Review for Country Soaps by Marlene

This review is for an order from Country Soaps by Marlene, an Etsy shop selling handmade goat's milk soaps, shampoos, and other body products. I happen to be on the same Etsy team as her, WIST Moo Crew - all Wisconsinites! In fact she is based a mere 40 miles from me. I am also a Facebook fan of hers!

I ordered her natural deodorant in the Satsuma scent, which was on sale since the label was misspelled. I also ordered her goat's milk soap in Tangerine Twist. As a bonus, I received a thank-you gift of a small portion of Cucumber Melon scented shampoo bar. Here are my thoughts on these products.

Tangerine Twist Goat's Milk Soap

Upon opening the box and smelling the soap, I was at first disappointed. The tangerine was overpowered by a soapy smell. However, when I took it in the shower and lathered it up in my loofah, the tangerine smell was really let loose. It was very pleasant! This is the official description of the scent: "A refreshing blend of fresh, juicy tangerines, mandarin, and lemon, balanced with soft florals, mint, and sweet green herbs." The citrus was definitely the top note, with just a hint of herbs underneath. Because there are no sulfates, there wasn't a huge amount of lather, but it still did a wonderful job cleaning, and my skin felt lovely afterward. With some bar soaps, there seems to be a residue on the skin - this bar did not leave me with any unpleasant residue. Just a bit of rubbing into the loofah lasted for my entire body, and the soap washed out of my loofah easily.

All in all, I recommend this greatly!

Cucumber Melon Shampoo Bar

I have to admit something here - I am a professional shampoo and conditioner junkie. I love Paul Mitchell and Bedhead, Sexy Hair and Kenra. I worked in a salon for many years and thus received many many free samples. I'm finally running out of my stash, and I've been thinking about trying something more natural for a long time anyway. So finding this little thank-you gift was a nice surprise! However, because I am so used to my professional brands, I was totally at a loss as to how to use this. I tried to lather it in my hands without success. (Once again, the smell really came out when wet, and it was a pleasant, unobtrusive cucumber melon scent.) I did some quick googling and found a description of how to use shampoo bars: Getting the Most from a Shampoo Bar. 

As the article states, shampoo bars are better for those who are used to washing their hair less often. I am a daily shampooer, though I've been trying to cut that down to every other day. It's better for the hair and better on your wallet! How to apply the shampoo bar? Basically you will be pretending to comb your hair from front to back with the bar. Then lather it up. The article recommends to rinse and repeat. The bar does have conditioners built in, so the second time around leave the lather sit in the hair for a bit before rinsing. As the article points out, your hair will need an adjustment period to get used to this new routine!

The first time I used the bar, since I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't realize it had conditioners built in and so I conditioned it again. My hair felt very heavy and greasy that day. The second time, it seemed too dry afterwards, so I used some spray conditioner at the ends and was mostly pleased. I think I would like to try it a few more times before deciding if I would recommend this one or not. It is definitely an acquired taste, but if you have used bars before, I'm sure it's wonderful. I will have to practice with it some more and get back to you!

Satsuma All Natural Deodorant

This was on sale due to a printing error, but the product itself is just fine! This is the description of the smell: "The Japanese Satsuma is a unique, aromatic citrus fruit. Satsuma fragrance is a wonderful blend of orange, mandarin, mango, peach, lime, jasmine, and orange flowers. Energizing and intoxicating! This was not made with an essential oil but a Phthalate-Free & Nitro Musk Free Fragrance oil" I have to say I am absolutely in LOVE with the scent! Intoxicating is a correct assessment. Even my husband, who was skeptical of the whole idea of a "natural deodorant," admitted the scent was attractive.

I, too, was a little skeptical of natural deodorant, though I dearly wanted it to work. I've been looking for natural alternatives to my normal bath and body routine for awhile. I tried Secret Natural Mineral antiperspirant, but as you can see from this website, the ingredient list is pretty much the same as normal deodorant/antiperspirants. The ingredients of Marlene's natural deodorant are as follows: "natural bees wax, natural cocoa butter, coconut oil, castor oil, fragrance and corn starch." Seems to me like a much better definition of natural!

I put it on after my shower in the morning, and did a vigorous workout immediately after. The scent held up quite well, and there was minimal wetness. I did notice it starting to fail in the wetness department by the end of the day, but in the heat of the summer, I'd say it did a pretty good job. The scent was still there as well, though not as strong. It wasn't until I woke up the next morning that I could really tell it had all worn off.

