050109_soaps.jpgPerhaps it's a case of the grass always being greener, but it seems that whenever we go over to a friend's house and use the bathroom, their hand soap smells better than ours. Maybe theirs is more expensive or perhaps they just stumbled on the best Method scent or it's just nice to smell something different, but we tend to appreciate this little detail more at others' homes than in our own. Does this happen to you?

Here are just some of the soaps that we've coveted while at a friend's house. We've since bought a bunch of these over the years, and as we mentioned, if the bottle it came in isn't great, we refill our Savon de Marseille bottle: it's glass, it's minimal and we like it.

• Siapua Bar Soap comes in beautiful packaging and sublime smells, $8.
• Savon de Marseille Liquid Soap in a glass bottle. Runs around $20 for the bottle but it lasts forever and comes in amazing scents like Fig and Verbena.
•Whole Foods Linden Bar Soap smells amazing, leaves hands soft, $8.
• Method Hand Soap in Green Tea and Aloe is the cleanest smell ever, but we can't always find this illusive scent at Target, so when we do, we stock up. It's eco friendly and it's cheap, $4.99
• Claus Porto Liquid Hand Soap
•French Olive Oil Soap is classic, comes in great scents and lasts a long time. It's all natural and it doesn't dry out your hands. We love how blocky and earthy it is, $12.
• Trader Joe's Orange Blossom and Honey hand soap is a smell right out of the south of france. It's refreshing, it's sweet, and it's completely affordable and convenient to get.

Are there small details that you've noticed in other people's houses that have inspired you to do things a little differently in your own home?