Soothing Suds: Seattle's Best Soap Makers

From moisture rich shaving cubes to handmade vegetable soaps, local companies are making waves with refreshing and soothing products. Quick! Grab a bar and get squeaky clean this winter with our picks for the top local soap makers.








Soap and Shave Cube at Read Leaf
Simplify your morning routine with Red Leaf's soap and shave cube ($5.) This lightly scented bar of glycerin and coconut oil produces a nice lather for shaving, but is so moisture-rich you'll want to slather your entire body with it.  With scents like Black Tea or our favorite, Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey, this is the perfect bath time luxury for both guys and gals! Red Leaf, shopreadleaf.com.


Handmade Vegetable Soap at Seattle Rainwater Soap Company
Harvesting one of Seattle's most abundant natural resources, rain (purified, of course), Seattle Rainwater soaps ($4) are made of natural vegetable oils and come in a variety of pretty earth tones and fresh scents like apple-peach and cucumber-kelp. (We love the special extra-scrubby ingredients too, like coffee grounds and sea kelp.)  The sweet Almond Latte might be just what you need to help wake up on those cool winter mornings. Seattle Rainwater Soap Company, Pike Place Market, seattlerainwatersoap.com.



Olive Oil Soaps at Sweet Petula
Cory Smith’s Sweet Petula soaps ($6.95/6 oz.) may be made of all-natural ingredients with zero synthetic fragrances or colors, but with each bar wrapped up like a present in crisp, chocolate and powder blue paper, they’re certainly not lacking in elegance. Go all out this Valentine’s Day and pamper your sweetie (or yourself!) with a subscription to Sweet Petula ($96) and enjoy a year-long supply of luxurious concoctions like zesty Ginger Blossom (the company’s top seller) and Lavender & Bergamot, a moisture-rich bar made with shea butter (ideal for babies or dry, winter grown-up skin). Sweet Petula, 208 S Jackson St.; 206.431.9311; sweetpetula.com.


Cutting Block Soaps at The bunch
This Bellingham company’s cutting block soap is almost too pretty to hide inside your shower.  Colorful and candy-scented, the Peppermint Patty and Blackberry Lemon Drop make perfect hand soaps ($4.50/3 oz.), while the Lavender Rose Tea with real rose buds is as much “sink ornament” as soap.  Not interested in appearances?  For dry skin, we love the creamy and mildly-scented Lavender Vanilla Goat’s Milk soap ($5.50). The bunch, thebunchstore.com.



Seattle Sundries Handcrafted Soaps
It’s not hard to pick out the right bar of Seattle Sundries soap ($4.75/ 4.5 oz.), because the descriptive names and charmingly illustrated labels tell the whole story.  Selections such as woodsy-scented Sasquatch Soap (with germ and smell-killing tea tree and cedarwood oils to tame your inner wild animal), Buck Naked Soap (mild and hypoallergenic) and Gender Neutral Soap (vanilla scented to appeal to everyone) invite bathers to adopt their sudsy persona.  For the free-spirited hippie in each of us, our favorite is the earthy patchouli-scented Road Trip Soap that contains red clay, to naturally remove impurities. Seattle Sundries, seattlesundries.com.