Skip to main content

On Chinese Wash - Recipes for the Classic Jinx Killing Soap

Psychic spiritual vision of magic lemongrass citrus scent hoodoo floor washes

Chinese Wash is an old washing product that's also believed to remove bad luck and restore good; part of the movement of spiritual merchants to promote the idea that physical cleanliness equates to spiritual cleanliness. Its scent is similar to that of Van Van and Hindu Grass formulas. Originally the product was sold in a bottle and a practitioner was told to add broomcorn straws to increase its powers, but nowadays many versions are made wit the broomcorn already mixed in.

The book Sticks Stones Roots and Bones, gives the following combination for a Chinese Wash recipe:

6 oz unscented liquid castile soap
3 oz Murphy's oil soap
6 oz distilled water
1/2 tsp citronella oil
1/2 tsp lemongrass oil
7 pieces broom corn straw
pinch of dried lemongrass
a 16 oz bottle in which to store the mix

Lucky Mojo gives this recipe on their site:

Start with whatever combination of essential oils of
Oriental Grasses you normally use for compounding Van Van
oil concentrate
(e.g. citronella grass, lemongrass, gingergrass, palmarosa
grass, khus khus grass, and vetivert grass, singly or
together). Cut a bunch of broomcorn straws (from a natural
broom, or from broomcorn plants, if you happen to grow them)
and place the straws in a bottle. Add a goodly squirt of Van
Van oil concentrate and a small lump of frankincense gum,
then top with your own (or any commercial) preparation of
liquid oil soap (e.g. Murphy's Oil Soap). Dilute Chinese
Wash in water before use, of course.


Additionally, Carolyn Morrow Long reports in her book Spiritual Merchants that the Lucky Mojo Chinese Wash uses a mixture of vetiver, palmarosa, citronella and lemongrass for its mixture of 'oriental grasses.'

Additionally, there are some quick and easy Chinese Wash recipes out there. These include dumping a whole bottle of Van Van oil into any other soap base, or using Octagon soap dissolved in water -- of course, don't forget your broomstraws! (By the bye, one person has told me that you should use 13 broom straws in the bottle.)

Also, it should be noted that occult author Lewis Declaremont gives the recipe as "Chinese oil" mixed with warm distilled water to create a cloudy mixture after thorough shaking.
My own proposed recipe, given in Conjure Cookbook based on my research, was:

Lemongrass oil
Citronella oil
Gingergrass oil
Frankincense oil
Storax
Broom straws
... in a base of liquid castile soap.


But another good and much simpler recipe I've created is the following: 


For every 3 cups of washing water use:

1 tsp unscented liquid soap
3 drops citronella oil
3 drops tincture of benzoin


Combine well. Makes a strongly scented, refreshing mixture reputed to clear away any "evil mess"and to "banish misery."

Popular posts from this blog

The Intranquil Spirit

(EDIT: Up to date information about the Intranquil Sprit can be found in my book  The Intranquil Spirit , available on Amazon.  This post has some incomplete information which is clarified in the book.) The Intranquility spell is, unfortunately, the first resort of many a rejected lover. In some ways it makes sense -- the more unhappy and forlorn one is about a breakup, the better this idea of making the other partner feel just as much so starts to sound. Unfortunately, this spell is often not well suited to a case. The purpose of the standard Intranquility spell is to have the person be tormented by the spirit until they make contact with you, or whomever the spell is being cast for. This means that if a person is already in good contact with their ex OR if they're one of those people who cannot restrain themselves from initiating contact, then this already is probably not the right spell for that case. If you've had an Intranquility spell cast and you make contac...

Paper-in-Shoe Spells

A popular and very traditional hoodoo spell, often used for any situation where you need to control someone with magic , is the namepaper-in-shoe spell. It's very easy: you write the target's name 3, 7, or 9 times on a paper (depending on intent and who's giving instruction) then fold it up, sometimes after dressing it with oils or powders, then put it in your shoe. This "keeps the person underfoot" or "stomps out the trouble" or any other number of metaphors. I had this work several times over the years. In one instance, I was working for a very unpleasant boss, on a short-term job. It was the last day, and I only had about 3 hours of work left on the project; and I wanted him to up my pay for the day since it almost wasn't worth the trip across town for the amount he was paying me, for only 3 hours. He was very reluctant. So I wrote his name 3 times on a 5-dollar bill he'd given me, and dusted it with Bend Over powder. He paid me what I ...

13 Herb Bath for Curse Removal

13 Herb Bath for curse removal can be made from from any 13 uncrossing and purification herbs. For example, if I needed to fix a batch of 13 herb bath right now based on what I've got in the house, I could mix bay leaves, rue, mint, rosemary, wood betony, sage, verbena, angelica root, white rose petals, lemongrass, lemon peel, agrimony and arnica, and it would suffice well. Other herbs like hyssop, pine needles, juniper leaves, boldo, eucalyptus leaves, mullein, basil, lavender, or marshmallow leaves would be good to use too. By no means complete, here is a list of just a few herbs said to remove a curse or jinx that you can use to make your own 13 Herbs bath: Agrimony Alkanet Angelica Arnica Basil Bay leaves Black Pepper Blessed Thistle Boldo Cayenne Pepper Chives Eucalyptus Garlic Hyssop John the Conqueror Juniper Lavender Lemon Lemongrass Lime Marshmallow leaves Mint Mullein Onion Pine Rosemary Rue Sage Sandalwood Verbena White Rose Petals ...

Spiritual Use of Turpentine in Hoodoo and Witchcraft

  I have posted in the past about the use of giving one's bedding a spiritual cleansing from time to time.  I recently was laundering my pillows in the same load of laundry as some turpentine-soaked rags, with the result that the pillows emerged from the wash reeking of turpentine.  From a magical perspective, this may not be a bad thing. Turpentine is used in old-time hoodoo rituals for purposes such as uncrossing, protection and sometimes as a feed for mojo bags. Its solvent powers and strong odor do indeed suggest a powerful spiritual cleansing agent, and it is still used in some modern day cleaning products on a purely practical level for these same reasons.  Old time medicines sometimes included turpentine as a thing to drink, in small doses. A book from the 1850s, The Domestic Medicine Chest , recommends giving it to children in a dose of one teaspoon for killing tapeworm. Relatedly, in old time hoodoo cures for "live things" turpentine might be made into a tea...

Blockbuster, Van Van, Uncrossing, Road Opener -- What's the Difference? What to Use Against Jinxes?

Many hoodoo formulas are related to one another, sometimes very closely. Some formulas, Lovers formula versus Love formula, are just manufacturer specific names for what is essentially the same product (or at least a product meant to get the same result.) Sometimes people wonder, what's the difference between Uncrossing and Van Van ? What's the difference between Road Opener and Blockbuster ? First things first: Road Opener, aka Abre Camino, is not a traditional hoodoo formula, it's a Latin American loaner that has come in relatively recently along with a lot of Santeria and Brujeria practices. This is why it seems to cover the same ground that several other old hoodoo mixtures do. Blockbuster might also be in this same boat, though my evidence on this is less sure -- nonetheless it does seem to be a newer formula, in relative terms ( the word "blockbuster" is only datable to around 1940 ) and often sold with an alternate Spanish name "Arrasa con T...