Review: Pacifica French Lilac Soap

I adore Pacifica. There, I've said it. I wondered if, in the interests of not boring you rigid with my love of all things Pacifica-related, I should limit my reviews to one soap, one perfume and one candle, because I assume that the formulations are the same. But that would just deny me the opportunity to gush.

Pacifica soaps are made with Pacifica's own biodegradable, vegan, vegetable oil and glycerin soap base, herbs and their signature fragrance blends with natural and essential oils. They are available from Whole Foods and other fine retailers for $6.95 (I think I read somewhere that Anthropologie has them also). You can also buy direct from their website and various other online stores. Now, you may be wondering what on earth is frugal about a seven dollar soap, but here's the deal - this soap is so creamy smooth, so luxurious, so nicely lathering and, importantly, doesn't dry my skin out at all. So it was Pacifica that enabled me to ditch my shower gel habit and thus stop polluting the earth with yet more needless plastic bottles to throw away. These days I only use bar soap in the shower and at the sink. Besides, I really do think that there are some things that we should allow ourselves to splurge on, if it's a reasonable splurge. After all, there must be some enjoyment in life! If it helps any, though, Pacifica regularly discounts one of its scent lines by 20%. The current discount is on Vietnamese Ylang Ylang, but it changes regularly - all the products in the discounted scent are marked down, whether that is candles, soap, perfume, or body lotion. So if you have a favorite, or want to only buy when they're on sale, this brings the price down to $5.55. I snap up random fragrances of the soap and perfume when they're reduced because I just love to try the different varieties.

The French lilac scent is a very rich, full lilac scent, if that makes sense. It's like you are suddenly transported to a beautiful house on a spring morning, and there is a large lilac bush blooming just outside the window you've just opened. Yet, it's not cloying or overpoweringly sweet because there is just a hint of other fragrences there - there's a hint of nectarine that seems to cut the floral scent just when it might get a bit too overbearing. It's beautiful, and scents the whole bathroom for days when you first unwrap the soap. It's not too strong on the body, though, which is where the perfume comes in for those days when you want to waft a fragrance behind you. If you don't want to do that, it is still possible to just pick up the fragrance for a while after you shower, so it does give you a delicate veil of fragrance on its own.

The only downside to Pacifica soaps is that they are not as long lasting as most other bar soaps. I seem to go through a bar quite quickly which is a disappointment, and upsets my frugal nature. The part of me that loves luxury, however, usually just ends up rejoicing that I get to open a new bar of a different scent and will enjoy that one for a while.

Four stars, only marked down because of the disappointment at how long the bar lasts for the money, otherwise it would be a clear 5-star product.