Cinthol – Original

“Orion”

This is an Indian soap—it's from Godrej, a big Indian company, I think, judging by their website, and how many soaps I see with their logo on them. It seems there are a lot of different varieties of Cinthol—it's hard to tell exactly how many—I saw a website ranking ten of them. This is the Original “Deodorant and complexion soap.” It's in a bright red package, but the soap is a dark green color. It's not very pleasant—kind of chemical-y, and medicinal and harsh. It reminds me of another one—can't remember offhand—another Indian medicinal soap. The dark green bar of soap has the name “CINTHOL” indented in it. One odd thing is that there is a darker green line running around the circumference of the rectangular bar, toward one edge, so it kind of looks like there were two pieces fused together. I've seen this before in soap, but I don't really understand what it means. Anyway, my overall impression is that it's just kind of medicinal and industrial, like a cleaner or something. I can't get over the doctor's office vibe it gives me—maybe the dark green color reminds me of the color of the pHisoHex soap bottle (at least how I remember it)—does anyone remember that? My mom used to always have it—this doctor's office, hardcore, heavy-duty anti-bacterial soap. That's how it was spelled, kind of creepy. It had a unique smell, which I totally remember. This soap doesn't smell like that, yet I thought of it—though maybe it's the color—the old pHisoHex bottle was a serious dark green. Well, this soap promises to kill germs, but it doesn't do much for me otherwise.

Soap Review No. 52