Question 1

Why does my bar look different from the photograph?

Accepted Answer

Because it is a different bar. Our colour is the ingredient, not a pigment — beetroot juice lands somewhere between rose and rust depending on its mood, turmeric shifts with the crop, and carrot fades in sunlight because beta-carotene does. Every bar is poured, turned out and trimmed by one person's hands, so the edges are theirs and not a machine's. A batch made in a wet April looks visibly different from one made in a dry January. That is the signature of a handmade bar, not a defect in one.

Question 2

Is this cold process soap?

Accepted Answer

Nope — we do melt and pour. We buy a glycerin base, take it to 60°C, and blend our own clays, cold-pressed oils and botanicals in off the heat so they survive. Poured one mould at a time. Sets in three or four hours, no cure, nothing waiting on a rack. We do not handle lye, and that is a safety call we will defend. The craft is in the formulation, the colour, the shape and the pour — not the chemistry of the base. It is also the only method that can hold a prism, a donut or a letter of the alphabet. Cold process sets as a loaf, and a wire cuts loaves into rectangles.

Question 3

Why is my bar sweating?

Accepted Answer

That is the glycerin doing its job. A melt-and-pour base is glycerin-rich by design, glycerin draws water out of the air, and an Indian monsoon has a great deal of it to give. The beads on the surface are the same thing that makes the bar feel the way it does. Keep it wrapped until you use it and let it dry fully between washes. It has not spoiled.

Question 4

How long will a bar last?

Accepted Answer

Four to six weeks of daily use, on a draining dish. Sitting in water at the bottom of a soap dish, it will not see three weeks. That one habit matters more to the life of the bar than anything we do in the workshop.

Question 5

Will my candle survive an Indian summer?

Accepted Answer

Honestly, sometimes it does not. Our candles are soy and beeswax, which soften at around 45°C — and a delivery van in Nagpur in May goes comfortably past that. From March to June we pack candles with insulation and hold dispatch during declared heat advisories, so your candle may sit with us an extra day or two rather than melt in transit. If it still arrives soft or with an uneven top, the scent and the burn are unaffected — but tell us and we will replace it. Paraffin would handle the heat better. We are not switching to paraffin.

Question 6

Why is my candle burning a tunnel down the middle?

Accepted Answer

Its first burn decided that. Soy wax has a memory: the width the melt pool reaches on the first evening is the width it will reach for the rest of its life. Give a new candle one to two hours — until the pool touches the glass all the way round — and it will burn edge to edge forever after. Twenty minutes, and you have permanently made it a smaller candle. If it has already tunnelled, the foil trick will rescue it.

Question 7

Are your products safe during pregnancy, or for children?

Accepted Answer

Most are — but we are a soap company and not your doctor, so no blanket yes from us. Some essential oils are commonly advised against in pregnancy: rosemary, clary sage, high-dose tea tree. Every ingredient in every formulation is listed on the ingredients page with its INCI name, so you can take the actual list to someone qualified. The safest thing we make is the Oats & Honey bar — no essential oils at all.

Question 8

Is it chemical free?

Accepted Answer

Yes — and here is exactly what we mean by it, so you can hold us to it. Six exclusions: no SLS or SLES, no parabens, no palm oil, no synthetic fragrance in the soaps and salts, no mineral oil or paraffin, nothing animal-tested. Every one of those is checkable. What we do not mean is untouched by chemistry, because nothing you wash with is — water is a chemical, and soap is what a fat and an alkali become. The exceptions, named rather than buried: the candles use an IFRA-compliant fragrance blend that includes synthetics, the dessert and novelty soaps take their colour from cosmetic-grade mica, and the aloe gel contains a preservative, because a water-based gel in this country grows mould within a week without one. The glycerin base we buy was made with lye, as all soap is. We just do not handle it ourselves.

Question 9

Do you offer cash on delivery?

Accepted Answer

Yes, across the pin codes our couriers serve, and we charge you nothing extra for it. No COD fee, no handling charge, no surprise at the door — the amount the courier asks for is the amount you saw at checkout. Hiding a fee until the last step is drip pricing. It is prohibited under the CCPA dark-pattern guidelines, and it is also just rude.

