My Latest Soap Frontier: Alaska

A couple of years ago, while I was studying for the bar exam, a good friend of mine spent two weeks in Alaska. His sojourn there came on the heels of a 6 month obsession with Northern Exposure. He told me several times I should watch the show on DVD. At the time, I was not particularly interested in many things except (1) finishing law school, (2) bath and body products an (3) having some modicum of a social life and seeing friends and family. I remember wishing I was more excited for him in his new found passion, namely Alaska. He had a wonderful visit there in fact and being the good friend he is, he sent me a great postcard.

Had I ordered soaps from Mineral Creek Essentials (based in Alaska) at the time, I probably would have been MORE excited about Alaska. In fact, now that I have tried these soaps, I want to go to Alaska and visit Mineral Creek Essentials. Their soaps are absolutely lovely.

Mineral Creek soaps most remind me of Wylde Ivy in their olive oil base and delicate scents but Mineral Creek beats out WI roundly on two counts: (1) lather and (2) lack of herbal base scents (which happen to many WI soaps. Don’t get me wrong, for some WI soaps, the herbal base is a nice complement, but for others, not so much). At any rate, Mineral Creek soaps have superb creamy lotion-like lather and are similar to Jeanne’s Bath Shoppe shops in their remarkable lack of any sort of herbal base soap scent.

I bought three Mineral Creek soaps and swapped for a fourth from a lovely fellow makeupalley member (Hi Lisa!), so here are some scent reviews:

Blueberry Vanilla — I ordered this based on rave reviews, and the soap lives up to the rave reviews. This is a perfect balance of blueberry and vanilla, fresh yet sweet. I don’t even love blueberry scents, but I LOVE this soap.

Copper Center — This is a complete homerun as well. Copper Center is a delicate sugary vanilla that is absolutely scrummy. Handmade vanilla soaps are hard to find as vanilla is a difficult oil with which to make soaps (it can burn easily, or turn in the saponification process). Good vanilla soaps are almost impossible to find. Copper Center is not just good, it’s great!! A must-have if you like creamy vanillas. It reminds me of Jeanne’s Bath Shoppe’s VBN soap, but lighter and not as sweet.

Oatmeal Honey — It is fairly rare for me to place an order of three soaps and decree all three worth reordering but, sure enough, the third soap in my order was amazing as well. Oatmeal Honey is a goat’s milk soap without added honey or oatmeal. Perfect if you want the Oatmeal Honey and Milk comfort (a.k.a. OHM goodness) but want a smooth creamy soap. Let me tell you, it is an amazing yummy comfort soap, especially if you are not feeling the need for oatmeal scrubbiness.

Coconut Lime Verbena: This is the soap I swapped for and it is just as lovely as the others but, lately, despite the summer heat, I have not been in the mood for lime scents. I foisted this soap on my husband, who said it is a nice basic lime. On cold sniff, I don’t get verbena, nor is the lime particularly creamy.

Frankly though, Mineral Creek soaps are so luxurious, I bet I would like any of the scents (and I am generally picky about scents, so this is a big praise). I generally prefer goat’s milk soaps over plain olive oil soaps, but Mineral Creek may be changing that as their soaps are very luxurious even without the additional goat’s milk.

The last thing I must mention is that Mineral Creek soaps are well over 4oz and only $3 apiece. You really cannot go wrong with this indie etailer. Enjoy!