Soap is one of those quotidian items that can become a simple luxury. Last year I tried to cut down on packaging by buying those big ‘family-size’ bottles from the supermarket, but generically-scented shower-gel made for a joyless bathtime experience, and cheap, thin liquid hand-soap was a miserable reward for my ‘hands-that-do-dishes’.

I’d noticed the little soap shop on Plaça Sant Felip Neri a couple of times – I usually take a detour through the plaça if I’m ever wandering around in that area – so I decided to call in. It turns out that they are a small family company – third generation soap makers. They have a workshop at the back of the shop where they make the soap from natural ingredients, and it comes in several different shapes and sizes and an impressive variety of scents and colours. Sadly Dr. Doingtheshopping  is slightly obsessive-compulsive and when it comes to soap insists that it “must-be-white-and-have-no-scent-AT-ALL”, but then, I’m not buying it for him!

The soaps are made from a base of coconut oil and palm kernel and smell fantastic. Bars of soap start at 3 euros and they also do various gift boxes including soap ‘petals’ which are a lovely idea for the bath. Minimal and recycled/recycleable packaging too, which is all too rare in this city:

Out of the bag – the details of the company are stamped on one side:

…and the ingredients are cunningly stamped on the other side:

I’m currently alternating between ‘citron’ with it’s acid, lemony-saturated scent, and the skin-and-scalp-tingling ‘menta’. Can’t wait to use them up so I can buy another…right, I’m off for another shower!

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