Crabtree & Evelyn – Goatmilk

“Evelyn Mulwray”

After that donkey milk soap from France, which really smells like milk, it’s hard to take this goatmilk soap all that seriously—how much goat milk, really, is there in it? Since this was a company that was bought by a much bigger company—you know what that means—the bottom line. Still, this is a very pleasing, light brown, egg-shaped soap with a soapy fragrance that I can’t nail down (sometimes that is just fine). The shape reminds me of Caswell-Massey, but of course, it’s not quite that quality. When I think about goat milk, I always remember when I first moved to Kent, Ohio in 1981—I rode my bike there—September, I guess, about a 75 mile ride from Sandusky—pretty exhausting, with the hills. At the point that I knew I was going to make it, late in the afternoon, along unbusy country roads, I came across a small farm market where I stopped to rest and get a cold drink. They were really big on their “Goat Milk Fudge,” so I bought some and ate a little during the rest of my ride. Oddly, I can’t remember if it was chocolate, or vanilla, or my favorite fudge flavor, peanut butter—but I remember that it as the best fudge I’ve ever eaten—though I’m sure that was partly the heightened situation. It was good, though. Sometimes I feel like the trying out and writing about different soaps must be the healthier, low-calorie, sugar-free way for me to indulge in the kind of excess that would otherwise put me on the path to an early grave.

Soap Review No. 228