New Zealand beauty brand Sphaera believes that it can. Founded by Ali Johnson and Suni Hermon, the Wellington-based soap makers have managed the seemingly impossible: making soap cool again. 

Before founding Sphaera, Ali studied visual arts, science and complementary health, and drew inspiration for their signature product – a cube-shaped soap – from Plato’s ideas on elemental forms. The brand’s artisan production process was influenced by the oldest soap-making traditions of Aleppo and Marseille, delivering a product that lathers as luxuriously as a liquid.  

“I think many people have memories of cheap, skin drying soap bars from childhood,” Ali says. “These are factory produced formulas with the natural glycerin removed and are not very nice to use. Cold processed bars [like ours] are much more akin to a rich natural body wash and far more gentle on the skin than a mass-produced soap bar."