Savon De Marseille

Or to give it its' full name, La Compagnie de Provence Savon de Marseille. I have been literally niggling to get at this product for AGES. And after browsing the world wide web for what seems like an era, I finally found it here, at Notonthehighstreet.com. I first heard about this brand in a magazine, and I believe it was recommended by Laura Mercier, who I personally adore, saying she uses it on her face and hair and swears by it. And if it's good enough for Laura Mercier, it's most certainly good enough for scum like myself. 


 It costs £3.50 for 100g, with £1.45 p&p, which I think is excellent, after I got quotes for more than double that on sites I don't think were trustworthy. Also, it says delivery is 2-5 days, but it does state elsewhere that it could take longer if there's issues. I think I was very lucky that after ordering it late Wednesday night, it arrived early Friday morning. Anyway, after unwrapping it pass-the-parcel style out of its hundreds of layers of bubble wrap, this is how it looked:

As you may have read, I'm a sucker for attractive packaging, and this is simply dainty and so... English. Just the names 'Gertie and Mabel' make my mind immediately switch to an image of 2 lovely elderly ladies sitting in front of a fire going 'Ooh another soap order, how jolly spiffing Gertie'.

It does give you weight and dimension measurements on the website, but here's a pic of it next to my average sized hand:

Spiffing.

Just a bit about this product, it dates back to medieval times in Marseille, and it's ingredients are essential oils/fragrance, vegetable oils, ocean water, coconut oil and sodium chloride. I purchased the original olive scent first as I'm a creature of tradition and originals to begin with, before exploring the more adventurous 15 other scents (Note: I understand that rose and lavender are not that adventurous). As soon as I opened the packaging, you could already smell it's amazing aroma.

Although, my parents were less amused at this, my mum starting coughing and my dad likened it to the smell of the soaps that his nan used to melt together when he was a boy. I enjoyed it though, and I can definitely smell the coconut in it.

Things it says it is/does:

• Non-drying and very moisturising - True. I've used it just once, and my skin smelt and felt great. I only used it on my face, neck, shoulders and arms, but it lathered up really quickly and left my skin, particularly my face, feeling exfoliated and clean. And extremely soft. For Gods sake, just do not get it in your eyes, it is soap at the end of the day. It could be the best soap in the world, but it is still soap, and you know that when soap is in your eyes, it's programmed to kill. Something to do with alkalines sucking the water out of your eye or something but hey, enjoy this soap!! 
• Added essential oils for fragrance and therapeutic properties - In my opinion, it'd have to be quite an amazing scent to have a therapeutic effect on me. I got this effect last from a Vanilla and Strawberry shower gel. I will have to stop there as I'm beginning to drool just thinking about it. But some people I know quite like the scents listed on the Notonthehighstreet page I linked to, and I can imagine it would indeed have the dreamy floaty therapeutic effect on someone.

So anyway, I do think this product has lived up to my expectations, and it's definitely worth the money for such a progressed brand, dating back to the 17th century, and it comes from France. Apparently the french people swear by this soap, and in most rural french houses, this is the only brand of soap you'll find. I've yet to use this product on my hair also, but if it has the milky effect it's had on my skin, I literally can't wait.