Friday, March 13, 2015

✩ Indie Find: "After The Rain Bath Novelties" Review! // Hannabal Marie

 Hello ladies and gents 
I am pleased to inform you all on another lovely review. 
This one is a bit different compared to my usual cosmetic types. 
I am going to be reviewing some bath soaps.

(I want to add that this is a PR review. All samples were sent to me for reviewing purposes. All opinions are going to be 100% my own. I don't and would never write a post that wasn't truthful. It would be a waste of time otherwise. 
I simply was curious and wanted to try some stuff, the review is just a means of letting my fans know of awesome stuff, seeing which companies I like versus ones I don't AND a way to stay active on my free time. HA!)



I was surfing through the internet one day and fell upon this company, 
I have never tried indie soaps before, so I will admit I was a bit curious.
I was born and raised simply on "Irish Spring", "Dove"and all those commercial brands,
so seeing that people actually do bathroom stuff in the indie world made me really happy. 
If you haven't noticed, I am getting highly into indie stuff!
I don't really trust store brands anymore due to personal experiences on my part! 



 I found her website and stayed a while just looking over all her stuff. 
I will admit, what brought me to her webpage was the name of her company
(The very mention of "rain" makes my heart flutter!)...
but what really *sold* me was the vast array of her selections.
She has some stuff up on her website that really catches my eye, like a "Coffee" soap, "Leather" soap and even gift baskets of soaps you could purchase for as low as 25 dollars!

Each soap is around 6 dollars. 
Hand-crafted with tender love and care, so you can bet that each bar you buy will be cured and constructed by HAND! 
Besides bar soaps, she also sells Liquid Hand Soaps, Soap On A Rope, Bath Salts, Sugar Scrubs, Candles, Lip Balms and Gift Baskets!








  • THE PACKAGING:
These are the samples I received on my doorstep, She literally sent them as soon as I asked her if she could. So fast shipping is not even a concern with her! :P

She shipped them in a standard bubble mailer complete with packing peanuts!
I need to simply state that I am in awe with Megan.
She has been such a sweetheart to me from the very beginning.
From emailing me throughout the whole waiting process (to ensure I got my products!) to her explaining the process that soaps take to become the essential tool we use to clean ourselves up with! She is such a friendly woman and I recommend everyone to her warm and friendly nature!
(Which is something I love to see in a place that I am basically allowing into my little life by trusting enough to create a product for something as intimate as my body!)

>One thing I must stress, as she pointed out through email, she forgot to place labels on my soaps. She felt bad and made it known to me that she doesn't normally do that. I was just in such a hurry to try them out that I assume my eager nature made her slip the idea of labeling them!

I just want to make this known because one thing I learned throughout my reviewing companies on my own is that some people will automatically dislike a company simply based on packaging! Personally, I don't really mind packaging and all those minor details IF  the product blows me away. Why some people might dislike something based on packaging is beyond me but I assume it's just a minor few who wish to collect stuff in the same color scheme as whatever else they are collecting...which in my opinion, doesn't really make a product better. Why collect a lousy thing just because it can match the bathroom decor?! It's silly but some people do that.

  •  The Products & Overview!
She sent me a total of 3 soaps,
with an additional one just for no reason
other than being a completely sweet and caring person on her behalf.

This is the extra soap, in case you wanted to see! 
I will NOT be reviewing this one, since it wasn't requested of me!


the following photos are of ONLY the soaps she sent me for review.
 The above photo features "Little Green Apples" (top) & "Ms. Kitty" (bottom) Bar Soaps.




 The above photo features her "Bug" Bar Soap.
(which isn't listed on her site)


 MS. KITTY (AKA Hello Kitty)!

 (titles will be linked!)

This is their version of Hello Kitty.
A super moisturizing soap with a fragrance so amazing Ms. Kitty will have your skin feeling and smelling oh so special!

Look at all that glitter! :)

Created with Skin Loving Ingredients: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Lard, Vegetable Shortening, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Fragrance, Skin Safe Colorant and Glitter, and Candy Decorations. *Handcrafted with Love and Care*

I really loved Ms. Kitty the most.
The rest were just as amazing but something about Ms. Kitty really tickled my fancy!
I have had my share deal-ins with soaps intending to be "moisturizing" but who either left me drier than a bone OR slimy with sticky residue thinking that people want to feel like slugs.
If I slip out of a hug from a friend, we gotta problem! HA!

Ms. Kitty was perfect.
It left me smooth to the touch AND soft all day long with the slighted hint of shimmer due to the glitter bits in it.
The scent lingered for such a long time and unlike most fragrant soaps, which tend to dull down to a nothing, Ms. Kitty softened to a more delicate scent as the day went on.

