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October 23rd, 2009

Virginia Soaps and Scents: Giveaway and Review

Months after the Spargus’ youngest granddaughter was killed in a tragic accident, the family sought to regain some normalcy by returning to what had always structured their days, homeschooling.  With no idea of  how this decision would change their lives, they began a unit study on Colonial Life in Virginia. Part of that study included a bit on soap making.  They gathered the simple ingredients, followed the directions and were delighted to have created their own soap.  What was supposed to be a one-time homeschool turned into a passion and then a family business.  The soap making project had brought the fun of creating and being together as a family back into the Spargus’  home and they were hooked.  After 6 months of research, experiments and learning, Virginia Soaps and Scents was born.

Virginia Soaps and Scents sent us a delightful sampler pack of soaps, a shampoo bar and laundry soap.  We knew right away that the box did not contain more homeschool curriculum, the smell was wonderful. :)

The Spargus family creates all of their own soap recipes using natural ingredients, not the typical detergents and trans fats in most store bought soaps, but olive or soy oil for skin conditioning and coconut oil to create a nice lather.  This combined with delightful scents make these bars a pleasure.

The shampoo bar is something that I had never heard of.  (and for those of you who are wondering because of these posts, yes I did use this on my hair.)  It is exactly what it sounds like, by appearance a regular bar of soap, but you use it on your hair.  Depending on hair type, some will find that with the shampoo bar they can discontinue the use of conditioner.

The laundry soap comes in a kit with grated soap and a separate bag of powder.  It is simple and easy to mix up and forms a quick gel.  Our laundry came out clean and unscented.

What we thought:

We appreciate handmade, natural products in our home and our family loved the sampler set from Virginia Soaps and Scents.  The soaps are lovely with varying shades of color and smell delightful and they are made with all natural oils – no chemicals.  Each bar is hand-cut so no two are exactly the same and produced by the same process that our great, great grandparents used.  Virginia Soaps and Scents has gained a new customer.  We will be ordering more soap both for our family and to include with some handmade washcloths as Christmas gifts.

The shampoo bar gets mixed reviews.  Mark loved it and is ready to switch.  It took me a while to become accustomed to it.  I think that perhaps my hair is going through a transition period and  I’m still trying to deciding what I think.  In our experience, this is a very deep cleaning product.  Be careful to avoid getting this into your kids eyes.  It is soap, not the “no tear” stuff that we’re accustomed to using.  With that caveat, I will be switching to this for the children because it is an all natural alternative to shampoo.

The laundry soap is effective and nice.  Since we already have been making our own laundry detergent, we didn’t notice any difference in how our clothes came out of the dryer, but for those of you who have had problems with the consistency of my recipe, this forms a very thick gel.  So no consistency problems here.  The bonus?  This is made with natural, handmade soap rather than the grocery store variety.

In addition to soap, shampoo bars and laundry soap, Virginia Soaps and Scents offers body lotion, lip balm, linen spray, pet products, gift sets and more.  They are currently offering some tempting holiday soap scents and gift packs.  All of Virginia Soaps and Scents are available unscented.

Prices:

4.5 oz. bar of soap – $4.50, or 3 bars for $12
5.5 oz.shampoo bar – $5.50
2 gallons laundry soap (64-72 loads) – $4.95

Virginia Soaps and Scents is giving away a sampler pack with 3 bars of soap (coconut lemongrass, fresh orange and oatmeal, milk and honey), a shampoo bar and a laundry soap kit to one Raising Olives reader.

To enter:

  • Visit Virginia Soaps and Scents then come back and leave a comment on this post telling me which scent is most appealing to you.  One bonus entry to the first person who guesses MY favorite scent.

For extra entries:

  • Blog about Virginia Soaps and Scents giveaway and link back to this post
  • Tweet a link to this giveaway, you may do this once a day
  • Please leave a comment for each additional entry

Comments will close at midnight EST on Wednesday, October 28.

Disclaimer: I was given a sampler pack of products from VSS in order to write this review.

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