Reshma Anand (above) sources the essential oils for her Earth Store soaps from villages across the country Pix: Rupinder Sharma

There’s a green one and a pink one, and a blue one and a yellow one. And they’re not made out of ticky tacky and they all just don’t look the same. Or smell the same for that matter. If one is redolent of the evening scent of vanilla beans, another wins you over with its fruity wild berry essence while the spicy fragrance of another comes through in a blend of nutmeg, cloves and orange aromas. And since sultry summer is at its peak, let’s not forget the ‘flavours’ of frangipani, tuberose and honeysuckle.

We aren’t talking about ice creams or perfumes, but ‘flavoured’ handmade soaps that are so delicious to smell that they seem good enough to eat (statutory warning: don’t bite into them).

Soap fever has hit town and made-by-hand soaps are all the rage among eco-friendly and organic converts. And their USP is that they don’t use any fatty acids, animal fats or preservatives unlike other chemical soaps. Instead, what goes in are vegetable oils, natural essential oils and dried organic plant extracts. Often the recipes include exotic imported essential oils and clays.

So, what’s the big deal about these soaps? Well, they are created exactly the way they have been labelled: by hand, in small batches. They are manufactured by either the hot process or the cold process. The soaps made by the hot process can be used immediately and those made with the cold process have to be cured for some weeks. And since these soaps come without fatty acids, additives and the works, you’d better adhere to the ‘use-by’ date.

Aromatherapist Divita Kanuria (above) imports special ingredients to create handmade soaps that sell under her brand, Tathaastu Pix: Jagan Negi

“The traditional way of making soaps with the cold process is making a comeback,” says Divita Kanuria, an aroma-therapist who imports ess-ential oils of carnations, tub-eroses and vanilla and even different kinds of clay to fashion her brand of soaps. Her year-old signature brand, Tathaastu, offers 13 different kinds of such soaps. Tathaastu also sells at Solace Spa and Bridgette Jones’ studio in Calcutta.

“Handcrafted soaps contain no stone dust or additives to make them heavier. Plus they lather well and are eco-friendly, leaving no chemical residue that’s can contaminate the environment,” says Meera Kulkarni, CEO and founder of the Delhi-based Forest Essentials, a brand that bases itself on Ayurveda to create sugar soaps and butter soaps.

Kulkarni’s sugar bars are made with pure cane sugar, cold-pressed oils, herbal infusions, organic fruit and vegetables and natural spring water. They come in fragrances such as Bitter Orange & Cinnamon, Fresh Lemon & Coriander, Whole Loofah Scrub Lemongrass and Bengal Tuberose.

Natural ingredients are crucial to handmade soaps. As Gaurav Singh, marketing head of Khadi India, points out: “These natural soaps are very mild and don’t leave the skin feeling dry. You can skip the moisturising routine after bathing with one of these soaps.”

Good Earth’s handspa line, Amritam, offers a spread of handmade soaps in exotic flavours like lavender and vetiver; (top) spokes-person Beenu Bawa Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Don’t miss out on the Forest Essentials range of rich butter bars that integrate kokum butter and coconut oil with pure essential oils. Then there’s the exotic Sandalwood & Vetiver soap that mixes pure oils of sandalwood with fresh Vetiver (a kind of grass) and the Honey & Beeswax soap that blends raw honey with pure white beeswax.

Good Earth’s range of hand spa products called Amritam includes a huge variety of handmade soaps as well. Beenu Bawa, the brand’s spokesperson says: “Good Earth’s founder, Anita Lal, wanted to create soaps that weren’t just gentle on the skin but also pure enough to eat.” The handcrafted soaps come in five natural flavours of sandalwood, rose, lavender, vetiver and jasmine.

Meanwhile a trip to the nearest Lush store offers you a different kind of experience. The display includes a colourful and rustic collection of unpackaged bars. After sniffing your way through several trimmings of different flavours provided, you can have your own soap cut from a brick that catches your fancy. The price is determined by the weight.

Saroj Joseph, spoke-sperson, Lush says that this British brand’s creative team has been dabbling in handmade cosmetics since the late 1970s. In ’78 they sold their first product to The Body Shop and in ’88 set up Cosmetics to Go, in Poole, Dorset, on the south coast of England. They introduced innovative products like bath bombs, shampoo bars and massage bars. The handmade cosmetic company uses sunflower oil, rabe seed oil and coconut oil as base ingredients for its soaps.

Watch out for bubble bath bars at Lush, so too its bath bombs that are balls of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid that fizz as they dissolve in the bath, releasing essential oils to perfume the bath. Also go for soaps like Honey I Washed the Kids (with honey), Sultana of Soap (loaded with dried fruits) and Demon in the Dark (mint essence).

But why buy a handcrafted soap when the market is teeming with factory-produced soaps? Reshma Anand, proprietor of Earth Store that also offers handmade soaps, says that these soaps are skin-friendly and high-quality. The soaps usually weigh upwards of 100gm.

“Anything under 100gm is just shortchanging the consumer. The idea is to enjoy the soap and use it for a long period of time,” says Anand, whose soaps are available at leading pharmacies like Religare Wellness in Delhi and lifestyle stores like NewU as well as other upmarket personal care stores. “In addition, this is a labour intensive cottage industry that’s creating jobs largely for women,” adds Anand.

Khadi India, one of the oldest Indian brands to make soaps by hand is exporting them as well. Their outlets offer 19 varieties of handmade soaps. And there are plans to introduce new flavours including peach and avocado.

L’Occitane’s soaps are manufactured using a traditional method developed by the 16th century master soap-makers of Marseille. “In 1989 the Provence-based company introduced handcrafted soaps formulated with shea butter sourced from women’s co- operatives in Burkina Faso,” says Frenchman Guillaume Geslin, general manager, L’Occitane, India.

Geslin is gearing up for a few new launches in the country — an Orange Cinnamon Soap, a Shea ultra-rich face soap, an Almond Soap and a Peony Petal Soap — apart from its regular range that features cold cream soaps and bars containing shea milk, lavender and verbena.

Handmade soaps can get as exotic as exotic can be. Fabindia’s handmade soaps come in 25 variants targeting different skin types. Unique to Fabindia is the Seabuckthorn soap made from a wild plant that grows in the Himalayas. “The loofah soaps — available in lemongrass, rose and geranium — are made with wild natural loofah embedded in the soap,” says Prableen Sabhaney, Fabindia’s spokesperson.

Since these soaps are considered a part of the eco-friendly revolution, soap-makers like Anand of Earth Store emphasise the need for environmentally friendly packaging to go with the ‘green’ theme. For good measure, Lush encourages buyers to buy the soaps ‘naked’ (sans packaging) and hands them over in regular paper bags.

“Naked soaps emphasise our going green philosophy. Our soaps are weighed and cut based on the customer’s requirement and then wrapped in grease-proof paper,” says Joseph. You will find Lush stores in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyberabad and Calcutta.

Since the soaps are natural and use expensive, imported ingredients, you got to pay the price for them. Expect to shell out anything between Rs 290 to Rs 585 for a bar at L’Occitane, or Rs 175 to Rs 250 at Tathaastu. At Forest Essentials the prices hover between Rs 225 and Rs 325 and at Good Earth, soaps from the Amritam line are available for Rs 375. Fabindia has kept the prices moderate between Rs 58 and Rs 85 while Khadi sells them for a flat price of Rs 54 for all flavours.

And if you have any plans to go au naturel (and we mean with soaps here), then here’s to the world’s favourite theme of reducing your carbon footprint.