Dallas - August 19, 2005

The Shape of Things

4mula’s Barbox Soap

Some shapes get all the attention.

The triangle: the Great Pyramids. The rectangle: da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. And the circle? One word: donuts.

But the square always gets the shaft (ice cubes, card tables, Borg ships), despite what Huey Lewis might have to say about it. Until, of course, 4mula (a line of environmentally conscious body products) introduced its Barbox soap — three bars that join to form one compact cube. The top and bottom sections are shaped with extensions that create a grip for body washing. Together, they cradle the mini hand soap and keep it from getting goopy in a dish or on the counter.

And with fragrant combinations of essential oils (mandarin, grapefruit, and petitgrain; peppermint, rosemary, and eucalyptus; chamomile, bergamot, and clary sage; and frankincense, lavender, and geranium), each of the four soaps strikes the perfect balance between beauty and ergonomics. The problem, however, is picking which one to use.

But we wouldn’t get bent out of shape about it.

Available online at 4mula.com.