Patanjali – Aloe Vera Kanti

“Strong Enough”

I will eventually try every soap at my local Indian grocery stores—well, not really, because there are always—materializing from somewhere—soaps I’ve never seen before—so the task seems infinite—and technically, is—which is good. I was not too excited about this one, as the packaging is pretty uninspired—though, I have to say, there is a small picture of something that I don’t understand—but I’m neither going to research it nor try to describe it. Sometimes it’s nice to not know—and sometimes it’s nice to be fooled, like I was with the beguiling Nomarks. The soap bar is a deep green color, almost exactly the same color as Chandrika—but it doesn’t smell remotely like Chandrika (the sublimest of the sublime). It has a bit of an off-putting, masculine fragrance, which totally reminds me of Irish Spring (though I don’t have any of that around to compare with). It probably isn’t as offensive as I.S.—but it’s hard to get over that initial impression. And I don’t mean to imply that this (or I.S.) is that bad—this particular fragrance can be great when you’re in the mood for it—like a heated argument in a sports bar, or getting chased by a dog. When you’re in the mood for it.

Soap Review No. 152