It might take a lot to make a bar of soap exciting: but it can totally be done. I visited Claus Porto’s flagship store in Porto, Portugal – the home of luxury soap bars and toiletry products.
Soap is boring?! Some soapy fun facts!
Bar soap. So, so basic, old-school, utilitarian; with either a whiff of hippie or grandma. But also really amazing:
- The oldest recipe for soap is over 4000 years old! The old Egyptians made soap, it’s mentioned in the Old Testament, and there’s a recipe for soap on a Babylonian clay tablet – dating from 2200 BC.
- It’s really easy to make: you basically need ash (alkaline) and a form of fat and boil that.
- The Brits, always ready with a good tax, taxed soap until the mid 19th century, making a bar of soap a luxury. Only when that tax was abolished, soap manufacturing really took off – including the first marketing campaigns.
- Oh, and one William Hesketh Lever and his brother James from the north of England founded a soap business in 1886. Today, it’s called Unilever, and is still the biggest manufacturer of soap worldwide.
Claus Porto? Who’s that?
So, when the German Chemists Ferdinand Claus and Georges Schweder came to Porto in 1887, they clearly thought soap was the way to go. Porto was the cradle of industrialisation in Portugal, a city teeming with expats working in the Port wine business, and Claus & Schweder thought to be extra sneaky: to give their soaps an extra-luxurious appearance, they pretended they imported them, when in truth, they manufactured them in their own factory in Porto.
Their successful business came abruptly to an end when WWI started and both Germans had to leave the country. Their manager took over, and over the years, expanded their lines. Today, his great-grandchildren lead the company. Oprah named their luxury soap bars one of her favourite things in 2007.
Their products: luxury soap bars
Nowadays, their line-up is more than soaps, and coming into their beautiful store in Porto, you’ll be totally overwhelmed. So. Many. Fragrances!!! In concession to modern times, they also offer liquid soap and hand lotion, bath products and grooming products for men. There’s now even a fragrance line.
The prints used on the packaging stem from the brands own extensive archives, and are truly exceedingly beautiful. The fragrances used are very grown-up and sophisticated. The prices reflect their luxurious image, though, so be prepared for sticker shock.
Claus Porto says…
The brands prides itself on ‘(…) hand-crafted soaps infused with fine fragrances, which draw on ingredients from Portugal’s lush countryside. These products are imbued with an artisan’s heart and soul, and are wrapped by hand in packaging illustrated with beautiful art work.’
Why soap, though?
Bar soap is the easiest way to make your bathroom a bit more sustainable. (Interested in a more sustainable beauty lifestyle? Look at our series here!) No more plastic packaging from liquid soaps! (Related, Claus Porto also offers something called Soap on a Rope that you can easily use in your shower.)
I also believe that you should truly like and enjoy the lifestyle changes you make to start a more sustainable life.
Sustainability, the Banho soap and ingredients
That’s actually the reason I got the Banho Gift Set that includes a bar of Banho soap and a porcelain soap dish (made in Portugal, a country famed for its ceramics). The Banho fragrance is a fresh and uplifting citrus scent, blended with Verbena and Basil. I smile every morning when I see this in my bathroom, so – mission accomplished?
For luxury soap bars, this actually raises the bar for me. Sure, it’s still soap, but it doesn’t feel as stripping as other soaps might, and the lather is super fine and creamy.
One small damper is that I can’t tell you how sustainable the ingredients are that Claus Porto use. While they say that they use Portuguese ingredients, I’ve read that they use shea butter from Malaysia and essential oils from France. So, not that sustainable. But hey, it inspires me. So, small steps?
Where can I find those luxury soap bars?
Pssst, Claus Porto also has stores in Lisbon and New York City! You can ALSO find them at net-a-porter and Anthropologie.
To give you a pricing example, the tiny bars of soap pictured above are 8€ each, and the gift set I got is 32€.
Please note that this review is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods, or money, for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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