Naturalla Beauty

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:

Palm oil is natural and non-toxic, but it's an ingredient that brings up a lot of environmental and ethical concerns.  Due to its popular use in the food industry, cosmetics, detergents, and even biofuel, global production of palm oil has doubled in the last ten years, and according to the World Wildlife Fund, palm oil demand is expected to double again by 2020. (source)  To meet this demand, large areas of tropical forests are being cleared to make space for palm plantations.  This deforestation destroys critical habitats for endangered animal species and has even lead to the eviction of forest-dwelling people.  The palm oil industry is also linked to human rights violations, climate change, soil erosion, and air, soil and water pollution.  

You can find "sustainable" palm oil, certified through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), but there's some controversy around this as well.  According to Greenpeace, there's very little to stop companies from having part of their operations certified by the RSPO while they continue to use unsustainable means in other palm plantations elsewhere (source), giving the illusion of much greater sustainability than is real.  There have also been instances of both child labour and forced labour discovered on RSPO certified plantations. (source)

Personally, I don't think it's feasible for me to completely eliminate palm oil at this point, but I do make an effort to minimize my consumption.  I'm a diligent label reader - of both food and personal care products - which allows me to always make informed choices.  Generally I allow palm oil in makeup items and some palm oil derivatives in skin and body care, but I don't use products that contain large quantities of this ingredient.  

Bar soap is one of the largest body care culprits for palm oil - both because it's less costly than a lot of other oils and because it creates a firm, long lasting bar of soap - but it's one product that I refuse to compromise on.  And there's no need: there are plenty of lovely natural soaps made without a trace of palm oil.  (See below for some great examples!)  Currently many of these offerings are from smaller, artisan companies, but I'm hopeful that we'll see more large companies taking notice of this issue in the future too.  


1.  Meow Meow Tweet Fennel Orange Soap
2.  Tierra Mia Organics Gentleman's Soap
3.  SoapGirl Wine + Roses Soap
4.  Green Beaver Lavender Sunflower Soap
5.  Vice and Velvet Jewel Soap Sampler
6.  Ella's Botanicals Skin Soother Bar
7.  Aquarian Bath Neem Olive Oil Soap
8.  Organic Fiji Tea Tree Spearmint Soap
9.  By Valenti Organics Almond Coconut Soap
10. Hugo Naturals Vanilla & Sweet Orange Soap
11. Acure Mint Cookie + Omega 7 Soap
12. Etta + Billie Earl Grey Soap

Is palm oil an ingredient you're concerned about?  Are there other palm oil free soaps you'd recommend?