Raw Silk and Rose Petals

I’ve never met a handmade soap I didn’t like. After all, a really special scented soap is one of Life’s small affordable luxuries. Lord knows, we all need a few of those! But sometimes one cake of handmade soap looks exactly like every other one at the market.

Know what I mean?

Nice stuff, to be sure, but a bit of the same-old same-old, unless they go with some truly imaginative packaging…

As a beekeeper, by the way, I’ve supplied a lot of local crafters with beeswax over the years — everyone from batik and wax-relief artists to candle makers, as well as makers of natural cosmetics, lotions, balms, and soaps — so I’ve sampled a lot of their products.Few of them stand out in my mind, however, except for a certain wonderful goats-milk-and-oatmeal soap from a hippy family of draft-dodger origin, up in the Caledonia hills. And they gave up the goats, a couple years back…

But, lately, nothing soap-ish has exactly been exciting me to take an extra-long bath and pretend to be Cleopatra On Her Honeymoon…

So, imagine the delight of finding Jhanna Dawson’s High Desert Bath & Body line!

Jhanna makes one called OMH, which stands for oatmeal, goat’s milk, and honey — but it’s certainly the uptown cousin of the hippy handicraft soap I once knew.

And who else makes soap with a glitter of golden mica swirled through it?

Inner Beauty — yep, that’s a scatter of real rose petals on top — is her “girly girl” soap.

Normally, I’m all about rustic soaps and such, but I wanted to make one that is all woman. It’s made with Shea Butter, which is incredible for the skin, high amounts of Olive Oil and, as always, raw silk. The fragrance is a dupe of Philosophies Amazing Grace, and it’s the ultimate feminine fragrance…

In fact, all of Jhanna’s handmade soaps include raw silk and olive oils.

Other additives are natural, such as the clays, oatmeals, honeys, and believe it or not, beer. I even have one I’m about to post on the site that has shredded coconut on top!

The unique look of her deliciously decadent soaps, alone, were enough to win me over — but I like her approach to her craft and what I’ve read of her business ethics, too.
She buys her raw ingredients from other small woman-owned business, and whenever possible she goes for fair trade and organic.

Just think — an affordable little feminine self-indulgence… that helps in some small way to make the world a slightly better place for other women, too. What’s not to love there?