The soap, in detail

One soap.
Two familiar cartons.

The pack of four is our base retail unit. Online, both formats are sold by the carton, GST and delivery included.

One soap, two cartons. Every format is the same cake: pale yellow, lemon-scented, cured for weeks, hand-finished and wrapped in a four-colour polythene wrapper at Wagholi, Pune.

Common to all formats

Colour: pale yellow. Scent: citric (lemon).
Total fatty matter: 56.6 per cent by accredited laboratory test; 50 per cent guaranteed minimum in every cake.
Made from palm, palm kernel and coconut oil saponified with caustic soda, with silicate of soda as the builder.
Manufactured by Dhanthak Soaps Pvt. Ltd., GAT No. 1332/1, Pune Nagar Road, Wagholi, Pune 412207. Country of origin: India.
Sold by the carton on this site, GST and delivery included; the net quantity is printed on every wrapper and shown on each carton in the shop.

600 g pack

BB Soap carton — 18 packs of 4.

The everyday retail unit, by the carton. Eighteen packs of four 150 g cakes, individually wrapped.

Per carton: 18 × 600 g packs of 4 (72 cakes)
Cakes per carton: 72
Net quantity: 18 × 600 g = 10.8 kg
Price, delivered: ₹2,160 (₹120 per pack)

Manufactured by Dhanthak Soaps Pvt. Ltd., GAT No. 1332/1, Pune Nagar Road, Wagholi, Pune 412 207, Maharashtra, India. Country of origin: India.

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150 g cake

BB Soap carton — 60 single cakes.

Sixty individually wrapped 150 g cakes. The distribution unit since the beginning.

Per carton: 60 × 150 g cakes
Cakes per carton: 60
Net quantity: 60 × 150 g = 9 kg
Price, delivered: ₹1,920 (₹32 per cake)

Manufactured by Dhanthak Soaps Pvt. Ltd., GAT No. 1332/1, Pune Nagar Road, Wagholi, Pune 412 207, Maharashtra, India. Country of origin: India.

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A wrapped BB Soap cake beside an unwrapped cake stamped BB SOAP — The 150 g cake, wrapped and unwrapped.

Inside every wrapper

The same cake.

Pale yellow, lemon-scented, cured for weeks, then cut and stamped BB SOAP on one face and DHANTHAK'S on the other.

The wrappers over the years →

Total fatty matter

56.6 %

Tested. With a clear minimum.

What total fatty matter means

Total fatty matter, TFM, is the share of a soap that is actually soap: mostly the fatty acids that can be separated from a sample after treatment with acid. The rest is water, builder, salt and whatever else was put in. More fatty matter means more cleaning per gram and a firmer cake; fillers lower it and make a bar go mushy in water.

An accredited laboratory measured BB Soap at 56.6 per cent. Our brochure rounds that to 57. We guarantee 50 per cent as the minimum in every batch.

For context, the 1992 edition of the Indian laundry-soap standard, IS 285, set the minimum TFM at 62 per cent for a Type 1 “pure” soap, 45 per cent for a built soap without synthetic detergent, and 35 per cent for a built soap with synthetic detergent. It also capped matter insoluble in alcohol, which is where fillers show up, at 2.5 per cent for a pure soap and 20 per cent for a built one. BB Soap uses silicate of soda as a builder, so it is a built soap, and 56.6 per cent is well above that grade’s 45 per cent floor.

What goes into it.

What is in it, and what is not

In it

Fatty acids from palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil. Coconut and palm kernel give quick lather and cleaning; palm gives a hard, long-lasting cake.
Caustic soda, which turns those fatty acids into sodium soap. There is no free caustic left in a well-made cake; the Indian standard caps free caustic alkali at a fraction of a per cent.
Silicate of soda, the builder. It helps the soap work in hard water and keeps the cake firm; it also lifts oil from cloth.
Lemon perfume, which gives the cake its citric scent.
Water, reduced by weeks of curing.

Not in it

Petrochemical surfactants such as LAS, the base of most synthetic powders and bars.
Fillers. See the note on total fatty matter.
Animal fat. The oils are all vegetable.

Many customers also use BB Soap as an inexpensive bathing soap. We make it, and sell it, as a laundry soap.

Read the use and care notes →

One soap.Two familiar cartons.