December is officially here! Outside there’s a blanket of snow on the ground, our two Christmas trees are casting the most magical (and colorful!) glow throughout our home, and the soap studio continues to offer the nostalgic aroma of the holiday season – pine, fir, cassia, and citrus drift through the air everytime I descend into the basement of our home. I’d say a festive aromatic experience is certainly a perk to running a small business that specializes in homemade products like mine!

But more excitedly for you the medley of scents can only mean one thing and it’s that the 2024 RB Soap Co. holiday launch is just around the corner. As always I am delighted to share a product preview with you here on the blog. It’s my hope you’ll join me on Monday, December 9th 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 as I always say if you’re new around here or haven’t felt the pull to switch from liquid soap to bar soap my hope is you’ll consider making the transition by starting here with RB Soap Co.

Here’s a preview of the items that will be available next week!

The coziest collection yet there’s a beautiful mix of RB Soap Co. classics and holiday soap bars up for grabs this launch ensuring there’s something here for everyone. Each batch of cold process soap is made with a simple base of nourishing oils and butters, and as always, every soap bar is naturally colored and scented. Dried botanicals, seeds, and salts adorn the tops of most bars making for an soap aesthetic that matches the top notch performance each bar offers.

So let’s dive into the bars! And first up is Snowfall, which is a return offering from 2023. In my opinion it’s the most beautiful bar in the line up and also the most luxurious thanks to a robust and distinct essential oil blend of eucalyptus, lavender, and frankincense. This soap bar has a creamy bone color from the kaolin clay used in the recipe and the swooped peeks are adorned with dried hydrangea petals, white peppercorns, and pink salt for a feminine and delicate touch. It’s the perfect soap choice for these cozy winter months and also, an appropriate choice for any male recipient because of the robust scent profile.

And new for the season is a two-toned soap bar called Mistletoe. Made with an essential oil blend of spruce, fir, cypress, and peru balsam its captures the nostalgic scent of freshly cut pine trees. I’ve been trying to make a soap like this for years and have come close but this one really hits the mark on the scent-front! The top green hue comes from French green clay while the bottom layer is loaded with Kaolin clay and poppy seeds for a speckled aesthetic. The tiniest touch of red peppercorns and green cedar sits atop these rustic bars. With Christmas mere weeks away I expect this soap bar will sell out fast!

Another festive new bar is Fireside, the perfect soap for those that love a spicy citrus scent. The muted golden color comes from a small amount of yellow and rose clay and the top peaks are adorned with dried citrus peel and other seeds and salts. But the essential oil blend is where this bar shines! Orange, clary sage, cassia, ylang ylang, and clove create an undeniably Christmas aroma sure to bring cheer to anyone this holiday season. May I suggest this in whatever washroom your home guests will use most this month?

And the final bar made exclusively for the holidays is Sugar Plum. A dusty pink hued bar, it’s simply scented with peppermint and benzoin resin oil. It packs a minty punch with a subtle warm vanilla note from the benzoin. Dried rose petals and pink salt are a few of the botanicals that adorn the tall peeks of each bar making for a striking aesthetic. Sugar Plum is one of the most feminine bars in the line up and the one I often reach for first when gifting soap to my girlfriends. While I don’t recommend it as a full body bar option (that peppermint will get your sensitive body parts!) it is a lovely choice for kitchen sinks and guest room baths were lots of hands will be washed this holiday season.

Then we have the familiar faces, the soap varieties that prove to be customer favorites year after year! These are soap bars I use daily in my own home and ones that my friends and family continually request for their own use. While they aren’t holiday-centric in aesthetic or aroma they make for wonderful gifts. And in the very least they’re all excellent choices to consider if you’re making the switch the natural cold process soap or looking for a better-for-you body and hand wash option.

From the gritty herbaceous Florist Soap . . .

. . . to the sultry and romantic Empress . . .

. . . to the bar that seems to always sell out quickest; the two-toned beauty named Seaside.

Our favorite all-season 4+ ounce bars are stocked and ready for Monday. Listed at $9.00 each they come wrapped in our signature botanical seed labels. Each standalone bar is wrapped in a patterned tissue paper for safe transit or if you don’t plan to use your bar right away, clean storage.

However, if you upgrade your soap bar experience or need a thoughtful ready-to-gift option, then you can purchase a beautiful handmade red cherry wood dish. The dish allows each bar to sit ‘high and dry’ to extend the use of the soap, but has a slightly bowed bottom so that the dish itself is lifted slightly out of any small pools of water that often form on tub, shower, and sink sides. These square 3.5 by 3.5 dishes are beautiful and are priced at $8.00.

When a dish is purchased it gets bundled together with your labeled but tissue-free soap bars and tied with an appropriate color silk ribbon. The ribbon is tied beautifully into a taut bow and these bundles make for a perfect gift. There is also the option for one last upgrade and that’s a kraft gift box filled with crinkle paper. This is an exceptionally wonderful option especially if you invest in one of our cement dishes.

