Alchimia Soap – Floral Bouquet (Bouquet di Flori Sapone Vegetale)

“Victorian Cluster”

It says: “Vegetable Soap Handmade in Italy” on the packaging, along with images of flowers, and a yellow ribbon, and some costume jewelry—a cluster of nine diamonds! That sold me. I know I say this a lot, but this is the extreme version of grandmother's powder room soap. I would bet more of these sit idle than actually get used. That would be too bad, because I found the fragrance to be lovely. It's a big white bar, with good lather—does it dry my skin? Who knows. I felt like it was fine. I know some people would be put off by its intense floral fragrance—I mean, it just about knocks you over—but for me, there's a time and place for that—and I found it cheered me up—perhaps, again, sinking into the deep childhood nostalgia when I visited elderly relatives. There's a fine line between loving and cloying—and I suppose this soap rides that line. Also, I wouldn't necessarily assume those diamonds are fake—there's a good chance that jewel smugglers used the diabolical scheme of decorating innocuous soap packaging with actual, fine, cut gems in order to smuggle them into the country—hidden in plain sight! It was a brilliant scheme. What they didn't count on was some weird guy reviewing over 100 brands of soap for a website—not content with the five options at the drugstore. Now, I will use this immense landfall to buy more soap to review... more and more... until I can no longer bathe.

Soap Review No. 110