Teri Goldberg
...Castile soap traces it roots to the Castile region in Spain some time around the 17th century when soap makers started to use olive oil instead of animal fat in bar soaps. The olive-oil rich soap bars set the standard for luxury, vegetable-based soaps.
To sample the Spanish-made soaps, click over to tienda.com, a mom-and-pop shop based in Williamsburg, Va. where the cyber shelves are filled with authentic Spanish goods. After jamon Serrano (dried cured ham), soaps were the most requested item when the site first launched, says Don Harris, a retired U.S. Navy chaplain, who founded the company with his wife and three sons.
A three-bar pack of pure olive oil Sulasna soap sells for $8.25. Other soaps at tienda.com include La Toja, which contains mineral salts from a small island off Galicia. Three bars sell for $6.50. And then there's the mysterious black, lanolin and glycerin Magno soap. "Although it is jet-black, it produces a dense white lather that foams in hard and soft water," says the product description. A 3-pack sells for $8.75...
