MusK soap, Gentleman, 100 g

A soap with good manners. A band of cream feathers runs through an almost midnight-dark bar, joined by the woody scent of cedarwood and sandalwood — warm, earthy, self-assured without drawing attention to itself. Exactly like a proper gentleman. A handmade vegan soap made by the cold process, for anyone who likes simplicity with character.

The scent is distinctly woody, yet unobtrusive — it comes exclusively from cedarwood and sandalwood essential oils, no fragrance blends. Woody essential oils are among the quieter ones: you will not smell them across the whole bathroom, but during washing they keep their word. The base of the recipe is saponified olive, coconut and sunflower oil with shea butter: olive gives the soap a gentler character, coconut a rich, bubbly lather, and shea butter leaves skin supple. The whole soap is vegan. Cedar gives the scent its base, sandalwood rounds it off — and because we build the scent composition with an eye on how the soap will smell a month later, not how it smells in the bowl, it keeps its character on the shelf too. It suits gentlemen of few words, but will happily please anyone who loves woody notes.

Why will you never find two identical feathers?

Because the pattern is made by hand. We prepare the soap mass by the cold process, draw the cream feathers into the dark mass by hand and cut the finished block with a wire — every cut reveals a slightly different stroke. The bar then goes to the shelf, where it cures for at least 30 days. Not because we forgot about it, but because time is part of our recipe. Not perfectly identical bars. On purpose.

To help the soap keep its shape, let it dry out after the shower on a soap dish. In the paper box version it makes a welcome gift — for a special occasion or for wedding guests. You will find more bars with a similarly firm hand among our men's soaps, and if you are curious what happens during those weeks on the shelf, read why soap cures. To lather is human. Smelling of cedar while you are at it is human too.