It’s time for another review, and this month I’m reviewing a lovely little cottage industry online shop called Lone Wolf Soaps.

Here you will find a vast assortment of hand crafted soaps, incenses, lotions bees wax candles and much more. True stand outs are decorative soaps in attractive shapes such as Fleur de Lis, Thistle, Buttercup, Brocade, and my personal favorite, Goddess. Owner Joyce personally creates each product for sale on the web site and offers a generous selection of scents that will appeal to both men and women. The soaps are incredibly moisturizing, yet seem to last a bit longer than most hand-made soaps that I’ve tried.

I recently spoke with Joyce to to find out how her wonderful venture came into existence. Lone Wolf Soaps started in 1999 after a particularly long winter.

“I have a particularly high mineral content in my water and after every shower I would just itch like crazy.” she tells us. “Since I knew I couldn’t change the water, I had to do something about the soap. Being a back-to-basics kind of gal, I started researching on how to make soap. After quite a few ‘test’ batches, I had to admit I was addicted. One thing to remember about handmade soap is that it must not sit in water. After your shower, put it in a place where the excess water will drain off. Kept drained, the life of your soap will be greatly extended.”

I have been fortunate enough to try several of her products. I would put the seasonal favorite Egg Nog Bar soap at the very top of my list for its creamy texture and a fragrance that smells so much like the real thing that I was craving a glass of egg nog every time I washed with it!

The Goddess soaps are quite lovely. I’ve tried the peach scent, which was true to fragrance as expected, and an earth Goddess soap which really does have the scent of dirt. It is perfect for bathing prior to rituals to help get into an earth-mother sort of mood.

I also received two varieties of her long-lasting incense, Ylang Ylang and a new scent called Whisper, which is a delightful combination of Lavender and Patchouli. I used the Beeswax Votive Candle for my Midsummer ritual and was equally pleased. Her products are wonderful and highly recommended! Joyce is a sweet woman who’s a true pleasure to do business with!

She even offers some advice for all you potential soap makers. “The most common question I’ve been asked is ‘Can you make soap without lye?’ The answer is no, you cannot.

“Soapmaking today is much more of a science than when our foremothers made it. They saved all scraps of fat and hardwood ashes. The ashes were put in a wooden V-shaped container lined with straw. Water was poured over the ashes and the water that drained through was saved. An egg was cracked into this water, and if it floated it was ready for soapmaking; if not the gray water was poured through again and ‘tested’. All fats were put into a pot and melted down, when all the small pieces of meat and stringy fats cooked and floated to the top (cracklings) they were skimmed off. The water was heated, the two were combined and the soap was then stirred literally for days.

“Today we soapmakers have the option of using animal fats or vegetable oils. Each oil/fat has known properties so that each soapmaker can choose what exactly she/he wants in their soap. We also know saponification (the exact point at which soap is formed) values of all oils/fats used. For example: We know that for a batch of soap that has 4 oz. of coconut oil, 4 oz. of palm oil and 8 oz. of olive oil we need 2.2 oz. of lye and 6 oz. of water. Much more exact then what our foremothers did.”

If the science of soap-making interests you, you may want to check out Marie Browning’s book Natural Soapmaking for a fun guide and lots of delicious recipes.

And now, to our devoted readers. Jaime wrote the following in response to my recent review on Lush.

Thank you for the advice Jaime, I will be sure place an order with Lush UK in the near future to compare the fragrance! Mistress McCutchan says she’s shopped at Lush in both London and Stockholm, but didn’t notice a difference in quality. Sounds like we need to run a test. If any of our European readers beg to differ, please write in!

Another reader wrote to us with this question.

Traditionally, rose petals have been equated with love and love spells. From what you have described, it certainly does sound like someone is attempting a love spell by utilizing them. Pink rose petals are equated with a more romantic type of love while the deep reds are for a more physically passionate spell.

If you saw last month’s column, you may have noticed the warning about love spells as it falls within the confines of manipulation and bad karma. Even though the intentions may be honorable and the usage of the pink petals are to create a romantic, loving relationship, it still shows that he is trying to use “force of will over” you.

Santeria as well as Voodoo are more lenient with their spell casting, often bringing the spell caster disaster when karmic payback comes around. If you find yourself falling for this person but can’t seem to figure out why, it may be essential to do a reversing spell. Most occult supply houses carry reversing candles so it shouldn’t be too difficult to extricate yourself from unwanted spell casting.

Do write back and let us know how things are progressing.