Naturalla Beauty

Historically, castile soap referred exclusively to the olive oil soap made in the Castile region of Spain, but today it's a term more broadly used to describe any soap made through the traditional saponification process that turns natural plant oils into soap.  Castile soap is an everyday staple in my home for both body care and cleaning purposes and I've recently been trying out the soaps from a new-to-me brand, Dr.  Jacobs Naturals.  Dr. Jacobs is a cruelty free company making liquid castile soap in the USA without palm oil, synthetic fragrance, colors, preservatives, or GMO's.



People often complain that liquid castile soaps are either too thin and runny or don't lather sufficiently, and quite honestly, these two factors frequently have me reaching for a different product in the shower too.  Dr. Jacobs soaps, however, circumvent both these issues by thickening their coconut and olive oil based castile soap with a small amount of the gentle, non-toxic surfactant coco-glucoside.   The result is a hybrid soap that's substantially thicker than your average castile offering.  It won't pour out of your hands or run down the drain, and the coco-glucoside helps it to lather more easily too.

I've been testing Dr. Jacobs' soaps out for all my usual household cleaning tasks -- laundry, makeup brush washing, and more -- and also as a shower gel and hand soap, and I'm pretty sold on them for all of the above!  The thicker viscosity makes it the perfect consistency to use as either a body wash or hand soap and its gentle and non-drying on the skin.  (And the 16 oz. pump bottles are extra convenient in the shower too!)  The thickness also means that you don't need to use as much product, particularly for cleaning, so a smaller amount of soap goes farther too.  I'm not personally a fan of castile soap for the face, but if that's something that usually works for you, I see no reason why Dr. Jacobs wouldn't as well.  

In terms of scents, Dr. Jacobs offers a good variety of both essential oil-based and natural fragrance options and I've been testing out three, plus the unscented.  The Citrus, currently residing in my shower, has a very mild scent.  It smells good and citrusy, but I also smell a little of the natural oils coming through.  The Eucalyptus and Peppermint are much stronger scents and have some serious scent power.  I used the Eucalyptus to clean my makeup brushes this week, while suffering through the tail end of a cold, and had the added bonus of clearer sinuses when I was finished.  The Peppermint has been hanging out by my washing machine, and a small amount in the wash leaves clothes smelling minty and fresh.  And the Unscented is, of course, great for when you don't want a scent, or for creating your own.

The Bottom Line
I always keep castile soap on hand and Dr. Jacobs is a great option!  The liquid soaps are thick and skin-friendly, and create a rich, versatile lather to suit a multitude of uses -- both for the body and household/cleaning.  

The first thing that stood out to me about Mamma Oceania Handmade Soap was their tag line.  After all, it doesn't get much better than "Mermaid Approved Clean," does it?  Add in a cute logo, great ingredients, minimal packaging, and the fact that the soaps are handmade in small batches here in Toronto, and I was sold.  



Anna Mattiuzzo, Mamma Oceania's founder and soaper-in-chief,  was working in fashion PR and publishing when she started making soap for her own personal use.  When she began sharing the soaps with friends and giving them as presents, people loved them and asked for more, and one thing led to another until Mamma Oceania was born.  

Anna was kind enough to send me all eight of her soaps to try and I've been having the best time testing everything out.  The soaps are made with USDA certified organic ingredients and are free of controversial palm and canola oils, as well as artificial colours, fragrances, and preservatives.  The entire line relies on a gentle, moisturizing base of olive oil, shea butter, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, colloidal oatmeal, and banana and Canadian kelp extracts, and each individual soap varies from that point on.  Soaps are cured for four to six weeks using the traditional, cold-process soap method, ensuring that you get a firm, solid, hefty bar of soap that really lasts and won't melt away in just a couple washes.  (Though you'll still want to keep your soap out of the direct shower spray and let it dry between uses to help it along!) 

