Item Description
When it comes to sandalwood soap, there are tons of options. A lot are expensive, artificial, or blended with other scents and ingredients. And as a result, people often have a false sense of what sandalwood REALLY smells like. But why should you pay $7, $8 or more for something branded with a "familiar" name that you think is sandalwood when you can get the real thing for a fraction of the price?
Mysore Sandal Soap comes straight from India, where the government soap factory of Karnataka harvests sandalwood oil from the forests near Mysore and manufactures a variety of products, and the soap in particular has been around for 90 years. This is the REAL thing, guys. Not a blended or concocted approximation with a powdery, barbershoppy-base smell. Just pure, natural, masculine sandalwood. It smells up the entire bathroom and once it settles on your skin, it lingers all day, leaving a warm, sensous, exotic scent without a "soapy" background. And this is why it's clearly superior to pretenders from C&E (which is nice but NOT sandalwood) and L'Occitane (which is essentially an $8 bar of Dial Gold).
And best of all, it can be had for around $1.50 if you look in the right place, either online or at an Indian grocery store. I've even seen it for .99 cents a bar at some online shops.
The bars are relativly small at about 75 grams...though a bigger size of 150 grams is available. Since it's a vegetable-based soap (no surprise since it's from India) don't expect the world's best lather. But if you use a pouf instead of a washcloth, you should get plenty of lather anyway. I do.
The only downside is that it's not moisturizing, and can dry the skin easily. But thankfully there are other varieties to choose from including Mysore Sandal Gold (with almond oil) which moisturizes just fine. The scent isn't exactly the same as the original on the bar, but it is on the skin. There's also Mysore Sandal Classic which, despite the name, is the newest incarnation and is glycerine-based. So plenty of moisture there.
And lastly, the packaging...they've updated it recently, but it still looks like something you could purchase on the shelves of an apothecary shop in Calcutta back in 1918. Very retro and classy. The soap itself smells stronly through the box, is sealed in wax paper, and comes stamped with the the elephant logo and GOV'T SOAP FACTORY, BANGALORE. Nice.
With the current "endangerment" of sandalwood, one imagines that products like this might be endangered as well. Right now they still make it to the original specs, but there might come a time when Indian sandalwood is subbed for other varieties like Autralian for this stuff, so enjoy it while you can!
Mysore Sandal Soap comes straight from India, where the government soap factory of Karnataka harvests sandalwood oil from the forests near Mysore and manufactures a variety of products, and the soap in particular has been around for 90 years. This is the REAL thing, guys. Not a blended or concocted approximation with a powdery, barbershoppy-base smell. Just pure, natural, masculine sandalwood. It smells up the entire bathroom and once it settles on your skin, it lingers all day, leaving a warm, sensous, exotic scent without a "soapy" background. And this is why it's clearly superior to pretenders from C&E (which is nice but NOT sandalwood) and L'Occitane (which is essentially an $8 bar of Dial Gold).
And best of all, it can be had for around $1.50 if you look in the right place, either online or at an Indian grocery store. I've even seen it for .99 cents a bar at some online shops.
The bars are relativly small at about 75 grams...though a bigger size of 150 grams is available. Since it's a vegetable-based soap (no surprise since it's from India) don't expect the world's best lather. But if you use a pouf instead of a washcloth, you should get plenty of lather anyway. I do.
The only downside is that it's not moisturizing, and can dry the skin easily. But thankfully there are other varieties to choose from including Mysore Sandal Gold (with almond oil) which moisturizes just fine. The scent isn't exactly the same as the original on the bar, but it is on the skin. There's also Mysore Sandal Classic which, despite the name, is the newest incarnation and is glycerine-based. So plenty of moisture there.
And lastly, the packaging...they've updated it recently, but it still looks like something you could purchase on the shelves of an apothecary shop in Calcutta back in 1918. Very retro and classy. The soap itself smells stronly through the box, is sealed in wax paper, and comes stamped with the the elephant logo and GOV'T SOAP FACTORY, BANGALORE. Nice.
With the current "endangerment" of sandalwood, one imagines that products like this might be endangered as well. Right now they still make it to the original specs, but there might come a time when Indian sandalwood is subbed for other varieties like Autralian for this stuff, so enjoy it while you can!
