Green Gem of the Week: Sarva Soap

Our Green Gem of the Week is Sarva Soap. Sarva soap is an award winning soap company owned and operated by Michelle Gilbert. I have had the pleasure of “virtually” knowing and working with Michelle for almost 2 years. She has graciously sponsored both Green My World Earth Day Giveaways as well as a giveaway when Eco-Office Gals re-launched into the world of WordPress.  Yet, it wasn’t until recently had the honor of receiving some of her soaps to try for myself.

First, Sava soaps are eco-friendly in sererval ways (from the site):

• Nature’s own true colors; we use spices, clays, botanicals, and other natural materials to pigment our soaps. We do not use synthetic pigments, including mineral oxides.
• A completely biodegradable product; what rinses down the drain won’t harm our environment.
• 100% postconsumer recycled packaging, all fully recyclable on your end.

All Sarva soaps are entirely natural and cruelty-free, made with pure vegetable oils, herbs, essential oils, clays, and botanicals. Never do we use synthetic fragrances or pigments, nor will you find laboratory-created oxide-based pigments. Everything in Sarva soaps comes straight from nature.

Michelle has paid attention to every detail to bring her customers a true experience of eco-luxury!  Even before having the opportunity of trying her soaps I noticed something great about the company. The passion that is Sarva – is Michelle – is unique. It shows through in her soaps, her packaging and her persona, and all this I learned BEFORE trying the soaps!

Then the package arrived….

I had 3 different soaps to try out:

Ritual: Spanish sage (a camphorous, clean-smelling sage), cedar, orange, and peppermint combine to cleanse and purify your body, mind, and spirit. Its fresh scent feels so healing… deeply therapeutic and rejuvenating. Allow bathing to become your Ritual.

Citron: A sparkling and cheerful lemon soap! And yet, the scent has a distinct warm depth, more than you’d expect from lemon. Beautifully handcrafted to resemble fine pastry and topped with poppy seeds, just the right finishing touch!

Grace: Simply exquisite. Our finest 95% olive oil Castille base, the same as you’ll find in Purity. Grace has a gorgeous, feminine, heady and sweet floral scent, formulated to showcase our sustainably harvested rosewood essential oil.

I admittedly thought Grace would be my favorite, it was the images of grace that were featured on Sarva’s home page which left me dying to try these soaps, Grace was so beautiful! Trust me I was not disappointed! Grace smelled as beautiful as it looked. This soap is all around feminine, in look and scent and would make for a lovely gift. My girls loved this soap and the little rosebud on top was the cat’s meow!

However, surprise surprise, my favorite of the trio was Ritual.  Made with 50% sea salt and almost resembling a huge chunk of white cheese I was skeptical about the description of this soap on the site. However, this soap had such a pleasant scent, was so creamy and left my skin truly hydrated. Ritual is great for the whole family, it doesn’t have a scent that is gender specific, and the bathroom smells great after a shower. If you only choose 1 bar to start with I would try Ritual, it’s sure to please everyone in the house.

The last soap I tried was Citron. Citron was another one that looked so yummy on the site, like a slice of lemon meringue with real poppy seeds sprinkled on top. Of the 3 this was last for me. (I don’t want to say least favorite since I loved them all)  Only because it’s scent reminded me of citronella candles, which I’m not very fond of. That’s just me and nothing is wrong with the soap itself! By looks, I assumed it would have more of a sweet, dessert-like lemon scent.  Regardless, it still had the wonderful properties of the other soaps, and it left my skin nourished with many different oils.

All in all these soaps exceeded my expectations! I knew they would be wonderful and I was right!  I am amazed that just using these handcrafted soaps for the last few months has reduced my need for any lotions to hydrate my skin. I never realized how much the synthetic soaps and “beauty bar” type soaps actually dry your skin out!

Commercial soaps are often stripped of their glycerin through chemical processes; glycerin is profitable and is used to make other products. Artisanal soaps retain all of their naturally-occurring glycerin, and many people notice a difference in how their skin feels with regular use of artisanal soaps.

These soaps are also quite large and last for some time. Although they may seem a little pricey, they last as long as 3 bars of the junk you get at the store (plus don’t forget the price of the lotion for your dry skin when you use that junk!)

Finally, there is also so much to learn about hand-made soaps and their synthetic counterparts, including why the citron soap wouldn’t smell dessert-like as I had presumed it would (guess I should have read that part). Michelle has a very interesting Q&A that is worth looking over.

It has been a wonderful experience using Michelle’s Sarva Soaps and I know you will love them too! And to make your first order even sweeter she has offered my readers a 15% discount off their order! Use the code 15BUBBLES through July 21st on any order you place and introduce yourself to pure, natural cleanliness!