Pros: Beautiful handmade soaps with extraordinary scents; a company with character and personality
Cons: Leave some extra time when you order
Rating: 5 out of 5

Visit Soapier online

Soapier.com is a small family-run operation that makes handmade soaps—beautiful, lovely handmade soaps. I found them when a member of the family posted about it on Reddit, and they went on to be “adopted” by the Reddit community. Although that might seem odd, a handmade soap company getting adopted by a geeky, largely-male online community, it was a surprisingly good match. The family in question is sweet, friendly, and has a good sense of humor. They’re happy to listen to their customers and take suggestions. (Case in point: thanks to Reddit Soapier ended up creating bacon-scented soap, which was a huge hit!)

This summer, they announced they were planning to close down. The woman who did most of the work was ailing, and although business had been wonderful, it was just too much for her. As much as I didn’t want to lose access to their unique and wonderful products, I certainly empathized and understood. But then an awesome thing happened. Another member of the family, after much soul-searching, decided to move to Florida and take over the family business. Yay!

Now, let’s get this straight: I never thought of myself as a scented soaps type of person. In fact, distinctly the opposite: perfumy scents tend to aggravate my allergies and asthma, so I always avoided scented things. Their products intrigued me, however, so I decided it was worth a try—and I was surprised. While the scents are definitely strong enough to enjoy, many of them aren’t what I think of as “perfumy.” They just smell… good. Soapier’s people seem to have a knack for choosing scents that are pleasant without being overwhelming. And as time has gone on and they’ve come up with more products aimed at the new crowd they’re attracting, I’ve been finding more and more to enjoy.

(more…)