Category: Blogtober 2026

Your lovely bar of soap really should give you more than three three showers and a disappointed sigh.  If yours seems to vanish at speed, check you’re not committing any of these bar soap sins…

1. Leaving it sitting in water

That little puddle beneath your soap? It’s slowly turning your bar into mush (or snot, as we call it in the trade – you know exactly what I mean!)  Give it a dish that drains properly, rather than its own private paddling pool.

2. Parking it under the shower

Even if you’re not using it, water spraying over your soap will keep washing it away. Put it somewhere the shower can’t reach because it really doesn’t need to join you for the entire performance.

3. Using a soap dish that doesn’t actually drain

A dish can look lovely and still be spectacularly bad at its one and only job. Your soap needs to sit above any collected water, with enough airflow to dry between uses. Empty and clean the dish regularly too.

4. Keeping a whole bar in a damp soap saver bag

Those little bags are brilliant for using up slivers. But a whole bar left in a wet bag can stay damp and soften faster. I recommend collecting up all those slivers towards the ends of their lives and THEN popping them in the exfoliating bag, so that you can use up every bit.

5. Rubbing the bar for the entire wash

You don’t need to keep scrubbing away at the bar once you’ve got enough lather. Lather up your hands, a washcloth or a loofah, then put the soap down (somewhere dry!!) and get on with washing. It’s allowed a tea break.

The biggest favour you can do your soap? Let it dry properly between uses.

You’ve paid for a lovely bar. Make sure you get to enjoy it before it slides down the plughole. 😉

Vicki x

Every Soap Mine order comes with a little soap sample tucked inside. It’s a small thing, but there are five very good reasons why I do it.

1. Because a little extra is always lovely

You’ve ordered soap. You’re expecting soap. But bonus soap? That’s got to make you happy 😁

2. Because you can’t smell a website

I can describe a fragrance until the cows come home, but there’s only so much “fresh, woody, with a hint of…” can tell you. Sometimes you just need a sniff.

3. Because your next favourite might surprise you

It’s easy to stick with the scents you know you love. A sample lets you try something different without committing to a whole bar. That one you’ve been scrolling past might actually be rather fabulous.

4. Because yes, I’d quite like you to come back

Let’s not pretend this is entirely selfless. 😂 If you love your sample and order a full-sized bar next time, we’re both happy. That’s a pretty good arrangement.

5. Because I appreciate every order

You have plenty of places to buy soap, and you’ve chosen mine. A little sample is one way of saying thank you for keeping this small business bubbling along.

Got your eye on something? Pop a request in the order notes and I’ll do my best to include that sample.

Vicki x

It’s 1st October, and it seems I’ve decided to do Blogtober again. This would be a perfectly sensible idea if I had lots of spare time, nothing much going on, and the kind of organised life that allows for daily blogging.

Unfortunately, none of those things are true. 😂

The last time I did Blogtober was in 2021, and for some utterly unfathomable reason I’ve decided that five years later would be an excellent time to have another go.

So, for the next 31 days, the plan is to post something here every day.

Some posts will be about soap. Some will be about running The Soap Mine. Some will probably be little glimpses of workshop life, home life, Jac, autumn in Beddgelert, things I’ve learnt, things that have gone wrong, things I’m currently obsessed with, and whatever else happens to be going on that day.

Some posts might be useful, some might be mildly interesting and some may simply prove that I remembered to write something before going to bed.

I’m deliberately not setting myself the task of writing 31 enormous, beautifully polished blog posts because that would almost certainly result in me giving up by about the 4th October.

Instead, I’m treating this as a little diary of October 2026.

Thirty-one days of soapy life and everything in between.

Let’s see how far I get. 😬

Vicki x