Eiwit Zeep – Eggwhite Soap

“Death Do Us Part”

I allowed myself to buy a second egg of this soap (the first was a gift, after all!) for research purposes, because the first one was snow-white in color, and then I noticed, in the store, the same soap (or same box, anyway) and the soap was now yellow. I suppose depending on what light you're under you could say the one was off-white and this new one was pale yellow—and as I've used it, the yellow has faded, and it looks closer to white—but there is definitely a difference. Anyway, so I've been using this new version, and as far as I can tell, it's pretty much the same except for the color. Of course, that means asking myself to remember the fragrance, for comparison, which is kind of funny, since that is the elusive thing about it that has me so beguiled. But I'm going to say, yes, it is the same, because it gives me the same warm, evocative, nostalgic feeling every time I smell it. So this has been a successful test, I guess. And I still have yet to try out the Swedish version of this soap, which has different name, different ingredients, and is from a different country—so I'm expecting that to smell different as well—but we'll see.

For the sake of this project (continuously trying new soap), I have to sometimes ask myself when it's okay to go back and revisit a favorite—both to see if the soap has changed, and if I've changed—and I will do that, from time to time. I did that once in the past with Chandrika, and put an addendum on the review, but seeing how I don't expect that people are going to go back a read old reviews (addendum or not!) (and I'm lucky if anyone is reading any of this at all!), I think, now, and in the future, if I revisit some soap, I'll just put up a new entry. Speaking of my favorites, and my ghost-readers, are you interested in what my top ten are, so far? So here it is (rough, and off the top of my head) as of the beginning of 2020: 1. Chandrika. 2. Eiwit Zeep. 3. Caswell-Massey Jockey Club. 4. Chami Laurel Soap. 5. Pacha Pines & Needles 6. Barr-Co. Willow. 7. 100% Laurel Halap. 8. Soap Shop Honeysuckle Gardenia. 9. Caswell-Massey Newport. 10. Pré de Provence Cashmere Woods. It's interesting to me that two of those, the Soap Shop and the Barr-Co., feature gardenia, which makes me think I should make a beeline toward my next gardenia soap, and perhaps gardenia flowers, for that matter.

But anyway, this Eiwit Zeep has a strong position at number two, which makes me think that I should try once more to nail down the fragrance. I just don't know. I mean, it's not so different than baby powder, I guess, yet it is. There is the quality of something you might find in your grandma's bathroom, yet maybe not. I wish I had a lot of money to set up an olfactory research facility and I could pay acute smell experts to come in and take surveys—but no chance of that ever happening. That gives me an idea, though—maybe I could invite over volunteers to continuously smell and take surveys of whatever soap I happen to have going at present (I usually have about 10 at a time). I'll have to come up with some kind of good survey form. I'm going to do that! Okay, then, once more I'll try to describe the smell of this one (of course, it's not just the smell—when you use it, it feels pretty magical). “Clean” comes to mind—but no. And perhaps, “Soap”—but that's a little general? That smell! If I ever find the soul that fits that glass slipper, it'll be like, hell yes! It's okay, baby, I'll attend this month's PTA meeting. (That's a comic metaphor called getting waaaay fucking far ahead of yourself.)

Soap Review No. 86