I’m not your average poet. I’m not your average anything. I make soap, candles, lip balm. I use garden ingredients, foraging my backyard, negotiating with the Bumbles and Hummingbirds for my share.
I clipped the last round of lavender a couple of weeks ago. If I were offering instructions, clipping would be the essential first step. If you don’t garden, rummage through your cabinets, spice rack, fruit bowl. A little zest will do you well.
Lavender is known for her calming properties, her fight against insomnia, her wrestle with anxiety. But did you know, she also represents serenity, grace, devotion? And her color, purple, often depicts royalty and luxury. Purple is also linked with the crown chakra, our energy associated with higher purpose and deep spiritual connection.
No matter what you choose to enhance your soap, I highly recommend a bit of research. When I have little lavender, my second soap go-to is Rosemary.
Once you clip and save (or rummage and salvage) your product, you must let it dry, air, aerate. Let it sit atop a counter, a chair, a stairway.
My pile of lavender took two weeks to thoroughly dry. In the summer, I bundle and hang my herbs from my clothesline.
Next, crumble into a bowl. All parts are welcome. Remember, there’s juiciness in stems as well as flowers.
You’ll need your soap base on hand, so hopefully, you’ve read this through before beginning. If not, you can pause here. The lavender can sit for another week, hour, year, while you find your favorite base. I prefer a vegan, cruelty-free, easy-to-cut, base like Primal Elements Triple Butter Soap made from mango, shea, and cocoa butter. I order in five-pound blocks. For this process, I used half the block (2.5 pounds of soap).
Cut your blocks into smaller, uhm, blocks. Melt them in a microwave-safe dish. I use a wooden chopstick to stir. It really doesn’t matter because, well, you are making soap and everything just comes clean.
In the melting, you can add more “flavors,” like essential oils. Note in the background, I’ve set up molds with chunks of lavender.
Your molds can be anything. I use traditional soap-shape molds, along with old plastic lids. Yes, that “lid” to the left is a KFC coleslaw cap and KFC will end up imprinted on my bar of soap. I also use silicone molds…
Pour into molds.
Yes, that is a tablecloth beneath. No worries, everything washes out, because, well, we are making soap.
Let the molds sit til set.
Once set (usually overnight), pop from molds. Use. Use well. Use often. Wrap unused bars and blocks in wax or parchment.
At this point, you might ask yourself, like any good artist, Why? What’s the why?
Why make soap?
I make soap…
because I can,
because, sometimes, making soap feels like the only thing in my life I have control over.
because there might be a new cabinet position in the new Department of Soap-Making
and I qualify
and so do you.
Just remember, a little lavender goes a long way.
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