Imagine you’ve spent the day cooking a special dinner for your family. Or for you and your loved one, just the two of you. Every part of it lovingly prepared–an Instagram-worthy meal. The table you set looks beautiful. The food smells heavenly.

When it’s time to enjoy the delicious meal, you sit down, and suddenly announce, “This food is too special to eat. We’re just going to leave it here for a few days and look at it.” That would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?

For holidays or special occasions, we spend hours shopping at grocery stores for all the fixings.Then there’s the chopping, baking, tasting, stirring, sauteing, seasoning, roasting or grilling, sometimes days in advance and on the day of. When all is said and done, the actual part spent eating that special meal lasts–20 minutes?

We cook a special meal to enjoy the results. The food is meant to nourish our bodies, but lovingly prepared food nourishes our souls, too.

Sometimes people say to me, “Your soaps are so beautiful! They’re too pretty to use.” I understand. Years ago, before I started making soap, I would buy guest soaps, put them in a bathroom, and never touch them. The guests never touched them either…it seemed like an unspoken agreement: they’re too pretty to use!

Utopia soaps aren’t meant to be guest soaps. They can be…But like that special meal, they’re meant for now, meant to be useful, and not put up on a shelf to gather dust. They’re meant to nourish your skin–and your soul. Using the “special” soap tells you that you are worth that everyday little luxury.