Summer and Other Stories

This article was posted on February 12th, 2007 by KV Villareal, Web and Mobile Content Assistant at www.shopcrazy.com.ph under the title “Lather, Rinse, Repeat”.

KV says: “We all know that it’s not only important to moisturize your face, but also your entire body as well. But being the lazy girl that I am, I find that most days, I just can’t be bothered with another extra fifteen minutes to slather lotion all over my body and wait for it to dry before getting dressed for work.

“And because there are more than twice as many soaps as there are facial cleansers, it will take me FOREVER to try each brand, each type, just to find one that’ll match my sensitive combo skin.

“So imagine my reaction when I received a package on my desk one morning—a native basket with a variety of handcrafted soaps. I wondered how these would be different from the rest. But before passing judgment on anything, I decided to give them a try.

“These soaps by Summer and Other Stories are made from a special blend of food grade vegetable oils and coconut milk, wherein they actually add more oil than needed to make sure that the soaps won’t dry your skin. “Superfatted” is what they describe them. And this is the only time that fat is actually good for you.

“I tried all five soaps that I got, each having its own distinct feature. Addiction is a blend of real chocolate swirls and essential oils of eucalyptus and peppermint. Think mint chocolate in a bar. It smells so good that you’d have to stop yourself from licking it. Soap Opera is a mix of orange essential oil and patchouli essences, both associated with earthy and exotic aphrodisiacs. Best used at night, before going to bed, as it gives that relaxing feel. Summer Loving has orange essential oils with a generous mix of poppy seeds, which exfoliate the skin. It leaves you feeling clean and fresh, having exfoliated and moisturized skin as soon as you step out of the shower. Natural High has a mix of lemon and lime essential oils, both of which refresh and relax. It smells so citrus-y and summer-y. It’s like Soap Opera, which gives that relaxing vibe, but with an extra bounce in your step. Or rather, your skin. Rain in the Summertime has lavender and jasmine essential oils, which are known to provide a calming and soothing effect. Best used at the end of a stressful day at work.

“All soaps are hand-made, weigh around 130 grams each, and retails for P75 apiece. Discounts are given for bulk orders. For inquiries, contact Summer and Other Stories through 0917-520-7894.”

We are a couple of Filipino soapmakers who make and encourage the use of all-natural handcrafted soaps. We cannot see the reason for using synthetic soaps when all-natural bars can do the job so much better. Why use soaps made with sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) when you can use soaps made from 100% pure food grade vegetable oils? Go ahead read your soap label and chances are your soap uses SLS.

Some soapmakers refer to soaps made with SLS and other cheap chemicals as detergents. They tend to strip away your skin’s natural oils leaving it dry and irritated. When you run a fingernail across your arm and you see that white streak of dry skin, that’s the commercial soap working.

We are here to give you a choice. We at Summer and Other Stories make soap using the cold-process method. We make them in log moulds we made ourselves and in small batches at a time. We use at least five vegetable oils, the kind you can find in the supermarket. We use a generous amount of real coconut milk which we believe is better at moisturizing than goat’s milk. (Goat’s milk when left out in the open for some time curdles into cheese; coconut milk turns to virgin coconut oil. A world of difference.) Our handcrafted soaps are also “superfatted”, that is we add a little more oil than necessary so they do not remove your skin’s natural oils. We use essential oils like lavender, jasmine, orange, and peppermint, among others, to scent our soaps while taking advantage of the therapeutic effects of these oils.

Many of our friends who have tried our soaps say they will never go back to using commercial soaps, as if they’ve developed an aversion for them. Maybe they were just pulling our legs so we can give them some more soaps. Maybe not. Why don’t you find out for yourselves? One bar at a time.