Question 10

Why do you take ₹100 off prepaid orders?

Accepted Answer

Because prepaid is cheaper for us, and we would rather hand you the difference than keep it. A cash-on-delivery order in India comes back undelivered roughly a quarter of the time — the parcel travels twice, we pay both legs, and the soap comes back unsellable. Prepaid comes back two or three times in a hundred. So: ₹100 off, a flat amount rather than a percentage, applied automatically. No code to enter, no minimum. And if you would still rather pay cash, pay cash — we do not hide the COD option, shame you for it, or make it deliberately awkward.

Question 11

Will I get an invoice?

Accepted Answer

Yes, an itemised invoice with every single order, without asking. It reaches you by email when the parcel is dispatched, and a copy goes in the box. Buying for a company and want your GSTIN noted on it for your records? Enter it at checkout. For anything at corporate scale, use the corporate gifting enquiry form — the GSTIN field is part of that conversation from the start.

Question 12

What payment methods do you take?

Accepted Answer

UPI first, because it is what most of India actually uses — GPay, PhonePe, Paytm, or any UPI ID. Then cards, net banking and wallets through Cashfree. And cash on delivery. We do not store your card details: Cashfree handles the payment and we never see the number.

Question 13

Can I change or cancel an order?

Accepted Answer

Two hours from the order being confirmed, yes — email or WhatsApp and we will amend or cancel it, refund included, with no argument and no retention offer. After those two hours it has gone into preparation and we cannot pull it back out again. Once it has shipped it cannot be cancelled at all: you can refuse the delivery at the door, though return fees may apply, and it becomes a return — the slower, sadder version of the same outcome. Two hours is short, so we would rather you knew the number than found it.

Question 14

When are you open, and how do I reach a person?

Accepted Answer

Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM IST. Email is thebathaura@gmail.com, WhatsApp is +91 72070 93716 — the same people read both, and they usually reply the same working day. Write outside those hours and it simply waits until the morning. No ticket system, no chatbot standing in the way.

Question 15

Do you run sales or discount codes?

Accepted Answer

No. Not as a strategy, not as a flex — there is simply no margin sitting in the price waiting to be given away twice a year. Rose absolute costs roughly a hundred times what rose fragrance oil costs, and twenty percent shea is a proportion most soap will not carry. If you are waiting for a Diwali sale, we would rather tell you now than have you wait for one. The only money we take off is the prepaid amount, and that is because it genuinely costs us less.

Question 16

How much is shipping, and when is it free?

Accepted Answer

Free over ₹1,999, anywhere in India. Below that, three options, all for parcels up to 500g: standard at ₹70, five to seven working days from pickup; express at ₹130, three to five; and if your pincode is a Hyderabad one, local delivery at ₹50, within forty-eight hours. Whichever applies is shown at checkout before you pay, on both prepaid and COD. Over 500g, or a bulk order, we quote you properly rather than guess — write to us and we will work it out. That is the whole pricing table. There is no second fee waiting further down the funnel.

Question 17

How long until it ships?

Accepted Answer

Twenty-four to forty-eight hours from the order being confirmed and the payment clearing, out of the workshop in Hyderabad. Weekends and public holidays do not count towards that window. After the courier picks it up: forty-eight hours within Hyderabad, three to five working days to the metros, five to seven to tier-two cities, seven to ten to tier-three and remote pincodes — with a day or two of processing on top of the transit figure. Around Diwali, Holi, Christmas and through the wedding season, add two or three days. The courier network is at its worst in exactly the weeks everyone wants delivery, and we would rather say so now than apologise later.

Question 18

How do I track it, and does someone need to be home?

Accepted Answer

Tracking reaches you by email and on WhatsApp the moment the courier scans the parcel — you do not have to ask for it or log in to anything. Delivery does need a signature, so somebody has to be there to take it. For a box of breakables we think that is worth the small inconvenience, and it means the parcel is not left at a gate. We cannot deliver to a P.O. box. Send us a street address instead, or write to thebathaura@gmail.com and we will sort it out with you.

Question 19

Do you ship outside India?

Accepted Answer

Not yet. We have looked at it seriously, and the honest position is that we cannot get a candle across a border in an Indian summer without a cold chain we do not have. We would rather not take your money for a soft candle. Write to us and we will tell you when that changes.

