Gifting handmade soap: how to choose for someone whose skin you do not know

Soap turns up in a lot of Diwali hampers and wedding return gifts. It is useful, it travels well, and nearly everyone uses it. The catch is that you are choosing for someone else's skin, and you usually do not know much about it.

A strongly perfumed bar, or one that leaves skin feeling tight, tends to end up in a drawer. A few simple checks make it much more likely that the bar gets used.

Start with the label, not the box

Gift packaging is designed to look good on a table. The ingredient list tells you what the person will actually be washing with.

Look for a full ingredient list, not just the two or three hero ingredients on the front. Then check for what is left out. Many people who have moved off commercial soap look for bars with no SLS, no parabens and no synthetic fragrance. If you are unsure what those mean, our guide to SLS-free soap and what makes a soap chemical-free explain them.

If a soap lists only "fragrance" or "parfum", the scent is usually synthetic. A bar scented with an essential oil or a botanical will normally name it.

Choose a quiet scent

Scent is the most personal part of a soap, and the easiest place to get a gift wrong. When you do not know someone's taste, a mild scent is a safer choice than a strong one.

• Rose is familiar and floral. Ours uses rose essential oil rather than synthetic fragrance. See rose soap.
• Marigold has a warm, garden-like character and a golden colour, without a heavy perfume. See marigold soap.
• Neem and tulsi are earthy and herbal. Good for someone who already likes traditional Indian bathing ingredients. See neem tulsi soap.

If you really cannot guess, a lightly scented glycerin bar is easy to like.

Whichever you choose, our bars get their scent from essential oils and the botanicals in them, never from synthetic fragrance, and we add vitamin E to each one. Both are named on the label, so the person you are giving to can read exactly what is in the bar.

Choose the base

The base changes how a bar feels more than the added ingredients do.

• Glycerin is light and rinses clean. It suits people in warm, humid cities and anyone who does not like a heavy lather.
• Goat milk gives a creamier, softer wash. A good choice for someone who finds most soaps leave their skin feeling tight.
• Shea butter is the richest of the three and has a creamy texture. It suits the cooler months, especially for someone in North India.

If the person has mentioned that their skin reacts easily, read our natural soap for sensitive skin guide first. The glycerin vs goat milk comparison is also useful if you are deciding between the two.

One bar or a few

If you know the person well, one bar in a scent they like is enough. If you do not, two different bars, say one glycerin and one goat milk, let them find out which they prefer. Small bars are also easy to use up, which matters to someone who does not want a cupboard full of half-used soap.

How our bars are wrapped

Handmade soap draws in moisture from the air, so each bar is first sealed in a food-grade cling film, then wrapped in paper. The paper makes it simple to give as it is, and the person can unwrap it to see the actual soap, with its colour and the botanicals in it. If you would like the bars wrapped a particular way for a gift, ask us when you message.

What we grow and what we buy in

Every bar is made to order in small batches on our farm in South Goa. Some ingredients, like neem, tulsi and lemongrass, are grown on the farm. Others, like shea butter and the soap bases, are sourced. We would rather tell you which is which, so you know what you are giving. The full list is on our ingredients page.

If you would rather give a ready hamper than choose bars one by one, we put together four, from ₹300 to ₹1,499. They are on our gift hampers page.

Because each bar is made to order, it helps to message us a little ahead of when you need the gift, so we can tell you when it will be ready.

If you would like help choosing a bar for someone, send us a message on WhatsApp. Tell us a little about who it is for, and we will suggest a few bars.