Miskatonic University Soap (by Silk Road Trading Company)

[Desanera]

A venerable New England university, whose vast library holds many rare, diabolical and obscure arcane works, including one of the few surviving legitimate copies of the Necronomicon. Home to innumerable scholars of the esoteric and the occult, and the notorious Dr. Herbert West.

The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls.

In order to really wake your ass up for your Dreamland Physics course or a droning morning lecture in Medieval Metaphysics 101, our Miskatonic University soap has an extra shot of coffee butter!

Water, Coffee, Saponified Organic Palm Kernal Oil, Coconut Oil, Soy Oil, Macadamia Nut Oil, Sodium Lactate, Coffee Butter, Jojoba Oil, Caster Oil, and Miskatonic University.

Wow, am I the first to review the soaps? Or am I just putting it in the wrong section?

Oh well.

Appearance:

Before you put this anywhere near water, CAREFULLY remove the wrapper.

Why?

Because how are you supposed to get into Misk U without your admission letter? Granted, it's got a few coffee rings around it, but that's only to be expected.
If you take the label and ribbon off carefully, you have a complete intact letter, dated for Fall 2007.

Inside the letter are instructions on how to use the soaps.

The actual soap is mottled/swirled brown and white, with the familiar brimstone logo pressed into it.

Wet: This smells like Mocha. Cream and coffee without the bitterness of the coffee grounds - good call there Macha, it would have wrecked this. Not frothy enough to be a latte, it's not milk, but real cream in the coffee. There is also a nut smell behind this (coconut oil I presume) and sort of hazelnutty as well. It doesn't scream NUT, but the background is there.

Dry-down: Given this is soap and not oil, the smell is subtle. But it is there. Not really when I smell my self (and I have been) but when I turn or move suddenly I will get a whiff of myself. Most soaps smell like soap - and stuff attached. Or the smell covers up your scent. This replaces your scent. Like I am a being who would smell like Misk by nature.

I put a little Haloa on top of this, since I figured incense and cake went well with metaphysical library and coffee, and it works. But this is awesome.

Feel: I am moisturized!! I am clean and smooth without being oily, but definitely without the DRYNESS I usually get from soap. It feels GOOD on the body, I just kept sudsing myself for the texture of it. Even now - having gone out in the DRY NYC winter air and through the subway to work - I still smell good, I feel smooth.

I feel good. I was having a crap morning before this and I feel immensely amused right now.

(Note - I've never smelled Misk U in oil format, though I desperately want to now. But the soap is now in my scent locket, cause I didn't want to lose the smell. I took my mulberry paper, smeared it on the wet soap, folded it over and stuck it in my locket. Smells awesome.)

Conclusion: This is awesome. I hope it lasts a long time, because not only do I want to smell like this, I want to feel like this. This winter has been SO DRY, and it's nice to feel moisturized and not greasy. Macha/Beth wonder chicks activate. Great stuff. Edited September 12, 2007 by Shollin

[maribouquet]

I must agree with Desanera, the acceptance letter is great! (Especially as I am currently applying to medical school and so far this is the only one I've received, WOES.)

 

The soap is divine; I love everything about it - the lather is lovely, the scent is creamy, coffee heaven with a sweet, rich flavor to it. I swear I didn't eat the soap, but I wanted to.

 

This is the perfect clean for waking up in the morning, especially when you are a) exhausted, cranky, c) crying on a cellular level against waking. It's like office hours with your Irish psychiatrist, who keeps a dish of butterscotches on his desk along with the tissues.

 

Note to self: order 1,000 more for daily ablutions!

[theseagrows]

let me premise this by saying i've never tried misk u. oil. this soap is lovely! it's a very very soft milky-coffee scent that has a slight almondy(?) note to it. i'm not sure what it is, but this isn't strong coffee, it's coffee filled with milk and maybe a hint of chocolate. after trying the soap, i really want to try the oil now. the lather is perfectly moisturizing, and my skin doesn't feel dried out at all. i LOVE how this soap feels.

[charmingdetails]

Mmmm, this soap is fabulous! The texture is just wonderful, so smooth and creamy, and the scent is rich and delicious. It's not overpowering at all- just the perfect caramel coffee. I look forward to using this soap every morning! Oh, and the wrapper is a treasure- I couldn't throw it away!

[sarahmarie]

This was not my favorite of the BPAL soaps I've tried so far. For some reason, the soap smelled more like dusty wood to me than the irish coffee than the oil smells like. I know it's normal for an oil to smell differently in different situations, but I just don't like the scent as much in soap form.

 

However, I still enjoyed using it. It's a creamy, luxuriant texture and feels really good on the skin. Plus, cutest wrapper ever.

