L'Estate Soap (by Silk Road Trading Company)

[Jilara]

Al Azif Soap:

 

An Arabic term that refers to both the chirping of nocturnal insects and the ambient sound made by the chattering of demons. This is the original title of the feared Necronomicon, the Book of Dead Names, penned by the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred.

 

Water, Saponified Organic Palm Kernal Oil, Coconut Oil, Soy Oil, Fair Trade Organic Shea Oil, Sodium Lactate, Jojoba Oil, Castor Oil, Mysore Sandalwood Powder, and Al Azif.[/i]

 

Wow, I'm the first to review Al Azif, the Soap! Pardon me while I squee a little, since Al Azif is one of my all-time favorite scents, and the soap is divine!

 

This is the first of the soaps I've tried that seems extremely true to its oil counterpart. And WOW, it's very strong! Every time I wash my hands, it leaves them scented with Al Azif! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this soap! Despite the sandalwood powder, the scent it gives off is pretty much straight up Al Azif.

 

Be warned, this dark brown bar is industrial soap. It has a lovely grittiness that must be from the aforementioned sandalwood powder. I had to check what it was, as it reminded me of some shower gel I had that contained walnut shell exfoliating agents. The extra cleaning power is really great for me, as I'm always coated in garden dirt, or grease, the black stuff that comes off the bottoms of dutch ovens that have been on the campfire, or the general dirt that comes from a weekend spent reenacting an earlier time period. It takes the grime off well, but is the usual easy-on-the-skin rich BPTP soap formulation that just feels rich and decadent on the skin. I don't mind the grittiness for everyday use, but be aware it IS gritty. But hey, it's demon soap: it should be a bit abrasive, right?

 

All said, I think this is my favorite of the BPTP soaps so far. (Okay, I admit I haven't actually used the Snake Oil soap yet, just sniff it regularily.)

[Eemia]

I have had this soap for a long, long time and I should have written a review sooner because it's one of my favorites.

 

This is deceiving (in the best possible way) because it smells so sweet and smokey with incense, but the texture is so fierce. This is even more scrubby than Perversion soap, which is hugely exfoliating. The graininess in this feels more fine and condensed and will scrub the roughness off of anything. I have to be very careful not to use this on more sensitive areas because it can scratch my skin. For those areas I rub it into my hands first and it works perfectly. It feels amazing on my feet, and since I love being barefoot all of the time it really takes care of them.

 

I bought the soap before I had ever tried the oil, and because I was so addicted to this I bought the oil within a few weeks. This is strongly scented and even lingers on my skin a little while after showering. I consider it one of my staple soaps.

[naeelah]

This is the only BPTP soap that I flat out have not liked, so far. I got a slice from a decant circle to try, and I actually had to force myself to keep bathing with it. The scent was so strong and stuffy that it choked me. I don't even know what it smelled like, it just gave me the "musty death" quality that I seem to hate.

 

The second time I used it, after it had been sitting in the open air on the side of the tub for a few days, I found the scent much more bearable. It's still strong, but now it has a better resemblance to the perfume oil. Dark, dark incense with a hint of sweetness. The sweetness seems pretty minimal in the soap. It's very smoky.

 

So once it airs out a little, it's better, but apparently I don't care for dark, smoky scents in the bath.

 

The bar itself is dark brown, a little bit harder than some other BPTP soaps, and it's painfully scrubby. It's not so much sandalwood powder as sandalwood splinters. I found TKO to be very exfoliating, but in a much gentler way. The fiber in that soap is softer, or a finer grain; this feels like it's scratching my skin.

[Miss Lynx]

This was the first BPAL soap I tried, and I had a very mixed reaction to it. The scent was absolutely gorgeous -- Al Azif is one of my favourites, and the soap definitely lived up to its promise. It left just enough scent on my skin to be happy-making without interfering with whatever oil I might be putting on later.

 

But the texture was a little off-putting -- very scratchy and gritty, and prone to crumbling into pieces as it was used. Before too long I had not a slice of soap like I'd started with, but a little heap of soap fragments. The scratchiness I could get used to -- it basically made it like a soap and scrub in one -- but the crumbliness was kind of annoying because almost every time I used it, bits fell off and I had to try and retrieve them before they went down the shower drain.

 

I suppose both the scratchiness and the crumbling were due to the sandalwood powder, which also probably accounted for the scent being if anything even richer and more lovely than the Al Azif perfume oil.

 

All in all, I still liked it -- I'd just have liked it more if had held together better.

 

Grade: B+