It’s always a great pleasure to showcase my artisan soaps to the world and the 2023 Holiday RB Soap Co. collection is no exception. With a very busy summer and autumn wedding season at Rhiannon Bosse Celebrations I wasn’t sure I’d have the stamina or eagerness to create soap bars I’d feel proud of (or, really, that I’d be able to create any soap bars at all because my days are full!). But the inspiration must have been flowing in the studio over the last few months because the line up launching next week is quite lovely, seasonally festive, and with a little bit of everything for everyone.

I hope you’ll join me on Monday, December 4th at 12:00 pm EST via the online shop to purchase and enjoy some of the best cold-process soap bars on the market. And if you’re new around here my hope is you’ll become a lifelong devoted customer and cold-process soap fan.

Let’s take a peek at the line up!

There are nine soap varieties launching in this collection. Two of the bars are regular shop varieties many of my customers will recognize but the other seven are all new to town and likely to be welcomed with eager and open arms! My goal with this collection was to create soap scents and bar names that were less holiday-centric and most wintry and descriptive in nature so that any soaps gifted, used, or displayed past the holiday would still feel enticing and appropriate.

In the fresh, cool, and aromatic scent profile, you’ll find two unique bar varieties.

Winter Mint: This beauty is a two-toned blue bar infused with cambrian blue clay and an essential oil blend of spearmint, lavender, and rosemary. Its main aroma is undeniably minty and fresh but the slight undertone of lavender with the herbaceous rosemary rounds out the profile in a way that’s both masculine and sweet. Dried cornflower, lavender, and hydrangea petals topped the soap’s swoops making for a beautiful adornment.

Frosted: My second favorite soap bar in the line up, Frosted offers a beautiful pale pink tone thanks to a kiss of rose clay. With a nod to the holiday season’s beloved candy cane I scented this soap with peppermint and benzoin resin oil making for a very subtle but natural take on the nostalgic wintry confection. Keeping in line with my signature of botanically topped soap bars you’ll find dried rose petals, cranberry seeds, and pink salt atop each pale pink swoop.

In the woody, resinous, and herbal scent category are two different green-hued bars.

Woodland: This soap bar has a slight woody citronella aroma with a robust essential oil blend of fir, cedarwood, juniper, cypress, and vetiver. On top are crushed sage leaves and a custom blend of dried botanicals offering a subtle nod to treasures found in the woods. The green hue comes from French green clay making for both a beautiful aesthetic and a silky experience when the soap blissfully glides across your skin.

Pine Bough: With an essential oil blend of cypress, fir, and black pine together with a splash of peru balsam and wintergreen, Pine Bough offers an undeniably festive pine scent. The two-tone green hue comes from a bevy of French green clay while the dark green soap tops feature cypress, willow bark, and poppy seeds. With Christmas mere weeks away I expect this soap bar will sell out fast!

In the spicy, peppery, sweet, and fruity scent category are two incredible soap bar varieties.

Chai: This bar gets its speckled aesthetic and scrubby texture from ground up walnut shells and rhassoul clay. Chai’s aroma, however, is a warm, spicy, and delightful blend of cardamom, clove, black pepper, ginger, clary sage, and cassia. It’s one of the most fragrant soap bars in the line up and perhaps the most striking with a star anise festively perched atop each bar’s peak.

Cashmere: A festive spin on the Marigold bar, Cashmere is citrusy and fresh but with extra warmth and depth from cinnamon essential oil and a splash of wintergreen. The normally bright tone of Marigold is made a little creamier and golden in Cashmere thanks to a yellow and pink clay blend, with of course, a citrus slide perched proudly into each top.

Please note due to the height of the citrus slice and the star anise in both respective bars, these soaps cannot be combined with a Kraft gift box offering but can be paired with a cedarwood soap dishes.

And you’ll recognize these two beauties if you’re a loyal fan and customer of RB Soap Co.! Both Florist Soap and Simply soap bar varieties will be available on Monday! Florist Soap is my regular season favorite in both performance and scent, and Simply is, well, the simplest soap you can get your hands on! Unscented and uncolored but beyond creamy it’s a fan favorite for our most utilitarian type customers or for those with sensitivities to any scented products or essential oils.

Finally, the last bar in the holiday line up is my most favorite.

