Wash of the Day is On a Break

We Were On A Break

Ross. Rachel. Who’s side were you on? Regardless, it happened and resulted in years of heart-stirring entertainment. Thankfully, Friends ended with the moment we were all waiting for when R&R were finally joined together. Rachel came back. All was right with the world.

Where is this rambling on about epic television moments going?

WOD is on a break.

The Paragraph with the Details

From the very beginning, we set out to create the highest quality paleo soap bar (thus Clean::theBar was born) at an affordable price point. Affordable luxury with supreme customer service was the vision and after a lot of hard work and thought, it came to be.

With this loveliness, we must maintain our commitment to you by maintaining sheer honesty. “It’s me, not you.” Heard that before? It’s true! Here is our “on a break” story and reason: we’ve run into some production difficulties. Difficulties? Define difficulties. Well, in short, we’ve hit some bumps (AKA mountains) that make it impossible to continue providing our top-notch, rock-your-paleo-socks soap in the same way we have been for the last year. Super heartbreaking, right?

Yup, it’s true. Everything can be perfect and in its proper place, but even with all of that, the manufacturing world comes with unexpected twists and turns that can totally make the heart hurt. We did everything possible to keep things going for you, valued sudser, and despite all our efforts, our distributor is unable to keep up with Wash of the Day’s growth and we aren’t able to find another supplier that can keep things at an even near-reasonable price point. Darn quality ingredients! Not something we could just wash off.

The Paragraph with the Love

Thank you for your support and love of Wash of the Day! It’s been far more successful in such a short amount of time than we/I ever thought possible. To date (8ish months..from conception, 10) we are available in 3 stores (plus our own), have sold nearly 1,000 bars, have delivered to customers across 24 states and to our beloved servicemen/servicewomen in Iraq. Without you, Wash of the Day would not be what it is today (mean this from the bottom of my heart, folks). Hope to one day bring back this quality product – WOD 2.0, if you will – and continue this business that prides itself in quality, honesty, and purity in every way.

The Paragraph with the Instructions

Stay clean, paleo peeps. Read your labels. Care for your skin. Care for the environment. Say no to palm oil. Say yes to supporting small businesses.

Our soaps are/were, well, pretty much the best soaps ever created in the entire world (in our most humble opinion). Since we’re on a break right now, feel free to see other bars. Be it a casual fling or committed relationship, we did a little homework to help make this break easier for you. Don’t expect you to pine for us, though it would be nice and highly flattering, and would much prefer you keep scrubbing that skin after getting all glimmery with that workout sheen (fancy sweat).

Here are some recommendations on paleo skincare.

Liz’s Skintervention Guide – Don’t have this yet? You gotta get it. It may just be the best thing you ever buy.

PaleoPro Products – They’ve got some Wash of the Day inventory left. For who? For you, of course. Pick up some of their superb paleo protein powder while you’re throwin’ stuff in that online shopping cart….it’s super good.

The Garden Wild – Palm-free, sustainable bars. Nice owner. Overall win.

Bubs & Scrubs – Just ordered from this site…looks like there are some awesome scent options! Waiting on delivery…will edit this post once I have tried. Promise! The update: Smells yummy and is very sudsy.

The One with all the Goodbyes (for now)

Keep showering, my friends. Listen to me, and if not me, to Phoebe.

Lather, rinse, repeat as needed.

Soap Nub in the Tub

The Nub

We’ve all encountered it. At some point, all good and fine Clean::theBar soaps must come to be in this state. It’s a very awkward phase, representing the coming to an end of probably one of the best bar experiences of your life (yes, this is a bit exaggerated, but what’s life without a little dramatization?).

So you’re down to the final nub. Not quite enough to really get in a good rub. It’s tiny, slips all over the place, probably falls to the ground several times, and gets you thinking, “What the heck am I supposed to do with this thing?”. Fear not! We’ve got some ideas.

