Italian Bath & Body — Soaps, Creams, and Hand-Painted Soap Dishes
Biordi Art Imports has brought Italian craft to North Beach since 1946. Alongside the hand-painted ceramics, we carry Italian soap, bath, and body — made by houses that have been at it for decades, in the towns their scents are named for.
The makers
Nesti Dante — Florence, since 1947. A family soap house that still makes its own soap base in cauldrons rather than buying ready-made soap chips, which is why the bars are dense and last. Its Villa Sole wrappers are printed with Italian maiolica tile patterns — the same visual tradition as the ceramics in the store.
Casa Amalfi — Costiera Amalfitana. Triple-milled soaps with Italian olive oil, shea butter, and jojoba oil, paired with soap dishes hand-painted by artisans of the Amalfi Coast. Each collection is named for a place: Positano, Sorrento, Capri, Ravello, Ischia, the Blue Grotto.
Ortigia Sicilia — Sicily. Sicilian soaps, hand creams, body creams, and washes in packaging drawn from Sicily's Baroque tradition — gold detailing, ornate cartouches, citrus and prickly pear. Scents built on Sicilian botanicals: fico d'india, zagara orange blossom, ambra nera, florio.
The Deruta workshops — Umbria. Hand-painted majolica soap dishes and soap dispensers, made in the same workshops as the dinnerware, in patterns like Raffaellesco, Ricco Deruta, and Blue Carnation.
What we carry
- Soaps and soap gift sets — single bars, duos, three- and six-bar boxes, sets that pair soap with a hand-painted dish
- Scrub soaps — bars with ground apricot seed or sea salt milled in, which exfoliate as they wash
- Hand and body washes — liquid soap in glass, for a kitchen sink or a guest bath
- Hand and body creams
- Soap dishes and soap dispensers — hand-painted Italian ceramic, from the Amalfi Coast and from Deruta
Questions buyers ask
What makes Italian soap different?
Triple milling and olive oil. Italian soap houses press the soap paste through rollers three times before forming the bar, which makes it denser, gives a finer lather, and stops it turning to mush partway through. Olive oil rather than tallow is the traditional base.
What is a scrub soap?
A bar with exfoliating grain milled into it — ground apricot seed or sea salt — so it exfoliates gently as you wash. It is a bar, not a jar of body scrub, and it makes no mess in the shower.
Are these soaps vegan?
Casa Amalfi and Nesti Dante soaps are vegan and cruelty-free. Check each product page for its own ingredient list and any allergen note.
How do I make a bar last longer?
Keep it on a dish that drains and let it dry fully between uses. A bar sitting in water softens and wears away fast. A sisal bag is the tidiest way to use up the last slivers.
Are the ceramic soap dishes dishwasher safe?
The Casa Amalfi dishes are. Deruta majolica follows its own care rules. Check the care note on each product page.
What makes a good Italian gift under $50?
A soap set. It arrives boxed and needs no wrapping, it costs less than it looks, and a multi-bar box splits into several separate gifts. For a gift meant to last, pair soap with a hand-painted dish — the soap gets used and the dish stays.
Why buy Italian bath and body from Biordi?
Biordi has imported from Italy since 1946 and is a San Francisco Legacy Business (#LBR-2020-21-029). We buy directly from the makers and we can tell you which town each thing comes from.
Shop
Call (415) 392-8096 or email customerservice@biordi.com to ask what is in the store now.
Biordi Art Imports · 412 Columbus Avenue, North Beach, San Francisco · Importing from Italy since 1946.