Olive Oil Soap, Papoutsanis, CASE (6 x 125g)

I did some looking around, read the reviews and decided to order some of this soap late last fall. I've used it now for 2 months straight. My review is going to be based upon the top 3 criteria for me: healthy happy skin, fragrance and price.I have really been giving this soap a good workout during our midwest winter. I live about an hour west of Chicago and our winters can be pretty fierce. During the dead of winter (pretty much now), it can feel uncomfortable to be in your own skin. The furnace runs so often that the humidity in the house becomes very low in spite of the central humidifier. Even using really good moisturizer doesn’t completely solve the problem as I would still get that stretched tight dry almost painful feeling on my back, where it is tough to reach with the moisturizer.Not this year. It hasn’t happened at all this winter for the first time ever, and if it were going to it would have done so by now. My skin is in better shape than it has ever been, especially in the winter. No stretched tight dry painful feeling at all. My nails have also had a slight healthy sheen to them, and haven’t cracked or peeled at all as they sometimes do in the driest part of winter. And I am using less moisturizer, depending upon the season.All in all, the difference is very noticeable and remarkable. And the only new product in my regimen is the soap. I really like olive oil soaps in general and have been using them for years, but I’ve never found one that works this well. And I think that would have to be because the Papoutsanis soap is 78% olive oil as opposed to the leading contender Pre de Provence at 72%. I know that because I emailed the company to ask.If fragrance is the most important thing to you, you may or may not like this soap, because it really does smell different. I wasn’t sure at first, so I decided to give it a week to decide. That week sort of shifted my opinion. The soap has a green growing earthy fragrance that as a gardener I really appreciate and have come to like. And I think there is also an aromatherapy soothing peaceful something going on that I also like.The other criterion is price. This soap beats the other top two contenders I’ve tried hands down. They are Olivia Care and Pre de Provence. (I have also tried several other olive oil soaps, but none of them were up to much.) They both have delightful fragrances, and a great amount of olive oil and/or shea, but they are both fairly pricey. And they just can’t do the job on my combination skin in my midwest winter that the Papoutsanis soap can.So depending upon where you live, what kind of skin you have and how you feel about the price and fragrance, you may or may not like this soap. But for me, it is the far and away best olive oil soap I have ever tried.4/6/18 update on the smell controversy: I gave a bar from the case I'd been using to a friend for Christmas, and he told me later that he had to get rid of it after 2 days because he couldn't stand the smell. At first he thought it was cigarette smoke, then realized it was the soap. Then he decided it smelled like "wet burned wood." Even though I read the reviews, I was still pretty surprised as the soap doesn't smell that way at all to me. But then, my friend likes cooked cabbage, and I think it smells like something that deserves a decent burial asap. So I conclude that the way our brains process the sense of smell, the way they are "wired" are just very different. And whether or not you like this soap will probably depend upon which way you are wired.

We are in an effort to reduce/remove use of chemicals in and around our house. It's a great feeling when I know what we put on our skin is not loaded with chemicals. I love the versatility of this soap. We not only wash hands with it, but also have substituted it for shampoo and body wash. It does the work without drying out our skin or hair. One of the concerns that I have before purchasing was that it won't lather well. And it turns out not to be an issue.Additionally, I'm glad that we don't use things that are loaded with artificial scents. This soap leaves very faint scent of pleasant smell.I tried to turn it into liquid shampoo/body wash by mixing half the bar (chopped up) with 2 cups of distilled boiling water. It doesn't seem to be thick enough to stay on hair. So, I will use the liquid form only for hand wash for now. If anybody has been successful in making this work as shampoo, I'd love to hear that.Last, it seems that this bar soap lasts a long time. When we finish this package of 6 bars, I'm sure we will reorder.

LOVE, this soap! These are the same bars they sell in Greece. Does not dry your hands out. I tried this in the shower, but I prefer it for hand soap. With all the handwashing during Covid my hands were still nice and soft. Does have a bit of a scent, but this is not a perfumed bar. It is natural and it uses only four ingredients, which is great. I've been buying this brand for over 10 years. I buy a 6 pack or greater at a time and give a few to my family members who like it as well; give some as gifts. I wish they made a bath wash in this brand. One tip: I buy the 125 size bars. They sell a bigger bar that is 250 but I find it too big to use in a soap dish. I think the 125 size bars are closer to a regular size bar soap.

Allergic to coconut. So love this. Better than others I’ve tried as it lathers better and smells better. I’m very sensitive to any soap so my skin likes this as long as I rinse in cool water. Thank you!! Finally great soap that lasts on a soap saver.

This is not a soap you should consider if you are seeking a perfumed, moisturizing or fancy soap to use and display. It is, however, a great olive oil-based soap for the price. The soap is better suited for oily skin in my opinion and the concentrated olive scent is not very pleasant when removed from the wrapper. I recommend letting it sit open for a day to air out before using and then the scent is not as strong. Immediately after opening it can have a near burnt olive/rubber scent, but it does go away. The bars do not fall apart the way many olive oil bars do, which is a great bonus and they clean quite well. If you desire a bar like this and have sensitive skin, I would accompany it with an after shower lotion to rehydrate your skin. For me it works pretty good and the price is amazing for an olive oil soap.