{ the jaunty magpie }

What is up with this Bird and the obsession with soaps?! Well, we all have to keep clean, be you a belle or a beau, and I'm happy to say that the handcrafted soapmakers have keyed into that need for gender-neutral and fella-friendly products! Let's face it, our boys can sometimes work up a sweat, but shouldn't they be afforded the same opportunities for quality sudsy products, but without the retail fear of buying something that looks like it was meant for Barbie?

I discovered a recent Jaunty find that was Fancy-ful indeed, as it's locally made, uses natural ingredients and the labels are Northwest-fabulous with that distinctive sly Seattle humor. Magpie Minions, let me introduce you to Seattle Sundries! I had the chance to have a little chat with the creator of these soaps while at an open market the other week. While not always at the farmers markets, the sudsy goods are most definitely available online and it's fun to just read the labels like Sasquatch Soap, Road Trip Soap or Bitchin' Kitchen Soap. They're packaged in these great apothecary-like metal tins with vintage styled labels, making them great gifts for manly-men who want to get clean. I think the fellas wouldn't mind a bit of pampering, but they don't want to be squeezing a bottle of pearly-pink gel flecked with glitter. Not so manly. Plus, the soaps double as a proper shaving soap, foaming up nicely with a boar's hair shaving brush. I ended up getting a stack of these soaps for future gifts, plus one of their adorable "soap sweater," which are cute knitted cozies that double as a scrubber and a way to use up all those odd-shaped soap chips that all bars seem to get whittled down to.

I'm definitely getting more into finding gifts that are locally made with a distinctive Northwest flair, as it's fun to give objects that clearly have their own voice, and Seattle Sundries definitely has a sudsy tale to tell!


Jaunty Fine Print: photos by Denise Sakaki