Trend: Bath goods as food and desserts

At this point, it’s kind of redundant to go on and on about how “packaging is everything” in Japan, yet we can’t seem to stop. Packaging IS everything here, no matter what the product is. Food, tobacco, and other FMCG in particular get the full treatment, with layers of immaculate wrapping with clean design.

One of the latest trends in packaging and presentation revolve around bath goods presented as food, a market that will never dry up among tub-loving Japanese. We’ve blogged about dessert towels (also shown below) recently, but there’s much more out there.

These towels from Daiyo are part of a series of towels called Bienfaits de Fruits and Bienfaits de Legumes. High quality fruits and vegetables in a Japanese supermarket are packaged exactly like the towels, wrapped in foam, and presented nicely in a box as it they’re made of glass. Daiyo also offers parfaits, crepes, puddings, and ice cream floats made of towels and bath foam.

We blogged about the Happy Bathing Time ice cream bath goods a long time ago, but they’re still going strong. You can choose your bath goods like in an ice cream shop, ordered a scoop at a time. Packed in containers that look like ice cream on top of shaved ice, the bath creams and salts come in a large variety and enhance the water with scents and texture.

Le Patissier is still going strong, and had the largest booth at the Tokyo Gift Show. They’ve been selling out quickly in the lifestyle stores and online as well.

For Japanese that love both desserts and baths, these products are a natural evolution. Japanese company Savon de Neige also makes very popular soaps shaped like desserts which have become very popular as well. It’s just a shame to use any of these products for their practical purposes, a problem you never run into with real food.

You can buy Savon de Neige soaps at Kukka in Shinjuku