A Little Bit of Luxury

by Anna Campbell

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2013 brings you much health and happiness and lots of good books to read.

With Christmas just off the horizon, I was thinking about some of the lovely presents my friends and family gave me over the Festive Season. One of my favorite gifts - both from friends and from myself to me - is a lovely cake of scented soap.

Check out the pretty angel soap to the left of this text. Isn't that just the loveliest seasonal wrapping?

It just provides that little touch of luxury to use a sweetly scented block of soap in the shower or the bath. Definitely a lift to the spirits after a hard day or before you start a hard day!

I always use nice soap when people give it to me. My mother, on the other hand, used to store it in the cupboard for 'good'. Which means she never used and enjoyed it. So sad.

After she passed away, I found all these lovely gift soaps tucked away in various drawers in her house, a lot of going back years. So I ended up getting the benefit of the soap, rather than her. Mum had a cake of Elizabeth Arden Blue Grass - goodness knows how old it was - but the scent when I opened it was just beautiful. So evocative of long ago somehow.

Never fear, if you give me soap, it won't languish in a cupboard. It will make its appearance in my bathroom and I'll really appreciate it.

Hmm, that sounds like a hint to my friends and family, doesn't it? Oh, well. Snicker!

I have a friend who stores her scented soap in her underwear drawer so everything picks up the lovely scent. Must try that!

I also love the beautiful wrappings you get on gift soaps at the moment. Check out these two Italian soaps from the Christmas haul. Aren't they just scrumptious? You (almost) want to eat them. And they smell like heaven. I wish this blog had smell-o-vision! Instead, you'll just have to take my word for it.

What do you do when you want a touch of something special to leaven the everyday? Do you like scented soaps?  Any favorites?