The Lavender Life (La Vie Lavande)

My love affair with lavender began when I was a tiny little person taking baths in my grandmother's bathtub whenever I visited her. She always had Yardley English Lavender Soap, which I not only thought was exotic and rare but also made me feel terribly grown up (I didn't find out until much later that it was available at most drug stores, but I never loved it any less).

About 15 years ago, the company changed the formula, the bar, the packaging, everything...no longer an ovoid brownish bar in an old-fashioned box, it became a light purple bar just like every other lavender on the market, in a matching purple and more modern box. Even the fragrance changed. I didn't love it so much anymore.

I had to seek out another lavender.  I moved on to fancier brands...The Body Shop...L'Occitane en Provence...Caswell & Massey...Crabtree & Evelyn. Many were lovely but each had its own fatal flaw - maybe a synthetic fragrance, or some - like Pre de Provence - which promised exfoliation with its tiny pieces of actual lavender in the soap (this, let me assure you, only leaves you with little twiggy stuff you need to rinse off and is really annoying).

The clouds parted when I discovered Kiss My Face. Their Lavender and Olive bar soap, apart from being incredibly moisturizing, smells like lavender should smell, lasts forever, and (I know this is going to sound weird) dissolves nicely, without jagged edges and those strange layers that some bar soaps get after a week or two on the side of your tub. Their Lavender and Shea Moisture Shave makes shaving well, maybe not fun, but at least not the chore it can be, and it comes in a handy pump that acknowledges that we have our razor in one hand and are probably standing on one foot in the shower so we can't be bothered with any two-handed maneuver to dispense shave cream without risking concussion.

A new addition to the Kiss My Face lavender line is its Lavender Mandarin Castile Peace Soap. It's just generally beyond fabulous and smells divine. You can wash literally anything with it, and 10% of profits from each product sold supports Seeds of Peace and its mission to help young people from regions of conflict develop the leadership skills necessary to advance reconciliation and coexistence. So far, I've used it as bubble bath, laundry soap, jewelry cleaner and to clean pretty much our whole bathroom. It's amazing and does good at the same time. What could be better? 

If you're not clean and fragrant enough at this point, you might want to complete your Lavender Life with my most recent discovery - EO's All Purpose Lavender Sanitizing Cleansing Wipes, especially if you live in a city where public transportation is a part of your daily life. Available online and at Whole Foods, I whip one of these out after a long haul on the subway, it comes away filthy and my hands smell delightful. In the summer it's refreshing and in the winter I feel protected from flu germs.

Now that's the Lavender Life.