What to Do

1. Relay it.

Pass the torch and add that baby onto another bar to keep the torch of cleanliness aflame as it goes from one to the next. Merge/blend/doctor that little nub onto a bar to help make the end of the prior bar’s stellar run seamlessly connect into the new. It’s pretty simple to do! Just cut little grooves into the old and new, add some water, and voila! Your too-tiny-to-do-anything-with bar now has restored purpose!

2. Mush it.

Maybe you don’t have time in your busy life to be cutting grooves in your bars. If you’re a fan of Wash of the Day soaps, you might be a one tough CrossFit dude or chick, so forget that tedious cutting! Use that finger strength to unite the new with the nub. There’s no thinking…just do it. Put your finger-press training into action! Mush with them fingerceps, behold your amazing strength. and then finish your shower.

3. Save it.

Got a bunch of Clean::theBars in the shower ’cause you like to use different bars on different days? Maybe you’ve got a Raw, Cheat Day, and Paleo all hangin’ out? You’re not alone! If in a ratatouille mood, blend all the bars! Suicide Soda at the machines were fun when you were a kid and now, you have a Paleo outlet for that same kind of action in a clean environment by swapping soda with water (with water being that coming out of your shower head rather than a soda fountain…it’s much less sticky and far healthier this way). Save up and combine a bunch of nubs – regardless of your awesome varieties – for one mega-scented ultra-nub bar-type thing and give your bar a new name. Here are a few  names to help with inspiration.

Sir Mix-A-Bar
Rainbar Brite
Frankenbar

If you’ve got your own, feel free to share with us!

The Moral

Love the nub. Embrace the nub. Do whatever it is you do with the nub. Let us just recognize that as your Clean::theBar approaches the end of it’s life, it gave all it had to make sure your sanitation and exfoliating needs were met, let you run the show, and took care of your skin the best it knew how. If The Giving Tree had a shower kin, your bar would be it. Every Clean::theBar has a coconut oil and peach kernel base and where do coconuts and peaches come from? Trees! Cherish and reflect on all those good times, be it brutal workouts or exhausting days at the office when you came home and of everything to do, all that could bring you the most happiness would be to take a shower, polishing up your worn epidermis with a squarish block of sudsy lather for a renewal of the night (again, we’re being a bit dramatic, but would be lying if we said we honestly don’t feel this way…evening showers are the best).

Conclusion

The long ramblings above are why no person should attempt to write a blog late at night on an August evening. When the brain starts going in strange directions, it’s time to wash the day off with a little Wash of the Day and head to bed.

Goodnight and Goodshower.

Meet Paleo: The Hunter, The Gatherer

Little girls are made of sugar, and spice, and everything nice. 

Little boys are made of slugs, and snails, and puppy dog tails.

Wash of the Day soap is made of coconut oil, peach kernel oil, and is nothing but paleo. (Okay, so it doesn’t rhyme , but what could we do? There’s a reason this verse was eliminated from the original 19th century nursery rhyme).

Sure, Wash of the Day is made of some good stuff. No news, here! The purest of forms, they are palm-free and always will be. When you’re using your Clean::theBar soap in the morning, have you ever thought to yourself, “What’s this bar’s story?” If you’re like most of us, you’re too busy sudsing up and enjoying the cleanest experience ever and never really pause to consider anything else.

Inspired by Terry Border, The Brave Little Toaster, Stick Stickly, and all other inanimate objects that have been brought to life for us to fall in love with (I ❤ Stick Stickly), we want to introduce you to the Wash of the Day family. Let’s start with the bar that started it all: Paleo.

Meet Paleo: The Hunter, The Gatherer

A cavesoap’s gotta provide.

Paleo is true to his roots. He’s a caveman in the modern world and loves life. He’s not afraid to provide for his soap clan, even faced with the wild dangers of, well, the wild. A true hunter and gatherer, he keeps it totally paleo. One thing’s for sure: you won’t run into him at the  Whole Foods meat counter buying grass-fed bison. He breeds his own.

Tiny, but mighty.