Question 20

What is your returns window?

Accepted Answer

Forty-eight hours from delivery. That is narrower than you may be expecting, so here it is plainly rather than in a clause. We take back anything that arrived damaged or defective, anything that is not what you ordered, and anything with a genuine quality problem. We do not take back items that have been used or opened, items whose seal is broken, or a bar whose colour or marbling differs from the photograph — that last one is handmade variation, and it is the thing we warn about most often. Send photographs or a video within those forty-eight hours. We verify in two to three business days, and where the fault is ours we arrange the pickup and pay for it.

Question 21

Why can I not return an opened bar of soap?

Accepted Answer

Hygiene, and it is not a loophole. Soap, bath salt and anything else that touches skin cannot be resold once it has been opened, and it cannot be verified as unused by looking at it. Once the wrapper is off, that bar's only remaining destinations are you or a bin. So an opened or used item is not returnable, and neither is one with a broken seal. What we do cover, within forty-eight hours of delivery: anything that arrived damaged, defective, or simply not the one you ordered. This is the standard position for the category in India, and we would rather state it plainly here than let you find it at the worst moment.

Question 22

It arrived broken. What now?

Accepted Answer

We cover it. Photograph or film it within forty-eight hours of delivery and send that over — the picture is the whole claim, which is why we ask for it rather than making you post a broken bar back at your own expense. We check it over in two to three business days, and when the fault is ours, which a cracked bar in a box is, we arrange any pickup at our cost and put it right. Our packing problem is not your problem.

Question 23

How long does a refund take, and what does it cover?

Accepted Answer

Five to seven business days from the point the return passes inspection. Then another three to five before your bank actually shows it — that second stretch is not ours and we cannot hurry it, so we would rather quote you both halves than the flattering one. What comes back: if the fault was ours — damaged in transit, a defect, the wrong thing in the box — you get the whole lot, shipping included, because none of that was your mistake. Everything we accept a return for falls into that category. If we make an exception and take something back that is not on the list, the refund is the product only and the postage is yours — and we will say so before you send it, not after.

Question 24

My bar is a different colour from the one in the photograph. Can I return it?

Accepted Answer

Not as a defect, because it is not one. Colour and marbling vary batch to batch by design — the colour is the ingredient rather than a pigment. We say so on every product page, on the about page and twice on this one, precisely so it is never a surprise at the doorstep. If the bar is genuinely wrong — a different formulation, a different scent, not what you ordered — that is our error and we fix it at our cost.

Question 25

Can I have it sent directly to someone else, without the price?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Put their address as the delivery address and tell us it is a gift. No price appears anywhere in or on the box — the invoice goes to you by email, where it belongs. A handwritten card costs nothing: write the message in the notes and we will write it out. We will not add gift wrap you did not ask for and charge you for it. Auto-adding things to a basket is illegal in India, and it is a horrible thing to do to someone.

Question 26

I want to build a box myself. Can I?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the gift builder lets you choose the box, the contents, the ribbon and the card, and shows you the price and the box as you build it. Swap one item for another of the same tier and the bundle price does not move, so you can rearrange it freely without being punished for changing your mind.

Question 27

We need a hundred boxes for Diwali, with our logo. Where do I start?

Accepted Answer

The corporate gifting enquiry form, and start early — corporate Diwali orders want six to eight weeks. Not because anything needs to sit: the pour takes an afternoon. It is the moulds, the sourcing, the boxes and the sheer arithmetic of ninety identical boxes made by hand, plus a courier network in its worst month of the year. That form is not a checkout. It asks quantity, budget per unit, branding, delivery date, GSTIN and whether it dispatches to one address or ninety — then a person replies with a quote and a proforma invoice. Bespoke gifting is a conversation, so we built it as one.

Question 28

Do you do wedding favours and return gifts?

Accepted Answer

Often, and it is some of our favourite work — the small hearts, the alphabet soaps with an initial, the diyas at Diwali. Same route as corporate: use the enquiry form, tell us the date, and give us as much notice as you can. Wedding season is November to February and we fill up.

The honest answers

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Ordering & payment

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Gifting

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