Fab Find of the Week: Bronnley Soap Gift Sets

Soap-lovers, rejoice. (Well, fans of lovely smelly things, rejoice – but for now, this is especially exciting news for soap fans.)

Bronnley are BACK. This is a truly fabled name in British beauty, around since 1884 when James Bronnley, who’d studied soap-making and perfumery in Paris, launched the company. Since then, its fortunes have ebbed and flowed – but after a time in the doldrums, our friends at Heathcote & Ivory bought the brand last year and have restored it to its former glory – with bells on.

They’re also proud holders of a Royal Warrant, which has remained in place since first awarded in 1943 by George VI, now official soap suppliers to HM King Charles III. (Now that’s a heritage.) You can read their timeline here, with some lovely line-drawn animations bringing the story alive.

For us, the joy of a new bar of soap is one of beauty’s simplest and greatest pleasures. But Bronnley’s newly-repackaged soaps elevate that further, with too-nice-to-throw-away boxes, the bars themselves shaped using the vintage flowery soap moulds. Several of the scents will be familiar (we also wrote about the iconic lemon-shaped soaps here): Rose, English Fern, Lavender, Lily of the Valley (and most recent addition, Wild Fig). Other toiletries will follow (English Fern fragrance has been revived, for instance, with a matching hand cream – but for now, the soaps take centre-stage.)

They are (we whisper this softly for all sorts of reasons) a perfect Mother’s Day gift. But also, next time a friend needs cheering up, or you’ve a cherished person’s birthday looming – or you just flipping well need a bit of TLC yourself, in a bonkers world – we reckon these are can’t-fail-to-please treats.

Absolute soap stars.

Soap Gift Sets/£24 each – buy here