For me, soap is something old people use. It sits on your soap-dish for ages looking unattractively scummy, it doesn’t lather up properly and it leaves you feeling almost too squeakily clean. Suffice to say, I’m a shower gel girl all the way.
However, bringing the humble soap into the 21st century is Essentials By Cinci EC Soap. The brainchild of qualified Chinese medicine practitioner Cinci Leung, these soaps are handmade in Hong Kong from all-natural ingredients – and look absolutely gorgeous to boot.
Before you start imagining Leung as some wizened bearded old man concocting noxious-smelling brews in a ye olde style apothecary, let me tell you that she’s actually a bright young woman with a more modern approach to Chinese medicine – a philosophy which is totally reflected in the Essentials by Cinci soaps themselves.
Leung explained to me that many shower gels are formulated with ingredients that end up stripping off your skin’s natural oils as well as the dirt and sweat we want rid of. Her soaps are much milder and have been created to both cleanse and moisturise – sudsational stuff!
EC Soaps come in five varieties, all suited to slightly different skin types: Smooth Lavender for eczema, sensitive or dry skin; Spicy Ginger for prenatal, post-natal and dry skin; Happy Baby for sensitive skin, eczema, infants and pregnant women; Silky Rose for dry or dull skin; and Emerald Mist for oily or acne-prone skin. The ingredients lists are happily pronounceable and understandable – no weird chemical compounds here, just stuff like olive, coconut and essential oils, shea butter and alkaline solution (to neutralise the skin’s pH).
All of the soaps smell absolutely lovely, natural and not at all overpowering, although I do think the scents seem much weaker once you actually use them in the shower. Due to my nose’s natural homing device for all things lavender, I’m pretty sure you can guess my favourite already but the Spicy Ginger smells ridiculously scrummy, spicy and seasonal too.
For those of you that loathe the sight of a scummy soap-dish as much as the next OCD beauty blogger, you’ll be pleased to learn that all EC Soaps come with a cool net pouch that you can store your soap in. Simply splash some water over it and use it as you would a shower pouf, then hook it up to dry when you’re done. I was pleasantly surprised by how well these soaps lathered up, and my skin was left feeling super clean but stroke-worthy soft after each shower.
Thanks to a couple of nasty reactions to products recently, my skin has also been feeling a little sensitive – but I’ve found that these EC Soaps, in particular the Happy Baby (which is practically fragrance-free), have really done the trick with my skin, calming down dry itchy patches and inflamed aggravated areas… much more so than my regular shower gels, to be honest. Soap really does spring eternal!
The final massive plus point for Essentials by Cinci soaps is just quite how stunning they look. They’re like beautiful chunks of pastel-swirled candy, elegantly wrapped in thick waxy paper then packaged in sand-coloured cardboard boxes. It’s minimalist, grown-up gorgeousness at its best and they’d make for great gifts… if you can bear to part with them, that is!
There are a few downsides. One is the cost – $198 per bar seems rather pricey to me (even if the soaps do last you a fair while), and in order for me to consider using EC Soaps on a regular basis, they’d have to get a lot more competitive with their pricing. Secondly, is their availability; so far, you can only buy them at Cinci’s clinic in Central. Hopefully, they can work on stocking these at organic “green” stores and independent boutiques around Hong Kong, and appear at some of our city’s increasing number of fairs and bazaars too. *UPDATE: You can now buy EC Soaps online on www.essentialsbycinci.com too!*
Nevertheless, if you’re a fan of all-natural products, like supporting local businesses and are looking for something to inject a little bit of loveliness into your shower routine, Essentials by Cinci soaps tick off almost all of my beauty boxes. So for some proper dope soap, you know where to go!
Essentials by Cinci Soaps cost $198 each and are available at EC Clinic, Room 1503, SBI Centre, 54-58 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong, 2833 5508 or online at www.essentialsbycinci.com
Note: Products received for my consideration
Through The Looking Glass 
I love the natural soaps too. I just joined a subscription service for only 19.99/month. They send you all natural soap goodies, scrubs, stuff for hair, etc. They even give you a choice as to the type of box you want. You can even get a sampler for only $12.00/month! It is called Sirref Box. I love the look of these soaps as well! It’s nice to have a choice and place where you can get natural goodies! 😊 Nice post!
Oooh Sirref Box looks great – not sure if they deliver to Hong Kong though? It’d be great if a service like that were to start here!
And thanks for the kind words on my blog too 🙂
I know doesn’t it! Can’t wait to get it!!! You should email them and ask. Even if they don’t email to Hong Kong, just asking starts people and businesses thinking about the possibilities and opportunities of expanding. Yes, that would be great if they Had a service like that near you. You can eliminate all those shipping charges and spend it on more goodies!!! 😄😄😄 My pleasure! You can tell you have a lot of fun with your blog. Especially look forward to your dessert posts! 😄😄😄
Good idea – I’ll tweet them and see what they say! HK can be a bit slow to catch onto these kind of trends… HK beauty box companies only sprang up a couple of years ago but after trying a few, the product quality and brands declined very quickly (especially in comparision to the overseas boxes) and now pretty much all those companies are gone!
And thanks for reading… plenty more dessert posts to come, I promise 🙂
which flavor is the best? 😛
I think my favourites are the Lavender and Ginger.