Wash Off Body Lotion

Sometimes you really cannot be bothered to moisturise after a shower. Way too tired, just want to go to bed, but your skin's dry! I am the worst at remembering to moisturise. I hardly ever do it and my skin hates me for it especially in winter.

We've had a relatively warm autumn here in Melbourne but the weather is now cooling significantly and I've been pumping the heater as if we're heading in to the next Ice Age. I really dislike the cold. Growing up on the equator has not done me any favours.

Anyway, I was playing around today with my butters and oils (as you do) and thought I would try making a wash off moisturiser. The texture is mousse-y, creamy and so much fun to use. It does go on quite thick but once you add a little bit of water to the mix, it spreads easier and is oh-so-silky on the skin.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! There is absolutely no grease left once washed off and there is  no need to use soap or body wash beforehand. It is a gorgeous mild cleanser and moisturiser all in one. I think I must have washed my hands with the stuff five times after my shower. It really feels that good!

If you're going to keep this in your shower or for longer than a week then I would strongly suggest you add a preservative.

Ingredients for Wash Off Body Lotion

Makes approximately 200g

80g Shea Butter
40g Rice Bran Oil
36g Glycerine
36g Cocamidopropyl Betaine
4g Glyceryl Cocoate
2g Fragrance or Essential Oils

1. Combine softened shea butter, rice bran oil and glycerine in a stand mixer with a beater attachment. Whip on low to combine then turn the speed up high until your mixture is light and fluffy.

2. Stop the mixer and add the cocamidopropyl betaine, glyceryl cocoate. Whip again on high until everything is smooth and your mixture is the consistency of a luscious cream.

3. Add your fragrance or essential oils and fold in the cream with a spatula.

4. Pour in to a tub or bottle and jump in to a hot shower with it!

Make Your Own Face Cleanser (Number Two)

Sheesh, I'm officially the world's worst blogger! Every now and then I come back and revisit my blog and I have to admit I really miss it. Time is not something I have on my side at the moment unfortunately. It's crazy to think I started this blog when I was a 21 year old studying at university and I'm now 26, working and getting married next year!

All you lovely people who leave me comments, please know that I greatly appreciate it. Although I don't often respond, I do love reading them. I know most of you will have questions about some of my tutorials so if you have one, please leave a comment below and I promise I will respond. I am tentatively thinking of blogging regularly but I never know with myself these days.

My last post was about a Lush all time favourite cleanser, Angels on Bare Skin. I've decided to go again with another best selling cleanser from Lush this time, Ultrabland. The Ultrabland cleanser reminds me of an old Lush product called Babyface. Anyone remember that? It was a solid cleanser bar which you melted in your hands and then massaged in to your face. The best way to remove it was with a warm wash cloth to get rid of the sticky residue. It was kind of messy but I love the way my skin felt afterwards, like a baby's bottom!

As you will see from my recipe, the cleanser is quite beeswax heavy. There is a reason for this; beeswax is not a natural emulsifier. To really make a stable emulsion, you would need to add some borax along with the beeswax or replace some of it with some emulsifying wax. I didn't because Lush doesn't and I wanted to stay true to their list of ingredients (this is a Lush dupe after all!). Therefore, I'm hoping that by using a higher percentage of beeswax in the recipe, I can create a somewhat more stable emulsion without compromising on consistency. I was really not sure if this would work but my current jar of cleanser is still fine and hasn't split. Hopefully, it never will!

When you use the cleanser, I recommend really wiping your face thoroughly with a wash cloth (repeating the process at least twice) to take everything off. Otherwise, the oily film will just sit on top of the skin and not go anywhere. Quite an unpleasant feeling let me tell you!

Ingredients

Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Rose Water (Rosa centifolia), Beeswax (Cera alba), Honey (Mel), Fresh Iris Extract (Iris florentina), Glycerine, Rose Absolute (Rosa centifolia), Tincture of Benzoin (Styrax benzoin) , Methylparaben, Propylparaben

Description (Lush AUS Website)

Almond Oil and rosewater lift away dirt, oil and makeup with ease.  Remove with a hot wash cloth for clean soft skin. Ultrabland is a multipurpose healing and moisturising balm, and it has been said that there are over 100 uses for it. Rose for reducing redness and inflammation, and beeswax for helping give the skin a protective layer. Parents can use Ultrabland for nappy rash, as well as flaky skin that can be common in young babies.

