What's your soap personality?

So. You've decided to take the plunge and buy handmade soap. Good for you! But now you are faced with a sea of choices ... plain, colorful, scented, unscented, goatsmilk, vegan, cold process, hot process, floral, quirky, sensual, sweet ...

How can one decide? Amidst a plethora of wonderful, handmade soaps, a shopper can get easily lost, overwhelmed by too many choices. We at Swan Mountain Soaps (and our buddies at SAFEteam) are here to help. We have developed an online "soap personality" quiz to help you determine what kind of soap will suit you best.

Here we go ...

My idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon:
1. Soaking in the tub with a Jane Austen novel
2. Working on the truck (four-wheeler, furnace, shed, you name it)
3. An hour of yoga followed by a leek & lentil soup and a sprout sandwich
4. Getting the chores done and relaxing with my family
5. Painting my toenails blue and black, and buying tickets for the next Alice in Chains concert

My favorite snack:
1. Tea and ladyfingers with a bowl of white grapes
2. A burrito, a taco and two beers. Maybe three beers.
3. Eggless egg salad, hummus and a flax smoothie
4. A ham sandwich on wheat bread and a sliced apple
5. Oysters on the half shell and a Cosmopolitan

If I was an animal, I’d probably be a …
1. Siamese cat or a Bichon Frise
2. A gorilla. Or maybe a Rottweiler.
3. I’d be a polar bear. Then they'd be one less away from the endangered list.
4. A golden retriever.
5. A chameleon or a Siberian Tiger. Or maybe a Siberian tiger with white, purple and green stripes!

My kind of music:
1. Vivaldi
2. Bocephus. Or maybe Freddie Mercury.
3. Joni Mitchell or Tracy Chapman
4. The birds outside my window
5. Dave Navarro. Oh yeah!

If I could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, I’d go to …
1. Paris, France or maybe Venice, Italy.
2. Daytona Beach. NASCAR, beer and babes!
3. I’d spend 2 weeks volunteering with the Archipelagos Conservation League.
4. I’d stay home and finish that quilt I’ve been working on.
5. Rio, London and Milan.


Now for the good part.

If you answered mostly #1, you're a girlie-girl. You love what is beautiful and romantic:

(Love Spell Cold Process Soap by SoapScentsations, Patchouli Rose - Cold Processed - Organic Goat Milk Soap Complexion Bar by greensprings0, and Strawberry Vanilla Cupcake Soap by freshandclean)

If, on the other hand, you answered mostly #2 - obviously you're a man's man. You need a hardworking no-nonsense bar that will get you clean. However, who said men can't be pampered as well?




(Distinguished...Luxurious Handmade Soap with Shea Butter by Thistledelight, Hunk On The Beach, Number 202, Sea Spice Fragrance by Amelias, and Peppercorn Shaving Soap by SudsNSuch)

Mostly #3? You're green through and through. You need a soap that is as eco-friendly and health conscious as you are. But no one said responsible can't be beautiful:






(All Natural Soap Sample Kit by oilandspice, Green Tea Calendula soap enriched with Tea Tree Oil and Cocoa butter by PacificParadiseSoap, and Green with Envy by Anhoki)

Answered mostly #4? You are a no-fuss, natural, plain and simple person. You don't need any bells or whistles. Fortunately for you, handmade soap is just plain good!




(Alaska Bear soap - natural unscented soap by Swan Mountain Soaps, Rose and Apple Potpourri Goat Milk Soap with Cocoa Butter by AuntNancysSoapand Lavender olive oil and shea butter soap by urbaneden )

And lastly, if you answered mostly #5, you already know who who are. You are one righteous, rockin', glamourous babe. Most likely you've been using handmade soap for some time now, but let us provide a few more awesome soaps for your perusal ...

(Vintage Vixen High Heel Shoe Soap with Shea Butter and Olive Oil / Black Linen and Amber by StarletGlamBathBody, Just Bitchin (Vegan Friendly) soap by pinkparchmentsoaps, and Perfectly Pomegranate Soap by theskinyourein)

These are just a few suggestions to get you started. Now, go shopping!

Paradise, found!

Our first featured artist:
Elizabeth Humphries of Paradise Purls!



I have immense respect for anyone who can knit.


That's because I can't. Seriously. I can crochet up and down and backwards, but knitting? To me, it's like trying to cover a centipede with duct tape with your eyes closed. I decided this Spring I would try one more time to teach myself to knit, and while I am making some progress (I can cast on! Woo-hoo!), when I look at beautiful creations such as these, I think to myself, why am I torturing myself this way when it would be so much easier to shop Etsy for something I love?

Elizabeth, owner of Paradise Purls on Etsy, is a SAHM like myself who taught herself to knit (grrrrrr!) with awesome results. She has an incredible eye for color. "I fell in love with all the yarn ... the colors and textures," she says. "One of my favorite things to do is spend time in a yarn shop touching all the different yarns. I'm very tactile! That coupled with the ability to create beautiful things with that yarn is what I love about knitting."


So I may keep trying. Elizabeth inspires me. =]

And, if I ever get past page 5 of my how-to-knit book, I can use one Elizabeth's beautiful bookmark's to hold my place!

To learn more about Elizabeth you can visit her blog here: http://paradisepurls.blogspot.com/