Etsy Hot List Number 1 - SOAP

God- don't they all just look so edible? I've gotten into trouble tasting my bath products. I'm not allowed to have yummy smelling bath products anymore :(

So, anybody who's experienced with etsy.com knows of the thing I have come to call "favorites addiction." The urge to sit online for hours and just click click click away adding items and sellers to our favorites list in hopes that we shall one day return to buy ALL OF IT. It rarely ever happens. Occasionally I'll decide it's time for an Etsy splurge and browse through, but nothing seems to have the same panache as when I first saw it, or it's sold. There's something about the hunt, something about the energy and the surprise of new, fresh shopping that quickens the blood in my veins.

Sick, isn't it?

So what to do with all these lovelies relegated to the nethers of my favorites list? Sure, I go back and browse around from time to time, looking for inspiration, just enjoying the preties that I already know I'm going to like. Essentially, it's shopping for the lazy. Or overwhelmed. Never underestimate the power of being overwhelmed. Sometimes when I find so many things I want, and can feel the cash register in my head ding ding dinging and finally busting its gears, I get so scintilated and overloaded that I just burst and shut off and say THAT'S IT, I'M NOT BUYING ANYTHING. The etsy favorites list is so perfect for this. Because Etsy is one giant overload. Etsy basically has everything I ever wanted ever. It's hard to go through and scrutinize, especially because it's impossible to pick things up and really feel them out, compare quality. Everything looks so peeerty...

Anyway, I have all these favorites and I feel like they're sitting there idly not being loved. So here I present to you what shall, I'm sure, become a long-loved shopperella tradition: the Etsy hot list.

And in keeping with Iron Chef America, for no particular reason, I shall chose a single SECRET INGREDIENT.

I now present to you, Etsy Hot List No. 1 - SOAP!

10. Vanilla Musk by BeautifulSoaps

Described by the seller as sweet and exotic. I describe it as something that I cannot buy because I would want to eat it.


9. Casablanca Soap by DancingZebra

A rose and amber soap the seller describes as lush, mysterious and romantic.


8. Carrot and Honey Granola Bar Soap by inalather

The seller claims that this bar is luscious, luxurious and delightful, with scents of tangeringe, ginger and clove bud. Sounds good to me.


7. Lemon Poppy Seed soap by mybirch

You know, I've never been a huge lemon fan but this looks like a confection. The seller describes this as refreshing and promises that the lemony scent is light and pure.


6. Honeysuckle soap by morganstreet

Contains scents of rose, sun-kissed honeysuckle, and jasmine with clay, shea butter and tussah silk???


5. Orange et Fleurs Shea Butter Soap by naiad

The seller claims that this mix of smells is intoxicating and reminiscent of "a perfectly romantic summer" with olive and avocado oils and red clay.


4. Romance - lavender jasmine - Handmade shea butter bar soap by abreathoffrenchair

The seller says this will fill your bathroom with romance.


3. Egyptian sassafras and charcoal handmade coconut milk soap by soapstore

The seller compares this vegan soap to lapis lazuli and says its scent will bring out the wonder of ancient Egypt.


2. Pear Ginger Soap by adorationsoap

The seller says this mouthwatering soap is like candy. It's coated with gold leaf.


1. And my number one featured soap seller on Etsy is:
TheExquisiteBath!








Let me tell you something about the featured seller.

I was putting together donation items for a charity auction being held at my law school. I made an announcement in the Etsy forums asking that bath and beauty sellers each donate a small item to go towards a spa kit I was putting together. I got a lot of great responses from a lot of AMAZING sellers...but this particular seller wowed me both with her generosity and the quality of her product. The soaps came with a brushing of gold in individual organza bags. They were molded into beautiful shapes. This seller clearly takes pride in her product. I couldn't stop sticking my head into the gift bag and sniffing each time I walked by it - so worried the person who bought it is going to end up finding my hair in there o_O.

I highly recommend the garden mint fragrance. When she says exquisite - she means it.

This seller also has an independent website at TheExquisiteBath.com.

C.O. Bigelow, land of wonders

So this past weekend I went to C.O. Bigelow for the first time ever. It's located in the Copley Place mall, which is convenient to the Copley T Stop and attached to the Prudential Center mall by skywalk. Which feels so incredibly sciency every time I go through it.

