Kaavya Nag and Mayura Kadur are childhood friends. They studied in the same school and “literally lived in each other’s homes. So it was natural for us to start something together,” starts Mayura, who is a dentist by profession. Kaavya has a degree in environmental science and wild life biology and has worked at the ministry of environment and forests. They came together to make handmade soaps.
“We have a passion to make something with our hands. Not business, per se, but something that is creative and challenging. Both of us are passionate about body products so we zeroed in on soaps,” explains Kaavya, the daughter of Shankar and Arundhati Nag. “A large number of soaps are chemical based. Most of them lack glycerine, which leads to rashes and dryness in the skin. We decided to make handmade soaps with traditional Indian ingredients,” adds Kayva. Both started collecting home made recipes for beauty using kitchen ingredients and also read books on hand made soaps and started the brand Do Bandar. “We liked the name for it depicts the free spirit and also because monkeys do everything together. The name fits us to the T,” says Mayura.
“We started using gram flour with orange peel, which is traditionally used during festivals like Deepavali. After trial and error on family and friends, we got the recipe right and were brave enough to launch our products,” she adds.
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“We make sure that everything from the basic ingredients to the fragrance and even the packaging is organic. We use turmeric, cinnamon, vanilla, rose petals and so on for our products,” says Kaavya.
As of now the duo has soaps, body lotions bars and foot softeners. “The body lotion bars are also to be used as a soap, as you rub it against your body it will melt and moisturize your skin,” explains Kaavya.
The soaps come in the options of temple ascents (with gram flour and turmeric), abhyanjana (with orange and gram flour), biscoot (vanilla and cinnamon) and patchouli (a herb with a woody fragrance). They start at Rs. 70 for a soap bar, Rs. 80 for a 25 gm. lotion bar and Rs. 80 for a 15 gm. for a foot softener.
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They are available at In the Pink (on Bannerghatta Road), Buffalo Back (in Malleswaram) and Sai Organic (in Whitefield). You can also buy the products on dobandar@gmail.com or www.dobandar.com