[QueenFae]

This is a gloriously smooth, deep brown bar of soap. Since the MU oil is such a strong scent, I really expected this to be a very strong soap, like Snake Oil was. But, this is a much lighter scent than the Snake Oil suds, still lovely though. The MU soap smells mainly like the rich wood notes, with a hint of the rich caramel tones in the background. I absolutely love MU, and this was such an excellent choice for suds.

 

I love this like I'm sure I'll love all the BPAL suds, but Snake Oil is still my favorite so far.

[twistygirl]

Another winner from the Trading Post suds.

 

I can't wear the Miskatonic U oil as it is just not my cup of tea (or should I say coffee)... hell, I don't even DRINK coffee. But this is luscious. A lovely, creamy, somewhat nutty coffee blend that just smells fabulous. And, as with all the other TP suds I've tried, it's very creamy, good lather, and very moisturizing.

 

And as others have said, the wrapping is pure genius.

 

Definitely will continue to keep buying this one.

[maijasu]

I'm another one who can't wear the Misk U oil--the "dusty tomes" just don't work as a perfume for me. But this soap is all sweet coffee, and so lovely and moisturizing. It didn't leave much scent behind, but that's just fine with me. I'd definitely buy it again, and I'll probably try some other scents too!

[harmonyfb]

Misk U is my favoritest perfume, EVAH, so I was really looking forward to the soap. I unwrapped it slowly and carefully, and admired the beautiful bar. Sniffing it, it smelled a little...well...funny. Huh.

 

This morning, I showered with it. It's obviously very high-quality soap, sudsed well, and left my skin silky smooth. However, it didn't smell like Miskatonic University. It smelled of...well, sweet oil, with a bit of bite to it. No coffee, no dusty books. Wah!

 

After I toweled off, if I put my nose up to my skin, I can smell sweet dustiness (though still no coffee, wah!), but while I was washing? Nada. Weird.

 

::sniffs arm::Mmm, old books.

[Little Bird]

Miskatonic University soap doesn't smell much like the actual MU oil to me or the boy (which the boy likes, since he hates the sweet coffee smell of MU). My bar smells like a nutty, milky something more than a coffee. I've found the scents to be very light in the soaps anyhow. This has a nice, creamy lather to it that worked well with its creamy scent... not too drying, though I still need lotion after using it. It's an okay soap. I do wish these had more fragrance to them.

[hackess]

I haven't tried the MiskU oil yet, so I'm sort of hopeful that it is much stronger and richer than the soap turned out to be. I like the way the bar itself smells - smooth and creamy, just a touch of coffee, rich woods -, but none of that remains on my skin after using it. I so want the oil to be coffee, coffee, coffee and just a little bit of the dusty books.

 

As for function, I don't regularly use bar soap, as it dries out my skin. I had a brief moment while rinsing my hands that it felt like they were going to end up dried out and untouchable, but once I finished rinsing and toweled them, my skin was quite soft and smooth. Nice.

[MissLily]

As a soap, this is wonderful - it's moisturizing and lathers up nicely. I would be perfectly happy with it if I hadn't been expecting to smell coffee, but there's no coffee. I had the same problem using an imp of Miskatonic U to scent flaxseed hairgel - the coffee note evaporated, leaving nothing but dust. It's not what I was looking forward too. Still, it's a lovely soap.

[alianthe]

I was delighted to find that the notes in the oil that go "off" when I wear the perfume don't come to the front when I'm using the soap. Nope, for me it was all luscious lather, mocha goodness, oh-so-soft skin, and a little coffee zing. I swear, I felt just a little low-dose caffeine zip after using this in the shower, and that was before I knew there was coffee in the bar.

 

All in all, it's my favorite morning shower soap.

[naeelah]

This is a very smooth and creamy bar. It's the color of milky coffee and it has a soft texture. The scent is very rounded. Compared to the perfume oil, it doesn't have so much of the sugariness, booze, or dust -- it just smells like sweetened, milky coffee and polished, warm woods. It's a gentle sweetness, not so strong and caramel-like as the perfume. The overall strength of the scent is moderate.

 

I don't find it any more or less moisturizing than other BPTP bars. It's not quite as soft as El Dia de Reyes, so it doesn't melt quite as quickly, but it was one of the softer bars I've tried.

Edited June 24, 2008 by naeelah

[zankoku_zen]

This soap was smooth and creamy. I didn't get as much of the fragrance in the shower as I did when I unwrapped it - which was just a smooth, milky coffee, with perhaps a slight woodiness. No dust. Yeah!

 

I had to give up my Misk U oil because the delicious caramel coffee dried to bone-dust and pledge. Very unhappy about that. But I have to say the soap is pretty nice.

 

I wish it had more coffee in it, but overall, it was just a general pleasant smell. Moisturizing. I like.