Trawma's Full Review: Sage Hugo Cedarwood, & Basil
I love soaps. Fancy, smelly, smooth, sudsy, but clean-rinsing soaps. Because of certain concerns in my current home, any bar soap is MY bar soap; it comes into the tub with me, and leaves with me, too. Everyone else has their own soaps. That works just fine for me.
My usual soap showed up on clearance a few months ago, and, after snagging the last two bars, I found myself unable to find it anywhere. I gave up my search and hit Amazon in hopes of finding something fancy, nice, happy, in a scent I like. I wasn’t specifically searching for anything organic, “cruelty free,” or otherwise friendly. I was looking for something that leapt out at me with its description.
Hugo Naturals Handcrafted Bar Soap in Cedarwood, Sage, and Basil fit the bill. I love Cedar, I adore sage, and I’m a huge fan of fresh basil. Bound to be a hit, right?
Actually, yes. It is a very strongly scented bar, with irregular coloring moving from gold to pale yellow to an almost sparkly green. The scents are all discernable, with the mixture of sage and basil creating an almost minty undertone. The cedarwood is very strong, and, I think, wonderful. If you’re the kind of person who thinks that digging around in the rich, dark, needle-covered ground of a cedar forest smells like heaven, this is the soap for you.
As you can tell, I love it. My husband does, too. My son? Not so much. Luckily, I don’t have to pick my personal bath soap to suit anyone’s tastes but my own. And I love this stuff. So much, in fact, that the other two bars (I purchased three bars) are resting in my bed linens drawer. Already, everything smells amazing.
The bar itself is quite large—average length and width, but much taller than the average store-bought bar. I feared this would pose a problem (the bar didn’t fit in my soap case initially), but one use found the bar shrunk to a more suitable size. That worried me a bit, I thought perhaps the soap was going to wear away to nothing in no time, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Apparently the outer coating scrubs away quickly, but the bar proper seems to have some staying power.
A real plus with the Hugo Naturals Cedarwood, Sage, and Basil bar is the softened edges. I’ve actually damaged myself with bars of soap that are sharp-edged when new. This bar is all about rounded edges and smooth surfaces.
Another plus? Hugo Naturals Cedarwood, Sage, and Basil doesn’t leave that film I often associate with scented bars. I know some folks LIKE that film, they feel it’s indicative of softer, more gently cleaned skin. They’re probably right. However, I like a squeak to my clean, I like feeling that nothing’s been left behind but wet, clean skin. Nothing slippery, nothing slimy. This bar delivers with good sudsing and clean rinsing.
I haven’t used this soap on my face (my face is rather fiddly about what’s okay these days), but this soap does not dry out the skin on my hands, feet, or arms. Or anywhere I’ve tried it, come to think of it. It doesn’t have that wowser burn that some soaps have in delicate areas, and it leaves a light, pleasant scent on the skin for hours.
As I said above, I don’t tend to seek out organics when looking for soaps. However, Hugo Naturals are organic and handmade with the following ingredients:
Not too shabby for a bar of soap. Sounds almost edible, in fact. In my opinion, this soap smells every bit as wonderful as that ingredient list sounds. Maybe even better.
And that’s it—this is a terrific soap that I’m very happy I found. It goes for around five bucks a bar, which is a splurge, I know. I had a 10 dollar off coupon, which made a world of difference. But if you’re after something luxurious and unusual (and I admit, it is unusual), you might want to give this (or one of Hugo Naturals’ many other soaps) a try!
This review is part of Sleeper's 09/09/09 write off! I've been with Epinions since nearly the beginning, and it's represented a wonderful opportunity for me to feel connected, share with others, and hopefully be of some help to those seeking information on products and places. Thanks Epinions!
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