Adam makes liquid soap

You can see how my blog is now filling up with talks of soaps and lotions and balms. Can you imagine all the soap talks, lipbalm talks and Mommy's Business talks going on in my house? Naturally the kids are very curious and interested and want to get involved. Soapmaking, unfortunately is an art that must be practised with supreme caution and without children. Oh yes. Imagine the frustration. Adam's frustration. He loves experiments and soapmaking sounds like the ultimate experiment for him (based on my description). 

So to let him in on some of the excitement, we made liquid soap together.

To make liquid soap, we used offcuts and soap slivers from the soap I made before. These soaps have fully saponified but are still soft and need drying time to harden before we can use them. But they'll be perfect for making into liquid soap.

To make liquid soap, we just chop up these soap and 'cook' it with some boiling water.

When it's all nice and melted down, we added some food coloring and essential oils for scent. I gave Adam full control of this 'experiment' and he chose his own colours and scents.

Tadaaaa!! Homemade liquid soap! From left - colored blue scented with sweet orange essential oil, original Milk Calendula Soap, colored pink scented with rose geranium essential oil (for Mia), and the last one colored purple but Adam didn;t like this one and decided not to scent it.

Someone's very proud of his soaps :)

Making soap from scratch

You know I like making things. For years I have studied and contemplated making my own soap from scratch. Not the simple melt and pour soap (that's not really making your own soap, is it. more like taking somebody else's soap and stamping your name on it), but the real, traditional way of making soap using oil, lye and water - saponification. Making soap the way it was made hundreds of years ago.  

Why use natural soap? Well, did you know that your regular bar of soap contains little to no soap at all, and is full of harmfull chemical and is more likely a detergent? Most commercial soap companies strip the glycerin out of the soap and sell it to the cosmetic industry because it is more valuable than the soap itself. Glycerin is a product of saponification, and it what keeps our skin hydrated and moisturised. anyway, you can read online many other reasons why using natural soap is better. I'm just going to now describe how I made my soap.

This is by no means a tutorial on the cold-process soapmaking. It was just how I made my soap. If you do try it however, make sure you have done proper research especially on lye safety. 

Ok so I started by assembling my equipments and material on the kitchen counter. the lye is not in picture because it was still hidden in my storeroom, and I wasn't going to take it out until I absolutely have to (hello, lyephobia much???)

Next I weighted my oils and melted my solid oils.

Then I weighted my water, in this case I used full cream milk that has been frozen and then blended to a slush.

Then I weighted my lye. Gigil tu tangan, ok. You MUST wear gloves, goggles, apron, long sleeves clothes when handling lye. If splashed, God forbid, it can burn through your skin, your kitchen counter, your floor, etc. Do not make soap while tending to children or pets.

Next I added the lye to my milk slush. Slowly.

Stirring constantly. Notice the colour has turned bright yellow and the milk has melted.

Ooops it turned bright orange. Lye solution made with milk can turn any shade from bright yellow to orange. I was hoping for a bright yellow but it's ok this will do as well. I colled the solution down in cold water.

When the temperature of both the lye solution and melted oils reached 45C, I added the lye solution to the oils.

Then I whisked by hand alternately with this old mixer. And the guess what happened? This £4, 3 year old hand mixer decided to die on me. Yes. Right in the middle of the action. Oh kayy. Major disaster. I do not want to be whisking 2 hours straight.

In it goes into my food processor. I have read that you can make soap in a blender, but there was no way this batch could fit in my blender. So I gambled and dumped the whole thing in the food processor.

It worked! I reached trace. Trace is when the texture becomes the consistency of pudding. Or susu pekat. When you drip on top of the mixture the drips stays on top.

Next I added calendula extract, because I am making calendula baby milk soap. Gave it another whizz in the food processor.

Ok then I poured the soap into a soap mold.

Looks yummy like caramel. Oh come to think of it the texture was kinda caramel-ish, too.

I freeezed it. Was trying to prevent over heating because milk tends to heat up and burn during saponification.

After 48 hours, it was time to cut!

Done! Luscious handmade soap. My baby's going to be so spoiled.

