It’s super easy to impulse buy bath and body products. These things are labeled as self-care items, all the easier to make excuses for unnecessary purchases, but don’t get me wrong. I enjoy a good sugar scrub, face mask, body oil, and every product has a purpose and a person who swears by it. I just don’t want a ton of products in my own bathroom. Some people find one bar of soap and it becomes the soap they use forever (like me and Mandarin & Marjoram). Eventually, however, one bar with the same texture, fragrance, and ingredients can get boring. I need novelty, but I also don’t want a hoard of random plastic containers of mystery goops and sparkly scrubs, nor do I want to wait a month for the current bar I am using to run out. 

Then there’s decision fatigue.  If there are too many steps, or too many options, I find that I avoid the task altogether. It changes quickly between “dang I have so many options, nice” to “dang, I have too many options, agh”. Now that I made a soap recipe I love, I know I have a consistent product in my own shower but between wanting novelty and making different kinds of soap, it’s hard for me to pick just one. That’s why I have a soap rotation of cut soap bars. Each serves their own purpose: the workhorse bar, the comfort bar, and the reset bar. These are planned to be intentional choices with direction behind each because I truly believe that every little decision matters and adding a tiny bit of whimsy to your day, even if it’s a little orange-scented soap, works out for the better.

First is the Workhorse bar. These are bars that have scrubby ingredients like coffee grounds and poppy seeds, as well as deep-cleaning additions like activated charcoal. Great examples are Lemon & Charcoal from the Woodsman Trio, Vanilla & Chai from the Winter Wilds Trio, and Coffee & Cocoa from the new Spring Fling Trio. I love these bars after long days of yard work, intense lifts at the gym, and washing up after amazing, grimy adventures. 

Next is the Comfort bar. These bars smell like a low-drama end to a trying day. Not only do they smell warm and cozy, but the ingredients like hand-ground oatmeal, honey, and french green clay give your skin a helping hand. My go-tos for cozy bars are Chamomile & Lavender from the Essential Collection, Oats, Milk & Honey from the Winter Wilds Collection, and Lavender & Oats from the Spring Fling Collection. I love these bars after mentally taxing days, days when my skin feels itchy or tight, and when I just want to stand in the shower and breathe for a few more minutes. 

Finally, the last bar in my rotation is a Reset bar. These are bars that have herbal ingredients like peppermint leaf, marjoram leaf, and beetroot powder. These are the bars that make me feel peppy and ready to tackle my to-do lists. For reset bars, I love Rosemary & Mint and Mandarin & Marjoram both from the Essential Collection, and Peppermint & Beetroot from the Winter Wilds Collection. These soaps are the ones I use on days when I feel like disco dancing in the mirror, when I have a busy day ahead of me, or just need a pick-me-up. 

Now, you’re probably asking, why the hell are you cutting bars of soap? Well, like my sample pack, if I can cut the bars into thirds or even in half, I can keep the equivalent of one bar of soap in the shower, have three options to pick from depending on the day, and I still have replacements when those samples turn to slivers. 

A rotation isn’t about maximalizing or consuming more, it’s about using what you have well, and giving yourself a small bit of whimsy in choosing what you to smell like while you clean your butt. <3