Sugar Skull Soap (by Silk Road Trading Company)

[Silvertree]

Vibrant with the joy and sweetness of life in death! A blend of five sugars, lightly dusted with candied fruits.

Water, saponified organic fair-trade palm kernal oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, organic fair-trade shea butter, castor bean oil, jojoba oil, Sugar Skull fragrance, and crushed vanilla bean.

Now, I've received many a good-smelling package from Black Phoenix”” both the Lab and the Trading Post. The box my soap arrived in smelled better than anything I can describe. Sugar Skull is one of my favorite scents, a fragrance that never fails to put me in a good mood. Naturally, I couldn't wait to have it in soap form!

The wrapper is what you'd expect and hope for from the soap gurus at Silk Road: beautiful and perfectly appropriate. Pink and red hearts adorn a black background, interspersed with cheerfully grinning skulls. When I carefully slit open one side of the packaging, the delicious smell wafting out intensified, and I decided to take the soap for a test wash.

Sugar Skull soap is a lovely creamy brown, like pale coffee, with a milky white core. Little flecks of ground vanilla bean pepper the soap and provide the perfect scrubby texture to really clean your skin without rubbing you the wrong way. I lathered myself with extreme enthusiasm, and was rewarded with soft clouds of lather. The familiar, comforting aroma of rich brown sugar and just-ripe fruits filled the shower; there's no way this little bar could pass for unscented. The tiny silken bubbles washed clean, so that I felt neither oily nor too dried-out and squeaky-clean.

The scent doesn't linger too much post-shower. There's just a whiff of sweetness, a gentle breath of fruity fragrance. Sugar Skull perfume would go quite well with this, of course, but I don't think another perfume would clash, either. Bathe and scent with abandon! Edited September 12, 2007 by Shollin

[shelldoo]

another lovely bptp soap. it is very lightly fragranced sugar skull, true to the scent of the same name, it doesn't over power the shower, but makes it's gentle self known, i again use a poof due to the scrubby texture, but i have uber sensitive skin, so some may not need that step. there is just something so decadent about lathering this lovely scent on my body. i am truly spoiled.

[Keslynn]

Sugar Skull's wrapper features white skulls and red hearts on a black background. It's adorable and perfect.

 

Upon opening the wrapper, I find myself a little disappointed. The soap doesn't really smell like Sugar Skull. It smells like a creamy soap (like Dove but with that creaminess I didn't like in Dorian) with a hint of burnt sugar, and I'm reluctant to try it. But fear not! Upon wetting and using the soap, the Sugar Skull scent blossomed and that weird creaminess went bye bye. The scent is still a little less full-bodied than the perfume, but it leaves a perfect light Sugar Skull-licious scent on the skin.

 

The soap is brown with darker brown scrubby vanilla specks. It's just the right amount of scrubbiness when I use it with my washcloth. Lather is thick and nice.

[tazjia]

Sugar Skull may well be my perfect soap.

 

I should start by noting that I have an impaired sniffer, when it comes to the soaps... many of them smell unscented to me. Sugar Skull is not one of those: I can smell it as soon as I step in the bathroom and it's fantastic in the shower. I get great scented lather, and it makes me happy.

 

The scrubbiness is also excellent. My skin is dry and pretty sensitive, so I always use lotion post-shower. I've not tried SS without lotion afterwards, but this does seem to be one of the better soaps for my skin (not just BPAL, but any brand).

 

I'm trying like hell to stop myself from buying 10 bars of this. I so wish it wasn't LE!!

[Jilara]

My housemate and I went through the usual ritual with this one. Pass it back and forth a couple times, in the wrapper, breathing deeply of the lucious fragrance, then slit the wrapper and unwrap it, read every word, appreciate the hearts and skulls, and sniff heavily. Then off to the bathroom with the soap!

 

I actually like the soap scent better than the oil! My housemate says it makes him think of sugar babies and candy corn, more than anything. I think of the old dime stores with wax bottles and lips and sweet treats, and yes, a bit of sugar babies in there, too. The scent lingers on your hands after use. The soap itself is best described as lucious. It's got a wonderful sensuous, creamy feel to the lather. I haven't run into anything seriously gritty, but it's brand new. I also just finished a bar of Al Azif, which is seriously gritty with sandalwood, so I doubt that vanilla bean has quite as much substance. Sugar Skull is one of my top favorites in the soaps, now!

[Eemia]

This smells so damn good. Like creamy vanilla. A very sweet and tart version of vanilla. I think it smells even better than the actual oil because it has less of the sharp, burnt sugar smell. I keep picking this up just to smell it when I walk by my soap dish.

 

It has a bit of texture from the vanilla beans but it doesn't feel abrasive or gritty (Al-Azif and Perversion are much more scrubby). I could use this everyday, as often as I would one of my non-texture soaps. The lather is just as nice as all of the Trading Post soaps. And it's easy to work into a lather. It rinses very cleanly too.

[QueenFae]

Yum! My all time favorite BPAL LE in soap form, I am in heaven. I bought 3 bars unsniffed!

 

Fresh out of the wrappper: Yum, this smells very much like Sugar SKull '05; it's on the fruitier end of the spectrem, rather than overly brown sugary. It has little bits of scrubbies everywhere that look like coffee bits.

 

In the shower: The scent isn't super strong, but I can smell it lightly on my skin. The scrubbies are actually pretty hard core, so don't use this unless you are up for some serious exfoliation! It has a nice lather, and leaves my skin very soft.

 

Great!! I LOVE BPAL soaps!! I wish this was not a limited edition

[hackess]

I received a sample bit of this one as an extra in a decant circle. It may have single-handedly changed my mind about Sugar Skull. I'd tried the '05 version and was hit with sugared fruit slices, those gel-like candies that look like sliced fruit? It wasn't horribly appealing, so I passed it on. But this soap is gorgeous! It smells like brown sugar and just a hint of the fruit. It lathers up very well, but the little piece (about 1.5in x .75in x .5in) I've got has lasted longer than I expected. I've been using it at the kitchen sink to wash my hands after handling messy things for about a month now. It's got some grit to it, especially as I get down to the end of the bar, but it's not too abrasive. If this is ever available again, I'd snap up several bars.

[Pookstrell]

It must be me, but I can't detect any of the familiar Sugar Skull fragrance in this soap! I sniffed and sniffed, but to no avail! Nice lather and scrubby bits, but no scent. Alas!

[girlygirl]

Strongly fragranced when dry. Lighter fragrance upon use. Lots of lather. Tiny gently scrubby bits. Adorable wrapping: pink and red hearts and white skulls on a black background. I love this soap and hope the Trading Post offers it again!

[zankoku_zen]

This smells faintly of sugary vanilla. However, I can tell you that super aged vanilla bean bits are HARD and will cut you. Like legit. Scrub carefully.

It works well as a soap, its a very dense bar since its lost water weight. That said, the fragrance has also taken a hit. You can barely smell it.

Won't stop me from using it though.