An Etsy treasuries collection

Items from The Gentleman's Soap Company have been featured on a number of Etsy treasuries lately- I suspect treasury curators are trying to advertise Father's Day type products. There are a lot of good mens items on Etsy to check out, and browsing these links is a quick and easy way see many of them.
If you're our friend on facebook you might have already seen these links. If you're not our friend, why not?

Dude
Please Pass the Grey Poupon
This is how I roll, son
Men and Man's Best Friend
The Gentlemen in your life
For the urban cowboy
Friday finds
For Him .. Masculine
The Fox and the Hound
What Whiskey Cannot Cure, There is no Cure For
Favorites
Unfound Finds

All of the items in our Etsy shop, including the shave soaps in hand-folded gift boxes, are on sale through Father's Day.

On another press-related note, I was excited to see we were mentioned on the blog Soap is Beautiful. While I tend to think of soap as more of a functional product than something to look at, there are some very artistic soaps out there. How nice to be considered among them.

Week (Month?) in Review #8

My apologies to anyone who might have missed blog posts over the last two weeks. The end of spring semester and start of spring cold and allergy season came together and threw us off for a little bit. All packages have been shipped within one business day, and new products have been listed, but blog posting has suffered.

The good news is, that leaves plenty of new things to review. Perhaps a 'month in review' is a better idea.

I had already introduced the aftershaves in the last week in review, but want to update to say that they are now available in the shop in every scent, including two new ones - Fatherly Gentleman and English Gentleman. English Gentleman is a scent we've been working on for a good while, and we've finally come up with a blend we really enjoy. It's a warm combination of black tea, tobacco, and cherry hardwood. Look for English Gentleman to join the rest of our family of fragrances, with shave and body soaps coming soon.

Fatherly Gentleman is a new limited-edition scent. When it's gone, it's gone. The scent of Fatherly Gentleman is light and clean, featuring traditional men's vetiver and amber with hints of smoke and spicy florals. In addition to being available as an aftershave, we've also put together some special Fatherly Gentleman soap and solid cologne sets. For just $10 you get an attractively packaged set that includes a 4-4.5 oz bar of bath soap for average skin, and a 0.5 oz tin of solid cologne, both in the Fatherly Gentleman scent.

In addition to these new fragrances, we've started a whole new line of scents - Yoga Scents. These are unisex fragrances that are a little more herbal than our gentleman's line, and focus on the considered therapeutic and aroma-therapeutic properties of the herbs and essential oils contained. The first two soaps to be finished production and curing are virhabhadrasana and natarajasana. Virhabhadrasana, the name for Warrior Pose, is a balancing and antiseptic scent, featuring tea tree essential oil and crushed rosemary. Natarajasana, the name for Lord of the Dance pose, is an energizing and uplifting fragrance, created with essential oils of grapefruit, bergamot, and lime.

Week in Review #7

We skipped posting a week in review last week. Most of what we'd done wasn't too exciting. We finished up getting the last of the feedback from our testers, designed labels for some new products, and bought a new printer. All that was to get ready for this past week.

Aftershaves are ready. We're pretty excited about these. We put a lot of research into our ingredients and what it takes to make a good aftershave. Once we figured out a recipe that would, in theory, accomplish our aftershave goals we put it to the test on Matt, then tweaked it and tweaked it until finally it was right. The guys we know jumped at the chance to test aftershave for us, and even with their widely differing skin types  they gave it a big thumbs up.

A good aftershave needs to accomplish a number of tasks. It must help to close pores that were opened by warm water, clean any nicks, balance pH that was thrown off by alkali shave soaps or creams, moisturize, and soothe skin. A pleasant scent is nice, too. Our aftershave contains all the ingredients to accomplish these tasks, without the harsh burn of alcohol. And, just like our soaps, our aftershave is available in a number of different fragrances to fit the personal scent of each gentleman. Shaving is something you have to do, and do frequently - why not make it a nice experience?

Another new addition to our product line is our Foot and Body Scrub. The inspiration for this scrub came from a coworker who asked if I could figure out something for her husband's "crusty feet". But I didn't want to stop at just moisturizing and exfoliation. I work in a hospital, where I frequently have to deal with the funky feet of others, so anything that was meant for feet needed to address the issue of stink. Lastly, feet get tired. They're packed into work boots or dress shoes or sneakers and forced to carry us around all day long. A product for feet should help soothe and relax them. On top of all that, the end product had to be masculine.
I think I accomplished my goals.