All in all I strongly recommend this product as well, and in general I'm impressed with Marlene's work! I will definitely be purchasing from her again, and I hope you consider doing so as well!

A Green Holiday

I'll admit, I'm a little bit of a tree-hugging hippie. I do what I can to be environmentally friendly. I am religious about recycling, to the point where I'll correct my dear husband's mistakes. I use a filter on my tap instead of buying bottled water, re-use every scrap of fabric in the house rather than throw it away, look for green household cleansers, and buy organic when I can afford it (not as often as I'd like...). Over the summer, when the opportunity to save gas by driving a moped instead of my car to work, I jumped on it. (I swear, it wasn't just because mopeds are hella fun. Lol.) So I started thinking this year about green holiday practices.

We never had a tree before buying our house, because our apartments were too small. For our first holiday, I insisted on a real tree. My family always used real trees. It was a family experience to pick out a tree and cut it down, and enjoy the pine scent in the house. The next year we had a puppy and kitten running around the house, so we weren't sure how to set up a tree without getting things knocked down or crawled up. Our solution was to buy a plastic tree and hang it from the ceiling. Yep. It was actually a lot of fun, and the pets never touched it, and we got a lot of compliments/jokes from family and friends. This year, I decided to do a bit of research on real trees vs. fake and which is better for the environment. I was a little worried that "murdering" trees would be the worst option. Plastic lasts for years, and live trees have to be regrown. Well, according to this article, http://yhoo.it/4vOvYg , real trees win. As long as you get them from a local sustainable tree farm, they are much better than all the polluting work that goes into making plastics. What am I going to do with my plastic tree? Well, I'll still use it this year. I already bought it, the harm's already done. But when it's time to get rid of it, I won't be buying another.

Do you send out an annual greeting card? Switch to email to get rid of the paper waste. Not many people hang onto cards for more than a few weeks anyway. Instead of buying plastic or paper decorations, go outside and find fallen evergreen branches, pine cones, or any other bits of nature to brighten up your house. Go to a local plant nursery and have a bouquet of seasonal branches and flowers put together. Upgrade to LED lights, and please remember to turn them off every night! I shiver in fright and disgust at the inflatable lawn ornaments people leave running all night long. Your energy bill is already being exhausted by turning on the heat as nights get colder and colder. Speaking of that, run a space heater in one room at a time, or wear slippers and sweaters and cuddle under blankets to keep your heating bill down. As we speak, I'm wearing about five layers, including fingerless gloves so I can still type. Lol.

What about how you wrap your gifts? I hate it when I see mounds of wrapping paper tossed right into the trash after Christmas morning. I recycle it all at my house, but I can't control what happens at other people's houses (though sometimes I try!). Still, re-use is always better than recycling, which is why I like using gift bags. I'll reuse those year after year, until they start to look pretty shoddy. This site, http://bit.ly/foqDdy , has a few other great ideas, including making fabric gift bags (great for a fabric hoarder like me!) or using last year's calendar to wrap gifts in. This http://bit.ly/8t23md site is useful too, with ideas like wrapping gifts in other gifts, like wrapping a wine bottle in a colorful kitchen towel.

Of course, local vs. imported plays a big factor in gifts. Speaking of wine, there are dozens of local wineries to choose from, with unique flavors and styles. You also know what I'm going to say about local artists and crafters! Or... don't give "stuff" at all. Gift cards, cash, or even better, donations to charities. This site http://www.charitygiftcertificates.org/ lets you buy gift cards, and the recipient can use the gift cards to donate to 100+ reputable charities. Even better, go down to any local non-profit place like a soup kitchen, food pantry, humane society, battered women's shelter, or other organization and make a direct contribution to your own community.

That's the end of my preachy post. I don't mean to be pushy, but if we all do our part, we can collectively make a big difference! Use your canvas tote bags while shopping, some stores give you discounts; even Starbucks says on their website that they give a 10cent discount if you bring in a reusable travel mug! Enjoy the holidays and don't get stuck in the snow!

Listening to: The Cure
Pics: Our upside-down Christmas tree! That's it today, as I seem to have lost picture files from our first holiday in the house :(