Each soap produces a beautiful, rich lather that feels very soft and gentle on the skin.  I always keep bar soap at my bathroom sink and I've had several culprits over the years leave me with dry, papery hands, but I haven't had that problem with any of the Mamma Oceania soaps, even through colder weather.  Instead, my skin is consistently left feeling clean, soft, and touchable.  Without any added scent ingredients - either natural or synthetic - the soaps just have a very light, clean scent that's basically undetectable as soon as you rinse off.  

My absolute favorite of the bunch has been the Baby Clean Soap, made with chamomile extract.  It has a slightly creamier scent than some of the others and feels extra soft and almost buttery on the skin.  Other favorites have been the Skin Nourishing Soap with rosehip, and the Gentle Exfoliating Soap with pomegranate and coconut milk.  Regular readers may recall that I don't generally enjoy exfoliating bits in my bar soap, but the Gentle Exfoliating Soap is, as the name suggests, extremely gentle and actually feels basically smooth to the touch.  If you like your soaps extra gritty, this isn't the one for you, but if you prefer a creamy lather with just a hint of exfoliation, it's just the ticket.  Mamma Oceania also makes two face-specific soaps, the Brightening Facial Soap and the Pore Saver Facial Soap, but the entire line is so gentle that I would honestly feel okay using any of them on my face.

Photo Credit

The Bottom Line
Mamma Oceania soaps are especially wonderful for those of us with sensitive skin and noses, but I really think they'd be a treat for any soap lover.  With a rich, creamy lather, an abundance of organic ingredients, small batch manufacturing, and no animal testing, Mamma Oceania is beautiful traditional handmade soap at its best!

The Mamma Oceania website will be set up for transactions very soon, but in the meantime orders can be placed by contacting the company through the website, Facebook page, and by email.  

For Torontonians, the soaps can regularly be found at Nepal Pari Salon on Front St. W., and Anna will also be at the following markets this Spring:

Josie Maran products have better ingredients than a lot of conventional brands, but the company does a lot of greenwashing and their products are rarely what I consider completely natural.  Nonetheless, I tend to keep one eye on the line for the occasional product with fully clean ingredients.  The eye liner pencils fit the bill for me, so when I noticed a set of 5 Mini Argan Liner Pencils marked down to $9 a few weeks ago, my curiosity was piqued and I quickly placed an order.  While I haven't had the pencils long, I didn't want to delay writing about them, in case anyone else wanted to jump on the sale, which is still ongoing as of the time I'm posting this.



The Argan Liner Pencils are, as the name suggests, formulated with argan oil, but what interested me even more is that they contain no palm oil.  I did an entire post on limiting my consumption of palm oil, and while I've basically done away with it in my skin and body care products, it seems impossible to completely eliminate it in makeup, while still using natural products.  So, finding makeup products like this - that are both natural and palm oil free - is always exciting.  

The set comes with five mini pencils: your basic black and brown, plus a mostly matte purple, a metallic green, and a metallic antique gold.  The pencils look pretty small, but I know it takes me just shy of forever to actually use up an entire liner, so I'm okay with that.  Ounce-for-ounce each pencil is a little more than half the size of a standard liner pencil.  

After using them, I can easily divide the colors into two groups in terms of feel and pigmentation.  None of them are the absolute creamiest pencils, but Violet (purple) and Tropical (green) are noticeably firmer than the other three.  These two colors apply a little sheerer and need to be gone over a few times to get full pigmentation and opacity.  Treasure (antique gold), Chocolate (brown) and Black Raven (black) are a little softer and apply fine on the first pass.  

(L to R) Violet, Tropical, Treasure, Chocolate, Black Raven

The Bottom Line
I'm not sure I'd rush out to buy the set for the original $30, but I definitely think it's well worth the $9 price tag on sale!  I'm especially pleased with the three colors as they're unique to anything else in my stash, and black and brown liners always come in handy, so I'm happy to have those too.  Two of the pencils are a little firm, but they're all very workable, so I know I'll be getting my use out of the entire set.  

Have you tried anything from Josie Maran?