Have you ever heard of donut-shaped soaps, complete with icing and colourful sprinkles? How about watermelon-shaped ones? None of them edible, of course. That's what The Soaptub Co is all about - colourful hand-made soaps that smell divine, are au naturale and devoid of paraben or Sodium Laureth Sulfate. These glycerin-based soaps are packed with essential oils, are perfect for any type of skin and each one of them is the labour of love of Sushmitha Jakkula.
Attending a soap-making workshop while visiting Mumbai might have been a random decision for Hyderabad-based Sushmitha but when she started making them on her own to help deal with her own sensitive skin, she found her calling. Not immediately, of course. But she continued to persevere and grew confident enough to leave her job at Accenture, where she was working as a SAP consultant for over eight years, and formally start The Soaptub Co in December 2018. She purchased all kinds of molds from Amazon, perfected the art and even started experimenting by making coffee and charcoal soaps. "Unless I am satisfied creatively, I do not give up. Moreover, I try all the soaps myself to be sure that it is safe for customers," says the 30-year-old. The first noticeable difference that you will see after using her handmade soaps is that you won't feel the need to reach for the moisturiser right after. Sushmitha handpicks the necessary essential oils, like rose, coconut and more, to ensure that what goes into her soaps are the very best.
"I've always been a creative person," says the alumna of G Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad. And her Instagram page @ the_soaptub_co, with over 700 followers, says that this is her 'creative outlet'. One of her recent experiments involves making soap with 100 per cent coconut oil "This lockdown is giving me a lot of time to experiment," says Sushmitha, who quit her job in September 2019. So, which one of her soaps would you like to try? Because no matter which part of India you are located in, she will deliver.
Some of the soaps
The Soaptub Co has something for all skin types
- Dry: Goat milk or shea butter soap
- Acne: Charcoal soap
- Summer specials: Peppermint soap
- Exfoliators: Oats soap
- Oily: Papaya or lemon soap
- Fancy soaps: Red wine, coffee or shea rose soaps
For more on her, check out instagram.com/the_soaptub_co
