I’m a soap girl. I’ve tried numerous body washes over the years, but I just never felt clean from them and a lot of them made me break out. Eeuh. Also, you might think I’m strange, but there’s just something about scrubbing a bar of soap across my skin that makes me actually feel clean. But I can’t use your well-known, typical name-brand soaps found in the soap aisle of the big name retail stores. Those bars dry out my skin or make me break out, sometimes both. Double Eeuh. It doesn’t matter if they’re made for “sensitive” skin or not, so I end up purchasing my natural soaps from specialty stores or wherever I can find them.
Now that I’ve explained my interest in bar soap, you’ll understand why I was very excited when YesterYear Soap Company set me a 3-bar sampler of their soap to review!
The YesterYear Soap Company has an interesting beginning. Cindy O’Neill and her husband Dave transported authentic, dilapidated early-19th century cabins to their 60 acre property nestled inside the Holly Springs National Forest. While creating their frontier town known as YesterYear Lodge, they discovered a soap maker’s kettle in the ruins of one of the buildings. The idea of YesterYear Soap Company became a reality after they learned the difference between the artisan soaps of the past and today’s factory-made body deodorant products.
YesterYear Soaps are handcrafted with natural ingredients like olive oil, coconut oil, hemp oil, organic shea butter, and water. They do not contain preservatives, animal products, petroleum products, or lauryl sulfate. No synthetic fragrances or colorants are used!
They also sell body scrubs made with real sea salt. A 3-bar gift set retails for $12.99.
I also noticed YesterYear Soap Company sells bricks of soap with a bamboo cutting board and cutter for $22.95. How cool of a gift would that be?!
They also make African Black Soap which is reported to help with skin issues like acne and eczema. I’m planning on purchasing some to try it out as face soap. I’ll let you know how that goes! I’m also interested in the Greek Yogurt soap; the scents sound delicious: cucumber lime, lemon spice, and tropical garden.
Our Experiences:
The first bar I tried was the Cool Fresh Aloe soap. Before this soap, I didn’t have a good association with aloe vera. Whenever I thought of an aloe smell, what came to mind was that green goopy after-sun stuff I used to smear all over my body after I baked in the sun during my college years. I was surprised and happy that this aloe soap has a very light, pleasant scent. After using it in the shower, I could smell the soap on my skin afterwards, but just barely. I like that. I want to smell clean, but not necessarily like my soap.
The Mango Papaya scent was nice but not my favorite of the three, because I’m not a huge fan of fruity scents. My favorite scent was the Vanilla Honey. It smelled light and exotic. All three soaps worked well in that they did not dry out my skin. I even used them instead of shaving cream, and my legs actually did feel moisturized afterwards, like I’d used lotion. Also, none of them left a residue.
I’m very pleased with the quality of these soaps. After using the aloe bar for two weeks straight in the shower and at the bathroom sink, I would estimate that one bar will last at least four weeks if only used in the shower. A 3-bar sampler or gift set retails for $9.99 and shipping is very reasonable. Personally, I think the price is great for quality, natural soap.
The only thing I don’t like about YesterYear was the Web site. I do think that could use a little updating. Some of the products give an estimate on bar size, others don’t. Also, some products have the shipping listed and even say orders over $30 have free shipping…but not every product says that, and the main page itself says nothing about the free shipping. I think it’s a little confusing. I’d like to see more consistency, so I don’t have any questions about what I’m buying and the price.
Good to Know:
YesterYear Soap Company has been featured in “Every Day with Rachael Ray” magazine, “Weight Watchers” magazine, CBS Market Watch, and the Wall Street Journal Online. I wouldn’t be surprised to see YesterYear Soap gain even more popularity and recognition in the near future.
Want to win a 3-pack like mine? Click HERE to enter! (US only)
Note: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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