Asantee – Tamarind & Turmeric Soap
/“Thai For Last”
This is from A.S.P. Internation Herbal Soap Co. in Thailand and comes in an extremely elaborate cardboard box that is shaped like an oblong hexagon—so if you stood it on its end it would look like a lot of modern skyscrapers. This is a major soap box; it even has the Asantee logo printed in the inside. The box is glossy with elaborate pictures of what are presumably its ingredients: tamarind, turmeric, and also honey (there are bees and a honeycomb pictured). One side of the box has English print, and the other side is what I presume is Thai script. The photos are full colors, and the letters in red, yellow, and black—and there is also, oddly, kind of a holographic dot pattern overall that only shows up in certain kinds of light. I can't figure that one out.
It also says on the box: “Two colors scent” which refers to—I realized as soon as I opened it—the bar of soap is two-tone—half one color, half another, divided down the middle, lengthwise—one side more orange, and the other more light brown. Strange, huh? Presumably, one half tamarind and the other half turmeric. What I'm guessing, though, is the fragrance is uniform throughout and the two shades are just colors—which they pull off somehow. I don't know this for sure, though—maybe the two sides are different scents, as well. You can't really tell by smelling one side, and then the other. Now, the overall smell of this soap is kind of strange in itself—very hard to describe—and not entirely pleasant, to me. I've got some tamarind extract, and some powdered turmeric, which each have their distinctive smell—neither of which is all that pleasant, either, but the soap, to me, smells like neither of them, and more like just some kind of generic, industrial hand soap. I'm sorry, but I keep going back to it and not really liking it. It's funny—it's probably the most distinctive, nice looking soap I've yet purchased, but the smell, I can take it or leave it, but given a choice would leave it.
Soap Review No. 26