Apparently this is also the location of recent nefarious events. Boston Luxury Hotel...they mean the Westin Copley, right?

Oy, anyway, C.O. Bigelow is a lovely apothecary themed chain owned by Limited Brands, and according to its Wikipedia Page it currently has 10 locations open, plus products in numerous nation wide chain stores.

Now, I had encountered products by this brand before at places like Bath and Body Works. The item that immediately comes to mind is the mint rose lip balm which comes in an old school tin and immediately stands out as having the wholesome, traditional, holistic appeal of a 19th century secret apothecary formula. And apparently Bigelow is the oldest apothecary in America still running, so it very well may be.

Anyway, the Boston store is magnificent, not to mention huge. Rooms and rooms of goodies stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling. Fragrances popping out from every which way - the body lotions, the salt scrubs, actual perfumes, reed diffusers, and a host of products you wouldn't immediately think to look for. I walked in to a store relatively devoid of other shoppers, which gave me the two highly knowledgeable sales associates all to myself. I took advantage, demanding that they show me the items they feel are most unique to their store. Something I wouldn't be able to get anywhere else.

The results of my demands were given: a sake bubble bath made of 50% real sake packaged in an authentic sake bottle - at a whopping $80, and Lippman brand nail polish that just won't chip, with music inspired names like "Dark Side of the Moon." I was offended that nothing had been named "Space Oddity."

C.O. Bigelow carries both its store brand, which tends to fall in the higher end of the affordable category. The rest of the brands fell more into splurge territory. But let me tell you - the store brand products are more than luxurious enough to satisfy good ol' Emily, and that's saying something.

The following are two products I have since tried and highly recommend:

Kose - Seikisho Exfoliating Massage Gel


I asked the sales lady for something that would suck the gunk out of my pores like a vacuum. She threw a sample of this stuff in my bag. Holy crap. Kose boasts that its product is filled with Japanese and Chinese herbal extracts and let me tell you, I have become a believer. This stuff is pretty gross when you get it out of the tube - it's like a sticky black tar that you have to rub onto your face - kind of like the squid ink that comes on risotto or pasta. It feels like you're getting a spa treatment just by nature of how freakin' weird this crap feels. This is not your typical face cream.

But it smells pretty nice. And when you get it on and start to rub it in, it heats itself up and gets smoother and smoother. When it turns gray you're done. Rinse.

This stuff made my pores half the size. I highly recommend it. You won't find anything else like it.


Bigelow Chapped Hands Remedy
The reason I went into C.O. Bigelow in the first place, this came highly recommended by a friend. Being a current Boston resident, winter had made my hands dry, cracked, chapped, itchy, red, and ouchied. My friend said I had to get this stuff - 40% glycerin. I did. And boy was she right. A little expensive for hand lotion, but you only need a tiny little squeeze once a day.

My hands went from cracked, chapped and friggin' awful to silky smooth in ONE DAY. They're softer than my face now which is actually kind of disconcerting. But while I had been slathering on giant dollop after giant dollop of regular hand lotion just the tiniest little smidgen of this stuff has operated like a magic potion. In the long run it will probably cut my lotion budget significantly. I have moved on to include it in my regimen for elbows and feet as well.



I also picked up some of the C.O. Bigelow brand shaving cream, which comes in an over sized green toothpaste tube in the men's shaving section. I like it well enough, and it's certainly fun because it's so old school, but I'm not as impressed with it as I am with the other products - though it's certainly not bad. But the two above products have absolutely blown me away whereas this one has just left me satisfied. Bigelow also sells those old school shaving lather brushy doodads, the ones made with real rabbit or badger fur, and this cream is sold more with a good, traditional facial shave in mind. I did not pick up such a brush - they're not cheap - though I was tempted, and have been using my hands to lather my legs in the shower. The stuff is extraordinarily light and airy for a shave gel - not in the way that a moussey gel is light and airy because it isn't aerated like the other stuff. Literally just a cream being squeezed out of a tube - and yet it is strangely reminiscent of marshmallow fluff (DO NOT EAT). A good gift for Dad, I think IF you pick up the brush to go with it.