Don’t be fooled by the softness of scent and smoothness of his bar: he’s one tough dude. Paleo means serious business. He’s  reliable  – you know, a real community bar – and takes care of his peeps (It’s soap, though, not people…does that make them suds/bars/soaps? I have no idea.) and those he provides for when it comes to sustainable living practices.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, if you’ve got this little guy in your shower. If he’s every bit as tough in the wild as he is when it comes to scrubbing your hands off after doing burpees on the gravel and taking your smelly, sweaty skin from ewww to oooooh.

What’s Paleo made of?

What’s Paleo made up of, exactly? Saponified organic coconut oil, organic peach kernel oil, organic Shea, organic grape seed oil, water…that’s it! Totally Paleo and totally awesome.

If you’ve yet to be introduced to the powerful wash experience of Paleo, there’s good news: you can now! Check Paleo and his fellow cavesoaps out at washoftheday.com.

Eat Cookies, Not WOD Soap

The first thing anyone ever asks when learning about Wash of the Day is this: “Ooh! What flavors are there?”. Who eats soap? Perhaps you had your mouth washed out with it in your youngin’hood, but who gets excited about that experience?

We’re flattered that you love the scents (we do, too), but we beg of you: don’t eat soap!

Try something like cookies instead.

Are WOD soaps made with organic ingredients like blueberries, sea salt, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and other “found-in-the-pantry” stuff? Yep. Does each Clean::theBar variety smell good enough to eat? Yep again. After giving this subject of soap consumption some serious pondering, I realized that there are actually strong similarities between cookies and soap.

Each Clean::theBar is handmade and handcut.

No two batches are identical and every bar is deemed perfect with a bit of variation in appearance from bar to bar.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cookie-Cutter Perfect Soap

Who loves cookies? Perhaps that’s the wrong question. Who doesn’t love cookies? If you’re gonna have a cheat day, cookies are no doubt up for some serious delicious indulgence consideration. Let’s roll with the idea that partaking of divine, mouthwatering discs of the purest form is going to happen.

It’s your cheat day.

You can have any cookie you want.

Store-bought or Homemade…which do you choose?

Homemade Cookies

There’s something special about homemade cookies. No one cookie looks like another, each with their own special shape. Despite using your little Sur La Table cookie scooper, no one cookie looks exactly like another….and they’re the best in the world. “Mom’s recipe”, whatever that may be for you, produces the most savory platefuls of pure delight. Your cheat day may leave you with a horrible sugar hangover, but when mom’s cookies are involved, sometimes it’s just worth it.

WORTH. IT.

WOD Soap

We’ve got five flavors*. So much thought and heart went into these prime picks. So much love and care goes into each and every Clean::theBar that is mixed, poured, cured, boxed, and delivered. With every organic and natural ingredient used carefully selected, no detail was been overlooked to guarantee Clean::theBar bars– our soap version of homemade cookies – are savory delight in their own special way. Easy online ordering and, in some cases in the Orange County area, personal delivery make it easy to indulge on a regular basis. Foregoing beauty bars (for real, most “soap” isn’t even soap…read the label; it’s crazy true) for the real deal paleo soap is worth it.

WORTH. IT.
*Don’t eat WOD soap! Confused? Refer to the first paragraph of this post.

RECIPE

All this talk of cookies has you drooling all over your keyboard by now (I can’t be alone out there in this, right?). The thought of blogging on cookie cutter perfection kicked the ol’ salivary glands into immediate action. Making cookies was an essential act for this illustration, no doubt.

Paleo eatin’, cookie lovin’ peeps, here’s a super delish and totally paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe from Primal Palate (found on Nom Nom Paleo’s site, made by her adorable kiddos). Hope you have as much fun baking and consuming as we did.

Like homemade instead of store-bought cookies, every Clean::theBar soap bar is unique and perfect.

