Purplle.com and Soulflower’s Blogger Meet

The year was 2002. I was browsing in The Bombay Store at Fort, when I saw some really colourful range of body scrubs, oils and sops. I couldn’t resist buying a cheery bright yellow lemon body scrub which I loved and used till it was discontinued around 3-4 years ago. The brand, Soulflower, was then being imported from Thailand and I thought that it was a Thai brand.

Last Sunday however, I found out that Soulflower products were indeed manufactured in Thailand then, but its heart and soul was Indian! The founder, And chief inventor of all these gorgeous products, Natasha Tuli, is now based in Mumbai and has her factory here too. Meeting her and watching her make the Pink for Skin soap right before us, was the highlight of the afternoon for me.

Purplle.com and Soulflower had organised a blogger meet at Spaghetti Kitchen, Inorbit Mall, Malad on Sunday. Though that’s more than an hour’s drive from my home (and I’m talking about Sunday’s traffic free roads…on weekdays, I simply wouldn’t have gone!) I was really eager to attend it. The Purplle.com team was so friendly and welcomed us with little kits and chocolates. And it was so much fun meeting fellow bloggers with whom I had already formed a connect through their blogs!

Those of you who enjoy shopping online may already know of Purplle.com, an online shopping website which has a huge selection of Indian as well as international brands for personal care and grooming. They have now also started a salon finder section on their site, www.purplle.com/finder, that helps us in finding a salon/spa either according to the area or according to the service/treatment required. Still in its initial phase, this site currently shows results only for the city of Mumbai and doesn’t really cover all the areas, but it is work in progress and will soon cover not just other areas of Mumbai but even other cities. They also have the rate cards for most of the salons! A very helpful feature, don’t you think?

Getting back to Soulflower, having already used their products before, I was really excited to see their full range of soaps, bath salts, essential oils, massage oils etc on display there. We all girls had a great time trying out the various oils and making a mental shopping list of all the Soulflower products we were lusting after. It was also quite a fun way of finding out which products were perfect to keep us cool and fresh through the hot, humid Indian summers.

Post lunch, which comprised of yummilicious pizzas and pastas, we all went down to the Soulflower store where Natasha made the Pink for Skin soap right in front of our eyes! And all from fresh natural ingredients! No preservatives, no parabens! She said she loved taking up challenges where people would tell her to make nice, attractive soap using different ingredients! One person has asked her to make soap with Karela (bitter gourd) and she is in the process of experimenting with it!!!

And like all good things, this afternoon too had to come to an end…but not before we were given Soulflower goodie bags in kitschy pink velvet bags. Here are some pictures from the wonderful event…