Epsom salts provide the perfect combination of scrubbing exfoliation, and soothing soak. I think of Epsom salts as being more sporty and manly than, for example, something like brown sugar that other lady scrubs use. Oils like olive and sweet almond are excellent moisturizers, and when they're infused with arnica can be muscle soothing as well. Cinnamon and cedar essential oils really get rid of stink, and have a smokey, woodsy, masculine scent.

Our testers were really positive about the Foot and Body Scrub. In fact they liked it enough to use on their arms and legs too, hence the "and Body" bit. I know that exfoliation may be thought of as for women only, but I promise it's not. Give it a try. Your feet, and those that get near them, will thank you.

All of that is available in the shop.

Week in Review #5

This week we started listing the first of our cigar box gift boxes. As it turns out, cigar boxes are a great size for  gift boxes, and I think they look pretty classy. We started with a set of Classic Gentleman items, but more sets in other scents will be on their way soon.

I've gotten some great feedback on the foot & body scrub, so those should be made up and listed for sale soon. This scrub is excellent for exfoliation, skin softening, and muscle relaxing - a great way to rid your skin of the last of the dry winter flakes. (Exfoliation? For men? Yes, for gentlemen.)

Blog posts will now be coming out three times a week, sometimes about the shop but mostly about a variety of other gentlemanly topics or websites of note. I'm also excited to announce that our polymath friend Tom has agreed to start some guest blogging spots. Look for his posts starting sometime in the next month. Besides being an all-round cool and nice guy, Tom always has a project (or two or three or four) going on. He has great ideas for some how-to posts which I'm excited to read.

We've been back at soaping some new scents. The next of our Yoga Scents line, a bergamot, grapefruit, and lime blend, is about halfway through curing. A whole new scent, the Fatherly Gentleman, is quickly becoming a new favorite around here and will be available as a limited-edition scent in May, just in time for those looking to pick up a Father's Day gift.

Week in Review - Second week in April

This week hasn't been overly exciting. We've been waiting on packages to get to testers so we can get some feedback on our new aftershave and foot & body scrub. In the meantime, we've started trying to clear off some of our shelves to make room for new products. 

Matt had made us this lovely shelving unit when we started The Gentleman's Soap Company, but now it's pretty stuffed. We decided to try to sell off a bunch of books, movies, CDs, and DVDs to make room other places. They're all on Amazon if you want to check out our online yard sale.

I had just enough space on the shelves to make another of the Yoga Soap line. This one is an invigorating blend of grapefruit, bergamot, and lime.

Hopefully testers will be trying stuff out and getting us feedback soon, and we will have more exciting news next week.

Week in review - The End of March

Last week we celebrated the end of our online shop's first month open. To celebrate, we took a night off from making anything and watched a movie. It was the first night we just "did nothing" in awhile.

We've finally gotten our aftershave and salt scrub recipes to a point where we really like them, and samples are being mailed out to testers this week. Hopefully they will like them, too, and we will have both products in the shop soon.

I've started work on the Yoga Soap line. The first one I mixed up is a refreshing blend of grapefruit, lime, and bergamot essential oils. It's still in the mold but so far smells really uplifting and nice.

If you've been interested in trying one of our soaps but can't pick which one to try, we now have a two pound soap package listed. You get a 10% discount on the soaps by buying in bulk, and maximize the bang for your shipping buck by packing a flat-rate mailer full.

Lastly, this week you'll notice a small change in the blog. In addition to weekly reviews of soon-to-come and just listed products, we're going to start doing regular features on other websites, shops, blogs, recipes, and other things that we think pertains to gentlemen. Look for the next of these posts on Wednesday.

The Week (and a few days) in Review

This week's week in review comes a bit late, but it's for good reason. I wanted to wait until I had pictures taken and posted of our most recent creation, Classic Gentleman Solid Cologne. Also listed this week were Barbershop Gentleman Solid Colognes.

