Shore Soap Co. – Coconut Bikini

“Coco Whatever”

This is a really lovely little square of bar soap from the relatively young company, Shore Soap Co., in Newport, RI—with ingredients including coconut oil (naturally), olive oil, shea butter, sea kelp extract—and excluding chemical-y bullshit. Oh, it also includes coconut shell powder, which I believe is what gives it this rich, pleasing texture. I love the smell—coconut, of course, and something else—I'm cheating by reading the description—there's (thankfully) subtle vanilla, and also musk—which is what might give it this kind of intoxicating, heady quality. If you should sail the old schooner into Newport you can stop by their shop and pick up the cargo yourself. This particular bar soap, its packaging, name (“Coconut Bikini”), and descriptive paragraph might evoke a kind of paradise to most humans, and why not. Me, personally, I'm a little weird, and immune to ad copy (and most humans)—so I usually compose my own ad copy—and did so in this case while in the bath that I shared with this dissolving little bit o' art. Something like: “...on any beach I feel safe, regardless of the foliage, is the one place where the big old sun is welcome. And just because I haven't touched a drop (of alcohol, not sun) in 27 years, doesn't mean I can't still remember the waves lapping, the piña colada girlfriend, and drinking rum from the coconut shell! Even if I forgot where I hid the cash.”

Soap Review No. 127