Moti Soap | Diwali Soap | Ubtan Soap | Review

I had totally forgotten about this once famous brand of soap “Moti Luxury Bath Soap”. Yes, it’s the same Moti soap,  commonly known as Diwali soap! A commercial that appeared in the 90s decade had popularized it. See here.

This long forgotten soap, also associated with ubtan came to my notice once again when I had attended a Goan Hindu Saraswat wedding! Yes, you heard it right!

Moti soap gifted during Indian Wedding rituals?

There is this ceremony called as Tel / Oil ceremony before a Goan Hindu wedding and after that ceremony usually some sweets /ice-cream is distributed along with cute, minuscule gifts. I won’t go into details of the ceremonies of Goan Hindu or Catholic weddings as this is not the topic of the post.

But for this particular wedding which I attended, I was gifted with 2 Moti Soaps – Moti Sandal and Moti Gulab (Rose) Luxury bath soaps.

It looks like luxury soaps have become the norm to be gifted after certain wedding rituals. And Moti Sabun is definitely cashing on that!

Moti Bath Soap is now a Diwali special soap

Originally Moti Soap was with Tata Oil Mills which later merged into HUL (Hindustan Lever Limited) and though HUL didn’t aggressively campaign for this brand much, it later thought of bringing it to people’s attention by associating with an important ritual of Diwali festival, the oil bath or Abhyanga Snana!

Long back, I had written a post about this Diwali ritual of Abyanga Snana or Oil bath during Naraka Chaturdashi. Read the post The luxury called oil bath. This oil bath ritual during Diwali is followed in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat Karnataka and other South Indian states.

On this day, people wake up early and massage scented oils to their body and scalp and then use Ubtan or Utna, a homemade body scrub made of wonderful herbal ingredients to nourish their skin and then take a warm water bath.

Through the ad, Moti Soap is trying to establish itself as a ubtan soap specifically to be used during Diwali customary oil bath. You can see the Marathi ad for that here.

Moti Soap for Haldi Ceremony in Indian / Marathi weddings?

A recent Marathi ad about a Haldi ceremony going on for the would-be bride for Moti soap caught my attention. So Moti Saban (soap is called as saban in Marathi) now seems to be available in another variant – the Haldi or the turmeric variant.

Haldi ceremony is one of the pre-wedding rituals in an Indian wedding and has a great significance attached to it. This Haldi variant of Moti Soap seems to target this very important ritual and has hence come up with this ad.

Marathi, being the third most spoken Indian language, Moti soaps have targeted this particular demographic, regional group to promote their brand. 

Thus by associating Moti Soaps with Diwali Oil bath ritual, Haldi ceremony, for use in gifts during various wedding rituals etc., Moti is trying to re-establish itself as a luxurious brand meant for special occasions.

Now let’s move on the review of the the two variants of Moti soap that I had got.

Moti Luxury Bath Soap Review – Moti Sandal & Moti Gulab

Moti Soap Ingredient List

Moti soaps are Grade 1 soaps with a TFM of 76%, as is evident from the pictures.

Moti Sandal Soap Ingredient List

Moti Gulab (Rose) Soap Ingredient List

Also you can see that the ingredient list in both the soaps is quite similar. Let me just put up the list of ingredients once again, in case, its not clear from the picture.

Common Ingredient list: Sodium palmate, sodium palm kernelate, water, perfume, sodium chloride, titanium dioxide, tetrasodium etidronate, tetrasodium EDTA, Cl 11680, Cl 74160, Cl 12490, methyl chloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone.

Perhaps the difference is only in the added fragrance. The sandalwood variant has the sandal fragrance and the Gulab or rose one has rose fragrance. Rest all ingredients are same to same!

By the way, both these soaps contains all the standard ingredients and chemicals present in any soap. Though they doesn’t contain any herbal additives,  they are being marketed as a herbal ubtan soap.

Moti Haldi soap ingredient list

Of course, Moti Haldi Soap is an exception as it does seem to have some herbal additives besides the above listed chemicals in the ingredient list.

My experience with Moti Sandal and Moti Rose Soaps:

As you can see from the pictures, Moti soap is round in shape as the name ‘Moti’ which means pearl, in many Indian languages suggest.

Moti Sandal soap has a lovely sandalwood color while the Moti Gulab soap has a baby pink color.

If you just bring the soaps close to your nose sand inhale, you can sense the pleasant aroma. And as expected, the sandal variant has that mild sandalwood aroma while the rose variant has the smell of roses.

The soap itself seems comfortable to use as it glides smoothly as you gently apply it all over your body. You can also work up a lather and apply it. In any case, it doesn’t feel too harsh on the skin and cleanses well. At least this has been my experience on my combination to oily skin.

However it definitely does not behave like a ubtan or a scrub! It's just a basic soap that does it's job.

After you bathe, the fragrance does stay on for quite some time. However, like most luxury soaps, this soap too does tend to dissolve soon and doesn’t last long.

I haven’t used the Haldi or Turmeric variant of Moti soap – so I can’t tell whether Haldi one is much better than these two variants. I suppose Haldi one is good too!

Moti Luxury Bath Soap Price

A single soap bar of 150 grams costs INR 60/- while a 75 grams one costs around 30 INR.

Moti Sandal and Gulab 150 gram soap price

Availability of Moti Soap

It may not be available everywhere and in all seasons in local shops but during Diwali times, it’s usually available.

However, these soaps are available on Amazon, Flipkart and other online shopping sites anytime.

Pros of Moti Chandan and Moti Gulab Soaps

• Beautiful Round shape
• Nice fragrance
• Moisturizing & nourishing
• Not harsh on skin
• Associates with cultural and religious rituals

Cons of Moti Chandan and Moti Gulab Soaps

• No mention of any herbal additives, despite claiming to be a ubtan soap.
• Full of chemical ingredients, some good, some bad
• Available only during certain festivals in local stores

My thoughts:

If you have a nostalgic feeling about the usage of Moti soaps during Diwali oil bath, then go ahead and buy it. You may also try the  other variants like Haldi also. As for me, I like to experiment with different soaps, so I won’t be buying it on a regular basis for sure.

Over to you:

Have you used Moti Luxury Bath Soaps? What was your experience? Did you like it? Which other variant beside Chandan and Gulab, have your tried? Did you use Moti Haldi anytime or during your Haldi ceremony? Do mention in your comments. I’d love to hear you!