“The true story here was the wolf and her mother;
The true story here was a promise once made.
The true story here was a fate to discover.
She knew what she did when she entered the glade…

The true story here was a cloak left discarded;
The true story here was too simple to see.
The true story here was the wisdom imparted
By the wolf, by my father, when he said to me…”
– Seanan McGuire, The True Story Here

The deep, green, dangerous woods — pine, juniper, and vetiver.

My soap contains no petroleum products or detergents, and it still has all the moisturizing glycerine produced by the saponification process. It is very gentle on dry or sensitive skin, while still cleaning well enough for oily skin (or skin that’s just very dirty!).

Once you try handmade soap, you’ll never go back. It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Size: Each bar averages 4.5 oz (133 mL).

Ingredients: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, castor and safflower; glycerine, water, shea butter, berry extract, glycine soya protein, titanium dioxide, pine essential oil, juniper essential oil, vetiver essential oil, spirulina power, sage powder.

“The Snow Queen sleeps in bowers of snow and ivory,
While the King of the Summer sleeps in the forest’s arms.
They’re both trying to do what’s right
Lost in the fading limnal light,
And they’ve never had any defense from the other’s charms.
And a season has little regret for the ones that it harms.”
– Seanan McGuire, The Snow Queen Dreams

Snow and ivory, lavender and vanilla, and oatmeal to smooth the queen’s skin for her lover.

My soap contains no petroleum products or detergents, and it still has all the moisturizing glycerine produced by the saponification process. It is very gentle on dry or sensitive skin, while still cleaning well enough for oily skin (or skin that’s just very dirty!).

Once you try handmade soap, you’ll never go back. It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Size: Each bar averages 4.5 oz (133 mL).

Ingredients: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, castor and safflower; glycerine, water, shea butter, berry extract, glycine soya protein, titanium dioxide, lavender essential oil, infused vanilla oil, ground oatmeal.

“For we will be wicked and we will be fair
And they’ll call us such names, and we really won’t care,
So go, tell your Wendys, your Susans, your Janes,
There’s a place they can go if they’re tired of chains,
And our roads may be golden, or broken, or lost,
But we’ll walk on them willingly, knowing the cost –
We won’t take our place on the shelves.
It’s better to fly and it’s better to die
Say the wicked girls saving ourselves.”
– Seanan McGuire, Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves

Rose, myrrh, cinnamon — bitter beauty, with a hint of spice.

My soap contains no petroleum products or detergents, and it still has all the moisturizing glycerine produced by the saponification process. It is very gentle on dry or sensitive skin, while still cleaning well enough for oily skin (or skin that’s just very dirty!).

Once you try handmade soap, you’ll never go back. It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Size: Each bar averages 4.5 oz (133 mL).

Ingredients: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, castor and safflower; glycerine, water, shea butter, berry extract, glycine soya protein, titanium dioxide, rose absolute oil, myrrh essential oil, cinnamon essential oil, blue ultramarine powder, raspberry fiber powder.

Rich, but not too sweet. Dark, but still moisturizing. Dark chocolate lip balm. Now available in a convenient tube.

My lip balms are made with the best natural ingredients — infused black tea and a selection of essential oils in a base of olive oil, beeswax, and vitamin E oil.

It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

If you want this flavour in a jar instead of a tube, we’ve got what you’re looking for.

Size & container: Each tube contains .15 oz (4.5 mL) of lip balm.

Ingredients: Olive oil, beeswax, natural dark chocolate flavour oil, vitamin e oil.

Rich, but not too sweet. Dark, but still moisturizing. Dark chocolate lip balm.

My lip balms are made with the best natural ingredients — infused black tea and a selection of essential oils in a base of olive oil, beeswax, and vitamin E oil.

It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

If you want this flavour in a tube instead of a jar, we’ve got what you’re looking for.

Size & container: Each jar contains 20 mL (2/3 oz) of lip balm.

Ingredients: Olive oil, beeswax, natural dark chocolate flavour oil, vitamin e oil.

Like an Orange Julius? I’d love one, thanks! My luxurious salt & sugar scrubs, now in my popular Tangerine Vanilla scent.

I’ve combined the cleansing powers of Dead Sea salt with gentle exfoliation and the sweet scent of Demerara sugar, and added the moisturizing power of shea butter and a handful of oils — apricot kernel, castor, and grapeseed — for the best in luxurious body scrubs.

Just grab a handful in the shower or bath and treat yourself to gentle exfoliation on feet, knees and elbows — or go all out and use it all over!

It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Size & Container: Each recyclable glass jar contains 10.5 oz (310 mL) of Tangerine Vanilla Salt & Sugar Scrub.

Ingredients: Demerara sugar, dead sea salt, grapeseed oil, shea butter, castor oil, apricot kernel oil, vitamin e oil, tangerine essential oil, infused vanilla oil, coconut butter.

A bottle of pure, luxurious…Orange Julius oil?

Tangerine and vanilla combine in one of my most popular scent combinations — now available as one of my rich massage and bath oils.

