Review: Opinicus Soaps

Before Ordering: I actually stumbled across Opinicus Soaps at CONvergence 2010. They had a table in the dealer’s room and I had to stop to check it out. It turns out they are a local company, so while I buy things in person, my housemate has ordered from their website.

What I Ordered: My last purchase was made earlier this month, at CONvergence 2011. I bought 2oz bottles of Air and Country Store lotions (both new scents for me) and a tube of vegan vanilla mint lip balm, a new product that isn’t listed on their website yet. (Edit: Shortly after I posted this review, the vegan vanilla mint AND the plain vegan balms were added to the website!)

Shipping Time: When my housemate has ordered, her purchases have arrived via Priority Mail within a week.

Packaging: The lotions now come in cobalt blue round plastic bottles; the website photos picture the old oval bottles. Lip balms are in a standard-sized tube; mine was transparent, so I can see how much product is left, with a green cap to signify that it’s the vanilla mint flavor. My housemate’s orders have arrived well packed in tissue paper and newspaper.

Ingredients: Ingredients for each item are listed on the website. They also appear on the product labels.

Since the lip balm I purchased isn’t on the website yet but can be purchased in person, the ingredients are as follows:

Castor oil, coconut oil, sustainable palm kernel oil, avacado oil, aloe leaf extract, carnauba, candelilla wax, natural flavors, sugar, vitamin E.

The Product: Yes, you read that right, the lip balm uses sugar for a sweetener. Not artificial stuff, not stevia, which is headache-inducing for some people, but sugar. Although it isn’t listed on the website yet, I have seen unflavored, plain vegan-formula lip balm at CONvergence, so if the sugar is a problem for you, there is still a way to enjoy the formula. (Edit: Again, both vegan balms have been added to the website.)

I haven’t tried the beeswax balms (I typically don’t like beeswax lip balm), but the vegan formula behaves almost like a gloss due to the high oil content. Personally, I like this. I like everything about the balm, really; it’s moisturizing, I can actually taste the vanilla mint, I can actually tell it’s been sweetened with a little sugar, and the mint oil(s) offer an amazing cooling sensation. I haven’t even had my tube for 4 weeks yet and it’s half gone.

The lotions are also good. Even though the formula changed sometime in the last year (it used to be more like a thick cream; water was excluded), it’s still good. It absorbs nicely and seems to moisturize my hands well. When my hands are in really bad shape, I have a bottle of the old formula I can use, but the new one is still fairly thick and creamy, in comparison to most lotions on the market being runny. Again, that might not be your thing, but I prefer a thicker cream over standard lotion.

Air is kind of minty, with something else I can’t pin down. Opinicus actually has all four elements, Fire, Water, and Earth, but I like Air most. Maybe it’s coincidence, but I’m an air sign (or it could be that I’m a sucker for anything peppermint).

Country Store was a complete surprise. I thought it might be a little spicy but not as much as some of their other scents, so I gave it a whiff and fell in love. The basis of the scent is apple cinnamon, and it very much reminds me of my visit to Wall Drug when I was a kid.

Customer Service: I’ve always found Opinicus Soaps to be helpful and ready with scent or product suggestions when dealing with them in person. As for web orders, my housemate did contact them once when her order seemed to be taking a little long and received a response within a couple days (it was the weekend) as to her missing order, and the order itself shortly thereafter.

Final Thoughts:

• Was I happy with my purchase? Of course.
• Would I order from Opinicus Soaps again? You betchya.
• Rating? 5 out of 5 stars.