Soap

You know that crisp scent that only comes from a thorough housecleaning with Pledge or Murphy's Oil Soap? That's exactly the feeling I get when using Tom's of Maine Daily Moisture Natural Beauty Bar Soap ($3) — on the body, of course. The aroma can be described as fresh and enticing, lighting up your entire living space with its bright fragrance. Olive oil and vitamin E hydrate, leaving your skin soft, not taut, like some soaps do. It's called a beauty bar, after all. And because it's free of artificial and synthetic ingredients — meaning it doesn't have a fake, perfume-y scent or dry out your skin — Tom's of Maine has raised the bar with this gentle cleanser.

While it's nice to imagine the ocean as a happy playground for turtles and dolphins, the reality isn't so pretty. Each year, several millions of tons of plastic — everything from tossed containers to grocery bags — enter the ocean. On average, 46,000 pieces of plastic are floating in each square mile of sea. More than a million seabirds die from eating plastic each year, as do thousands of sharks, turtles, and other marine life.

Enter Method's dish and hand soap ($5, Whole Foods), which is packaged in a blend of recovered ocean plastic and postconsumer recycled plastic. Over the past year and a half, Method employees joined cleanup groups to hand-collect plastic from beaches in Hawaii — more than a ton in total. From there, the recovered plastic was recycled into the bottles that hold the soap. (It smells fresh, by the way.) Will soap bottles alone save the planet? No, but they can move people to reuse and recycle. And since the first step toward a cleaner ocean is keeping plastic out of it, that seems like a good place to start.

Sure, your mother always demanded you wash your face with soap, but bar soap might not be the best option for daily cleansing. The average soap has an alkaline pH of seven, while balanced skin is about 4.5. Ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate create the foam the gives you that clean (or tight) feeling. Soap, however, can strip away the natural oils your skin needs, therefore leading to a misbehaving complexion. Discover your soap alternative when you keep reading

If you love rich, woodsy scents, here's your new shower buddy: Indigo Wild Cedar Zum Bar ($4). Don't let its tough-guy exterior fool you, though. Behind the swirls of the black and white bar exist skin-softening olive, palm, and coconut oils. There's also goat's milk in the formulation, which is neither too alkaline or acidic, playing nicely with the natural pH balance of skin. And speaking of skin, what's left behind (besides a clean body, of course) is the lingering scent of subtly smoky cedarwood. Known for its relaxing properties, cedar is even said to bring you emotional strength. Can your regular bar soap do all that? Bonus: after you use it, your house/apartment will have a nice, fresh, balsamic scent permeating throughout.

Unless a trip to Rio is in your future, good luck tracking down Phebo soaps and candles. Founded in the 1930s, Phebo is one of Brazil's most venerable perfumery brands — and as well-known as the line is in South America, it's extremely hard to find in the States. That's all about to change, as Macy's begins to stock a variety of Phebo bath and body products this month. Three hundred stores will have soap gift sets in fragrances ranging from rose to neroli; flagship stores in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Miami will have an extended range that includes beautifully packaged candles and bath salts. If you're interested in getting your hands on the brightly wrapped goods, move quickly. With only a three-month run planned for Macy's, Phebo will be gone faster than you can say tchau.

If you've never heard of black soap, get ready: this stuff is about to have its moment in the sun. Made from ashes (specifically those of plantains, palms, and/or cocoa pods) mixed with shea butter or another natural skin hydrator, black soap is one of West Africa's best-known skin treatments. It has hydrating, antimicrobial, and cleansing properties, and having used it, we can aver that it's a sure thing. If you can't make it to Ghana, though, we recommend you try Shea Terra Rose Hips Black Soap face wash ($18).

It's a liquid formula, unique since traditional black soap is a paste, and does a wonderful job of removing post-workout grime without drying out or irritating skin. It also exfoliates just as well as a light scrub, which is great if you need daily maintenance to keep your pores from getting clogged. And with more high-quality black soap formulas becoming available Stateside in general, there's never been a better time than now to follow in Darth Vader's footsteps and join the dark side.

If you've got a mold and some willpower, you can make soap look like anything you want, so it follows that these pistol-shaped soaps ($4 for two) recently appeared on Etsy. Their creator definitely gets kudos for creativity, and the red and blue shades are unrealistic enough to be nonthreatening, but life-size soap that looks like an actual gun could be another thing altogether. The shop owner even asks that buyers "just use this like normal people use soap . . . don't go trying to stick up the party store with them." It's a little tongue in cheek, but if you feel compelled to issue that kind of statement (even half in jest), does it indicate a larger problem with the product?

Besides pumpkin ale and other spiced boozes, seasonally scented soaps are the perfect hostess gift to give, like these adorable, handmade sugar skull soaps ($9 each). Perfumed by the folks at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, these cute cleansers include a blend of five sugars along with a hint of candied fruits.

But if you're looking for something with less of a playful design, go with the brand's Honey Pumpkin Stout offering or try Samhain, a mix of fir needle, damp woods, black patchouli, and pumpkin pie spices. You can also go bobbing for apples (well, almost) with Streuobstwiese, a bright green soap featuring the forbidden fruit, apricot, and grassy scents.