Behind the Design: Sugar Skull
A Celebration of Life, Remembrance, and Connection
by Owala Team
Updated: October 1, 2025
TL:DR
The Sugar Skull bottle celebrates Día de los Muertos—a holiday that reminds us love and memory never fade. Inspired by our team’s own heritage, it’s a heartfelt tribute to culture, connection, and community.
TL:DR
The Sugar Skull bottle celebrates Día de los Muertos—a holiday that reminds us love and memory never fade. Inspired by our team’s own heritage, it’s a heartfelt tribute to culture, connection, and community.
Love the look? Check out other bottles in the FreeSip® Sway lineup for the same sleek shape in fresh, everyday styles.
Disclaimer: Día de los Muertos is honored in many meaningful ways across families and regions. This bottle design was shaped by one of our team members—an eleventh-generation San Antonian—as an expression of his Mexican-American roots.
Honoring a Living Tradition
Every design starts with a story. And this was a personal one.
Día de los Muertos is more than a holiday—it’s a vibrant tradition that celebrates life, memory, and the unbreakable connection between generations. In contrast to Halloween’s spooky vibes, Día de los Muertos is a celebration of life, family, and remembrance.
When the idea for the Sugar Skull Color Drop was first explored, it was from the perspective of honoring a living tradition—led by an eleventh-generation San Antonian proud of his Mexican-American roots.
“I grew up surrounded by these celebrations, and while I no longer live in San Antonio, I miss the culture, community, and deep tradition” says one of our team members, who proposed the idea for this bottle. “For me, this bottle was about representation. About creating something that felt like us.”
That vision—to let people express their heritage proudly and see themselves reflected in what we make—became the heartbeat of this design.
The Inspiration: Where It All Began
As a brand, Owala has always been about self-expression. Your bottle should reflect you—your passions, your quirks, your culture, your joy. When the idea for a Día de los Muertos-inspired bottle came up, it was about giving space to a celebration that too often gets misunderstood.
Día de los Muertos isn’t spooky or somber—it’s joyful. It’s about remembering the people we love and inviting them to join us in celebration. That sense of remembrance and connection felt deeply aligned with what we believe in as a brand: honoring the meaningful moments that make life feel, well, alive.
Our brand manager’s hometown of San Antonio has the largest Día de los Muertos festival outside of Mexico City. The city’s rich culture and community inspired the idea, while the Mexican roots of Día de los Muertos—its art, its color, its heart— shaped everything about this bottle, from the vivid palette to the joyful spirit behind it.
When Owala visited San Antonio earlier this year for our Sway bottle launch, all the love we hoped to capture in this bottle was right there. Families spanning three generations showed up—grandparents, parents, kids—all proudly carrying their Owala bottles.
The turnout was so genuine and heartfelt that our team left knowing we wanted to give something back to that community in a real way. The Sugar Skull bottle became part of that promise: a way to honor, give a greater voice to, and celebrate a culture that’s shown us so much love.
The Design
From the start, the design team worked to make the Sugar Skull bottle feel both authentic and uniquely Owala.
The sugar skull (calavera) itself—an iconic symbol of the holiday—sits surrounded by vibrant marigold-inspired and papel picado-inspired details. Every element carries meaning:
- Marigolds (or cempasúchil) are thought to guide ancestors home, their bright petals representing light and love.
- Papel Picado, the colorful paper banners seen across our photoshoot, came straight from our brand manager’s personal collection.
- The color palette draws from fiesta tones—turquoise, coral, yellow, pink, and orange—each chosen to reflect joy.
Look closely, and you’ll also find subtle Owala details woven in—like water droplets, stars, and even a hidden FreeSip® icon. These tiny touches make the design uniquely ours, while keeping the heart of the holiday front and center.
The Process: From Sketch to Celebration
The creative process took months of exploration. The goal was simple yet involved: to create a design that felt soulful and celebratory—its own moment, not a seasonal one.
The team experimented with dozens of iterations—refining the skull’s expression, rethinking the colorways, and adjusting small symbolic details.
Even the photoshoot became a labor of love. Most of the set props were personal items our brand manager brought from home, giving life to his personal experiences with the holiday. The team set the scene to feel like dusk—moody candlelight, soft shadows, the glow of marigold petals catching the light. Pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) appeared on set as a nod to the food often placed on home altars (ofrendas).
We experimented with dozens of colorways and icon placements until the right mix of authenticity and Owala flair came together.
Giving Back Through Art
This bottle means a lot to us—and we know meaning matters most when it’s paired with action.
To honor the heritage behind this design, a portion of proceeds from every Sugar Skull bottle will be donated to [organization TBD], supporting Hispanic communities and programs that preserve cultural heritage through art and education.
To learn more about their mission and the communities they support, visit [organization TBD].
We hope it’s one small way we can say thank you—to the people and traditions that inspired this bottle, and to the Hispanic community that has embraced us with such warmth.
A Celebration of Life and Color
Día de los Muertos reminds us that love and memory keep us connected, even across generations. It’s a celebration of family—those who came before us, and those who carry their stories forward. This bottle was created in that spirit, honoring the ties that make life feel whole.
The Sugar Skull Bottle — available for a limited time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What inspired the Sugar Skull design?
How is this bottle different from a Halloween design?
What makes this design culturally authentic?
Does Owala give back to the community with this bottle?
What sizes and styles does the Sugar Skull bottle come in?
Is the Sugar Skull bottle dishwasher safe?
Will the Sugar Skull bottle be restocked?
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