Ultrabland (Lush Dupe)

Makes: 200g of cleanser

Difficulty: Easy

96g almond oil
48g rose water
40g beeswax
6g honey
4g iris extract
4g glycerine
1g fragrance
1g  preservative

1. Measure out the ingredients. Combine almond oil and beeswax in a microwave safe bowl or jug and heat on high in 1 minute bursts in the microwave. When fully melted, use a thermometer to measure when the temperature hits 70C. This is your oil phase.
2. Combine rose water, honey and glycerine in a small saucepan and heat to 70C. This is your water phase.
3. When both oil and water phases are 70 C, it is time to combine the two. Pour the oil phase in to a blender and turn it on low. Slowly, pour in the water phase through the hole in the top. The mixture will start to thicken and become a cream. You may have to scrape your blender down and mix again until smooth.
4. Test the temperature of your cream with your hand (be careful!). It should be lukewarm at this point and cool enough to handle. Pour in the iris extract, preservative, and fragrance then turn the blender on low to mix well.
5. When your cream is blended and smooth, pour in to a sterilised container and enjoy! 

Feel free to add any fragrance you like, I actually left mine unscented because the smell of the rose water comes through quite well in the cream. I also didn't have iris extract so substituted it with chamomile extract.

To make this recipe a vegan one, substitute the beeswax with candelilla, carnauba or macadamia wax. You will have to experiment with the amount though as these vegetable waxes are stiffer than beeswax and you will need less of it. I would also omit the honey and replace it with more glycerine.

There you go, I hope you like it. I'd love to hear if you've tried it out yourselves and what your thoughts are. Here's what mine looks like! Sorry for the poor lighting, I might take a better picture and replace it with the below when I have a chance.

The description and picture of Lush's Ultrabland were republished from Lush AUS. The ingredients were taken from Lush US.

Make Your Own Face Cleanser

Three years ago, I blogged my last post. How sad is that? I've all but abandoned my blog. However, I do have an excuse! I put it down to time, money and laziness although I knew I would be back some day.


It's been a long time but I still have not lost my love for all things soapy! So many things have happened in the last few years. I look back on it now and it all seems a bit surreal to think that three years have since passed. I definitely don't think I will be blogging very often but it still feels good to be back.


Anyway, enough about dwelling on the past for me! Today, I have an exciting new tutorial. I remember the very first product I bought on Lush was their ever popular skin cleanser, Angels on Bare Skin.


Well, I've done some experimenting and I think I have come up with a recipe that does mimic their best-seller in a way. It's impossible to be sure unless I were to sneak into their manufacturing plant ninja style!


This is what I found has worked for me and I would be interested in you trying it out for yourselves and letting me know what results you have achieved.


So, without further ado, I present to you my tutorial for making your own Angels on Bare Skin cleanser!

Ingredients

Ground Almonds, Glycerine, Kaolin, Water, Lavender Oil, Rose Absolute, Chamomile Blue Oil, Tagetes Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Lavender Flowers, *Limonene, *Linalool

Description (Lush AUS website)

Angelic, medieval cleansing wash with rose and lavender. Angels on Bare Skin is the Lush version of an expensive medieval skincare recipe. Rare, precious essential oils were first brought to Europe by the crusaders who encountered Arabian medicine. The church immediately banned them because their ability to alter states of mind was considered the devil’s work! But the final result was Cosmetics 1, Church 0. Rose oil and lavender oil were discovered to do wonderful things for the skin, too. Almost a thousand years later, you’d be hard pressed to find a better all round cleanser and exfoliator than Angels.

Angels on Bare Skin (Lush Dupe)

Makes: 400g worth of cleanser
Difficulty: Easy

236g ground almonds
76g glycerine
72g kaolin clay
12g distilled/purified water
4g fragrance/essential oils
Sprinkling of lavender flowers

1. Combine the ground almonds in a bowl with the kaolin clay and mix well with a spatula or spoon.
2. Add the glycerine and mix well once again. 
3. Once the glycerine has been mixed in thoroughly, add the water a tablespoon at a time.
4. After adding each tablespoon of water, check the consistency of your cleanser before adding more water.
5. When you are finished, your cleanser should have the consistency of cookie dough.
6. Add to the mixture your chosen fragrance and essential oils and combine well.
7. Turn the dough out of its bowl on to a clean sheet of baking paper.
8. Flatten the dough into a rectangular shape that is about a centimetre or two thick using your hands or a rolling pin.
9. Sprinkle the dough with the lavender flowers.
10. Finally, with the help of your sheet of baking paper, roll the dough into the shape of a log.
11. Slice off a piece to use and enjoy!

