~Waterfall Glen Soap Company is a unique shop that makes handcrafted soaps, body lotions & butters, and offers unique items from the Dead Sea. There are several things I like about this company, and I shall break it down for you. #1: Their slogan ‘Share the Goodness’ is true in every sense of the word. I feel so fresh and clean after using their products and I know they use quality ingredients. Speaking of ingredients, that leads me into #2: they use all vegan ingredients to make their soaps and body lotions & butters. And their other products, like the ones using ingredients gathered from the Dead Sea, are organic. #3: Their products are not tested on animals. Which is amazing for the vet tech side of me, and it’s just awesome in general!
I was first introduced to WFG at the Lemont farmer’s market a few weeks ago. The market was very small, only about 10 vendors, but it was still worth looking around. I made a loop around the market and came to the Waterfall Glen stand. The man behind the stand, Douglas Coggeshall, invited me to try a sample of body butter at the front of the table. The one I selected was called Citrus Grove and it smelled almost exactly like a Dreamsicle, it was amazing! Now let’s get to the good stuff.
After sampling the body butter, I purchased a bottle of the Citrus Grove body lotion and went on my way. In the summer and winter time, my skin gets itchy and dry. I already have a basket full of assorted Bath and Body Works lotions at home, but what would one more lotion hurt? The Citrus Grove lotion not only smells fantastic, but it’s light and non-greasy. I’m tempted to toss all my lotions and only use WFG lotions, but I have my select favorites from Bath and Body Works that I’ll keep.
My second purchase (and possibly my favorite) from Waterfall Glen is their Yam Hamelah Dead Sea mud mask. Yam Hamelah translates to ‘Sea of Salt’ and consists of only 3 ingredients (which are all organic): mud from the Dead Sea, activated charcoal and distilled water. When I picked it up at the Frankfort market, Doug had said to mix it first before using it, that there would be a layer of water at the top that needs to be incorporated. Facial products hailing from the Dead Sea have become a popular beauty trend and I felt that now I was one of those people exclusive enough to try it.
After mixing the gooey and slightly gritty concoction, it was application time. The activated charcoal in the mask draws out impurities and felt like someone took a scrubbing brush to my face, while the mud was thick and cooling. Once I applied an even later, I retreated to my room for about 10-15 minutes while the mask was working its magic. I would have taken a picture of me with the mask on, but it was a little frightening! Lol. Even my own mother laughed at me when she saw it! After 10-15 minutes, I rinsed off the mask. I ended up trashing one of the wash cloths in the bathroom while trying to scrub off the mask. Once I was cleaned up and rinsed, my face felt so soft and smooth and it even started to clear up some acne! My goal is to use the mask once a week along with my daily face wash.
Last, and certainly not least, the main event: the soap! A few days earlier I e-mailed Doug about how much I loved his products and that I wanted to feature him on my blog. He was thrilled and said to come to the Frankfort market on Sunday (Father’s Day) to introduce myself and we could discuss business. When I arrived at the Waterfall Glen stand, I looked around the table at the various soaps and sampled a different scented body butter, this time it was Summer Prairie. I finally introduced myself and gave him one of my business cards. He was delighted to have met me in person and told me to pick a soap and write about it, free of charge! That was very sweet of him 🙂
There were so many scents and varieties to choose from it was overwhelming. After sniffing and sampling, I chose this scent called Narmineh, which means ‘beautiful’ in Persian. Narmineh’s main scents are ylang ylang (which is a flower that grows in areas of Indonesia and other parts of Asia) and grapefruit, and is mixed with ingredients such as mango butter to provide lather and richness, and turmeric root powder, which gives the soap a golden brown orange color, which mimics the color of sand.
I used it this morning in the shower instead of my regular Pink Chiffon shower gel from Bath and Body Works. Normally I don’t like bar soap because I feel like it doesn’t get you as clean as a gel soap would, and it feels funny on my skin when I tried to use it. But of course I didn’t want to let Doug down, nor did I want to let you, my loyal readers (wherever you are) down! I had to lather it up a bit so I could round down the pointy corners of the soap and hopefully eliminate the weird soapy feeling I described earlier. Once I got it to the right consistency, I lathered up and rinsed off.
Maybe that weird not-all-the-way-clean feeling I get from bar soap is in my head, but when I used this bar soap, I didn’t get as much of that feeling. But what I did get was a delightful crisp scent and a feeling of happiness. The soap wrapping with the caravan of camels on it reminded me of my favorite movie, The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser version), where they travel into the desert on camels to the city of the dead, Hamunaptra. The name Narmineh itself transports me to a far away land immersed in Egyptian culture, which has always fascinated me even before seeing The Mummy.
I would definitely recommend the Waterfall Glen Soap Company to anyone and everyone looking for something rich, pure, and a little out of the ordinary. Thank you Douglas for gracing the world with your amazing vegan bath and body products, and for sharing your goodness with me 🙂
*Please visit their website and browse their soaps and other selections! They will be making many appearances to local farmer’s market and festivals, and you can find out where! http://www.waterfallglensoap.com/*
The Garden Goddess 