Pamper patrons with the scents and sensations of the sea. From the shores of Florida to the rocky coastline of Connecticut, coastal bath-and-body retailers are riding a wave of demand for gentle, eco-friendly products. Tourists, locals and online shoppers alike are seeking out skin-friendly soaps, nourishing after-sun care, and artisanal touches that make a gift or personal purchase feel special.
Coastal bath-and-body retail is about more than pretty packaging. Shoppers want skin-friendly formulas, natural ingredients, and products that connect them to the local flavor of their visit. They’re buying for themselves, but also for others — choosing gifts that are practical, beautiful, and easy to carry home.
 The Amelia Island Soap and Trading Co. provides a welcoming environment, and a feel-and-smell-good experience.
Huppmann purchased a friend’s Hawaiian online soap store in 2020 and opened a storefront that May. Two years later she rebranded complete with a logo featuring a mermaid.
“It fits the brand. It fits the place,” she says. “We like to cater to our customers. We like to create an environment that’s welcoming and smells good and just a place where you want to visit.”
Her product mix is as varied as a beachcomber’s haul: goat milk soap, shea butter bars, shampoo and conditioner bars, bubble bars, and sea sponge soaps from Florida’s Tarpon Springs. She continues to carry plenty of highly sought-after Hawaiian-made skin care products in addition to her own branded products. Many items come from other small makers.
Huppmann says the goat milk soap is “the most gentle soap that we carry,” noting it’s the only soap that soothes her own sensitive skin. The store’s goat milk soap hails from The Grecian Soap Company in Temecula, California. And to add a special seaside touch, many of the soap bars feature sea life on them, from sea turtles to dolphins.
Skin sensitivity is also a factor that goes into the products that Susanne Valerino, owner of Main Street Soap Emporium in Mystic, Connecticut, stocks. “Nothing’s overpowering. Everything is for sensitive skin,” she says of the product she carries in her 400-square-foot prime storefront space. Shoppers are increasingly aware of ingredients and often ask where and how items are made, favoring small-batch, U.S.-crafted lines, she notes.
After-sun essentialsIn seaside towns, the sun also drives sales for health and beauty products. Huppmann can’t keep her Maui Vera natural sunscreen and after-sun gel in stock. “Every year I stock up on the after-sun gel and I sell out right away,” she says. Customers like the plant-based formula, which features aloe vera to soothe sun-kissed skin, she explains.
In Mystic, Valerino’s best-selling after-sun product is Mackenzie’s Sand and Sea Dry Oil, a lightly scented moisturizer that customers find both nourishing and quick to absorb. Mackenzie’s coastal scents, including its signature Sand and Sea and kelp soap, are steady favorites for vacationers, both men and women alike, wanting to take a bit of the beach home.
Drifting toward giftingBoth owners report strong sales in soaps and related products as gifts. Travelers often choose a locally purchased soap or lotion over traditional souvenirs, drawn by the practical use and artisanal quality.
 Main Street Soap Emporium in Mystic, Connecticut, has a loyal following of customers seeking unique coastal products to pamper themselves or to gift to someone special.
Unique coastal findsPart of the appeal of shopping at a soap store in a coastal town is discovering something unexpected. At The Amelia Island Soap and Trading Co., “gently loved” Hawaiian shirts have become a surprise hit alongside the soap displays. The shirts, repurposed and resold, are a low-cost, high-charm souvenir that adds to the shop’s coastal personality.
Valerino finds her customers love soap loofahs, a combined bar-and-exfoliator she says people are “fascinated with.” These functional, beach-friendly finds combine practicality with a bit of indulgence.
While coastal towns bring heavy tourist traffic in peak season, both owners say their customer base is a mix. Tourists provide impulse sales and gift purchases, while locals and online shoppers sustain them year-round. Seasonal promotions help bridge the slower winter months by encouraging repeat orders from loyal customers.
From after-sun care and goat milk soap to natural sea sponges and soap loofahs, the products making the biggest splash are those that balance function with a sensory connection to the shore. As Valerino puts it, “My goal is simple — I want people to feel good when they leave.”
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