Every room in my home has a personality. The living room is dark walls, vintage prints, and shelves of things I've collected over the years. The bedroom is moody and calm. The kitchen has a whole corner dedicated to things that are slightly odd and make me happy every time I look at them.
The bathroom, though. The bathroom was a disaster.
Not in a structural sense — it's a perfectly functional bathroom. But aesthetically it was a no-man's-land of mismatched plastic bottles, a soap dispenser that came with the flat and that I'd never got around to replacing, and a general sense that this was the one room where my actual taste had simply given up and gone home.
My name is Petra Voss. I'm a tattoo artist from Brighton, and I have strong opinions about spaces and how they feel. The bathroom was bothering me more than I'd admitted.
The Moment I Decided to Actually Do Something
It was a Sunday morning. I'd just cleaned the bathroom — properly cleaned it, the kind where you move everything off the shelf and wipe underneath — and when I put everything back, I stood there looking at the collection of plastic bottles and the beige soap dispenser and felt a very specific kind of tired. The kind that comes from living with something that doesn't fit for too long.
I wanted something that looked like it belonged in my bathroom. Something with character. Something that, when a client came over and used the bathroom, would make them smile or raise an eyebrow or say something — rather than just being a beige plastic bottle that said nothing about anything.
I started looking for a skull soap dispenser, because of course I did.
Why This One
There are a lot of skull soap dispensers in the world, it turns out. Most of them are resin, which looks fine in photos and feels cheap in person. A few are ceramic but poorly made — you can tell from the glaze that they've been fired at low temperatures and won't last.
The Ceramic Skull Soap Dispenser in Black from ALTOE was different. High-quality porcelain clay, fired at high temperatures — the same process that makes ceramic durable and gives it that satisfying weight and density. 16 ounces capacity, which is a proper amount — not a decorative thimble that needs refilling every three days. A pump mechanism that actually works. Dimensions that made sense for a bathroom shelf: 6.75 inches tall with the pump, 4.75 inches long, 3.75 wide. Compact enough to sit neatly, substantial enough to be a proper presence.
At £45.32 it was more than a plastic bottle, but I was buying it as a permanent fixture, not a consumable. I ordered it on a Sunday evening.
When It Arrived
It arrived mid-week, packaged carefully. The first thing I noticed when I took it out was the weight — solid, dense, the way properly fired ceramic feels. The black glaze is deep and even, with a slight sheen that catches the light without being glossy. The skull detailing is clean and well-defined, not blurry or soft the way moulded resin tends to be.
I filled it with my usual hand soap, set it on the bathroom shelf, and removed the plastic dispenser that had been there for three years. The difference was immediate and slightly embarrassing — embarrassing because it took me this long to do it.
The bathroom looked intentional for the first time since I moved in.
Eight Months On
The dispenser has been refilled more times than I can count. The pump has never stuck or leaked. The ceramic has not chipped, cracked, or faded — it looks exactly as it did the day it arrived. High-temperature firing makes a genuine difference to durability, and you can feel it every time you pick it up.
Three clients have asked about it after using my bathroom. Two of them have since bought one. One of them bought two — one for the bathroom, one for the kitchen, which I hadn't considered but immediately understood.
It also works as a lotion dispenser, which I discovered when I moved my hand cream into it for the winter months. The 16oz capacity handles both without any issues.
More than the practical side: it makes me happy every time I see it. That sounds like a small thing. In a room you use multiple times a day, it isn't.
Is It Worth It?
If you've been living with a bathroom that doesn't feel like yours — or if you've been looking for a functional piece that has genuine character rather than just novelty — yes, completely. This is a well-made object that will last, and it costs less than most people spend on a single skincare product.
Find the Ceramic Skull Soap Dispenser in Black at ALTOE. It's listed in Latest Products, Home & Garden, Bathroom Accessories, and Soap & Lotion Dispensers.
Sort the bathroom. You spend more time in there than you think.
— Petra Voss, Brighton
0 comments