The cement dishes are available in terracotta, gray, and peach. The slightly scalloped edges allow for water to drain off your soap bar ensuring it last longer, and grippy rubber feet are on the bottom of the dish to help eliminating slipping. The dishes retail for $25.00 and with proper care will last for many years. If a cement dish is purchased I recommend a kraft paper gift box for extra protection during shipping, otherwise the entire bundle will be wrapped carefully with ample tissue.

Aside from the two different soap dish options and gift boxes there are also a limited number of bath accessories from exfoliating bath gloves, mini loofah face sponges, and a new two-toned Japanese-made cotton face cloth that’s so beautiful and soft. Trying to source quantity made products and ingredients is very important to the RB Soap Co. brand and these cloths especially hit the mark. All of these items are really simple but impactful ways to enhance your bath experience or add to a soap bar purchase if you’re going to be gifting items to a loved one.

Another return product!

Organic Room Mists are also back for the holiday season and they are a delightful chemical-free option to freshening up the aroma in any small space. I also love to use these mists sparingly on my damp towels and pillow cases before I toss them in the dryer for their final tumble. Joyful is a very fragrant mist with a subtle blood orange note and heavy cassia aroma. If you love the scent of cinnamon then this product is for you! It’s incredibly strong and a little of this particular mist goes a long way.

And Peaceful is our home’s personal favorite. Made with a lavandin hydrosol base and top notes of lavender and rosemary it’s, well, peaceful! The herbaceous but soothing smell instantly calms my spirit and I always rest easy knowing me and my family are not breathing in anything harmful or toxic. Room mists come in a 2 ounce amber glass mist bottle and retail for $16.50. They are wonderful stocking stuffers if I do say so myself!

Bee Soaps are also making an appearance for this launch! Made with the leftover soap batter from any of my large pours to ensure nothing goes to waste in my production, these little bees really go the distance for less than $4.00. Please note that Bee Soap colors and scents are a grab bag so varieties are never promised to customers. 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!

And because of popular demand Bath Truffles are well stocked and ready for our bath-loving customers.

Bath Truffles are a whimsical alternative to bath bombs, thanks to their playful and enticing aesthetic. Heavy in both cocoa and shea butters, the truffles allow for a silky smooth bubble bath experience that softens skin and smells delightful. All of our truffles are made with certified non-synthetic fragrance oil blends and natural colorants. Truffles should be gently and entirely crumbled under running warm or hot bath water to activate the bubbles properly. We suggest one truffle per bath (but have heard rumors that two truffles make for an exceptional bubble bath, an idea we fully stand behind). Truffles come in packs of two for $10.00 and are packaged in a stamped muslin drawstring bag. Please note that they are prone to slightly crumbling around the truffle edges. To make an especially lovely gift, we suggest pairing them with other small, thoughtful items that encourage relaxation and pampering!

Bath Truffles for this particular launch are colored and scented as follows:

Creamy white: eucalyptus scented
Soft peach: satsuma scented
Soft pink: cardamom and rose scented

Something a bit new will also be available this launch! There will be a handful of soap bar bundles up for grabs. These are intentionally offered for anyone looking to buy soaps for small business client gifts, for shop owners looking to add something thoughtful to their last minute Christmas inventory, or anyone who really just loves cold process soap! The bundles include the familiar Seaside, Florist Soap, Marigold, and Fireside but also include a soap bar called Winter Woods, which is not available in this year’s inventory but is a close match to the above described Mistletoe. Stay tuned for pricing on these bundles and know that they are be offered as-is without substitutions. Quantities will be limited!

And now please take a minute to read these important details about operations for Monday!

The launch is scheduled for Monday, December 9th. The shop will open at noon EST. Please know that the products listed in the shop now until 11:59 am on Monday morning are simply placeholders! Sometimes the shop opens about 30 seconds before noon to compensate for any glitches that might make an on-the-dot noon launch tricky but most repeat customers say refreshing the URL right at noon is the best way to access all available products.

Once something is gone from the shop it is gone; this is the nature of handmade products and certainly ones that take multiple steps to create like cold-process soap! I always carefully count my inventory before a launch and then reduce that inventory number by just a few to compensate for any mistakes made when packaging up orders. I am a one woman show and I want to do my best to ensure that if (when!) I make a mistake I am able to correct it. It’s not feasible for me to just make one new bar of whatever variety in a possibly overlooked order so this inventory approach is a safety net I depend on. If no orders are missed then the remaining inventory is always listed back in the shop and paired with a social media announcement so that customers can prepare accordingly.

Finally, this is a request made in every launch preview post, but if you’re a customer and have an issue with your order OR you are a potential customer and you have questions, please email Rhi at [email protected]. On launch day I do not start to package up orders until an hour or two after launch time. There’s traditionally a mad rush of traffic to the site within the first ten minutes of launching with a steady stream of orders for the 50 minutes that follow. I’ve learned that sitting and waiting to tend to customer service needs in that first hour is a much more fruitful use of my time that packing up orders so again! Please email me day of with issues or questions and I will do my best to ensure you get a response back promptly. A DM or message request on Instagram is likely to be missed!

Here’s to hoping you’ll join me on Monday, December 9th at 12:00 pm EST when the shop doors officially open at last!

All photos in this post were lovingly captured by Samantha James Photography.