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SoapRocks
By Amy Tocchet
Now here's a great idea. Glycerine soaps that look like the most beautiful
rocks I've ever seen. These certainly aren't the kinds of rocks you see
walking on the beach. These are the rocks you see in museums.
The Idea
SoapRocks is the brainchild of Todd Pink. Pink discovered the idea one
morning while looking at a bunch of soap scraps in his bathtub. He combined
all the soap pieces into one big glob of soap that looked like a rock.
Seeing this glob gave him the wild idea of making soap that looked like
rocks. Using his background in Art, Geology, and Chemistry, Pink spent the
next seven years perfecting his idea, which he ultimately named SoapRocks.
Thanks to the success of his rocks, Pink expanded the SoapRock line to
include smaller rocks called Rockettes and Palmstones and square-shaped soap
called QuarryBars and PictureBars.
The Look
SoapRocks come in about 20 different varieties and 3 different sizes. For
this review I tried the 2 oz rocks (Palmstones, $3 each) and the 6oz rocks
(Rockettes, $6 each) in Amethyst, Aquamarine, Marble, Opal and Rose Quartz.
These rocks looked so pretty, I really felt guilty using (wasting?) them!
The prettiest of the bunch was the Amethyst. It looked like a large-scale
version of my amethyst stud earrings. Beautiful!
The Rose Quartz was just as gorgeous; it was made up of multiple shades of pink and purple. All the
rocks contained gold etchings. I didn't really understand the gold; it
looked really weird in the rocks, especially in the Marble and Opal ones
(I'm no rock expert but I know there is no gold in real marble or opal.) I
think all of the rocks would have looked even more stunning without the
gold.
The Performance
I love gylcerine soaps because they lather nicely and cleanse well, without
stripping my skin of essential natural oils. SoapRocks work nicely for
sensitive skin like mine. My skin didn't dry out from using the soap.
Now that I've said some nice things, let's get down to business. The first
thing that bothered me about the rocks was the size. The 2oz rocks were so
small it took me forever to lather my entire body.
After 2 days of use, the rocks got to be so tiny, it was pointless to try to lather with them. On
the other hand, the 6 oz. rocks were so awkward to grasp and kept slipping out of my hands. Grrr.
The second thing that bothered me was the scent. The scent was okay, a kind
of Chamomile/Lavender combo, but all the soaps smelled the same. It took me
all of 30 seconds before I got really bored with the scent. Well, at least I smelled
good after getting out of the tub right? Wrong. I still had to load up on lotion to smell halfway decent.
The company says that each SoapRock lights up under water. HUH?? There was
no lighting up of any kind under the water. How disappointing.
Even when
the scent was unremarkable and the size awkward, I could still really enjoy
these little guys if there was some sort of magical light show (how cool would that be?!).
The company also claims that "over many uses, [the SoapRock] slowly weathers
away in your hands like a stream stone in geologic time." Yeah, right. That wasn't
the case at all. In fact, from the few uses I got out of each rock, the rock looked and
felt less and less like a stone and more and more like a glob. Oh well.....
If I knew somebody who collected rocks, these might make a great gift idea.
Or, if I knew somebody whose birthstone was Amethyst or Aquamarine, this
would make a cute birthday present. Outside of these two, I cannot think of
a good reason to spend six bucks on a SoapRock (or most any other rock, for
that matter).
You can check out SoapRocks at
SoapRocks.com
and
SmallFlower.com
(FYI, SoapRocks.com has photos and a wider selection;
Smallflower.com has the better prices).
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