Wakanisha ... a Sacred Essential Oil Blend

In this particular batch of soap, we've blended shea & coca butters, sunflower & coconut oils ... 4 mica colors with activated charcoal, an apricot wheat beer, and scented with a blend of 14 essential oils we call Wakanisha (in honor of The Lakota, meaning "sacred"). Wakanisha is a powerfully spiritual, essential oil blend, intuitively created to ground, attune and focus physical and spiritual energies; to anchor, align and charge the chakra and auric energy grid; to heal and protect the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies; to allow for the psychic and emotional release of attachments, fear, self-hatred, and self-deprecation; to aid in the focused manifestation of financial abundance; and to assist in the outward and internal projections of peace and compassion, from a space of pure, balanced, unconditional love.

This soap contains a proprietary essential oil blend of: Amber, Nutmeg, Elemi, Anise, Myrrh, Sweet Fennel, Amyris, Patchouli, Black Cumin, Vanilla, Ginger, Styrax Benzoin, Allspice, and Ashwagandha.

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Soap and Synchronicity

Over the Fall Solstice, we were vending participants at this year's Symbiosis Gathering ... a transformational festival in Central California.

Once again, our space at the festival was blessed by the meeting of old friends and new.  The lovelies of Bless.ed Booch in Laguna bequeathed to us a few bottles of their newest creation:  Symbiosis Booch.  This kombucha brew is an especially high vibrational infusion they created specifically for this event! This exceptionally medicinal blend is rooted with a concentrated cocktail of wild harvested mycelium, including chaga, reishi, and cordyceps. Goji berries and golden berries from Imlak'esh Organics add a powerhouse of antioxidants, and a dash of cinnamon and mint to sweeten and cool the pallet.

(photo credit:  Bless.ed Booch)

Our challenge:  to create an equally amazing bar of soap, using their beautiful booch.  Challenge accepted!

Shortly after our arrival home from said festival, we went to work creating the essential oil blend to complement the ingredients to be used in the new soap recipe.  In the lab, I set up a sacred space and began blending ... drawing upon the ingredients in the booch and our recent festival experience for inspiration.

An afternoon of focus and intention resulted in an aromatic blend that was born from an Amber base with an evolutionary twist.  Not having an Amber oil on hand forced me to create from divine inspiration alone ... using ingredients I had on hand, loosely guided by what I knew of Amber.  The final creation:  a complex blend of champaka (wild orchid), styrax benzoin, copaiba, patchouli, geranium, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper.  The name for this new blend, which had suddenly popped into my head as I was wrapping my soul in its aroma:  Elemental Alchemy.

Oil blend in hand, I went to work creating the soap for the lovelies at Bless.ed Booch.  Using their Symbiosis Booch as my liquid, I added ample amounts of avocado oil and cocoa butter to the batch, a pinch of Tussah Silk fibers to smooth the edges of the recipe, mica colorants to create shimmering swirls of color that dance through each bar of soap, and a generous infusion of our Elemental Alchemy Essential Oil Blend.  The end result is an evocatively luxurious bar of soap that will tantalize your senses and leave your skin feeling reborn.

While awaiting the complete curing of this batch of soap, I received an email update (yesterday) from Symbiosis Gathering, announcing their 2017 Eclipse Gathering in Southern Oregon.  Pictures don't show up in my email messages ... they haven't for as long as I've been with this particular hosting company.  For once, for this particular email message, I wanted to see the pictures ... I don't know why (I never really cared before), I just did.  So I wandered into the convoluted recesses of my email settings configurations to figure out how to make the pictures in my messages show up.  Twenty minutes later, with my settings reconfigured, I had pictures ... and thus I returned to my message from Symbi.

The message itself was nothing that I hadn't before read ... broadcast excitement over next year's gathering ... video playback of some of the highlights ... gratitude expressed over the success of this year's event ... ticket and camping and activity information ... and this ...

An advertisement for Symbiosis' 5-day immersive program ... named Elemental Alchemy.

Coincidence?  There's no such thing ... it does not exist.

Synchronicity?  Absolutely!

Tuned in to the frequency that is "right" for me?  In deed.

Elemental Alchemy ... the perfect name for this oil blend ... and the new directions in which we are headed.

The Making of Skin Füd ...

I made a 100% coconut oil liquid soap last week with zero superfat and using only KOH. 32 oz of CO (run thru soap calc) was diluted with 128 oz of water ... and after 3 days it is amazing for laundry soap and dish soap (better than Dawn). I wanted one for hands & hair ...

This recipe is one I adapted from a group post on Facebook, using dual lye, that was supposed to be really easy to work with; making a creamy soap that could be either a shampoo or a hand soap, depending on how much it was diluted. It's really, really soft on my hands after having been testing and washing with it all day.

14 oz water
1 1/2 Tbsp fine grain sea salt
3.2 oz KOH
2.2 oz NaOH

11.2 oz avocado oil
4.8 oz shea butter
4.8 oz cocoa butter
4.8 oz palm oil
3.2 oz coconut oil
3.2 oz castor oil

My personal notes: 
Cooked all of that in crockpot on high until it was a paste. Original recipe called for 1st dilution to be 128 oz water ... I went with adding 64 oz of room temp water for 1st dilution (because my crock only holds 6 qts and I wanted to be able to work with it). Turned off crock, blended in water, covered and let sit overnight.

The next morning, I discovered a giant jello soap lump. Carved out 64 oz, added 64 oz water (gradually add this in 8 oz amts) + 8 oz vegetable glycerin + 1.5 oz combined preservatives. Whipped with stick blender at room temp (76 degrees). Let it sit overnight to rest. If it looks like slime in the morning, add water in 4 oz increments until it no longer looks like snot. Let it sit another 24 hrs before scenting and bottling. I used 1 full oz of a natural fragrance to the 128 oz batch.

And with the last 48 oz of soap jello, I went with a 1 1/2x dilution, no glycerin, 1.5 oz combined preservatives, and split into 3 parts because I wanted 3 different scent types. I let it rest overnight before pouring into bottles. If it looks like snot in the morning, add small amounts of water, hand blended in, until you get it to where you want. It will thicken up a bit, due to the NaOH in the recipe.

I went with this recipe because I wanted to create a high-end shampoo and hand soap that would be highly beneficial to the human body ... one without the other crap so many other people keep putting in the recipes to make it exotic. I wanted it simple enough that I could relate to it ... and not have to fuss with adding citric acid to thicken or drop the PH ... the NaOH keeps the PH of this lower. I don't have a lot of patience for liquid soap, so I was guided to a recipe that felt just like stepping into a tried and true CP soap recipe. 

And now that I've worked out most of the dilution hurdles, I think I have a winner!

Please note: my secondary dilution water amounts are guestimates off the top of my head ... I know that the total 2nd dilution for the shampoo was 1 1/4x (including 8 oz veg glycerin & preservatives) and the total 2nd dilution for the hand soap was 1 1/2x (including preservatives).

I preserve my lotions and liquids using a blend of tetrasodium glutamate diacetate, leuconostoc, safflower oleosomes, and aspen bark extract. These are plant based preservatives and are known to be beneficial to the human body.

If you want to see the video we published on YouTube ... you can see this here:  https://youtu.be/E6ZNZv71JyY