Tincture of Benzoin

Tincture of Benzoin is used to prolong the shelf life of oleums and so is an important product to have on hand. Usually 4 drops per 2 Dram bottle or 2 teaspoons per cup is enough.

I wanted to try my hand at making it for myself and so followed the directions that I found in The Complete Book of Demonolatry:

1 part Benzoin
3 parts alcohol

Now all I could find was Benzoin Gum:



Since the baggie contained 1/2 oz I figured I'd just add the baggie and 1 1/2 oz of Vodka in a mason jar.



I don't think that was the best idea since this is what it looked like:



I thought that maybe if I has added the alcohol first and then the benzoin I'd get better results. So, I went to Shaddow Domain, the local occult store, and bought some more. When I got home with it I decided to see how much volume was in the baggie of benzoin. It turned out that I only added the same amount of Vodka and not 3 times like I should have. I fixed this, then added more Vodka and benzoin to the jar and this is what it looked like:



Dismayed with this I thought that maybe I would get a better product if I blended it. So I did and then strained it before putting it back into the jar.



A far better product! It did however make shit of my blender that took me forever to clean. The benzoin gum powder makes very gummy gum when mixed with anything liquid.

Anyway, next time I think I will just buy the tincture of benzoin already made up