SPECIAL TREAT

Staying strong and passing on desserts altogether? Good for you! Regardless, what’s a conversation on cookies without a little treat? May as well give yourself to a little something to get through those sugar cravings. We wanna give you something, too.Use promocode INDULGE and partake in a little [cheat•day] at 15% off through June 15th! Visit us at www.washoftheday.com and grab yourself a little something (“cheat” a little bit..we won’t tell).

Use promocode INDULGE and partake in a little [cheat•day] at 15% off through June 15th!

Enjoy!

Soap without palm oil…what’s the deal?

In Wash of the Day’s infancy, we were exploring and evaluating the different elements from which to make our Clean::theBar paleo soaps. Palm oil is huge in soapland! Making a good bar without it is just plain tough. Why’d we decide to do without, taking the rough road to the perfect bar?

This little guy.

Sumatran Orangutan | Source: World Wildlife Fund

Would you look at that face?

Can you imagine ever wanting to 

hurt this little fluff muffin?

The palm industry is an interesting one, and by no means do I claim to be an expert in this field. I can, however, share what I have learned about the palm industry as a whole. Day 1 of Wash of the Day was one of those “forever days”, the kind of days that you learn more than one could ever think possible and get done more than is actually possible all within a 24-hour period. That Day 1 is the day I learned about palm oil and it went down kind of like this:

Day 1 of [WOD] and Palm Chit-Chat

Alicia: Ooh! I want some. Dude, you want some? (<–some tasty-looking dessert, no doubt)

Dude: Nah. It’s not good for the monkeys.

Alicia: What does this have to do with monkeys?

Dude: I’ve been doing a lot of traveling to Indonesia. Palm’s pretty big over there, but it’s is leading to deforestation and destruction of orangutan habitats ‘n stuff…yeah, it’s not good.

Alicia: Why’d you have to tell me that? Now I can’t eat this and it looks so good. Even worse, I can’t use palm oil in my soaps. Dang it…now I’ve gotta rework this whole thing. Thanks, dude, from the bottom of my heart. I’m both annoyed and thankful all at once.

After this little conversation of clarity, I immediately hopped on the computer to learn about palm oil. There’s lots of “legitimate” info out there on how palm oil is evil, how palm oil is perfectly fine, and pretty much any other angle you want to look at palm oil from (Isn’t the internet a beautiful thing? You can find any site to validate your own opinions.), but overwhelming data on the troublesome truths were too serious to ignore.

The Truth on Palm Oil

Palm oil is a type of oil that grows in the tropics, mostly in the aforementioned Indonesia and Malaysia. Ah, the tropics. Sounds a bit idyllic, right? Imagine being on vacation, soaking in the beauty of a day in Sumatra with your world of cares set aside for some “me” time.

Now imagine being Mr. Orangutan, waking up as you sip  your morning cup of coffee at your favorite Palmbucks, and you get a text from your wife saying your home was just chopped down. You immediately go to pick up your twins, little Orange and Tan, from school and go into planning mode on what to do. Fortunately, you’ve survived and your family is alive, but life won’t ever be the same. Sadly, you can’t say that for some of your buddies at the office who also decided to also stay in their homes instead of upgrading to the new Sustainaville (the taxes were just too high; couldn’t afford it with a third  kiddo on the way). The advantage of those other plantation high-rise palm trees for the 4% who could afford it were family protection, better air quality, and better environmental practice…

This story pretty much sums things up on the palm industry; you can certainly explore more of the hard facts and details from the World Wildlife website.

“…now imagine being Mr. Orangutan, waking up as you sip your morning cup of coffee at your favorite Palmbucks, and you get a text from your wife saying your home was just chopped down…”

[WOD] Soaps and Our Deal

Aren’t there sustainable palm options? Absolutely. The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are doing what they can and  companies delivering RSPO-certified palm oil would be the way to go. Certified palm oil comes with a high ticket cost, but if you’re looking for palm oil, the dollar cost far outweighs the true cost of palm industry practices.