AND CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT THE SCENT?
I am addicted to the scent of this soap.
It smells creamy and fruity, in the words of my brother, much like fruit punch.
I, on the other hand, went to a place in my brain that comforts me.
A place of youth and happiness.
This scent reminded me of my younger summer days running around my backyard, chewing Zebra Stripes gum.
It smells like the pink Zebra Stripes gum to me.
I only think it smells that way due to my past but every smell triggers something in everyone and it triggered that memory in me. (which explains my dire love for this bar!)

The bar is a fairly large piece, which was hand-crafted and cured just. for. me.
Just knowing she put all the effort and love in this little bar for me makes using it all the more sweeter.

Now, onto the most important question..."how well does it clean?"
I am a very heavy makeup user...
I wear lots of heavy dark makeup and even go to lengths of extending the art onto my neck and chest regions.
I have always had such a hard time getting the neck area cleaned with basic bar soaps as it was, so I went in with Ms. Kitty thinking doubts but I digress...MS. KITTY WAS AMAZING!
It hardly even needed any scrubbing at all.
I literally put it on my neck for a mere second, lathered it up and the makeup was gone.

No residue, no struggle, no redness (which I used to always have after a good scrub!), Nothing!

The Bottomline:
Ms. Kitty is PURRRRFECT!

I also included a clip of Ms. Kitty in her shimmer action!






 LITTLE GREEN APPLES!

Sweet, refreshing, and fragrant, the scent of "Little Green Apples" will awaken your senses while moisturizing your skin!
 crisp, juicy, green apples...picked fresh from the orchard. haha

 Created with Skin Loving Ingredients: Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Sustainable Palm Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Skin Safe Fragrance and Colorant. *Handcrafted with Love and Care*
(I cut it for reviewing purposes, hence the smaller bar in the apple basket! haha)

"Little Green Apples" is a very clean and fresh soap. 
It does, to some degree, smell like green apples...
but it isn't overbearing, like some apple soaps I've tried in my past. 
It's a soft scent that leaves your skin feeling fresh & clean. 

All the above soaps didn't irritate my skin whatsoever.
(and my skin irritates pretty darn fast when I try new things!) 
I even gave a small chuck of each to my brother who has very sensitive skin and he couldn't stop harping about how amazing these are for his frantic skin type.

The only negative I have about this soap is that I wish it was a more keen apple smell.
Since they weren't labeled, I originally thought it was just a "fresh" bar.
It didn't dawn on me that it was apple until I researched the link to post in this review.
Nothing harsh but clean & fresh is the only way I can put it.
Maybe just a tad bit more apple would help the name, but that is just my opinion and everyone smells things differently to their likings, I just so happen to smell it this way! :P

but that aside, it is an amazing soap and it cleans really great.
When I said Ms. Kitty did the job, I was in for a treat with this one as well.
It's just as great with no effort.
The "clean" scent stays for such a long time.
 A perfect gift for someone wanting to smell clean and crisp throughout their day.

The Bottomline:
a bar a day will keep the doctor away!

 The Bug!
 The bag is about as large as my palm. 
A cute little hand soap.

 I called him Bumble, The Bee. 
I know he's a "bug" but I wanted him to give him life! haha
also, he looked like a bee to me. :P

I had to use him as a whole, rather than cutting him into pieces because he was quite fragile to the touch. He smelt like "honey" to me, a natural earthy scent that I am sure wasn't meant to be apart of his chemistry but it had that smell when I used him. (hence the idea behind me thinking him a bee.)
I literally didn't want to use him, he was too darn cute but it wouldn't be fair to leave him out! haha.

My skin felt so soft, so darn soft!
I can't even put it in words without sounding repetitive.
I also love the fact all the soaps are skin-friendly. 

The ingredients for the bug are:
Distilled Water, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Hydroxide, Grapeseed Oil, and Vegetable Shortening.

The Bottomline:
 You'll be snug like a bug...in a soap.
 



All of the fragrances and colorants that "After The Rain" uses in the soaps and other bath novelties are skin safe and gentle.
They also make plain, non-scented/non-colored types as well.
They also love to use essential oils and natural colorants too.
"After The Rain" has some soaps that are colored with alkanet, spirulina, and different clays which are really awesome.
Their favorite soap is the one for sensitive skin where the oil is infused with calendula petals and doesn't have any added scents.

"After The Rain" adds colors, glitters, fragrances.
They even used to put toys in their soaps, but due to the fact adults don't take interest in them, they haven't made anymore due to fear of not selling any and the fact that having them sit for a long period of time changes the color of the product.
Some of the most popular scents have vanilla in them which cause the bright colors to turn brown after a while.

Just some bits of information to those of you out here.
I have tried and reviewed and loved this brand and I request and encourage anyone out here to give them a try!
The soaps are extremely underrated and I don't know why they aren't better known or selling out their noses! haha!
I will be returning to their shop, not as a reviewer next time, but as an actual customer.
I adore "After The Rain"Bath Novelties!

The link to their shop is HERE!
& The Link to their Facebook is HERE!




















I hope you liked my review and I look forward to the next post entry!
xoxo

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