Anthony’s Picks: A Behind the Scenes Peek Into Our Limited Edition Soaps

Every three months, here at Soapy Soap Company, we release four new Limited Edition soaps. Each of us three Soap Guys takes turns choosing the Limited Editions- which includes choosing the soap base, the scent (essential oil blend), and any exfoliants or additive.

This set of three months (August 1 to October 31) are my (Anthony D.) picks! Take a look below behind the scenes of how I went about choosing and designing my Limited Edition soaps:

This soap was actually developed in 2015, before we started the rotating Limited Edition program, and it was very popular! When we were creating this years’ (2016) Limited Edition soap schedule, all three of us wanted Lime Geranium! I eventually was the lucky winner this year- and it fits my schedule too: Lime Geranium is a great end-of-summer soap.

Limited Edition-Lime Geranium has lime essential oil, which is very fresh and citrusy, and geranium essential oil, which is flowery, and mysterious. I think this nicely matches the symbolism of bright summer maturing into shadowy fall.

I wanted the perfect “Fall” soap. Definitely something spicy, like a drink you would get at a Fall Festival, but also cool- like an autumn breeze through the forest. Clove essential oil is my "spicy" go-to oil, for its strong spicy scent, and also since it is great for the skin (when used in moderation). The “cool breeze” was a bit harder; peppermint essential oil is always cooling, but I didn’t want a super minty soap- a bit of spearmint essential oil was milder. Eucalyptus essential oil ended up working out well, balanced with cypress (woodsy, but mild), and fir needle essential oils pulled everything together, being woodsy, refreshing, and spicy.

Whew! Now combine this essential oil blend with our Replenish soap base, and there you have it- but what to call it? We all tried out names: “Autumn Breeze” just sounded boring. “Fall Breeze” wasn’t much better. “Autumn Spice.” “Fall Spice.” “Breezy-Autumn-Fall-Spice?!”

Finally I just said- “You know what- this is one of my picks- let’s call it Anthony Spice!” And it stuck. :-)

We had been wanting to use activated charcoal for a while- it has great detoxifying properties, and as a side-benefit, it makes the soap black! So, when it came time to design my Limited Editions for this year, I jumped at the opportunity to use this ingredient.

As for the essential oil, we’re always testing new essential oils that have great aromatherapy benefits, and one stood out right away: Star Anise. Star anise essential oil has an anise or licorice scent, which is interesting and unique scent for a bar soap. To that, Mohammed M. suggested adding peppermint essential oil, to give a fresh edge to the scent, and colloidal oatmeal (a.k.a. ground oats) for a bit of moisturizing and humectant (drawing moisture to the skin) qualities.

This is hands-down my favorite soap. Right now at least. :-)

Here’s why: I started with my favorite soap base: Power Bubble, which is very bubbly and great for combination, average, and oily skin types. To the base, I added my new obsession: Vetiver essential oil. A quick Google search will tell you that vetiver has many great benefits- calming and focusing among many other qualities. The scent is smoky and earthy; compared to patchouli, which is earthy, but in a sweet, fresh dirt kind of way. Vetiver reminds me of a campfire, in the forest. To that, again at Mohammed M.’s suggestion (he has a good instinct!), I added fir needle essential oil, which is also reminiscent of the outdoors, but adds a freshness that vetiver lacks.

The result: VetiFir (the name is a combo between Vetiver and Fir)- my favorite soap, and our most stereotypically masculine or manly scent as of yet.

As you can see, a lot goes into choosing our Limited Editions! What do you think of Anthony’s Picks? And what sorts of Limited Editions would you like to see in the coming months? Let us know in the comments!