Warning: The following smell like and looks an awful like dessert. However, it is not dessert:

It’s dessert … for your shower, that is.

Welcome to the yummy world of Soap Cafe, where you buy yummy stuff and then come out smelling like a bakery.

Soap Cafe carries, as the name implies, bath goodies that look like food. The attention to detail is pretty amazing. Intricate layers, highly detailed fruit pieces — it’s all colorful and mouth-watering. They’re almost so pretty that you don’t want to rub them into little nubbins in your shower.

And the scent is amazing. Smells like chocolate. Or pie. Or whatever the soap is. I once owned a pumpkin pie soap slice, and it was practically attached to my nose for a day or two. (Made me want pumpkin pie. Seriously.)

Just one word of advice: If you decide to give say, the box of assorted chocolate soaps as a gift, remind the recipient that they’re not candy! You want your gift recipient to smell good, not wind up in the ER!

In case you hadn’t heard, the awesome folks over at The Sampler have a brand new type of Sampler, the very special Sampler Select.

The Sampler Select is centered around a theme and is a limited-edition version. It’s full of great stuff from some longtime contributors, and many of the items in the Sampler Select were commissioned just for that particular edition!

The debut Sampler Select has a home theme, and came in this neato, theme-appropriate box:

And inside was all sorts of sweet home goods:

A mouse pad from My Favorite Mirror, featuring artwork from meganmary.com. The whale is awesome. And I like circle mouse pads … just ’cause squares are sometimes boring.

A sweet sachet from India*Romeo. It’s made of vintage quilt squares, and it made the whole package smell so good. Totally cute.

A set of letterpressed coasters from Green Chair Press. These were really neat, what with a nice design and a nice mix of fonts. I am a font/type nerd and these are going to be perfect at my house. And it was a set of 7! What a generous number of coasters in one set!

Bar of Calendula soap from Botanical Earth. Sweet smelling soap from a great shop.

This is only half of the goodness that was in the Sampler Select: Home! Stay tuned tomorrow for the other half!

And while you’re at it, check out the new Sampler Select that’s in the works — Sampler Select: Sleep! Go find out all the cool details here. One’s actually on its way to my door, and I can’t tell you how stoked I am about it already.

You know the old saying, “Have your cake and eat it too”?

How about having your cake and taking it into the shower?

No, don’t be fooled. It’s not real cake. It’s soap. Even the frosting is soap! You can even slice it up with a regular ol’ knife and take small pieces into the shower, since rubbing an entire cake might be kind of … awkward.

This little slice of pastry heaven comes from Morgan Street, purveyor of lovely bath goodies.

You will find bath salts, salves, foot products, and of course, lots of soap. Yummy soap such as white tea and ginger and tooty frooty. Those soaps aren’t shaped like cakes, but they’re still rather yummy-sounding (and colorful).

Goats are pretty benevolent creatures. They’re cute, their bleating makes me laugh, and they produce all sorts of good stuff, such as milk and cheese (yum!).

At Hidden Haven, they turn goat’s milk into wonderful soap:

The soap really is good stuff. It comes in all sorts of scents, from vanilla (featured above) to sasparilla to green apple to baby powder. It’s a nice moisturizer, lasts awhile, and makes your whole bathroom smell like whatever soap you happen to be using. I bought a strawberry-scented bar once and it make my bathroom smell like strawberry shortcake for a week. Mmmmm, food.

As an added bonus, the soap is very modestly priced (so you can stock up on many, many soaps) and 10 percent of all sales go to benefit animal rescue. So you get something good for your skin and do good at the same time. Nice deal, eh?

The folks over at Rare Bird Finds have come up with a sweet list of 100 cool goodies that can be had for under $10. Click on the banner for more details:

It’s a deal you really can’t top. I mean, cool AND cheap? It’s heaven.

There are some excellent finds like these:

(Top left: Biz card case from FlickaBags. Top right: Crayon Keeper from Dine & Doodles. Bottom left: Change purses from Little Red Birdie. Bottom right: Nilla Sammie Soapsicle from soapylove.)

Do check out the list … there’s not enough room here for all the awesome stuff!

I am a lover of non-food stuffs that smell like food … and I’d like to add this Death by Chocolate soap to my list:

It’s from The Sublime Dragonfly, which sells a whole host of bath and body products.

I happened to be drawn to the chocolate. I broke out this bar the other day and it smelled like I stuck my head into a tin of Ovaltine … or a tin of cocoa powder. Mmmmm! I also have the Chocolate Fudge lip balm, and that smells like a dream too. (Oh yeah, it does a righteous job of moisturizing my lips as well.)

Even if you’re not a chocolate fanatic, there’s plenty to like at The Sublime Dragonfly. Maybe you’d like a Margarita instead? Or Citrus Cream? Do check it out.

I am a sucker for handmade soaps, especially the yummy-smelling kind related to food.

I especially love chocolate (who doesn’t?), which is why I’m in love with the Chocolate Truffles soap from mi SPA:

Smells so good you want to eat it!

(Unfortunately, the Chocolate Truffles soap is sold out at the moment. But hopefully it will return soon!)

In addition to the olfactory benefits, Mimie’s soaps are terrific moisturizers and they last a darn long time. I also bought the Brown Sugar and Spice bar — it’s a veritable bakery in my shower! — and milked that one for a while.

Good stuff, indeed.