I would usually pick but very glad I did as I ended up loving it! A good quality, all round nice product.

Then we have the last of the soaps which is the honey and oatmeal flavour.

The site says: This honey & oatmeal scented soap is handmade from the highest quality ingredients and cut fresh from the loaf. An amazing fragrance and perfect as a gift.

I say: Literally smells good enough to eat, the oats at the top add texture and are good as a light exfoliant, soap melts into the skin and leaves it feeling nourished.

And finally the vanilla jumbo bath bomb! Now I am a huge fan of bath bombs (known to buy in bulk in Lush on many an occassion) so was particularly excited to try this out. 

What the site says: If you are looking for relaxing treat then look no further. Our range of Bath Bombs are just the thing for anyone looking for a high quality bath addition that looks and smells great. 

They are also great value. Each bomb weighs in at a massive 180+ grams and contains Shea Butter to make them smoother on your skin. 

What I say: Absolutely huge product, I got away with using half in one bath so got two uses out of it. The smell is very strong and sugary sweet and lasted well on my skin throughout the evening. Quality is 100% up there with Lush and is cheaper by a pound or so. Definitely one I would repurchase and recommend highly.

I hope you enjoyed this post and check out the other products/varieties on http://www.christianscupboard.co.uk where you can check out the up to date prices as I know there is currently a sale on! Bargain alert!

Thanks for reading, love Sally X

Lenny's Soap Review

Hi Everyone,

Today I am going to be sharing with you my experience of Lenny's Soap which is a small scale craft business run by the lovely Leanne in the Scottish Lowlands. The website sells soaps, bath bombs, truffles, salts and more, all of which are handmade by Leanne personally.

First of all I am going to review the super cute ice cream bath truffles. You receive three 40g truffles for £3.50 and you only need one per bath so that's around £1.10 per bath which isn't bad at all. The truffles are made with sweet almond oil to soften the skin and smell amazing, really sweet and sugary. Once you drop the truffle into the bath it dissolves completely and releases the scent which I could smell on me after I had go out of the bath. 

I also received 3 soaps, 1 full size and 2 sample sized in goats milk & ylang ylang, parma violet and patchouli sandalwood ylang ylang. Full size soaps retail at £3.00.

The soaps are packaged in a really cute vintage style and would look lovely as gifts.

I used the sample sizes to take with me for a couple of weekends away and got plenty of use out of them, the parma violet one made me feel particularly nostalgic as they used to be my favourite sweets! The soaps are all of a high quality giving your skin a cleansed and refreshed feel and use ingredients with softening properties. 

Leanne also included pictures from the making process of her gardening soap to show you guys!

Firstly we have the ingredients being added, there are 5 different oils, olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, hemp oil and castor oil

The oils are heated until they reach the desired temperature, the lye is mixed with water and when both are at the right temperature they are mixed until they reach trace

Once trace is reached you can add any extra and essential oil, with this soap seaweed and poppy seeds and essential oil lemongrass and rosemary is added. The soap is then poured into a mould and left for 24 - 48 hours to set

The soap is then cut into the desired size and left for a further 28 day to cure. During this time the lye and oils saponify to create glycerine.

Resulting in a fantastic end result!

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed testing the products and many thanks to Leanne for collaborating.

Thanks for reading! Love Sally X

Clovelly Soap Company Review

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all having a nice week in the sun.

Today I am bringing to you a review of two products that I was sent to try out from the Clovelly Soap Company.

The Clovelly Soap Company is ran by the lovely Sarah Harper who had made soaps for over 9 years starting in her kitchen and now in a craft studio in her barn conversion. The company sells a selection of handmade soap, natural confetti, wedding favours and also runs soapmaking workshops which I would love to take part in one day.

The two soaps I received are the cinnamon & oat and honey & oat varieties and both come wrapped in beautiful vintage print paper with classy labels. They both weigh 100g and retail at £4 each, however a half size bar (50g) is available at only £2.

Here is a shot of the soaps unwrapped to give an indication of the texture but I will go further into this below.



The first soap I am going to talk about is the Cinnamon & Oat scented soap.

