Design Inspiration: 10 Soap Brands That Lather Up Interest
Craft products are having a renaissance moment. Artisanal soaps, for example, are rapidly gaining popularity. In 2019, the global soap market was valued at $34.09 billion. In 2027, the market is expected to reach $55.29 billion!
From extremely specific, manly smells to floral-smelling soap brands made with premium ingredients, it’s safe to say the discerning bather has more choices than ever before. The growing demand for small-batch soaps is the perfect profit storm for business owners already established in the craft soap industry.
On the other hand, tight competition makes it difficult for budding entrepreneurs to enter the market and make a splash.
When it comes to craft soap, standing out and making a sale comes down to two things:
The smell and the branding. Sampling soaps through eCommerce isn’t practical, which is why you need to focus on wowing your customers through other means. If you want your custom soap business to succeed, the brand is how you stand out.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most impactful soap brands that look great and will be sure to lather up some inspiration for your packaging and labeling.
Build a Soap Brand that Pops Your Competitor’s Bubble
Most US consumers buy a product based on the packaging alone. If you’re an eCommerce soap brand, your product’s packaging, branding, and advertising are critically important.
Sure, you can convey the scent of the soap with a compelling product description but, customers will make their final purchasing decision based on your branding, production values, and packaging. To pop your top competitor’s bubble, you’ll need a top-notch design for your soap packaging.
You need to communicate the soap’s unique value, whether it's an anti-aging formula, moisturizing, or vegan and cruelty-free. Plus, you’ve also got to inject your brand persona into the packaging design.
It’s a tall order, but it’s highly achievable. Let’s look at a few unique soap businesses that have used their design and style to elevate their brand and increase sales.
The Top 10 Soap Brands Lathering Up Interest
From rugged, manly soaps to floral, here are our top soap brands for inspiring your packaging design.
#1. Caswell-Massey: Colonial-Inspired Manliness
Caswell-Massey’s classy designs would look right at home on the washbasins of Mount Vernon. With a crisp, colonial-inspired masculine design, Caswell-Massey's rich color palette catches the eye with a glint of silver sophistication.
If your soap brand is marketed to men and has a classic, sophisticated persona, use Caswell-Massey’s design elements to inspire your packaging. Let the rich hues, metallic shades, and “upscale” font guide your next design.
#2. Dr. Squatch: Humorous Marketing Meets Woodsy Design
Another men’s soap brand, Dr. Squatch is a relative newcomer to the small-batch soap industry. Its humorous marketing campaigns, woodsy scents, and exfoliating properties have made quite a splash in a short time.
As you can see, the packaging is completely different from Caswell-Massey. With its cartoon logo and rugged wood-grain packaging design, Dr. Squatch appeals to a more casual “manly” consumer. Additionally, Dr. Squatch markets itself as a “healthier” soap and follows through on that claim by listing ingredients on the package.
It’s a stark contrast, but it emphasizes the importance of appealing to different submarkets of the same audience – men’s soap in this case.
#3. Filthy Animal: Funny Name, Serious Organic Shapes
Filthy Animal soaps say it all right on the packaging. It’s a soap for athletes, so it gets the sweat and grime off and leaves you smelling fresh, clean, and human. The distressed font matches the name while the pastel orange, pink, and gray hues invoke cleanliness and stand out on the shelf. This is a case where a funny brand name still showcases professional, wide-appeal packaging.
#4. Mistral Bar Soap: All French, all Magnifique
Mistral men’s soap brand’s design invokes a bottle of bourbon with its honey hues, attractive reds, and rich brown soap color. The holster-style packaging is an eco-friendly option that an increasing number of customers greatly appreciate.
Mistral’s packaging does more with less. Although the wrapper is simple text on a black background, the font, color choices, and strategic spacing give it a stand-out appearance.
#5. North Whidbey Farm: Taking Soap Bar Shapes to the Next Level
North Whidbey Farm soaps feature a unique, mountain-shaped bar matched with a shabby-chic label. The jagged bar peaking over the edge of the holster reminds you of a mountaintop vista, which is perfect for the rugged, farmstead-y brand imagery North Whidbey Farm conveys in its overall packaging design.
If you’re selling soap bars in shapes other than your standard oval or rectangle, consider incorporating that shape into the entirety of the design for creative and cohesive branding.
#6. Herban Lifestyle Fuzzy Soap: Hot Hues
Hot pink is a bold escape from the more subdued, millennial pinks of the twenty-teens. With help from the spicy shade of hot pink, Herban Lifestyle Fuzzy Soaps take soap design to the next level.
This wool-wrapped bar of soap acts as an eco-friendly washcloth. Plus, the cutout packaging design showcases the hot pink bar inside. Take note that the texture of the packaging and the font match both the brand name and the product. Everything about Fuzzy Soap is soft and a little cloudy around the edges.
If you’re marketing soap bars in trendy or otherwise appealing colors, show it off with packaging cutouts or holster-style wrappers.
#7. Hand in Hand: Nature-Inspired Serenity
Nature-inspired packaging is essential if organic, all-natural ingredients are a huge part of your soap recipe. This packaging does an excellent job of communicating brand values and informing customers of the gentle, eco-friendly ingredients in your soaps.
For a nature-inspired design, stay away from metallics and super bright, saturated colors. Go for more muted pastels, moss and sage greens, and creamy colors. Cursive script and flowy fonts are always on-point for this particular style.
#8. Spinster Sisters Co.: Vintage Witchiness
Just in time for the Spooky Season. Spinster Sisters Co. does a great job of packaging their soaps in a vintage-inspired, witchy design. If your brand is a little bit goth and a whole lot of vintage, you can’t go wrong with these Victorian-inspired fonts and intricate shapes in the margins.
#9. Retro Men’s Soap Brand: Misc. Goods Co. Under Hill Soap Bar
Under Hill is a great example of a men’s craft soap brand that checks all the boxes.
It’s retro with an aesthetic that fits in sometime between the industrial revolution and the 1930s. The wrapper displays a rich, smokey-green hue contrasted against a gold seal and warm, honey-colored twine; it’s just delicious. This is a terrific example of strong branding and packaging design that speaks to the brand’s core customers and showcases its persona of retro ruggedness.
#10. Apothecary Soaps: Brand Storytelling at Its Finest
Apothecary Soap’s packaging tells a story. Each bar looks like a book, giving them an immediate wow factor. Everything about the design plays into this concept. From the spine to the washed-out colors to the band keeping it all together. Apothecary soaps have a strong understanding of what makes their product stand out, and they have refined their packaging to make that presentation as strong as possible.
Designing your soap packaging to be interactive for the consumer and highly creative (and attractive) is an excellent marketing gimmick for increasing your sales numbers. Running a holiday promotion with a soap package designed in this manner is an excellent strategy for boosting your sales.
Because really, who wouldn’t love getting a gift like this?
Design Your Custom Soap Packaging With Stomp
The best soap packaging protects the soap inside, attracts your target audience, and accurately displays and communicates your brand persona.
A well-designed package will help your soap business make a splash in a highly competitive industry. But remember that when it comes to branding, every little detail matters — from the fonts to the logos, colors, and much more.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, check out our custom soap boxes and soap labels today! Our nifty design tool makes uploading your art a breeze and our near-instant proofs will have your order finalized lickety-split!
- Nashira Edmiston
