front page image source: daneen_vol, Flickr
Once upon a time, if you were a Greek or Roman, you used olive oil and sand to rub and scrap your body.
The origin of soap is, however, lost in antiquity. Buried in the flaming lava of Vesuvius a soap maker of Pompeii met his death. Centuries later excavators found his shop with bars of soap in their original moulds. Even that is not the beginning. In 600 B. C. the Phoenicians made soap as a commercial product, and it was doubtless used long before that.
A soapy material has been found in Babylonian clay cylinders dating from as early as 2800 BC. An Egyptian papyrus from about 1500 BC describes a soap-making process. (more here)
A commonly accepted story for how soap was discovered comes from a Roman legend according to which rain would wash down through the ashes and animal fat of the burnt animal sacrifice area of Mount Sapo into the clay banks of the Tiber River where the local women washed their clothing, and they noticed that this clay mixture made their wash cleaner. (more here)
Whatever the truth, soap is an important part of our lives. And this takes me to the whole point of this post. It’s time for December Giveaway. After the Jewelry Hunt, a Taste of Handmade opens doors to big and small alike, and this month the prizes are two soaps with form and frangrances from the depth of the forrests.
Prizes:
1. 
One Cranberry Soap, from BathBlitz.
2. 
One Bear Soap, in your chosen fragrance, from Norma’s Bath & Body.
Both prizes are currently reserved by me and will be purchased as soon as winners are drawn and I have their shipping addresses, so that sellers can ship the soaps directly to the winners.
How to enter?
a) Leave a comment with your wanted prize (for the bear soap, visit its page, choose and write your favorite fragrance, too) – 1 entry
b) Subscribe to my feed and leave a comment (if you subscribe by email, please activate your subscription) – 2 entries
Subscribe to Guilty Pleasures in a reader 
Or by Email
c) Write about the giveaway and link back to this post from your own blog – 4 entries (return with a comment if you do, so that I can count your additional entries)
So, you can get either 1, 3 , 5, 6 or 7 entries.
Duration
The Taste of Handmade Giveaway ends on the 2nd of January, at midnight. Yeah, a day after New Year’s Party.
Winners
Will be chosen with the always helpful List Randomizer.
Additional Information
If you’re already subscribed to my RSS, leave a comment so that I can count you in.
For anything else, feel free to drop a line. Good luck and let the giveaway begin!
Cranberry soap sounds wonderful!
The cranberry soap sounds wonderful!
I subscribed
I would choose the Bear soap in watermelon.
The bear soap in lime!
Nice scent for a soap!
wow the cranberry soap looks great and I would like the bear soap in pear. Thank you.
The Cranberry soap looks great:)
I’d love to be entered to win the bear soap in baby powder scent.
I would like the bear soap in the baby powder scent.
I subscribed to your feed.
I’d like to enter for the cranberry soap.
I would love the bear soap in raspberry
I have subscribed by email and feed
I subscribed by email.