Thursday, December 16, 2021
My readers constantly ask what I buy and use for my family…
So I am writing up this article about my favorite soap!
If you have been a follower of my work for a long time, you know that I don’t really use soap very often (in the shower). I have super-sensitive skin (which has actually resulted in some fairly significant medical complications over the past year since I broke my leg) and I just cannot use most soaps, with issues related to a range of ingredients in typical soaps — including, but not limited to, fragrances and dyes. I normally keep the house stocked with Dr. Bronners, but with kiddos with disabilities, liquid soap is not great for all applications because the kids often use way too much — not including all of the “accidental” spills!
Since the start of the pandemic I decided to start a little experiment incorporating bar soap back into our life (for me, my husband, and the kids), and for this I turned to my friend Adriana… Adriana owns Stash Soapery, a soap company that makes all different kinds of soaps (to meet everyone’s particular needs, including folks with super-sensitive skin like me)! Not only is she running a small woman-owned business, but she is a single mama of two adorable children, including one with special needs. When you purchase her soap you are getting an AMAZING hand-made product (a product that is a work of art in its own right!) and also helping her to support her family (#WinWinWin).
The most exciting thing (from my perspective) about her soaps is that she makes SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS (with a full range of ingredients). Her soaps all have fun names, too (and design themes) inspired by your favorite music (she has a line of Phish soaps, Bowie, Nirvana, and more!). If you are scent-sensitive (like me), she has unscented bars and some with natural scents. If you are allergic to dyes, she has dye-free options (soaps colored only using natural plants and minerals). If you are vegan, well, so are most of her soaps! If it is important to you to have brightly-colored soap (because that encourages your children to bathe), she makes those, too! Because she uses such high-quality ingredients, I have even found some of her naturally-scented soaps that I have not had any reactions to (even though I otherwise keep a scent-free home)!
The Stash Soapery soaps I used this year for myself or my family:
- Dye Free/ Scent Free (for me), which she calls “Simple”
- Sage (for me, for fun — who doesn’t want to do a “sage smudge” every time they shower — lol), which she calls “Sigma Oasis”
- Patchouli (my husband’s favorite scent), which she calls “Soul Shine”
- Face soap (for my son Charlie who is having issues with pimples), which she calls “See My Face”
Each bar of her soap is also a work of art!
I love following Adriana on Instagram because each bar of her soap is truly a work of art, and seeing her process (all the stages of her soap making) on Instagram is so much fun. I recently shared that her account is my favorite Instagram account to follow just because her photographs of her soap are so very stunning. My 13-year-old son Charlie is one of the visual artists in our family and whenever Adriana posts new images of her soap (or videos of the soap making process), I make sure to share them with him. He loves watching the videos showing the process.
Here’s a recent instagram post from @StashSoapery.
Continue reading below…
View this post on Instagram
When we were most recently in Maine (this past October) we visited with Adriana (in fact, we spent the night at her house!) and got the full tour of her soap factory. She showed Charlie (who has disabilities from being exposed to Lead in utero and as a baby) how she makes soap and now he wants to make soap when he grows up (and is planning on doing an internship, learning how to make soap with Adriana, as soon as possible)!
What about Lead?
Is her soap Lead-free?
As a rule, I don’t have a concern for Lead in soap (when used as intended… to wash your body)! She does have some soaps that feature clay and salts as ingredients, and any powdered or ground herb has the potential to contain some Lead (from processing) — but this is not a consideration I entertain when looking for a soap. For fun (for me), Adriana went through her soap collection and picked out four of the Lead-safest soaps available — ones that do not include any ingredients like potentially high-Lead clay, Himalayan salt, Celtic gray salt, or other ingredients that might have Lead (even though, as I said, when it comes to soap, I don’t have that concern as a general rule).
I encourage you to explore her website and look at ALL of the soaps she has to offer (including these), because you might find one that is a better fit for you (or for your kids), for whatever reason. That said, here are her top pics for me for the “Lead-safest“ soaps in her collections:
As a special thank you to YOU (Lead Safe Mama readers) for your support of my childhood Lead poisoning prevention work, she is offering a 10% discount to my readers for the rest of this year (through December 31, 2021)… just use the discount code LeadSafeMama on checkout!
The Stash Soapery links in this article are NOT affiliate links! She has not paid any promotional consideration for me to write this up — I just wanted to share with you about my new favorite soaps, which are also a little something that brings joy to my family when we use them (and are a fun little way to bring “unexpected art” and inspiration into our home)! I hope you find a soap you love from Stash Soapery!
#ExtraBonus, too! The set of four soaps pictured here are being given away as a prize as part of a Lead Safe Mama Instagram #GiveAway. To enter for a chance to win this set of four soaps pictured (value $36.75 including shipping to any United States location) here’s what you need to do:
- Follow Lead Safe Mama on Instagram
- Follow Stash Soapery on Instagram
- Comment on my December 16 Stash Soapery Instagram post and tag three Instagram friends there, too!
The winner of this set of soaps will be chosen at random from everyone who enters (following the above instructions) by Sunday, Dec. 19, Midnight (PST)! This is not restricted to participants in the United States (I will pay for shipping if the winner is not in the United States!)
Here’s my instagram post with the @StashSoapery #GiveAway.
Continue reading below…
View this post on Instagram
Thanks for playing! Thanks for supporting a woman-owned small business. Thanks for supporting a business that makes natural products that are good for you and the environment. Thank you for supporting a business owned by a mother of children with disabilities.
Have a great holiday season.
Tamara Rubin
Mother of Lead-poisoned children
#LeadSafeMama
Owner of Lead Safe Mama, LLC
Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on an Amazon link, Lead Safe Mama, LLC may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you.
For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:
Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).
- Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
- Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
- All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
- Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!
Re pimples and acne: I recommend a book called “The Clear Skin Diet” by Nina and Randa Nelson. It’s vegan. The authors were raised vegan but had severe acne problems as teens and young adults. With the help of Dr. John McDougall (The a starch Solution), they were able to tweak their diets and clear up their acne. The basic premise is to remove oils and fats, even healthy oils and fats (at least for a little while to see which triggers acne).
(I’m vegan, and this worked for my kids.)
Thank you for the discount code for the soaps!
Thank you for commenting! I will check out that book!
T
Thanks for sharing this. These are beautiful. Although, it looks like several of the bars have mica powder in them. Just curious why no concern around lead and heavy metals in mica? THanks!
Hi Sharon! Thanks for commenting.
It is my understanding that she uses the Mica as a way to avoid food-dyes (which are very reactive / toxic to the end-user.)
I haven’t tested the Mica she uses specifically – but I don’t have a lead concern with it.
I did tell Adriana that I have a concern for inhalation of any and all dusts and powdered ingredients during manufacturing and that I wanted to make sure she wears a mask when she makes those soaps.
I have tested Mica-containing-products before (powdered makeups) and have not found them to be high in Lead (or even positive for Lead that I can recall) but I will definitely ask A. to send me a sample to test (more because I am concerned for making sure she stays safe – than for a concern in the soap for the user – in terms of the practical application.)
Tamara