Savon de Marseilles

**dustind** · 08-26-2006, 09:57 AM

I know there has been a few threads on this soap, but I could not see if anyone has found if there are other places that sell it besides FrenchSoaps.com. I wanted to order some with the crushed flowers but their shipping costs are really high, almost as much as the soap itself.

Anyone found another online seller or a "brick & mortar" store that sells this in California?

**javyn** · 08-26-2006, 04:15 PM

KMF has a Lavender/Olive Oil bar. I don't know if it has the actual crushed flowers in it, but it's cheap and worth a try.

**dustind** · 08-26-2006, 08:52 PM

Picked up some Pre de Provenge from my local small town version of Whole Foods today to give a try. They had an Olive Oil soap and a Lavender. The Lavender is vegtable based though so it's not quite the same thing. But for $2 for a small bar and $4 for a large, I could not really pass it up.

**guenron** · 08-26-2006, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by dustind

Picked up some Pre de Provenge from my local small town version of Whole Foods today to give a try. They had an Olive Oil soap and a Lavender. The Lavender is vegtable based though so it's not quite the same thing. But for $2 for a small bar and $4 for a large, I could not really pass it up.

Hello Dust,
Are you using these for shaving? or bathing? or both?

**dustind** · 08-27-2006, 02:48 PM

Bathing. This got posted in the wrong thread.

**pkmoose** · 08-27-2006, 04:04 PM

Savon de Marseilles is a great soap, but can be expensive to find in the states. The most reasonable place that I have found is ebay.
http://stores.ebay.com/frenchmaison
http://stores.ebay.com/The-Frenchy-Bee

If you like Savon de Marseilles, then you should really try some of the other local olive oil soaps.
Syrian olive oil soap made with Laurel
Click Here
Greek olive oil soaps
Click Here
Click Here
And Here
Italian olive oil soaps
Click Here
And Here
And even Turkish olive oil soap with Laurel
Click Here

Good Luck

Patrick

**dustind** · 08-28-2006, 09:11 AM

Wow PKMOOSE, thanks for the list.

As for results on my weekend purchase of Pre de Provenge, the Olive Oil soaps is ok, not as slick as I thought it would be. And the Lavendar vegtable based soap is a bit rough. The scent is nice, but the left to much of the stalk in the soap.

**xcubbies** · 08-30-2006, 09:21 AM

Living in Switzerland there is a large selection of Savon de Marseilles options. I went through a phase during the winter of trying several for shaving. They're okay, but nothing exceptional for that purpose. I found something like Proraso also inexpensive and easier to use.

**javyn** · 09-01-2006, 09:01 PM

Would any Americans who have tried both Kiss My Face and Savon de Marseilles be willing to tell us how they compare? The ingredients for both are the same I think, it's just KMF isn't made in France, or by hand. I have been using the KMF olive oil bar, and have been quite happy with it so far...of course the real test is Winter time.

**dustind** · 09-03-2006, 07:56 AM

I know the my local natural food market sells KMF. I'll see if they have any of the bar soap or not.

**Stauff** · 09-03-2006, 01:43 PM

Not wanting to spoil anyone's apetite for Savon de Marseille -nor wishing to hijack this thread-, but I generally find SdM a bit crude. To me these cubes and lumps of brown or green soap (sometimes with nasty hard bits in them) always seemed to be the soaps people used in boarding schools in the 1930's (with ice cold water and afterwards a towel washed without any fabric softener

). I must say I prefer a fine triple milled English soap or a bar of Roger et Gallet over any Marseille soap. If I feel like using olive oil soap, I'll reach for Aleppo soap instead. I fear that here in Europe Savon de Marseille has been a bit over-commercialized. I even have detergent to clean my kitchen floor wit SdM in it.

**Pilfer** · 09-03-2006, 08:45 PM

Hey, I actually like towels washed with no fabric softner. They give you a great back scratch when you're drying off.

**galopede** · 09-04-2006, 09:55 AM

Yep, I agree with Pilfer. No fabric softeners go near my towels. It seems to waterproof them as well.
Gareth

**crackstar** · 09-04-2006, 10:30 AM

The Syrian olive oil soap that I had was hand-made in the city of Aleppo, Syria. I admit that it doesn't really smell nice, but it's so gentle on the skin and gives rich moisturization.

Jeff

**dustind** · 09-05-2006, 01:40 PM

Sell, I'm still on my first bar of Olive Oil soap and not all that excited about it. Could just be the brand and ingredients.

As for the softner comment, maybe you want to try the Nancy Boy detergent. They claim that you don't need a softner with it. I was gonna pick some up but my wife does not like powered detergents.