Aged Candle (al-Shamaa; الشمعة)

Our aged soaps come to us unwrapped from the manufacturers in Palestine, and are restacked in towers, covered with a cotton sheet, in California and cured for a minimum additional one year. We then wrap them with compostable brown paper before shipping them to the customer.

Long-cured olive soap bars have two benefits over fresher bars: (1) the additional aging ensures that the bar is completely (99.9% or more) converted to sodium olivate, and (2) the moisture content is as low as possible resulting in a denser and longer lasting bar. 

Sometimes misplaced soap bars are found after decades of passive aging at the soap factories in Palestine -- hidden in a desk drawer or fallen behind a piece of machinery -- and they are especially prized, with workers flipping coins or playing a card game to see who gets to keep it. Since pure olive soaps do not expire and become better with age, we bring a version of that cured bar experience abroad through these extra air-cured products.