Aleppo Soap Bar,%20 Laurel Oil%80 Virgin Olive Oil, Natural Handmade, Crafted using the Original Ancient Recipe, Gentle for Face, Body, Hair (7oz Each (Pack of 2))

I have had true Allepo soap from Syria about 40 years ago that was absolutely fabulous, and as memory serves, this is very, very close to being that same soap. I believe the 20% claim on the Laurel, the smell is quite strong. I love it, but not everyone does. To me, it's a strong, sweet earthy scent. If you prefer those types of smells, you might consider trying this soap. If your more appreciative of perfumy, flowery scents, this probably isn't for you. As a soap maker myself, I have tried to duplicate Allepo soap before but could never get it quite right.You get two HUGE bars of soap for this price. Each bar is equivalent to at least 2 regular bars of soap. I actually took my soap cutter and cut each one in half to make them easier for smaller hands to use.I'm not sure these bars had fully cured so I'll only use a small portion from one of them and leave the rest to cure a bit more.By not being fully cured, I mean it was a little softer on the inside suggesting it had not fully dried. There is no lye lingering in it at all, in that respect, it is definitely cured. But Allepo soap is a very hard soap which helps it to last a very long time. The outside of these bars is rock hard but the inside was a bit softer than I think it should have been.It lathers and cleans wonderfully, and isn't overly drying.I personally think everyone should try Allepo soap at least once in their life, and this is a good one, even though some would argue that being made in Turkey means it's not true Allepo. It's close enough for me, although I would still love to get my hands on the real deal!

I've never heard of Aleppo soap before but figured I would give these bars a try, they are definitely unlike any other soap I have used before. The scent is quite musky or something like incense which I don't think would be to everyone's liking, but I'm ok with it. The bars themselves collect a rather viscous and slimy layer which rolls on smooth though the soap also holds it's shape quite firmly and therefore has some hard edges for the first few uses. I saw some people complaining about the bars not actually being the advertised weight but I weighed mine out to about 15oz when it's advertised as 14oz, so it seems they may be paying more attention to that. Each bar is about double the size of a traditional soap bar and therefore last a bit longer and justify a bit more the $7ish per bar price.Interesting product, I'd probably give it more of a 3.5 in rating because I don't think it's for everyone but certain people seem to really like it based on reviews. I'm in the middle of the road with it I suppose. It's soap but at least it doesn't leave behind any residue or anything like some soaps might.

I put a new bar of regular sized soap beside one of these in the pic so one can see how huge these bars are compared to average size. Might be too big for a kid's hands but easy to handle with an adult hand. This soap has no real scent to it. While there was a small amount of sudsing at first, it took some work to get a lot of bubbles but I think an abundance of suds are more for the mainstream commercial brands. I rotated this with my normal soap every other day. This rinsed off relatively easily and left nothing behind. This clearly left my skin a lot softer on the face, arms, and even the boy parts down there had noticeably softer skin. The skin felt good all day. One thing I took note of is this cannot sit in even smaller amounts of water in a soap dish or that part gets creamy. It actually re-solidified when I flipped it over and let it dry thankfully. This has great value as it left my skin feel almost as soft as a baby's skin. With winter coming to an end, I am now thinking about next winter to see if the olive oil would help keep the skin better hydrated in the super dry air.

I really like this soap! It's very different from others I've tried. It comes in a box with 2 large bars wrapped together in plastic. I didn't slice my bars open, I'm using one of them as is. It does have a -very- faint earthy, and (if I'm being honest) almost "barnyard" smell. But it does not leave any smell behind after it's rinsed off. It does lather quite well and leaves the skin squeaky clean and not overly dry. No adverse reactions whatsoever. I've used it several times now and it still looks brand new, so I'm guessing it will last quite a long time. I'll probably cut it open at some point. For now, it works just fine the way it is and it looks great in my soap dish!

I will admit that when I opened up the package I was a little turned off to the scent. Not because it's bad, I actually do like it, just that I am used to floral scents or powder scents and this is very "earthy". The bars are ridiculously large and I will cut them in half to make them easier to hold. This soap lathers very well and leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. But that is not what I love about this soap. I have other soaps that offer the same results and leave me smelling of lavender or lemons. What this soap does that no other I have used has is to actually truly clean my body. I have scrubbed my pits raw to remove the odor from a hard days work just to get out of the shower and still stink. This soap completely removes that odor, destroying the bacteria that causes it and leaves you unstinky all day ( and even a day or so after)! The earthy scent does mostly rinse away and my husband did not tell me that I smell like a hippy (like he used to say when I would wear patchouli or the like). My skin feels very moisturized smooth and it help to prevent and counter "ashy" skin. This is the best soap ever!