I certainly own enough scented body products with artistic designs and elaborate promotional rhetoric, but even in my most frivolous moments, I am loyal to Beekman’s COPA Soaps. This small company, housed in a Philadelphia workshop, perfectly demonstrates the truism that “less is more.”

COPA is an acronym for the company’s basic soap recipe: a mix of coconut, olive, palm, and almond oils. Nothing is added to this blend of saponified oils except natural essences with aromatherapeutic benefits; no dyes, synthetic perfumes, or preservatives are included. The same back-to-basics approach is applied to the soap’s packaging. The hand-cut bars are bound in brown-paper labels, and they have no eye-catching coloring, decorative shapes, or whimsical names…

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