Soak Sunday Bath & Body

[unpaid/sample] Today is all about the drawing in of autumn and a refocus on comfort and hunkering down. I saw a quote – and I wish I could remember where but I can’t – that autumn isn’t the end of something, it’s the beginning of something and I really like that way of looking at things. There are definitely things I look forward to in autumn – digging out my nice jumpers, looking for a new season boots for the rare occasion when Fitflop boots won’t do and lighting candles again which I tend to do much less in summer.

Soak Sunday is a recent discovery – a contemporary vegan collection mainly for bath and body that hits exactly the right note of indulgence meets restraint. It’s all based around scent moods so you’ll find Rose Utopia for relaxing, Midnight Storm for detox and restoration and Cleo’s Paradise (named for Cleopatra) for calming and soothing. Visually, it’s right up my street especially if you opt for Rose Utopia which is mostly pink (not millenial pink, a proper Liquorice Allsorts pink) and this moody grey Midnight Storm bath soak – there isn’t much in the bath & body category that looks nice grey but this does, somehow.

I’ll do the ‘buts’ first. For a brand that feels intimate and non-corporate, there is very little information (i.e. none) about the founders and I have to hope it’s not a white label brand or a VC built-for-sale brand. If you want to form a connection or bond with customers, it’s really important that they are able to know something of you otherwise there’s a whisper of emptiness and nowhere to hang your hat.  My favourite from the products I’ve been sent to try is the Botanical Rose Body Butter which is so perfectly fragranced with a (non-synthetic) fresh bud, not-too-sweet version of rose with a little side of jasmine and sage. I can’t smell the sage (thankfully – it’s too associated with food for me to enjoy it truly in body products) but it’s light and bright in a cocoa seed, sunflower and shea butter base that does what it needs to in terms of nourishing the skin. The finish feels slightly tacky but give it about 30 seconds and that feeling is gone making way for smoothness.

I’m a big fan of bath salts so found Midnight Storm a delight – it’s as moody in scent as the name might suggest with ginger, charcoal and basil… spicy and earthy at the same time. My tip with this is to be generous – the bottle you see would be (in my view) two baths, but two very lovely ones. Midnight Storm is hot soak on a dark night in a jar. The candle is in Cleo’s Paradise – a blend of vanilla, honey and oats that make it sweetly milky. In my view, it’s a little bit too light on scent to make an impact but probably perfectly good for a small room or enclosed space such a bathroom. I like the type face on this that gives it a minimalist, clean look that’s just a little bit quirky. It’s well priced at £21. In fact, the whole Soak Sunday range is priced reasonably – £14 for the salts and I don’t know about the body butter because it’s not yet up as it’s the newest of their products. I like Soak Sunday for gifting, love that it’s glass and aluminium so totally recyclable and that it’s UK made. You can find Soak Sunday HERE.