Review- Hand Soap

Today's review is of a hand wash, from the Selby Soap Company. Selby is local to me (as in say 6 km's away), so I was thrilled to have found this perched on the shelf at my favourite cafe- The General Food Store in Emerald.

I picked it up for $6.50, so it was definitely within what I consider to be an acceptable price range for a hand wash. I have paid more for such things to give as gifts (or even as a gift to myself!) so this made me very happy, and I am well pleased to have this gem sitting by my kitchen basin. Packaging is reminiscent of the brands Grown, Jurlique, or Aesop, but there is no disputing the price difference: you wouldn't even touch the sides of anything from those brands for $6.50...

I chose the Sweet orange and Clove...must be the cooler weather reminding me of Autumn at home in Cincinnati, and it does smell like an American Christmas. The other choices currently on offer are: Lemon Myrtle, Rosemary, Rosalina, Lemongrass, Lavender, Lavender and Cinnamon, Lavender and Star Anise, Spearmint, Peppermint and Clove according to Selby Soap Company's website which can be found at www.selbysoap.com

Their website is worth checking out, it is still under construction although the company itself appears to have been around since 2009. There is a short insightful glossary of terms describing a few hot list chemicals to watch out for. They also very clearly identify their own products and ingredients list.

So here's what I liked about the hand wash:

• Pretty, simple, unpretentious packaging. The pics I have posted are it. There is no box or bag, thank goodness.
• Smells like heaven. Or like spending lots of money in a suburban American shopping mall at Christmas, and then coming home to a warm house full of food and family.
•  All natural ingredients (note, this is not an exclusively organic product- but I actually like the fact that they didn't even go there. "Natural" was just going to have to do. Furthermore, to grow their ingredient list organically in Selby would take a miracle, and a tent covering their property, and a small army of staff picking snails/mites off of plants. I know- I live here, and grow here!
• PALM OIL FREE! Yippee!
• Local! This means I'll have to go into my fave cafe (and order a coffee) to get another one as well!

• It foams beautifully, and cleans well. I'm not going to get all crazy about a hand wash. It's a hand wash. It does hand washing just fine. I even tested it to a pair of after gardening hands, and after staining some polished boards in my en suite- don't ask... It worked brilliantly.

Something that I really liked is that Selby Soap Company has managed to get the wash to foam up. Thanks in part to a foaming pump, but they have also used "Soapnuts". How cool is this? Soapnuts are from plant called
Sapindus.  A genus of about five to twelve species of shrubs in the Lychee family,  members of the genus are commonly known as soapberries or soapnuts because the fruit pulp is used to make soap. Thanks Wikipedia- click here to see more about how this works...



So here I was thinking that the only surfactants (foaming/wetting agents) were likely to come from palm oils/ coconut oils or petroleum based sources, and here we have an example of a product that does the job, without any nasties. Yes please!

I'm sure I'll delve into more details regarding surfactants and foaming agents in future blogs, stay tuned for me to look like a complete idiot whilst trying to understand it all myself and then explain it to you.

Upshot-

Did I love this product- YES!
Would I buy it again- YES!
Would I try some of their other products- YES!

Overall- it's love. And if you have a Birthday coming up then you can count on me spending $6.50 on you! Go me!

Any questions, or if you did or didn't like what I had to say please comment below!