In the News

Green Gifts for Mother's Day
The Green Parent May 4, 2008

My Mother's Day Gift Box: Help mom wipe that carbon footprint off of her face with this stylish gift box filled with a butter bar and souffle made from fair trade shea butter and an assortment of hypoallergenic soaps that use vegetable glycerin instead of petroleum. Click here to see the article.

Flu Prevention
Better.tv January 2008

Our eyeball soaps are featured on this interview with Michelle Madhok of Momfinds.com. Click here to see the interview.

Fighting Flu Season
Good Morning America, ABC - 1/3/2008

Sanitizers, soaps and other tips for staying healthy in the New Year

Interview by Heidi Jones with Michelle Madhok of Momfinds.com. Click here to see the interview - our eyeball soaps are featured at 5:15 into the program.

Holiday Gift Guide 2007
Lena's Notebook

Get in the holiday spirit with some of our favorite holiday ideas this season!.

Tricks & Treats
Halloween Celebrations, a Woman's Day Special Interest Publication, Fall 2007, page 14

Out of Sight

Watch out! The eyeballs in these handcrafted glycerin soaps move. $6 each. 515-222-0144; http://www.soapourri.com.

Press Release
June 3,2007

2007 'What a Pair' Benefiting the John Wayne Cancer Institute to Provide Amazing Gift Bags for Participating Celebrities This Year's Cast to Receive Special Gifts of Gratitude. Some of the celebrities that received the gift bags include: Jamie Lee Curtis, Sherry Lansing, Marg Helgenberger, Joely Fisher, Lea Thompson, Jaclyn Smith, and Sharon Lawrence.

To read the article, click here.

News and Reviews
Desmoinesfamilies.com, May 21,2007

Review: Soapourri

I have to admit, I was a skeptic of this bar soap (I'm a big fan of bodywash... for me and the boys). But my 2-year-old thought I'd hung the moon when I brought out his new puppy bar soap from Soapourri.

My son is crazy for puppies, so he loved his doggie- and bone-shaped bars, but Cindy at Soapourri can get you anything from a goldfish to an elephant, a shamrock to a set of eyeballs.

The night I surprised him with the soaps was at least two months ago, and they are still hanging on. Granted, they've been washed down to teeney-tiny versions of their former selves, but they still entertain (and de-gross) my toddler.

The best part about the soaps is that they make scrubbing fun... so my little independence-seeking boy can wash himself... and he loves it!

To read the article,click here.

New Products for your Home and Garden
NWI Times,Sunday,April 29,2007

Soap-prise

Mother's Day Gift Idea #1: A pink-and-white box brimming with natural, homemade Soapourri soaps and bath goodies. Contents include Amazing Grace soap (named after soap queen Cindy Helgason's mom), face pouf, inscribed oval soap, butter bar and whipped shea butter. Customize Her Ladyship's collection with a variety of scents to make it as unique as she is.

WHERE TO BUY: $34.95. Visit www.Soapourri.com or call (515) 222-0144.

To read the article,click here.

Lifestyle and Leisure Section - We Like It
Cincinnati Enquirer,Sunday, September 24,2006

Halloween Soap Gives Dirt the Evil Eyes

Give guests and kids the creeps for Halloween with eyeball soap from Soapourri in Des Moines,Iowa. The gruesome green soap has an eyeball that floats in the soap when you move it. It’s a sure way to get dirty boys in the tub. There’s a full menu of scary soaps – ghosts, mummies,witches–but there are pretty creations as well and the add-a-tube mesh bag with slim soap tubes for customizing soap mixtures. Not for children under 3. $6 for one 3-inch “bar.” 515-222-0144;www.soapourri.com.

Discoveries - Our Favorite Midwest Finds
Midwest Living September-October 2006

Here's looking at you, soap

Eyeballs quiver in blue or green glycerin soap "irises." Rubber duckies masquerading as ghosts, mummies, witches or Dracula float atop a blue pool of ocean-scented soap. Molded bats and black cats show no fear of the water under the deft hands of West Des Moines, Iowa, soapmaker Cindy Helgason.

Cindy left a corporate accounting job eight years ago to start making soap with the most skin-saving materials she could find. Now, she molds soaps for every season, plus bars, loaf soap and a "butter-bar" for very dry skin. Teenagers, she reports, love her new "add-a-tube": a mesh bag with slim soap tubes they can select in their own customized scent mixtures. To order: Soapourri, Box 25056, West Des Moines, IA 50265 (515/222-0144, www.soapourri.com).

Demonstration and Interview
ABC WOI-TV Channel 5 News at Midday - August 30, 2006

Indieshopping.com Summer Gift Guide

Interview
MissEvilKitty.org's Indie Interviews - February 14, 2006

To read the Soapourri interview, click here.

Good Clean Fun
Des Moines Register - HomeStyle Weekly - October 26, 2005

Soap maker offers seasonal shapes for the bathroom

Everyone wants one of Cindy Helgason's eyeballs.

"The eyeball is the best-selling soap all year long," says Helgason, owner of Soapourri Natural Bath and Body, a West Des Moines company that sells homemade glycerin soap. An eyeball floats in a pool of greenish or bluish "goo" made of glycerin soap. Although not recommended for children younger than age 3, the eyeball and its other creepy counterparts - bats, black cats, ghosts and pumpkins - are great ways to extend Halloween decorations into the bathroom.