Options may be out there, but we’ve decided to forego palm oil altogether. Why is that, you ask? We’re just refraining from any appearance of evil…stayin’ clear! It’s also quite an artful approach to make handmade, homemade soap without it and we’re pretty proud of that, so we’re just gonna keep that going.

What You Can Do

What can you do to help out? A few things, actually:

1. Buy products without palm oil, like Wash of the Day paleo soaps (just sayin’…it’s some good stuff…).
2. Check the labels on everything you buy! Palm oil seems to be in practically everything, including things you never imagined containing it. If buying palm oil, check for RSPO certification.
3. Adopt an orangutan! The World Wildlife Fund is doing their part to improve the lives of orangutans for a more sustainable future with your help.

TO SUM IT UP

Palm Industry – Not so good, getting better.

Wash of the Day soaps – No palm oil, no worries.

That’s about all my sharings on palm oil. If you wanna check out Wash of the Day’s palm-free soap bars, made with organic ingredients, you can check ’em out here.

Kelp: Good for the body. Good for the face.

Kelp (seaweed) is some good, greeny, seaweedy stuff. Before discussing what makes kelp so great, it might be helpful to know what it actually is, unless you prefer to skip all that pre-kelp chit-chat. If that’s the case, scroll down a bit and read about all the benefits. If you would like to take a minor trip down Kelp Lane, carry on with the list below.

A STROLL DOWN KELP LANE

1. Kelp grows under the sea (it’s home address is somewhere near Bikini Bottom)
2. Kelp is large seaweed from the brown algae family (this more “oooh” and less “ewww”, even though it sounds a bit like the latter)
3. Kelp is super speedy when it comes to growing (with a rate up to two feet every day!)

More on the hard facts on kelp can be learned from a non-soap folk like myself, so let’s get into the “Why do I care if there’s kelp in my soap?” portion of this little sharing.

GOOD FOR THE FACE

[overload] :: Organic Paleo Kelp Soap

[overload] is one of our five Clean::theBar soap varieties at Wash of the Day and it rocks. With all that kelpy goodness, how could it not?

Kelp is chock-full of minerals, vitamins, and trace minerals (Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Potassium to name a few…). We will never promise miraculous medical claims, but some chatter out there suggests sudsing up with kelp can help boost metabolism, reduce the appearance of cellulite, revitalize your skin, increase blood circulation, oxygenate and detoxify, and even help with acne. Sign me up for some of that, please!

All I can say is that we love it. Here’s the full ingredients list of [overload]: saponified organic goat’s milk, organic coconut oil, organic peach kernel oil, organic cocoa butter, organic sea salt, organic kelp, and organic musk. LOVE!!

GOOD FOR THE BODY

How do you get the goodness of kelp inside of your body? Well, you eat it. We don’t actually recommend eating our soap (as in don’t do it..), so let’s talk about things that actually can be consumed.

Kelp is a superfood. Eating kelp can be a great element to add in to your diet and is even Whole30-approved. Woot!

It’s said to be great for your liver, energy levels, heart, glandular health, and bones. Kelp noodles are pretty popular and kelp supplements are also something to consider.

There are tons of recipes out there that you can incorporate this kelp that, after reading about, you can hardly resist to try! Here’s some fun ones:

• Chicken Kelp Noodle Soup by Deliciously Organic (comfort soup)
• Paleo Pork Chow Mein by The Paleo Mom (quick ‘n tasty)
• Kelp Salsa by Tongass Clearinghouse (sounds quite adventurous..must try..)

Paleo Diet News goes more in-depth on seaweed veggies…might want to take a gander!

IN SUMMARY, KELP = GOOD

[overload]

If you have your own experience with our [overload] soap or kelp in general to share, feel free to share it in the comments (or on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, via email, or don’t share at all….it’s really your call).

CURIOUS (EVEN JUST A WEE BIT)?

CHECK OUT WASH OF THE DAY SOAPS.

Paleo Soap

Behold, the inaugural blog post!

