Dirty Soap?

As the tide of consumerism is turning towards sustainable, organic, local, eco-friendly products and services, a number of small businesses around the world are taking advantage of this trend like Dirty Soap in New Zealand.


Dirty Soap is a business started by a Maori family in the Far North of New Zealand. Like The Body Shop and other businesses using natural products sourced from the furtherest corners of the earth, Dirty Soap is utilising a lot of ingredients sourced from within New Zealand, if not, their own area like the mud from the hot springs of Ngawha or the honey. Combine that with the tropical ingredients of coconut, bananas, mango or coffee granules with sassy names like "man-bomb", "hippy pippy","troppo", or "mango madness", you have a superb product that not only sounds great, looks great, is natural and eco-friendly, it does the job. It cleans and makes you smell fresh and feel good.

One of the great advantages of being in a business like personal cleaning products is that everyone uses soap (well, I hope they do ;-))...and when it's great soap, or bath bombs or shampoo, how can you resist not trying it out? How can you not miss the aromatic waves that hypnotise your sense of smell? No wonder people walk up and smell the exotic aromas of their different types of soaps in their range. Not to mention the bath bombs and other products they sell. This is the 'luxurisation' of staple products at its best and making the 'everyday' appeal of soap an 'exclusive' day.


Wouldn't it be great to see this business expand into hotels in its raw state rather than those 'piffy' little hotel soaps. If you're going to create an experience in a hotel, include one of these types of soaps in your bathrooms. Airlines too would benefit from using these soaps if they haven't already. Air New Zealand use tea tree based soap as hand cleansers. Tea tree oil is known by the Australian Aborigines for their medicinal uses and is widely used now in many products. Dirty Soap could also expand internationally leveraging its brand as an indigenous New Zealand brand. There are a few New Zealand businesses that are recognised internationally like Fisher & Paykal or Eurekster, so there is no reason why Dirty Soap couldn't push their brand further afield. They could start by distributing through stores like The Body Shop. This would be a great way to feel their way in international markets. Another idea would be to approach souvenir stores in New Zealand and sell through their outlets.

Isn't it great to see small businesses like Dirty Soap combining their knowledge of their culture with a little bit of science to produce a great product? I mean, just look at this message bar packed with Adzuki beans which can be used as a massage oil or an after shower body moisturiser. Wunderbar.