How It All Began The caffeinated soap saga begins in a messy dorm room at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991. Jeff Costic and his roommate Matt Franowicz were killing some time watching a story on the news about the tobacco industry. Matt remarked, "Now that's a nice business, sell something that people get addicted to!" The two shared a laugh and started naming funny products that fit the bill: nicotine gum (well in advance of Nicorette, by the way), reintroducing original Coke with the cocaine still in it, a myriad of marijuana baked goods and so on. Soon the conversation turned realistic and a few serious products were mentioned. All were pretty uninteresting. Just before the conversation ran its course, Jeff mentioned "caffeinated soap." Both looked at each other with a look that said "That's a really good idea." The next few weeks all idle conversation was focused on the potential soap: Would caffeine permeate the skin? Is it OK to put it on the skin? What scent would it be? What should it be called? An idea was born. After some research, the first bar was handmade with crushed Vivarin as the caffeine source! People loved it. It soon amassed a very loyal band of users. The initial formulation was just used as a replacement for a morning coffee. It wasn't until later that the other benefits of caffeine became apparent; reducing skin cancer and reducing the appearance of cellulite. Today, Costic Inc produces thousands of bars of soap, providing a high quality product for a wide range of customers.