While much of my time is taken up with my studies and practices within Maya spirituality, there is more to my work here. This particular aspect harks back to my original training in chemistry. I have enjoyed experimenting since I was very young, and still the fascination is there. My desire to know just what I am putting in and on my body led me to decide to take some control over the situation by making some of my own formulations. I decided to start with something used on a very regular basis – soap.

I make my soap from scratch. I looked into the properties of oils within the soap making practice, and aligned them to what I would want out of a soap. I wanted it to be gentle on the skin, first and foremost, nourishing and moisturising, to have a creamy foam, yet also to have a hardness to it which would ensure that the soap would last, that it wouldn’t just turn to sludge after its first use as some of the other home made soaps I had tried would do. It also had to be reasonably economical of course.

So, I had a search around and found a program that I could use to create formulations and calculate my ingredients, most importantly to ensure that the correct amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) is used! After a few batches I settled on a formulation which seemed to meet the specification I was looking for. I blend olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, cacao butter, beeswax and castor oil together. This blend gives me a thorough, yet gently cleansing soap which foams well and moisturises.

To this base I then add pure essential oils.  In my current line-up I have:

Cedarwood and Patchouli

Frankincense and Myrrh

Bergamot, Geranium and Ylang Ylang

Rosemary

Orange

Lavender

Bergamot

Eucalptus

My soaps can be found for sale in the following places:

San Marcos la Laguna – Nectar, Palo Santo

San Juan la Laguna – Xunah Kaab

San Pedro la Laguna – Salud Para Vida

Panajachel: Sandra’s Supermarket

And, of course, you can come and buy directly from me here too, and The Four Pillars in San Pablo la Laguna