Beauty Monday – Indie Spotlight on Cleanse Your Soul (Includes Coupon Code)

Beauty Monday is a weekly feature focusing on green beauty, paraben-free skincare and the beauty industry and marketing.
I have been buying from indie companies for a while, but around New Year’s I always renew my resolution to do so. If you have as well, you definitely want to read on – one of my very favorite indie companies is Cleanse Your Soul, a bath and body online store located in Illinois. CYS has many products available, many of which are paraben-free. Judy Woerner, the owner, has great customer care and offers an extensive scent list — it’s a great one-stop destination for all bath and body products. CYS first opened over five years ago, and I have been ordering from there for almost four years. When I first went paraben-free a couple of years ago, I was thrilled that I could continue to order all my favorite CYS products.

The paraben-free products are the Oil-Infused Wash, the Creamy Body Oil, the Foaming Sugar Scrub, the Sugar Stripe Scrub, the Emollient, the Body Cream, the Aloe Smooth Lotion, the Behemoth Scrub, and the Creamy Dreamy Scrub. I have tried all of them — and that reminds me of something – Judy offers a variety of sizes, such that you can order a couple of 2oz sizes to try a product. And, if you want to re-order a size, you always have several larger size options — you can choose the size but also the type of packaging which, if you love customization, makes the shopping experience even more fun.

I absolutely love the Emollient – which I am noticing is on sale this month. The Emollient is a thicker body cream but not quite a butter in terms of heaviness. It’s moisturizing but not greasy like a body butter, so can be worn day or night. One of my favorite scents in the Emollient is the CYS Vanilla Bean scent, which is not too sweet and a good basic vanilla. If you want a medium-weight body moisturizer, the Body Cream is wonderful too. I love gourmand and bakery scents, and I find that marshmallow scents (like Lemon Marshmallow Cream or Vanilla Marshmallow Cream) work particularly well in the Body Cream.

The CYS scrubs keep me ordering as well — currently I am obsessed with the Sugar Stripe Scrub (see picture at top of this post) – it’s like the CYS Foaming Sugar Scrub, which has been a go-to for me for years, but includes an additional layer of coarser turbinado sugar for extra scrubbiness (great in winter when your skin gets so dry). And, of course, the fact you can pick two scents and colors as well makes me completely happy. If you like things simpler, though, you can always order the Foaming Sugar Scrub in one scent. I also like the Creamy Dream scrub which, I am noticing, is also on sale this month. And any of the hundreds of scent on the scent list are available to be put in scrub form. Basically, whatever you order, you pretty much can’t go wrong. And the scent list is so extensive you will find something that interests you. (Picture from Cleanse Your Soul website)
And, until January 31, 2009, you can get 10% off using the code CITYGIRL at checkout. There’s no minimum order and shipping is a flat $6.50. If you order $65 or more, you get free shipping and a free perfume. And if you do order, be sure to pick yourself up an Emollient.