KOCHI: Deepa Philip found her passion lay in the art of soap making. So much that the Kochi native who had been straddling a succesful career as a corporate trainer in Chennai for the past 20 years found herself eagerly pouring over every tidbit on soap making she could get her hands on. Her exclusive collection of fun soaps include cartoon characters, mini-figures, trucks, and animals. . “I was introduced to this art when my daughter’s friend told us about it. She had seen a vast variety of collections and would talk non-stop about them. Besides finding the concept interesting, I also realised it would be better if I could make these soaps at home because it is milder on the skin,” says Deepa whose six-month old brand ‘Sana’ is doing quite well.
For this, Deepa imported the colours, fragrances and moulds from shops in the US. As for the ingredients, like olive oil, essential oils, shea butter, and mango shea they were brought from the local markets. But she always sticks to the basic component, olive oil.There are various ways of making soap. The curing process takes over six weeks where they are cold processed with lye (sodium and potassium hydroxide) and water. Once the soap sets into a solid block, it can be shredded, layered and moulded accordingly.
In another process, Deepa cures glycerine soaps directly. “Then I add fragrances like musk melon, among others and mould them into fun shapes and forms,” she said.Deepa’s soaps are all natural and come with a skin manual. “Before making a soap for a client, I sit with them to learn the kind of ingredients that would be good for their skin. Also, there are other requirements made by the clients that I found interesting. Some of them would require soaps that had colour themes which matched their bathrooms or their washtubs,” she said.
The soaps are usually sold as gift items for christening programmes, church-based events, engagements, birthdays, and seasonal events and are costlier than the commercial soaps that are sold in the market. Deepa plans to introduce an exclusive children’s label titled ‘Bubble’ in the coming days.