Handcrafted Vegan Soap!

I'm kind of a soap addict. Any time I find myself at a craft fair or festival, if there's a soap vendor, you can bet I'll be there asking about ingredients in their soaps. If they're vegan, I always buy a bar or two. Last holiday season, I even started making my own soaps with vegan soap base and essential oils to give away as gifts (but of course, I made plenty of bars for myself too! One for you, one for me, right?).

Of course, I'd rather have soap that someone else lovingly made because that saves me time. And now there's a vegan soapmaker in my area, so I can get locally made, vegan, all-natural soaps. Epiphany Soapworks — a soap maker out of Newbern, Tennessee — contacted me to ask if I'd like to try their handmade, vegan soaps. I browsed their website and opted for the Detox Bar.

This bar is made with activated charcoal, which is said to remove toxins and impurities and can help with acne and eczema. I don't have acne, but I do have a touch of eczema, and my skin could use all the help it can get. Plus, I've been using charcoal toothpaste and face masks for awhile and love them, so why not charcoal soap?

The bar, like all their bars, retails for $8, and it's a hefty bar. It'll last awhile. I tried the bar in the shower this morning, and it had a silky-yet-rough texture that's hard to describe. Like you could feel it digging in and washing off the dirt (and I had just come in from a run, so I was sweaty and nasty).

The scent is very light, just a clean and fresh aroma. But they do have other bars that are more scented, like Relax (lavender), Energize (peppermint and citrus), Rejuvenate (it has coffee grounds in it), and Exfoliate (lemongrass and poppyseed), to name a few.

Not only is Ephiphany Soapworks cruelty-free and all-natural, they also donate part of their proceeds to the ASPCA! So you're helping animals with every purchase! As a special for Vegan Crunk readers, Ephiphany is offering 10 percent off bar purchases if you use the code CRUNK10. Offer starts Tuesday, July 12th and runs for 7 days.