Zum, Zum, and Then Zum More

If you're like me, you love the feeling you get when you discover a new "green" company to buy from. A few weeks ago, I received a catalog from Indigo Wild. I'd never heard of it, but I was immediately intrigued by the cover. With a subtitle of "Any more natural and you'd be naked.," how could I not look inside?

So, I browsed.. for a couple days. Trying to imagine what anise-lavendar and frankincense & myrrh would smell like in soap form. The bars themselves, with Ruffles-like ridges on both sides, and swirls of colors, combined with possibly the most unique assortment of scents.. drew my attention immediately. And then there was the off-beat humor of the writing and cartoony look of the mascot and graphics.

Yeah. I wanted some. What made it even better were all the natural ingredients, and completely minimalistic packaging. The bar soaps just come with a small cardboard sleeve around the middle; just enough to identify the scent and list the ingredients. My inner tree-hugger was smitten.

The irony is, I hate bar soaps. No really. I always imagine that crusty, cracking green and white soap from my youth; as it would waste away in the corner of the shower.. always with a hair stuck to it. Gah. I hate bar soaps. But something about these seemed different.

The fact that the ingredient list read like something I'd like to eat didn't hurt. The bar soaps are made from pure essential oils, vegetable based oils, herbs, goat's milk, etc. No random chemicals or artifical colors. So, I thought.. "Okay. These are worth investing in a soap dish."

 

So.. I ended up ordering a few... The frankincense and myrrh (my favorite smell of the ones I ordered), clove-mint, almond, sea salt, lime-basil, and then the holiday spiced almond. But who's counting?

As of late, I've also been trying to do more "natural" skin care; with the most recent being the Wonder Bar. My skin always felt clean enough; but I saw no real changes after months of use.. so I also started looking at Indigo Wild's skincare line. Hello, Zum Face. It runs for around $9.50 for a fairly large bar; as opposed to the Wonder Bar; which is $40 and maybe a quarter of the size. Not a hard decision to at least try Zum Face. So, I ordered that as well.

But wait, there's a pet soap too? Oh yes. It's called YUM Bar.

We feed our dog organic food and use an all natural flea repellant.. and yet, the most 'natural' dog shampoo I had found for her was still filled with chemicals. I struggled here, imagining my pup standing still while trying to use a bar soap on her. Indigo Wild does a version in a pump bottle.. but since the whole idea here was to minimize packaging, and especially plastics, I stuck with the bar. It's made with olive and coconut oils, along with goat's milk, aloe, and citronella. The company says that it calms your dog and helps to repel fleas. To add more "good" to the already good, the company donates $1.00 for every YUM bar purchased, to Kansas City Sheltie Rescue. I'll take one of those.

A couple weeks passed by when my order arrived. I immediately started using my new face bar. Though it's too soon to see any significant difference, I can tell you that my skin feels super clean when I use it. Like, squeaky clean.. but not in a 'stripped dry' and bad way. In fact, I feel myself needing less moisturizer at night. Time will tell.

Then, tonight, we decided to put Bristow's (our pup) new soap to the test. She was much more cooperative than usual. Due to the calming scent? No idea. But she calmly stood there as she was lathered up and rinsed off. And as she began to dry, she had a great, clean smell to her (no hint of wet dog). When she was completely dry, her hair was amazingly soft and shiny. I think we have a winner folks.

As for the standard bars? Well, I still haven't gotten that soap dish.. so I'll review those later. What I can tell you, is that I keep unwrapping them just to smell them. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to order everything possible in their frankincense & myrrh assortment.

I purchased my Zum from SoapHope.com

You can also get it from Drugstore.com, which tends to have good discounts and free shipping offers.

Or, lastly, you can go directly to the source, at IndigoWild.com

My overall review is this: The products are solid and functional; and still inviting. From my limited experience, they seem to deliver what they promise. And the fact that they do it with sustainable practices and the heart of hippie.. leaves me really grooving on this company.
Have any of you tried Zum? Or have opinions on the Indigo Wild brand? I'd love to hear your feedback too.