You'll notice that I have not included the exact measurements for the essential oils that Lush uses. The reasons being that rose absolute is ridiculously expensive and I have no idea where to find tagetes oil! However, if that is something you are able to get your hands on, add it in to your cleanser to truly replicate the Lush original.

As for the lavender flowers, sprinkle in as much or as little of the lavender flowers as you like. I don't actually like having the flowers in the cleanser but have used them in this recipe for the sake of duplicating the actual product.

Depending on where you are, how humid it is, the different altitudes, you may find that your finished cleanser may be too dry or too wet. If the mixture is too wet, just sprinkle in a little bit of kaolin clay and mix it in until you are happy with the consistency. Alternatively if the mixture is too dry, add in a touch more water at a time until the mixture comes together like a dough.

Voila! I present to you a picture of what my finished cleanser looks like.

For this recipe, I had ground my own almonds but had neglected to remove the almonds skins. I would suggest using ground blanched almonds as the cleanser will feel much softer against your skin. Then again, if you do like a more exfoliating cleanser, leaving the skins on might work for you!


As always, if you do choose to republish this recipe on your site or use it in your classes, a credit back to my blog will be greatly appreciated :)


Take care and until next time!


The ingredients, description and picture of Lush's Angels on Bare Skin were republished from Lush AUS.

Chocolate Orange Mud Cake

A post about something un-soapy related today! It was my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago and she requested that I bake her a chocolate orange cake. So, I scoured the internet for a good chocolate cake recipe and found one here from Exclusively Food.

Let me just say, the cake was amazing! It was perfectly chocolatey, dense but moist as well as having a delicious, chewy crust. Personally, I am not a fan of chocolate orange but everyone absolutely loved it and I have had requests to make more of this.

All I did was add the zest of one whole orange and I also substituted the water with orange juice. I then added a splash of Grand Marnier to kick the flavour up a notch but you can use any orange liqueur you like.

That was it! I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and was rewarded with a beautiful cake which I glazed and topped with candied oranges.



Do try this recipe, you will not be disappointed!

Mayonnaise Pack for Hair

I have good news! I got a job! Woohoo!! I'm working front office at a hotel in Melbourne starting Monday. *fingers crossed* I hope I do okay. Thank you everyone for your kind comments, they were greatly appreciated.

Nothing interesting has been happening apart from me getting a job and I've been enjoying my last few days of freedom at home. I've decided to post a recipe for those of you who like to lather mayonnaise on your hair or skin. The oil used is coconut oil because it is the only oil that is able to penetrate hair and make it stronger according to some research I did on the internet.

According to the Beauty Brains, coconut oil is similar to the natural oil secreted from our hair and its molecules are small enough to penetrate the cortex and make it stronger from within.

However, if you have a favourite oil to use there is no reason why you cannot use it instead of the coconut oil.

You will need a blender for this recipe or a very strong arm!

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
1 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon of runny honey, warmed
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
few drops of essential oils (optional)

1. Whisk the egg yolk in a blender or by hand then add the lemon juice/vinegar and warmed honey and whisk in thoroughly. Add the oil in the blender very slowly until all the oil has been added and the mixture thickens. Otherwise, whisk like mad non-stop while adding droplets of oil now and then until the mixture thickens. As you're whisking or blending, you will notice a change in the mixture as it becomes lighter coloured and looks more like mayonnaise than just thickened egg yolk. Add your essential oils at this point and stir to combine.

2. Slather the mayonnaise on your hair working your way from the roots to the ends. Cover with cling film and a towel. Leave it on for at least 30 minutes then shower and shampoo as normal. Don't forget to condition!

A lovely, luscious treat for your hair which can accompany a home facial for a truly indulgent and luxurious pampering session. Of course, if you don't want to go through all the trouble. Just heat a cupful of your oil of choice (don't burn yourself) and massage it into your hair. Couldn't be easier!

See you guys soon!

