Ach. Brito has made soap in Portugal since 1887, the house behind the Claus Porto and Confiança brands. Its Chiado shop still sells classic Portuguese soaps and toiletries produced under that same 1887 lineage.
Best for Historic Portuguese soap house.
At the end of the nineteenth century Porto already smelled of soap and perfume at Claus & Schweder, the first soap factory in Portugal. Achilles de Brito joined that firm in 1903 and became a partner in 1908. In 1918 two brothers, Achilles and Affonso de Brito, gave life to Ach. Brito, and the house has made soap in Portugal ever since. The 1920s brought innovation and elegance, with a showing at the first Salão de Outono da Elegância Feminina e das Artes Decorativas in 1928, and the house appeared at the Exposição Colonial Portuguesa of 1934. In 1968 the factory received a visit from the President of the Republic, Américo Tomás. In 2007 Ach. Brito inaugurated modern premises at Fajozes in Vila do Conde, and two years later the Loja da Fábrica opened its doors there, at Rua de Castelões Sul 346. The house marked 100 years of history in 2018. In 2022 Ach. Brito returned to its founding family and is now held by Aquiles de Brito, great-grandson of the founder. The range still turns on soap, from the 1918 collection to technical and perfumed bars, with colognes, solid shampoos and shaving goods alongside, and the packaging is described as a symbol of Portuguese heritage.
The Zanabili family have made soap in Aleppo since 1842, cooking laurel and olive oil into traditional Ghar soap by the ancestral cold method. That long lineage is why the house carries the name Pearl of Aleppo.
Best for Heritage Aleppo laurel soap (savon d'Alep)
The Patounis family has boiled olive-oil soap in the same Corfu Town workshop since 1891, cutting and stamping every bar by hand and curing it on open racks for months. Their soapmaking sits on Greece's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage, and the shop sells green-olive, white-olive and laundry soaps alongside loose soap flakes.
Marseille soap factory operating since 1894 in the Aygalades district, maker of the La Corvette brand of traditional savon de Marseille; opened a public soap museum and factory shop in 2018.
Best for Traditional savon de Marseille and household soap from this Marseille factory
Savonnerie du Midi was founded in Marseille in 1894, one of the city's surviving historical soap manufacturers still using the traditional recipe and process for savon de Marseille. The company originally sold three brands - Aubepine, Aigle Blanc and La Corvette - of which only La Corvette, identifiable by its navy-blue sailing-ship logo, is still produced today. Production moved to its current site in the Aygalades district of Marseille's 15th arrondissement in 1970, on a site whose building dates to 1870 and previously operated as a flour mill and then a semolina factory. In 2018, after two years of renovation work, the company opened its industrial site to the public, adding the Marseille Soap Museum and a factory shop.
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