MusK soap, Shadows, 100 g

A creamy-yellow, buttery base with angular black pieces set into it — narrow strips, wedges, trapeziums, scattered across the whole cut face, some right up to the very edge. They look like shadows that cannot agree where they belong on a pale wall. Hence the name. In this soap, we use offcuts from our Colorie and Magicie soaps to breathe new life into them.

Yet those pieces are not decoration made to order. They are offcuts and leftovers from cutting other soaps we make, which get a second life in the Nanovo line — nanovo is Slovak for “anew”. Whatever was left behind during cutting, we pour into a new soap. Anew.

Why are no two bars the same?

Because the offcuts are different every time — and so is the way the pieces fall in each bar. The cut face is smooth, but do not look for order in it. We see that not as a flaw but as a signature.

The scent is citrus, carried by three essential oils: bergamot, litsea cubeba (you may know it as may chang) and lemongrass. You would search the ingredients for a fragrance blend in vain. The base is saponified coconut, olive and sunflower oil with shea butter; there is no palm oil in it. Mineral colourants take care of both the buttery yellow and the black. The glycerine that forms during saponification is not removed from the soap.

How is it made and what does it need?

The soap is vegan, weighs 100 g and is handmade by the cold process. We cut it with a wire, and then it cures for at least 30 days — we explain the reasons in our article on why soap cures.

And one more thing, said plainly: essential oils naturally contain allergens — in this soap, for example, citral, limonene, linalool and geraniol. We do not add them separately; they are an inherent part of the essential oils, and you will find them listed by name in the ingredients. You can read more about them in our article on allergens in cosmetics.

Between washes, leave the soap to dry out on a soap dish that lets the water drain away. You can choose between two versions — unpackaged or in a paper box.

To lather is human. Starting anew is human too.