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 baby cloth wipes

I'm 5 and a half months pregnant now and at what you might call a baby-moon stage where I'm somewhat more productive, feel healthy and am probably at the nesting stage too considering I'm slightly more organised than I usually am. Great time to be making something for the baby today, I thought. We have decided to fully cloth-diaper this time. With Adam and Mia, we only partially cloth diaper and didn't have enough CDs for fulltime. This time insyaAllah I am determined to cloth diaper Baby no 3 fulltime. Both my babies are fully toilet trained for a long while now so I have no ideas yet on the latest reliable brands of CD or how to cloth diaper a newborn, so if you have any tips, please leave a comment! I'd really appreciate it.

Anyway, I was thinking about CDs today and went digging in my sewing room to find anything I could use to make some CDs, maybe. I found this 2meters length of blue cotton flannel. I bought this at Adam's request a couple years ago when I was sewing a bed set for his birthday. He specifically asked for this fabric, 'to make into my selimut', were his exact words, which I thought at the time was pretty smart for a 3 year old because flannel does make great blankets. However I ended up sewing a quilt cover instead for him using another fabric, so this flannel has been sitting in my shelves ever since. I thought it would totally make lovely absorbent baby cloth wipes.

I set out to make full use of every inch of this 2 meters flannel. Afterall you can never have too many wipes, can you, especially with newborns. They pee and poop ALL THE TIME.

If you want to make these wipes too, basically what you need to do is just fold up the fabric to find the approximate size that you think might be good for wipes.You don't need a ruler at all. Fold up, look at it, put your hand on it to see if it'll cover your whole hand as you wipe and go by instinct. Then cut. They don't have to be exactly the same sizes either.

I ended up with about 24 pieces of smaller sized wipes which will be perfect for wiping bums and 16 medium sized wipes which can  I thought might be nice as burp or vomit cloths too.

Then all I had to do was serge the edges, and in less than an hour (from cutting to sewing), I was done! 40 wipes in total from 2 meters of fabric. Awesome. I know these will be so useful when the baby comes.

Adam made 4 of these for me and they look just as perfect as mine. He's not new to sewing. After watching me sew for practically the whole 5 years of his life, he has made his own pants, his own apron, some small toys for himself and even little gifts for Mia.

Recently he made these pink pillows for Mia's dollies. His idea and work from start to finish.

Back to the wipes, they would be a great first project for your child if they want to learn sewing and you own a serger.

I think I remember the flannel fabric being quite cheap when I bought it. Maybe I'll visit Nagoya again and buy some more plain flannels in other colours. More wipes in other colours and also, I'm thinking they'll probably make good absorbent kitchen wipes and swaddling blankets for Baby3. This was a very easy project and gives instant gratification. Try it!

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

of lotion bars and body butter

After the successful makings of the lip balm in the previous post, I made plans to replace yet another bodycare product we use on a regular basis - lotions and moisturisers. 

First I made body butter. This is the texture of the lotion before it was whipped...

Then it became butter!!

Gorgeous luscious smelling body butter! but unfortunately after testing this butter for a while, I don't think it'll work. after sometime the texture breaks down to a thin whip cream consistency, and down to oily...this country is just too hot for body butters with no artificial stabilisers or preservatives..or maybe I need to figure out a natural alternative to stabilise the butter texture. Which means more experimenting..which I don't think I mind all that much :) In any case this batch of melting body butter is still very nutritious for the skin so I use it at night on my foot for a moisturising foot rub, and now my dry cracked heels are healing! (I know because I only apply to one foot to compare! haha )

The lotion bars however turned out great! Looks beautiful too. They smell lovely - lavender and ylang-ylang. I place ours on a small clay pot ( but I imagine it'll look good on a pretty soap dish too ) and use it daily after bath and before bedtime. The ingredients are all natural and suitable for children, and the kids love the night-time massage. To apply we just rub it with our hands to melt a small amount of lotion and then just massage onto skin.

Goodbye you chemical-full creams!

And now I'm off to figure out what I should be making next..  :)

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.

I'm back!

Oh my it's been months since my last post. How have you been?

A lot has happened in the last few months for us. I turned 31 (waaaa!) and Mia turned 3!

She's the cleverest, cheekiest 3 year old you'll ever meet. Her vocabulary of both English and Malay has grown extensively and quite often what she says are funny, witty and bound to surprise you.

My boy Adam is a lot taller now, most his clothes are starting to look short on him but he's still as thin as ever. He is homeschooled and very proud of the fact. He's my little homeschool ambassador.

And there's another little surprise. Notice a, ehem, small 'bump' in the picture above? I'm almost 5 months pregnant! Hello Baby no 3! Wish us luck!!

*pictures are from Mia and my birthday trip to Cameron Highland a couple weeks ago.