Hiltwood

What to know about shopping at Hiltwood

Hiltwood is a small-batch British soap maker working in cold process, and the range is deliberately narrow: a set of natural bars, the bundles they are sold in, and a couple of accessories. The scents lean herbal and woody rather than sweet — lime and charcoal, pine juniper and bergamot, cedarwood and Spanish verbena, eucalyptus with lemon and mint, and a tea tree and lavender bar made with Dead Sea mud. Turmeric appears in a couple of the blends, and several bars are made "with grit", meaning an exfoliating material such as pumice, poppy seed or crushed olive stone is worked into the bar.

Cold process is worth understanding because it explains both the price and the handling. The bars are made without heat and then cured for several weeks, which produces a harder, longer-lasting bar than melt-and-pour, and it keeps the glycerin that industrial soap making usually strips out. The trade-off is that a natural bar left sitting in standing water will soften and disappear quickly.

That is what the accessories are for. The bamboo dish drains rather than pools, and the sisal bag doubles as a lather aid and a way to use the last sliver of a bar. Buying either alongside your first order is the single change that most affects how long the soap lasts.

Bundles are how the shop is merchandised, offered in four, five, eight and twelve-bar packs, and they are the better-value route if you already know which scents you like. Buying a bundle is also the usual way people work through the range, since the individual bars are sold at a single-bar price. A gift card is available if you would rather leave the scent choice to someone else.

— MoneySaverCodes Team