The soap is lightly scented with cinammon powder and has a bumpy texture due to the oats which provide exfoliation of the skin. I found this product to be particularly good on my legs leaving them nice and soft without the need for greasy moisturisers. 

The honey and oat variety offered the same exfoliation and moisturising experience, however is unscented so just smells clean! I know some people may prefer this, but I would say my favourite was the cinammon as I do like a nice light scent.

The soaps are made by hand by the traditional cold process method using olive oil, coconut oil and sustainable palm oil. I have touched on my thoughts on palm oil in a previous post however Sarah was able to assure me that their supplier is a member of the round table for palm oil production who are a collective of growers and buyers working to make the industry more sustainable for the future which I think is great.

I was also able to obtain a few images of the soap making process from Sarah which I will include now in a little timeline to give an idea of the work that goes into making the soaps. 

First the ingredients are sourced, weighed and measured. Ingredients will include ground oats, glycerine, olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, various essential oils, herbs and botanicals. 

Then the ingredients are poured in a big pan to be melted to liquid form and mixed together to form a mixture ready for the next stage...

The mixture is then poured into lined moulds to cure and harden for 4-6 weeks

The set soaps are then turned out onto greaseproof paper to dry out and once dry are then ready to be cut to size.

Each soap bar is then sliced up into the individual sizes ready to be packaged up and sold

Creating a beautiful end product!

I hope you liked my post and thanks for reading. Love Sally X

Chaaboo Review

Hi Everyone and happy Friday!

Today I am going to be doing a review of the green tea handmade soap from www.chaaboo.co.uk. After speaking to the lovely Siri I was sent a sample of the green tea soap which is the top seller to have a try and share my experience on.

Chaaboo is a small company based in Herefordshire, and I am very much someone who likes to support up and coming British companies that source local ingredients.

They hand make tea soaps using a cold process method and all natural ingredients (see below diagram) without palm oils. Here is a link to a great article from Greenpeace on why companies using palm oils are harming the environment: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil. They also do not test on animals. 

The soap arrived wrapped in black tissue paper with the full list of ingredients on the back and a little leaflet explaining the benefits of each ingredient such as shea butter being a good moisturiser that stimulates cell growth.

The soap itself is speckled in appearance, imprinted with the Chaaboo logo and the texture is really smooth lathering up well in use. The scent is delicious and lasted well on my hands which felt thoroughly cleansed and moisturised after using the product. The product is also gentle enough to use as a facial soap and left my skin feeling lovely. The soap retails for £3.50 for a 85g bar which I think is a bargain when you think of the time and effort that has gone in to making it by hand and the quality of the ingredients. 

I would definitely recommend you check out this soap for yourself and there are more varieties to try on the website: http://www.chaaboo.co.uk

Thanks for reading! Love Sally X

Victory Soaps Review

Hi Everyone!

Today I am going to be doing a review of 4 soaps that I received from Susan over at www.victorysoaps.co.uk. Victory Soaps began in 2001 due to the lack of supplies of their favourite soap in Sainsbury's and they now sell handmade natural soaps made from olive oil via their website and also local fairs and events. It makes me wonder if I should start making bacon and cheese sandwiches for the same reason as Tesco have failed me to a similar extent!

I was sent the 4 top selling products which are the verbena, rose geranium, pink lavender and honey rose to have a try and they arrived in the post before I knew it wrapped in lovely tissue paper and with a leaflet explaining the process, ingredients and product lines. This is also viewable on their website so check it out for further info.

Here is a shot of my package:

And now the soaps, they all have the distinctive logo and look gorgeous.

And here is the pink lavender soap all nice and lathered up in action.

The soaps and very creamy and lather up well upon contact with the water and smell amazing! I can say that my hands certainly feel really soft and moisturised afterwards and the scent lasts well on my skin. Not bad for only £4!

I am really impressed by the quality of the products and love the fact they are handmade from natural ingredients with no nasty stuff and I'm very much a believer in buying British where I can. I can't wait to try some of the other varieties and would definitely recommend you check out the range on www.victorysoaps.co.uk.

Thanks for reading, love Sally X