A hearty blend of moisturizing oils (grapeseed, rice bran, and castor), along with nourishing coconut butter — rich enough to stand up to a hot bath, but light enough to use as a massage oil as well. Simply pour a tablespoonful or so into a hot bath, and climb on in! You won’t believe how soft your skin will be.

It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Om Shanti fans say…

This is the most amazing bath oil, extraordinarily moisturizing without being greasy — and I am an oily skin sort of girl. Highly recommended.
– Stephanie

Size & Container: Each recyclable glass bottle contains 2 oz (59 mL) of bath and massage oil.

Ingredients: Grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, castor oil, coconut butter, tangerine essential oil, infused vanilla oil, vitamin e oil.

Spring’s coming in the northern hemisphere, and I don’t know about you, but I’m already getting bugged.

Fortunately for everyone I’ve got the solution. Good Smellin Bug Soap and Good Smellin Bug Stuff — get both for just $12, and you’re set for spring.

Om Shanti fans say…

I used the Good Smelling Bug Soap during a five day camping trip last year. Not only does it smell good, it really did help keep the bugs off!
– Stephanie

It smells great, and my kids like it. My daughter has not been bitten once since I’ve been using it. Which is great b/c she is two and has terrible reactions to mosquito bites.

It’s wonderful knowing they have something non-toxic on. It is light and not greasy at all.
– Erika

Size: Each bar of soap averages 4.5 oz (133 mL); each recyclable glass spray bottle holds 2 oz (59 mL) of Good Smellin Bug Stuff.

Ingredients: Soap: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, castor and safflower; glycerine, water, shea butter, berry extract, glycine soya protein, titanium dioxide, citronella essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, spearmint essential oil, lemon eucalyptus essential oil, tea tree essential oil, geranium essential oil, cedarwood essential oil, blue ultramarine.

Spray: Distilled water, witch hazel, aloe vera juice, citronella essential oil, tea tree essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, organic spearmint essential oil, lemon eucalyptus essential oil, cedarwood essential oil, geranium essential oil, vitamin e oil.

You love my soap. You buy it all the time. But there’s something you want that I just haven’t got.

Maybe you want something I don’t have in stock any more. Or you want something I already make…just with a little something added. Or taken away.

We can do this.

A set of custom soap is four bars. (Or multiples of four, if you want a bunch!) Chances are good that I can do any scent that appears in my products already*, in any combination you want, and with any exfoliant I have (or none). If for some reason what you want isn’t going to work, I’ll tell you, tell you why, and we’ll see if we can work something else out.

It’ll likely be a couple of weeks before your custom soap is ready for you, since I’ll have to make a special batch, and then it’ll have to sit and think for a while before I can wrap it up. I’ll keep you updated on its progress.

If you come up with a really AWESOME scent that I love, I might make it part of my regular rotation of soaps, and if I do, if you want, I’ll name it after you.

What I need from you is the specifics of what you want. Not just ‘can you make me a soap with cypress and lavender’, but ‘strong lavender with a hint of cypress, and just a sprinkling of sea salt’. Or whatever it is you want.

I’ll get in touch with you to check on the specifics and ask any questions I have. I want to make sure I’m getting it right, after all!

* If you ask for a scent that I don’t carry, I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to get it for you, and if I can, it might take a lot longer. Still worth asking? Yeah, but don’t get cranky if I say no.

My soap contains no petroleum products or detergents, and it still has all the moisturizing glycerine produced by the saponification process. It is very gentle on dry or sensitive skin, while still cleaning well enough for oily skin (or skin that’s just very dirty!).

Once you try handmade soap, you’ll never go back. It’s all handmade, and it’s all natural. Always.

Size: Each bar averages 4.5 oz (133 mL).

Ingredients: Saponified oils of coconut, palm, castor and safflower; glycerine, water, shea butter, berry extract, glycine soya protein, titanium dioxide, and whatever you want.

Everyone has a place that’s sacred to them, and every place there is, is sacred to someone.

Some people find the sacred in buildings set aside for it — churches and cathedrals, mosques and synagogues, temples and shrines.

Others feel it in things of beauty, or of deep meaning to them — a musician in the sound of a symphony, an artist in her paints.

Others still find it in nature — the deep green woods, the sweeping plains, the heights of the mountains.

That’s me, nature girl that I am. And when I really need to renew, refresh, re-start, I head outside. And I wanted to celebrate this.

I’ve been thinking a lot about altars recently — go ahead and read those links, I’ll still be here when you get back — and the two ideas came together Wednesday, as I hiked the woods of Evansburg Park here in Worcester.

The path I walked is a mile loop, long enough to lose myself for a while. And when the mood took me, when it felt right, I stopped to build an altar.

I built them under trees and on stumps, on cut branches and logs and stones.

I used what I found within arms’ reach or a few steps, chose what caught my eye and lingered in my hands. Moss and stones and nuts and feathers, twigs and leaves and the earth itself.

I was drawn especially to the logs and cut stumps — wanting, perhaps, to heal the scars left in the earth.

I don’t know if any of them are still there. I suspect that some, at least, have already been carried off by the wind, or by opportunistic squirrels.

It doesn’t matter. They’re not there for posterity. It was the making of them that was important, not their permanence or the lack of it.

Where do you find the sacred? And do you build altars?