
Aleppo
“The purest soap the world has ever known.”
Relic Soaps – Ancient Ingredients, Modern ResultsAncient Ingredients. Modern Results.
We do not source a soap a month. We source a soap a season, and only when we have found something worth the postage. Each bar below is a small dispatch from somewhere we have been.

“The purest soap the world has ever known.”

“The North Atlantic in a bar — minus the hypothermia.”

“Desert sage, cedar smoke, and a sky you cannot photograph.”

It started with my grandfather's shaving brush — a mangy thing from Trieste he refused to retire, and a cake of olive soap he'd carried home from Aleppo in 1962. The smell of that bar is the only part of him I can summon at will.
Relic exists because most of what we wash with is a chemical apology to our ancestors. We travel. We pay the maker. We ship it in a box you'll want to keep.
— J. Halliday, founder & reluctant cartographer
Read all dispatches →Every botanical printed in plain English on the box. If you can’t pronounce it, it isn’t in there.
We pay producers the price they ask, then add 10%. We do not haggle for a living.
No bar leaves the workshop until it has cured for at least 42 days. Patience is a feature.
If the bar isn’t for you, tell us within 30 days. We refund up to $30, no questions, no return shipping. Keep the bar, give it to a friend, or bury it at sea.
“For 5 years, I struggled with stubborn acne and scarring. My acne AND scars are almost completely gone after switching to Relic soap as a face wash. I completely simplified my skincare routine — that's it. Making that change has completely transformed my skin.”
“Best soap I have ever used in my life. My skin has never felt better. It smells divine. The lather is incredible. I will now never not buy this soap.”
“Great smell, lasts long, easy to use — the first ever soap or bodywash I've used that doesn't dry my skin. Knowing what is going onto my body is amazing. I love it, will be purchasing for the rest of my life.”
“This stuff is amazing! This is the only soap I have found that doesn't dry out my face, and I was trying the $50 facial cleansers before this. I also use it as a shampoo and my scalp is doing really well. So thankful I found this product!”
Real questions from real customers, answered without marketing perfume.
Aleppo runs up to about three months as a daily full-body shower bar, and four to six months at a face or hand sink. Norse Viking is roughly four to six weeks of daily use. Tip: use a washcloth or a soap-saver bag instead of rubbing the bar directly on skin — most of the wear is friction, not cleansing, and a cloth gives you the same lather with a fraction of the loss. Keep it on a draining dish between baths, never in a puddle.
The Norse Viking is cold-processed and cured for a minimum of six weeks. The Aleppo is hot-processed by hand in Turkey using the traditional method. Ours is then cured for two years before it ships.
Yes. We use no synthetic fragrances, sulfates, parabens, or palm oil. Botanicals only — described in plain English on every label.
Honestly — we don't know yet. We're evaluating bars from a wild-sage harvester in the Sierra Blanca, and we've opened early conversations with the Mescalero Apache. A return trip is planned for the autumn. Summer 2026 is the hope, not the promise. Join the waitlist and we'll write to you either way — you pay only if, and when, a bar ships.
Worldwide — with one exception: we cannot ship the Norse Viking soap to Norway due to local restrictions. If you live in Norway, order directly at norsevikingsoap.com. If your country isn't supported at checkout, drop us a line and we'll sort it out.
Honestly? We don't take returns — shipping a used bar of soap back across the country helps no one. Instead, if you're unhappy within 30 days, we refund you up to $30, no questions asked. Keep the bar. Give it to a neighbor. We've done this since 2019 and refunded eleven people, mostly by accident.