The Designer Soap

A bottle of luxury designer hand soap sits on the stone counter, offering a subtle fragrance and a signal of curation to visitors.

We buy the forty-five-dollar bottle because the transaction feels minor, a small premium for a pleasant domestic detail.

But paying a forty-dollar monthly premium over a high-quality standard soap from age 30 to 65 compounds to seventy-one thousand dollars.

The soap is pleasant. The baseline of what is normal moved to a luxury standard without a conscious choice.

Standard refills in the existing bottle. $71,000 stays compounding.

The bottle was beautiful. The price paid to maintain the signal was substantial.