Sacred Soaps  

To give credit where credit is due, research for these instructions came from "The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, and Brews" by Scott Cunningham, "Back to Basics" by Reader's Digest, and the good old trial-and-error testing technique.

Ingredients

Castile soap

 I use Kirk's brand, but any bar of Castile should work except one already scented or those green ones made with olive oil (unless you're using a scent that goes well with olive)

Scent

 I used 1 dram of 100% lavender essential oil per 4 oz bar of soap last time. This makes for a powerful nasal wallop. If your oil is "cut" you may need to use more. Also, I've heard of using herbs, other smelly things, etc. but have not done so myself. If you try it, let me know how it works.

Knife

 to cut up the soap

Wooden spoon Or Stir stick  

to stir with

Double Boiler  

sounds intimidating, doesn't it? I half-filled a frying pan with water, put the soap in a heat-proof ceramic bowl, and put the bowl in the frying pan. If you've made candles, you known how to do this. The idea is to heat the soap slowly and to not allow anything to boil. Got it?

Cheesecloth  

You can probably find this in your grocery store - even the hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop-shop in my neighbourhood has it. It's usually by the dish soap, gloves, mops, scrubbies, etc. Also available at hardware stores and auto supply outlets.

Soap Moulds

 (optional)- These are small moulds, often wooden, in which you pour or press molten soap to make bars. You can find them in antique stores or craft shops. Or make your own. You don't strictly need them (I don't use them, for instance), but some people like them.

Consecration

 Now, I'm not going to tell anyone how to "charge" or "bless" or otherwise consecrate this stuff - use something from your own tradition. You can either bless tools and ingredients prior to starting or bless the finished soap. Either way seems to work fine.  

Instructions

Step1

Get everything laid out in your kitchen. Get the double-boiler read on the stove, have your soap and scent on hand, your knife ready, etc. Cut the cheesecloth's into pieces about 6 inches square. This is real approximate. You can just make one huge bar out of this, or many little ones. I usually make four, 1 oz balls of soap.

Step2

 Chop up the soap. I recommend you start with just one bar for your first time, and in any case working with small batches seems to work better (at least for me). Chop the soap very fine. Mince it. Crumble it. Don't worry about mess - the dust will wipe up later with water and clean your kitchen table at the same time.

Step3

 Put the soap in the bowl part of your double-boiler. Turn on the heat. Now watch carefully. You don't want the water to boil, just get hot, and you certainly don't want the soap to boil. The soap crumbs will slowly melt into a clear liquid with bubbles in it. You don't have to melt the soap completely, either, although it doesn't hurt. You can stir the soap to make sure it heats evenly.

Step4

 Remove bowl from double-boiler when soap is molten. Be careful, it's hot! At this point add your scent(s) and stir thoroughly. As the mixture cools the soap will start to become stiff and more opaque. When stiff enough to not ooze back into the trail your spoon makes when stirring it is ready to be moulded.

Step5

You can either do as I do, pick up a lump of soft soap and roll it into a bar, then wrap it tightly in cheesecloth, or use a soap mould. In any case, you need to let it cool off, dry out a little, and harden in a dry place (I use my pantry)

Notes

Although you can use this immediately, after a few days of drying it has a more solid feel and won't leave ooze marks on whatever you set it down on.

This sort of soap dissolves easily - don't let it sit in a puddle in your soap dish or you'll get a pleasantly scented puddle of ooze.

You should also be able to scent liquid Castile soap by adding scents and stirring very thoroughly.

About Essential Oils

Please use a little caution. Some oils are irritating to the skin (cinnamon oil), some toxic, and some people are allergic to even the most natural and pure of substances. If you or someone who is using this soap has sensitive skin please do a "test wash" on a small area to be sure there will be no bad reactions.