I’m sure most of us in India wouldn’t have heard of this one! Or atleast I hadn’t till I was gifted two of these amazing handmade soaps by my mom’s friend’s daughter-in-law (who is an American). I was surprised by how much she knew about India and our culture and heritage and I was equally amazed by her love for handmade soaps! She gave me two bars (I wish she had gifted me two different kinds of soaps instead of the same one.. grrrrrr :P) of COPA soaps and they were called ‘ Out of India’ which is maybe a take on the phrase ‘out of the world!!!’ . Out of India is a blend of patchouli, cardamom and hemp oil. There are 36 kinds of soaps available (with ingredients like grapefruit, oats, mango butter, lavender, tea tree oil, patchouli, vetiver, rosemary, ginger carrot and so on).
This was how it was gifted to me:
The soaps are cut into 4.5oz bars and 1.25oz travel bars. I was gifted the travel bars
Likes:
- All natural, biodegradable, vegetable oil based soaps
- Handmade from saponified coconut, olive, palm and almond oils and pure essential oils
- No artificial ingredients like perfumes, dyes, lathering agents are used
- (The above three points are mentioned in the tiny pamphlet which came along with the soap and these impressed me so they are part of my likes :D)
- It creates a spa like atmosphere because of the wonderful smell of essential oils although cardamom seems to dominate the rest
- It does lather; and the skin is not squeaky clean after using it which is an advantage for people with dry skin; It doesn’t rip the skin of moisture.
Having said these I do have a few issues with this one
Dislikes:
- The fragrance is too strong; When I got the soap the entire room was filled with the fragrance of cardamom. I wanted to give my friend one of the soaps I got and so I put it in my bag ad even after taking it out (and that too after an hour!)the smell still lingers even today.(This was nearly two weeks back!) The small pamphlet which I referred to write the key points still has the lingering strong smell of the soap with cardamom dominating it so it is not good for people with a sensitive nose. But the surprising part is, after my bath, the fragrance was very very mild. So I’m really confused as to how to judge the fragrance.
- Not available in India; International shipping is available but personally I wouldn’t spend so much on shipping for soaps
Overall, this soap is of really good quality and worth every single dollar(if bought in the US). Out of India’s fragrance is too strong but once I’m done with my bath I love the lingering mild scent. I would love to try out the other soaps. I just hope Beekman’s COPA soaps are available in India soon.
The word COPA is an acronym for Coconut, Olive, Palm and Almond (Source: Beekman’s COPA soaps website)
