Well, blow us down with a feather. We never imagined that we would ever, ever use a bar soap on our face again. (Last time that happened, it was Clinique, w-a-y back in the day.)

But this soap is a) adorable, with its little smiley face, and b) intrigued us. It is actually created by a beauty editor colleague, Jane Cunningham (British Beauty Blogger), whose very first product this is. She was helped through the process of getting it to market – and into beauty hounds’ hands – by our friend Gill Sinclair, of Victoria Health, who’s stocking the soap, and the rest looks set to become cleansing history. 

The main thing here is that it’s absolutely packed with skin-friendly oils, including olive, hemp, meadowfoam – along with gently exfoliating rice milk extract. It lathers beautifully – weirdly (and we don’t understand this), almost tickles the skin as you cleanse with this. And cleanse we have been – actually cleansing the face at night, occasionally, and also sometimes in the morning, because it leaves skin clean but not squeaky and is basically a JOY to use. There’s something about ‘the times we live in’ that makes us want to be even cleaner than usual. 

Jo is also addicted to washing her feet with it at night – and of course, it’s great for the ceaseless hand-washing ritual that punctuates our days. We don’t even need hand cream. And as for the smell? Because that’s also what has us returning to this: prettily citrusy, thanks to yuzu essential oil.

We found it fascinating to read Jane’s journey behind creating a product, on her blog here – a beauty editor’s insights into what it takes to get a product from concept to market, which we’re sure has given Jane a new appreciation of what it takes to be a beauty entrepreneur (or any kind of entrepreneur).

Just shows: rules – in this case, never use soap on your face – are there to be broken.

£12 for 100g – buy here

Prize Draws