Oh, a bit of an anti climax though - we need to wait one month at least for this soap to cure before it can be used! Curing allows full saponification to occur, so the lye will be completely neutralised and no longer caustic to the skin, and also the soap will dry and harden making it longer lasting. Oh man....

Coming up next - more soapmaking and also liquid soapmaking. Stay tuned!

Lavender Calendula Face Cream

My face is the dry type and I always need face moisturiser whatever the weather. I am on a mission to find the perfect face cream recipe with the right texture. Recently I made this face lotion - Lavender Calendula Face Cream, and I love it! This lotion is basically an emulsion of oil and water, so it hydrates and moisturise at the same time without feeling greasy. The combination of calendula and lavender smells heavenly! My skin feels great, and I even use it on my body too. I have to say it could be my favourite out of all the natural skincare concoctions I've made so far.

The only downside is that this lotion, because it uses only a natural emulsifier and none of the synthetic emulsifiers and stabilisers that exist in regular lotions, there is a chance it can be quick to separate back into water and oil. So far I've used it for a couple of weeks and it is holding its creamy texture well. Let's observe for a few more weeks or months to see how long it can last without separating. That is if I haven't used it all up by then...

Homemade shampoo

If you read my blog a few years ago, you would realise that this is not something new for me. I tried simple homemade shampoo using only baking soda before. But shamefully, I turned back to regular shampoo after a while. It was difficult to get used to the no suds and no smell shampoo, my hair felt dry at times and I couldn't find a solution for dandruff.

This time I am determined to try again. 

The recipe is simple - a tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water. This time I added a few drops of lavender and rosemary essential oils for the lovely smell and these oils help with scalp care and dandruff too. I'm finding it so much better than just baking soda. The rosemary gives it a kind of tingly and refreshing feeling while washing.

To help with dryness I also deep-condition my hair once or twice a week with virgin coconut oil. I love   virgin coconut oil! such a gorgeous smell and so good for hair, skin and for ingestion too. To use VCO for hair I just mix about 5 drops of lavender essential oil to about 1 oz of VCO then use about half a teaspoon each treatment. Sometimes I use VCO on it's own, no lavender. Basically I just massage the oil into the scalp and hair just before bedtime then go to bed. I wash my hair in the morning. Wake up to naturally beautiful luscious shiny hair!

So far I am loving the new homemade hair routine. If you try this remember to give a few weeks time for your hair to adjust and detoxify. It might feel slightly oily in the beginning. Our hair is used to the SLS and other toxins in our regular shampoo - break up might look ugly at first, literally! Give it time and you can have beautiful healthy locks free of chemicals.

 I have plans for other haircare treats so watch this space!

As you can see the last few posts have been about natural bodycare. I'm in the zone and if you're not a fan I hope you'll forgive me :)

I've done a lot of experimenting recently..

Playing with lip balm colours - all natural colours. In the above picture I used red clay, roselle and purple gromwell in different strength and combinations.

above : experimenting with different shea butter textures and recipes

Beeswax

When we were in Cameron, there were a lot of honey products being sold at the markets. In the highlands apparently there are a few honeybee farms maybe because of the lower temperatures up there making it suitable for honey farming. I saw that most of the honey are pure unrefined and some even sell the honeycomb together with the honey. I asked them about beeswax and they directed me to their farm. It's not easy to find beeswax in Malaysia.

We went to visit a farm and the kids had a blast looking at a real honeybee farm. I went to the farm shop and found beeswax. Their beeswax is pure unrefined and smells deliciously of honey.

I've always thought about making my own body care products to replace chemical-laden commercial products, and stumbling upon this beeswax has opened up a door. So I started experimenting and made some...

Lip balms! All-natural skin nourishing ingredients. I've started using them and I absolutely love it! My lips are usually dry and cracked but now they are soft and moist! I'm never going back to store-bought lip balms ever again, I can tell you that.

Stay tuned for more adventures in natural skin care. I'm full of ideas now to slowly replace the commercial products we use regularly...

*Beeswax is secreted by honeybee workers and is used to construct their honeycomb cells. It makes a great skin barrier that allows the skin to breathe.