Discovering Solivia Soaps: Not Just Your Typical Soaps

It isn't a secret that I love solid soap. Solid soap is fun and more often than not it's an environmentally friendly choice as it saves on packaging and, thus, saves on waste. When I got a chance to try out some new soaps, and particularly exciting soaps at that, I happily took it. Solivia Soaps is a wonderful small soap making company located in East London which sell handmade soaps which aren't tested on animals and which are free free from harmful and polluting chemicals. None of their soaps contain artificial colours or fragrances, which I certainly appreciate, as will anyone with sensitive skin. The main ingredient in Solivia Soaps is Olive Oil, a fantastic anti-oxidant, and the soaps I've tried out also include a whole host of other wonderful ingredients, such as shea butter, coconut oil and essential oils. They came to me beautifully wrapped in the post striking the perfect balance between retaining a high quality aesthetic (making them perfect for gifts) whilst not using a wasteful amount of packaging.  I know that not everyone is as big a fan of solid soap as I am but I think that Solivia Soaps are really excellent quality and I'm going to briefly review each of the four soaps I was sent explaining exactly where their merits lie.

Patchouli Lavendar, Lemon, Grapefruit Soap and Sweet Orange and Cinnamon Soap - £3.70* each

I'm going to talk about these two soaps together because I think that they're very similar in quality. Both of these soaps are perfect for washing your hands or your body, they both foam up when wet but not overly so, and they make me feel thoroughly clean after use without being too drying. Neither has a very strong scent when dry but their scent is slightly more noticeable when they're in use. Although I'm a fan of scented products I like that these soaps aren't overly fragrant, their subtle scents are pleasant and with something I'm going to use throughout the day I'd rather it not interfere with my perfume. Overall, I think these are both excellent soaps (they'd make a wonderful gift) and I'd definitely recommend them.

Sunshine Solid Shampoo Bar - £3.70*
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with this shampoo bar. On the one hand it does an absolutely fantastic job of cleaning my hair, once used my hair is clean for days. I have a pretty oily scalp so this is unusual for me but when I use the Sunshine Solid Shampoo Bar I can easily get away with not washing my hair for three days- a practically unheard of phenomenon in my household. However, and this is the drawback, I did find it drying when I used it regularly so as much as I fell in love with the effects of the Sunshine Solid Shampoo Bar I can't use it everyday and I don't think many people could without drying out their hair. Although, I do think that this is an uber budget weekly hair treatment (and a good quality one too as the ingredients are fabulous, it's full of a variety of nourishing oils) that you could reserve use of for one night a week. This is how I am using it and will continue to use it, as a semi-regular deep cleanse for my hair when I've gone a little OTT with product use. 

Super Moisturising Face Soap - £3.70*

I had a similar issue with the Super Moisturising Face Soap that I did with the Sunshine Solid Shampoo Bar. I found that the Face Soap, which was wonderfully novel to use, was very good at it's job but perhaps a little too good. It left my face feeling almost too clean with that peculiarly difficult to describe feeling of being  completely 'squeaky clean'. It didn't dry my face out but then I haven't used it every day and definitely not twice every day. But when I have reached for it I have noticed that it did a very good job of improving the look of my blemishes. I really think that this is mis-advertised because I don't think that is is moisturising in the slightest, but if you have the odd day when you feel as though your skin isn't looking it's best or is really oily at the end of a very hot day then I think this would be something lovely to have on-hand. I have a feeling that as my skin gets oilier I might appreciate it more but at the moment it isn't for me. Nevertheless, it is still full of high quality ingredients (olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil and macadamia nut oil) and is something that will definitely suit other skin types. 

Of the bunch I'd recommend the Sunshine Solid Shampoo Bar and the Sweet Orange And Cinnamon Soap but if you check out the Solivia Soap's website you'll find a whole array of other choices, one which is piquing my interest is a coffee and shea mix! All in all, I've been highly impressed by the quality of Solivia's Soaps as well as the lovely presentation of them. Now I'm back in London I'm keen to head over to one of their stockists in London but all of their soaps are available online here, currently all for the price of £3.70*.

Are you a fan of solid soaps? Would you give a shampoo bar a try?

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