Helgason has been making the molded soaps in Halloween shapes for a couple of years, but new this year are duckies in costume, which can add a more whimsical look to Halloween decoration.

"What's so great about the soap is that it's good for your skin, but people buy it to look at," she says. "I truly believe everyone should have fun soap in their bathroom. Life is too short not to have fun soap."

Six years ago, Helgason picked up a soap-making book when she was looking for a way to make small presents for family and friends during the holidays. The former CPA has been making soap ever since."It was just the most fun thing I've ever done," she says.

In addition to the Halloween soaps, Helgason also offers other decorative molded soaps and loaf soaps in a variety of colors and fragrances.

Made in Iowa
Des Moines Register - August 21, 2005

Sports Soap Duckies

These sports-themed duckies are made of ocean-scented glycerin soap and come in soccer, basketball, football and baseball garb. These soaps are gentle enough for children to use. The soaps cost $6 and can be ordered through www.SOAPourri.com or by calling (515) 222-0144..

Fun Soaps for Little Hands
SheFinds Mom Blog, April 17, 2005

Soapourri makes whimsical soaps to keep hands clean and germ-free.

With articles about germs and illness prevention saturating parenting magazines all winter, how come I never came across one that gave good advice for how to get my 4-year-old to wash his hands without a lengthy battle? But, I found a solution. Eyeball soap. Yes, eyeball soap. It’s kooky, it’s a little scary, and it totally works. It’s soap, with a cool plastic eyeball inside from Soapourri. Now he loves to wash his hands, so he can make the eyeball move. And the soap smells good. And he washes for a long time, which the magazines will tell you is key to germ elimination. There are other kinds of soap too - soap with elephants, frogs, ducks, horses, pigs, you name it.

Read the SheFinds Mom Blog by clicking here.

Love This: Soapourri
Tips and Ideas for Wedding Planning, April 2005 newsletter from Cassandra Bromfield's Company

This is soooo cute. How many wedding favors have you gotten, that you have to dust, pretend you like it, and /or tuck it in the catch all drawer? Those days are finally long gone. Soapourri has created a wedding favor that is practical and fun. Little soaps have been created in many shapes, from a ballerina, to fishes, to even bars of glycerin soap with your wedding date on it (how'd they do that?). There are great natural bath and body products too. Be sure to browse the entire site to find a cute gift for family, friends, or your first home together. You'll say you Love This too.

More information about Cassandra Bromfield's Company at http://www.cassandrabromfield.com.

zen in the city
Kitchen and Bath Ideas Magazine from Better Home and Gardens, November/December 2004, page 116

Equal parts meditative and metropolitan, a master bath in the middle of everything provides a place to get away from it all. Designed by Kitchen and Bath Ideas magazine, it's part of a 1924 warehouse in downtown Des Moines that's been converted to lofts. Of course, you don't need to have an urban address to appreciate its metro sensuality and soothing simplicity.

On pages 4,116 and 119 custom-designed soap by Soapourri is featured at the sinks in the bathroom of this loft.

Cybelesays.com
Cybelesays July 2004 Review

Great Minds Lotion Alike...It's a portable, non-spillable, solid lotion called Soapourri Moisture Rich Butter Bar. Great for travel, since it's packaged in a push-up container, similar to a solid deodorant. It's one-quarter shea butter and 100% soft fun. Try Orange Creamsicle (it goes with the whole push-up Dreamsicle container).

To read the review,click here.

Cybelesays.com
Cybelesays June 2004 Review

Gotta luv da soaps! Here are our picks for this month. Personalized Handcrafted Large Oval Soap, personalized for Cybele.

To see her newsletter,click here.

Cybelesays.com
Cybelesays March 2004 Review

Soapourri Single Use Rose Petal Soaps...

are just too pretty to use! I like to draw a bath and then float a few of these rose-scented glycerin disks in the water.

To read more, click here.

New products for your home and garden
NWI Times - September 7, 2003

Soap-prise

Bulb planting is a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. Treat your favorite (sore) green thumb to Soapourri's Gardener's Gift, a terra-cotta pot filled with soothing, handcrafted goodies. Contents include a bar of glycerin Gardener's Soap with ground pumice, loofah and oatmeal to help scrub dirt away, a moisturizing Butter Bar and a tube of bath salts to relax aching muscles. Ask about available scents.

FYI: Gardener's Gift is $19.95. Order by visiting www.soapourri.biz or by calling (515) 222-0144 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time weekdays.

For more of this story, click here.

Pssst
Des Moines Register - July 27, 2003

Smells good to us, bad to skeeters

Des Moines soapmaker Cindy Helgason, whose business is called Soapourri, has a new lotion this summer that repels mosquitoes with natural ingredients. Citrusy-smelling "Skeeter Beater" blends essential oils in an aloe vera gel base. There's no DEET in it, so you don't have to shower to get it off your skin when you come indoors. It's $7.95 for a 4-ounce bottle and can be purchased online at www.artisticsoap.com (click on "bath & body essentials") and picked up or delivered for a small fee in the Des Moines area.