Solid colognes are nice for a couple reasons. First, they don't create that nasty cloud of stink around you that spray scents can. As posted in the product listings, in our opinion, real gentleman should wear their scents close to them for themselves and those close to them to enjoy. No one wants to be overpowered by your smell as you walk past. To put on a solid cologne you rub your finger across the top and then apply it to pulse points. The oils contained are not only good for your skin, but hold the delightful scents close to you, not drifting away into the air.

Solid colognes are also nice because they are very portable. The 0.5 oz tin can easily fit into most any spot, so it's easy to keep one on you. Though really, they last long enough that the tin can just be left in the bathroom, or wherever you usually get ready for the day. You shouldn't need constant reapplication. Matt puts some cologne on in the morning (we're partial to the Classic Gentleman scent) and I can still smell it at the end of the day. Still, it would be a good idea to toss one in a gym bag, or if you wanted to keep a separate scent in the car as your "after work" scent.

The 0.5 oz sizes of Old Timey Dry Skin Salve were scooped up before I could even list them in the store. If you were looking to get one, sorry. I will probably do a more medium sized 2oz size sometime in the future.

In response to a request from some of our customers, we will be working on a new line of soaps that focus on the considered therapeutic and aroma-therapeutic properties of the herbs and essential oils they contain. In addition to tea tree and rosemary (the Robust Gentleman in our men's line), I'm working on spearmint and basil, grapefruit and bergamot, and lavender and clary sage. This new line of soaps, Yoga Soaps, should be available in May or June.

If anyone didn't see already, we were featured in a new men's style blog www.iamthelab.com! Go check it out. There are a lot of really cool things on there. I'm particularly fond of that mustard-colored jacket from JandHP Vintagewear and the watch from Dezeen Watch Store. Plus the design and layout of the blog is really nice.

We recently worked out the details of our wholesale program, so if you are a retailer interested in selling any of The Gentleman's Soap Company's products, please contact us at thegentlemanssoapcompany@gmail.com

A Very Quick Week in Review

I wish I had had my camera earlier. Matt and my brother, Sean, were busy in the woodshop today and did some nice work on some new scales for a vintage straight razor that will be restored. Matt is also working out a design he likes for handmade shave brushes. Of course I didn't have my camera, so this post won't be very visually interesting.

If you check the shop now you might notice all the "coming soon" labels are now gone. All soaps are in stock. I will be posting Meet the Soap posts for our newcomers - the Culinary Gentleman and the Early Morning Gentleman - soon. Also, if you were waiting on the Barbershop Gentleman in extra cleansing, or the Beatnik Gentleman in extra moisturizing, they are done curing and are in stock.

Old Timey Dry Skin Salve is ready in the 4 oz amber PET jars. Not sure if a whole 4 oz is for you? By request, look for little 0.5 oz sizes later this week. Also later this week, solid colognes will be listed in at least two scents, hopefully more.

-Nicole

Gift sets and other things coming up

This week we've been working on a number of different things. We've been tweaking our aftershave and solid cologne recipes, learning to make wooden bowls, and starting some gift box sets.

We'll be testing the aftershaves and colognes on happily willing family and friends, and after using their feedback to perfect them, they will be made available on our website.

Matt took a woodworking class this week and made this beautiful wooden bowl. He needs to order a few things to be able to do this at home, but plans on turning this new skill into soap dishes, shave bowls, and shave brushes.

A few people have asked me if we will be doing anything special for Father's Day in June. We definitely will have gift sets available in plenty of time to have them ordered, shipped, and delivered before Father's Day. For those looking for a smaller gift (for an Easter basket, perhaps?) I've started listing some shave soaps in hand-folded paper gift boxes on our Etsy shop.

Old Timey Dry Skin Salve is temporarily sold out, but don't worry, there will be more available soon. Also, the Barbershop Gentleman will be available in all styles by the end of this week.

Online Shop Opening March 1st

If you haven't checked out our shop yet, take a look and see what you think. Many of our soaps will be fully cured and ready to ship out on March 1st. Everything will be listed at a special introductory price through the month of March, with more soaps and other products being added all the time. In fact, I just made up a batch of my Old Timey Dry Skin Salve, which has been a huge hit with testers. Sore Muscle Balm and solid colognes should be out within the month as well.

We're also proud to announce that we are now members of the Handcrafted Soapmaker's Guild.