[Wash of the Day] started with one clear vision: paleo soap. It sounds simple enough, right? Not so much. The conversation that began Wash of the Day between Erica, Founding Momma, and Alicia, CrossFit-Loving-Daughter, went a little something like this:

Erica: “Alicia, what would you like for Christmas?”

Alicia: “I’d really love a soap that’s Paleo.”

Erica: “Paleo soap, huh? Where is this coming from? I’ll see what I can find.”

Alicia: “I’m in the middle of Whole30, so I’m reading every label on my food. I was taking a shower, started reading the labels on my soap, and saw some very questionable ingredients in my soap. I want non-complicated soap that I can believe in.”

Erica: “I don’t think something like that exists, honey.”

Alicia: “Well if it doesn’t exist, it should. I’ve been focusing on making sure everything going into my body is clean, but haven’t given a second to making sure what goes on the outside of my body is clean!”

Erica: “Yeah, you expect your soap to be clean, right? Never thought of it like that.”

Alicia: “Let’s do it. Let’s make Paleo soap happen.”

With her beautician brain and my love of showering, branding, and all things clean, we made it exist. What did “clean soap” even look like? Even at that point, I don’t know that we fully comprehended the feat we were about to embark upon (yeah, soap learnin’ is quite the journey), but it developed from an idea into something we were completely passionate about and couldn’t live without doing for not only ourselves, but the entire community of showering folks who might want to join in with us.

We’re young and we’re fresh, recently launched with five varieties of of our first product line – Clean::theBar bar soaps.

Clean::theBar Paleo Soap | http://www.washoftheday.com

What makes [Wash of the Day] different?

We don’t make soap for the sake of making soap.

Here’s our spiel below (Bonus: we’ve conveniently also placed it on our website’s FAQ page).

Palm-Free.
We don’t use palm oil in our soaps. Ever. What’s so wrong with palm oil, you ask? The palm oil industry is the cause for devastating deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia. We kind of like the idea of orangutans living, people keeping their homes, and tropical rainforests, so we don’t use palm oil in our soaps.

Chemical-Free.
We don’t use stuff like triclosan, phthalates, parabens; we don’t make “beauty bars” or “cosmetic cleansers” that make a bunch of claims and shove a bunch of different ingredients into a single bar. We make soap. We don’t claim that you’ll look younger, feel better, or be able to run a marathon with a single pass of Clean::theBar across your face and legs. We can claim, though, that we feel awesome using [Wash of the Day] soap. We hope you do, too.

Additive-Free.
Technically, additives are just things added, so maybe we kind of do. What we’re trying to get at is this: we don’t put nasty toxins or detergents in our soap. It seems like common sense, but the truth is many soaps out there do this and it’s just not our thing. If you have to Google an ingredient to know what it means, you probably don’t want that in your soap; we don’t want that either.

Dye-Free.
What you see is what you get! Our Clean::theBar soap bars are au naturale. The color of each bar is just the natural, naked color of the soap after it’s been made. No colors or dyes are added to alter the appearance of our soaps.

Crap-Free.
Do we really need to explain? We’re keeping things ACAP: As Clean As Possible.

Earth-Friendly.
All Clean::theBar soaps are made with organic, sustainable ingredients.

Vegan-Friendly.
Some of our soaps are vegan-friendly! All ingredients are listed by each bar of soap; we’ve got nothing to hide.

Animal-Friendly.
We don’t use animal fats in our soaps. We do use goat’s milk. You’ll be happy to know our goats are just too precious and are treated with lots of love and care. Oh, we also occasionally use musk. For the record, we’re not against using things like tallow in soap; we just don’t do it.

People-Friendly.
Our soap doesn’t talk or have emotions, but if it did, it would love you (and tell you, too). With it’s pureness of composition and organic spirit, it’s no wonder it lathers up with bubbly joy at the thought of you and fulfilling your soap needs.

If you’re curious to learn more about [Wash of the Day], feel free to check out our website or email me directly at alicia(at)washoftheday(dot)com.