This was the first holiday soap bar I dreamed up when I started the process of brainstorming winter varieties in the summer, and it ended up being one of the prettiest and most luxurious smelling bars in the collection. Its features a bone color with a slightly cream appearance from the kaolin clay used in the recipe. The swooped peeks are adorned with dried hydrangea petals, willow bark, sesame seeds, and pink salt for a feminine and delicate touch. And the aroma? Thanks to a blend of eucalyptus, lavender, and frankincense this bar smells uniquely rich, earthy, and calming. The inclusion of frankincense, a very pricey essential oil, makes for a luxe bar but also offers a nod to the traditional roots of the Christmas holiday.

Should you need a wooden dish to pair with your soap bar or would like to fancy up your soap to gift there is a generous supply of red cedarwood dishes available! The wood dishes not only keep your soap bars from sliding off the side of your sink, shower or tub, but the slats in the dish allow excess water to drain off the bar allowing it to last longer. Dishes are $5.00 each and come with a silk ribbon bow that fastens the soap and dish together. I use my discretion to select a ribbon color that best compliments the soap variety but also do my best to honor any requests that are left in order comments.

There are also Kraft gift boxes for you to add on to your order. The Kraft gift box, wooden soap dish, and silk ribbon tie are a collective investment of $8.00 in addition to the $9.00 soap bar itself. But you can skip the box and still get a beautiful pairing with the soap and dish bundle (fastened with ribbon, of course!) for $5.00. I hand tie each and every bow that heads out of my studio and can promise you not one bow goes out into the world without a lot of love put into it!

Again, please note that due to the height of the citrus slices on our Cashmere bar and star anise on our Chai bar these soap varieties cannot be combined or fit into the Kraft gift box add on.

In addition to the soap bars and add on elements, there will be a handful of bath accessories available. From our waffle weave face cloths and velvet bath sponges, to ramie body mitts and pot scrub brushes, you can enhance your order with sustainable accessories that are as earth-friendly as they are lovely. Products range from $5.00 to $16.00 depending on your selection but every product offered pairs beautifully as a bundle with our artisan soap bars!

And there’s a very limited supply up for grabs on Monday but handmade dish soap pucks are back in stock! An environmentally friendly alternative to water-based liquid detergent purchased in plastic bottles (91% of these bottles end up in landfills all over the world), these handmade dish soap pucks help reduce waste and save costs in your dish-cleaning endeavors. Coconut and castor oil give this solid dish soap cleansing suds and thick lather, while the citrus juice and citric acid ensure the soap is effective on even your greasiest of dishes. Because each puck is scented naturally with essential oils, the soap scent is very mild and light, leaving your dishes simply clean, as they should be.

And another sentiment on solid dish soap: this type of dish soap is very different than liquid dish soap. It takes a little elbow grease to get a good lather off the puck, and when you DO get your lather it’s not a fluffy and bubbly kind of lather. While you will get bubbles and get a nice thickness that feels clean on your brush, this is a lather that’s natural, cleansing, and good for you, your dishes, and the environment.

And what would a launch ‘bee’ without a generous inventory of Bee Soaps?

Bee Soaps are made with the leftover soap batter from any of my large pours to ensure nothing goes to waste in my production. Bee Soap colors and scents are a grab bag so varieties are never promised to customers but these little bees are the sweetest and really go the distance for less than $4.00. I often pack a couple in my bag when I go on trips, put them on our guest room pillowcase when we host friends, or include them in gifts to others as a simple extra gesture. I’m sure there are a few stockings that would be thrilled to have a Bee Soap or two dropped in to it!

Isn’t everything so festive and beautiful? I sure think so!

If you have any launch day and product questions ahead of Monday’s shop opening, please email me at [email protected]. I’m here to help, and offer the overwhelmed and indecisive customer any product suggestions if you’re shopping for a loved one, teacher, friend, neighbor, or even yourself this holiday season. Instagram DMs get so full and overwhelming that I’m unable to respond to questions there but my inbox is a welcoming place for everyone!

I hope to see you on Monday, December 4th at 12:00 pm EST when the RB Soap Co. online shop officially opens. You can also shop in person and online this season at Stoffer Home where my same online shop soap bar varieties are being sold in a larger custom-to-Stoffer-Home bar size of 6.5 ounces. Stoffer Home is my only wholesale account and brick and mortar establishment to carry my bars, so if you’re local to Grand Rapids enjoy the sensory treat that is Stoffer Home (and grab a handcrafted latte at their inhouse Bradbury Cafe while you’re there!).

As always, you being here brings me great joy and gratitude. Thank you and happy, happy holidays! Xo

Photos captured lovingly by Samantha James Photography. All RB Soap Co. stationery created in house at Nellie Sparkman Stationery.