Put the animals back into the soap bottles
Earlier in 2023 I tried bidding on a pair of two Soft-soap hand soap bottles that sported little plastic animals on the stem of the hand pumps. To no surprise, the listing soared like crazy in a bid war, resulting in a $123 final buyout. $123.50 for junk?! For many people, these bottles will appear as junk, something to be thrown away. Thrift stores will hardly have a good reason to put these empty soap dispensers on shelves, especially if they look somewhat disgusting. These reasons alone attribute to its overall decline, making it a rare item to obtain.
TikTok users in recent years have been vocalizing their passionate anger toward’s Colgate-Palmolive’s decision to simplify their iconic kids soap bottles from the 2000s era. In my opinion as well, the deletion of small plastic animals from the soap bottles is a clear cost cutting measure from Softsoap’s parent companies. These 2000s bottles were a great accessory for family household bathrooms that helped to boost positive moods in children who didn’t take hand washing seriously.
Tons of videos from users on TikTok and social media describing how their family members have taken such great care of these plastic bottles, soap dispensers that were meant to be disposed after it was depleted of its contents.
There was never a clown fish version
Hard to believe, but Softsoap never made a clown fish version of the iconic animal bottles. This always confused me as I vividly remember it existing. However I am led to believe that this was just a mere memory mix up of two iconic bottles that Softsoap created while I was growing up. Softsoap did create a line of sea creature prints which popularized the clown fish print.
Above are the known bottles that the Softsoap provided consumers. Commonly owned ones by the world include the parrot and panda variations, with the tiger and monkey being less common. I was only able to find a Ladybug version from images on eBay. By far the rarest but least sought after.
What bums me out is that Colgate Palmolive could easily make actual branded refillable dispensers that mimics the same feel of the original bottles. As well as offering new fun animals for people to purchase.
It’s a peak example of how society is transitioning into a bland future, where companies are forcused on profits and not out general best interests. These bottles made my childhood amazing. It’s sad that these will remain a relic to time unless enough buzz is created from the put the animals back into the soap bottles movement