The problem with men...

FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP

Blokes love our organic soap! It never ceases to astound us that men are the biggest users of our organic soap range. It certainly wasn’t something that we were expecting…not by any stretch of our imagination- but there it is!

Most men wander up to us at the markets- a little embarrassed to begin with- but the conversation generally runs like this:

Us: Hi! Have you used our soaps before? Would you like us to explain the soaps to you?

Bloke: Yeah, that’d be good. My skin gets really dry. My wife buys those damn body-washes. I hate them! I hate pumping the bottle- I hate the flowery smell…I just hate them! I just want to grab a cake of soap & have a shower…but she insists body-washes are better…yet my skin never used to be dry.

We explain our organic soap range- that we don’t use chemicals or fragrances, and that our organic soaps are naturally moisturising.

Most men usually choose our ‘coci’ soap on the basis that they can use it for shaving and as a shampoo as well. They walk away with their purchase in our brown paper bag- hidden under their armpit. The whole scene is vaguely reminiscent of the embarrassed purchase of condoms from a female shop assistant. Ah- but then they come back saying that they loved our soap- their skin has been great- and the next purchase is completed with confidence.

Then we have females who are shopping for soap for their husband or son…either with dry skin or eczema. The conversation generally goes like this:

Woman: I’m looking for soap for my husband. He drives me nuts…he’s hung up on the past and wants to use soap. He reckons that the body-wash makes his skin dry and irritated.

Us: I take it that you don’t have dry skin yourself then?

Woman: No…well I do…everyone does, particularly in winter- but I use moisturiser after I’ve showered. He can’t be bothered! Anyway, I think he just doesn’t like the smell of the body-wash…and he’s stubborn- says he hates fiddling with it all.

So we explain our organic soap range, and that body-washes can be harsh on the skin because of the petrochemicals, and preservatives used to provide a shelf life, and that we don’t add fragrance to our soaps because they are common irritants to the skin. We explain that our soaps are highly moisturising because of the naturally achieved glycerine content…the most moisturising ingredient used in the cosmetic industry- and because of the organic plant oils that we select…which gently nurture the skin without stripping it.

The woman begrudgingly usually buys a ‘coci’ soap then utters a complaint about the extra cleaning she’ll have to do…because soaps are so messy. We comment that in fact there won’t be any difference…that it’s the chemicals used in commercial soaps that cause the residual scum.

We usually wonder afterwards…has the woman in fact ‘heard’ anything that we’ve said? We think blokes are pretty damn switched on to soap with good reason.