Cirque du Soleil

I caught Dralion yesterday here in Melbourne! It was amaaazzzziiiinnnnggg!! I wanted to get myself a souvenir but I couldn't decide on what to get :(. There was a really nice cirque du soleil jacket but it was 80 dollars and way too expensive. Below is the youtube video of the hoop diving. How good is it? Goodnight, everyone!

Strawberry Cream Bubble Rolls Tutorial

My first attempt at trying to roll bubble mixture to resemble a swiss roll did not turn out well. However, I tried again with a different recipe and I have to say being quick is really the key here! I waited too long and the mixture became a little dry and crumbly on me although it still managed to hold together in the end.

Ingredients:

First, you will need your favourite bubble recipe. I used this recipe although I had to substitute it with other ingredients as I didn't have Cocamide DEA or Glycerine handy. I suggest you follow the recipe as is posted by Bath and Body Supply because the pictures provided of the mixture sure look good! Basically, you want a good dough-like bubble mixture.

For these cream rolls, you will also need a red colouring agent and strawberry fragrance oil approved for cosmetic use. I used red food colouring although any safe, water soluble colour will do. Optionally, you can decorate with small candy flowers, sprinkles or hundreds and thousands.

Instructions:

First, mix up your batch of bubble mixture INCLUDING the fragrance oil but MINUS the colouring and divide equally into two bowls (Bowl A & Bowl B). Get a damp (make sure it isn't dripping wet) washcloth and lay it over Bowl A to prevent the mixture from getting too dry. Drop a couple of drops of your red colouring into Bowl B to achieve a lovely pastel pink and knead it in well until the mixture is uniformly coloured.

Lay a sheet of wax paper over your work surface, a good one to use is a large, heavy wooden chopping board. Quickly spread the pink mixture out on the wax paper and push outwards with your fingers until you have a rough rectangle that is about a centimetre thick. Still working quickly, spread the uncoloured mixture on top of the pink mixture until you have a rectangle of equal size and thickness. You may need to knead it again a few times or add just a couple of drops of glycerine to get it pliable again.

Now, here's the fun part. If you have ever rolled sushi with a sushi mat, you are going to do the exact same thing here with your bubble mixture and wax paper. Now this is a little hard to explain so I have included this link on how to roll sushi. The steps you want to pay attention to are step 4 and 5. If you have any questions, I will gladly try and answer them.

After you have rolled it up into a tight swiss roll, you are ready to cut immediately with a sharp knife and dip the top of each swiss roll in hundreds and thousands. Leave it on the wax paper to dry for a couple of days before wrapping it up and keeping it in a cool, dry place. Crumble one or two under hot running water and enjoy oodles and oodles of sweet smelling bubbles!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you make beautiful strawberry cream bubble rolls!

Winner!

First of all, I would like to say thank you very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY much to all who commented on my previous post. I really do appreciate the fact that you still visit my blog and I wish I could send all of you a package! However, I will have more giveaways in the future, definitely. Tomorrow, I will post a tutorial of the little candy strawberry rolls and I hope you will find some inspiration from it.

Using Random.org, the number 2 was generated. So, the winner of one fudgey soap and two strawberry cream rolls is Elizabeth Gassner!!

Congratulations! Please email me the address you would like the package to be sent to at michellecheahpeili[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you once again to everyone who left a comment on the previous post. Goodnight, everyone!

Chocolate Fudge and Strawberry Cream Rolls

Hello everyone! I've been gone a long, long time and my blog has been on the back burner for far too long. The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity for me. However, lately, I have been a little down in the dumps thanks to the recession. Unemployment here in Australia is rising steadily which does not bode well for a fresh graduate like me. I have been applying for work for the past few months and still nothing :(.

Oh well, enough of me whining! I actually am sorry that I have not been keeping up with my blog. I know how great it is to read a blog that is updated daily. Now by way of apology to all my loyal readers who still visit my blog, I am holding a giveaway which include some yummy goodies that I have been working on lately.



Delicious, rich, creamy chocolate fudge soap! Would you believe I ran out of coconut oil? I know, it's embarrassing. Thankfully, I still had some palm kernel oil left over.



Ingredients: Olive oil, Palm kernel oil, Castor oil, Cocoa powder, Fragrance, Tussah silk.

Next on the menu, we have Strawberry Cream Bubble Rolls!! This was an experiment on bubble bars and the mixture was a little crumbly at the end. It didn't hold together very well and was supposed to come together like dough. However, I am still pleased with the end result. I ran a few bits and pieces under the tap and there were instant bubbles! It smells really yummy as well.



Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Tartaric Acid, Glyceryl Cocoate, PBS Base (Aussiesoapsupplies blend), Cocamidropropyl Betaine, Fragrance, Food Colouring, Candy Sprinkles.



To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you will be in the running to win 1 chocolate fudge soap and 2 strawberry rolls! The last day to enter will be next Friday. Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

I'm spending my first christmas away from my family this year. Instead, I'm here in Australia spending it with Dan's family which is all well and good but I still can't help feeling I should be somewhere else.

Anyway, I came online quickly to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone will have a wonderfully joyous celebration today ;)

I leave you with a picture that my dad sent me of my grandfather and my sister titled "Mandy and the Christmas Gnome".



I laughed out loud. He's the cutest grandfather in the world!

See you all very soon!

Make Your Own Solid Body Butter

My most popular blog post of all was the Make Your Own Bath Bomb post way back in November of last year. I have yet to post anymore tutorials like that and decided it was certainly time to bring back a "make your own..." tutorial.

This tutorial teaches you how to make your own exfoliating, solid body butter much like another most wanted Lush product called Buffy.



Ingredients
Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Ground Rice (Oryza sativa), Ground Almonds (Prunus dulcis), Ground Aduki Beans (Phaseolus), Perfume, Lavender Oil (Lavandula hybrida), Lemon Oil (Citrus limonum), *Citral, *Limonene, *Linalool.

Description
Scrub-a-dub-dub, get this body butter in the tub (or shower) and buff away the day's worries. Stress disappears as our lavender-scented body butter melts into your skin, making it way beyond silky. Ground rice, almonds and aduki beans exfoliate to velvety perfection as the natural butters provide maximum miniaturization. So put down your loofah, grab your Buffy, and smooth your cares away.

Buffy (Lush replica)

Makes: Two 100g bars
Difficulty: Easy

78 g refined cocoa butter (39%)
78 g refined shea butter (39%)
14 g ground rice (7%)
14 g ground almonds (7%)
12 g ground adzuki or red beans (6%)
*4 g fragrance/essential oils (2%)
mould for individual 100 g rectangular shaped bars

1. Melt the butters gently over a double boiler or in short 10-15 second bursts in the microwave.
2. Add in ground exfoliants and stir well.
3. When the mixture is warm to the touch, around 45C/115F, add in your fragrance/essential oils.
4. Allow to cool in the fridge until the mixture becomes opaque and has thickened slightly. This helps keep the exfoliants suspended in the mixture instead of sinking to the bottom when placed in the mould. Stir well.
5. Spoon the mixture into your mould and bang it down gently on the counter to get an even surface and release trapped air bubbles.
6. Put the mould back into the fridge and wait. Check back after 20 minutes and it should have hardened nicely. Pop it out of the mould and enjoy!

*the amount of each essential oil to add really depends on what you like. Lush uses lavender and lemon oil; play around with them to come up with a blend that you are happy with.

The recipe uses 80% butters (including fragrance/essential oils) and 20% exfoliants. You may adjust the percentages of butters and exfoliants to come up with a scrubbier bar or one that is less scrubby. However, I recommend not reducing the percentage of your butters to any less than 70% or it might not hold together very well. 70% butters and 30% exfoliants makes for a very scrubby bar!

This makes a very hard bar and the high content of cocoa butter will ensure your bar doesn't melt at room temperature.You should still store it in a cool, dry place when not in use especially on hot days or if you live in a tropical country. You may have difficulty rubbing it into your skin but the bar is designed to be used in a hot shower and should melt nicely.



A picture of the solid body butters I made. I used 70% unrefined butters, 30% exfoliants and omitted the use of fragrance or essential oils. You can tell it's a bit more speckly :)

The above recipe is NOT the actual Lush recipe (I wish!) but a result of experimentation by me. If you choose to republish the recipe on your site or through any other medium, a heads-up and credit back to my original recipe would be greatly appreciated!

That being said, I hope you have enjoyed the recipe and stay tuned for more Lush "Make Your Own" recipes!

Tip: If you don't have adzuki beans you can use ground coffee beans instead. Caffeine applied topically is apparently supposed to help with cellulite.

Ingredients, description and picture of Lush's Buffy were taken from Lush USA.

Shiricki at Kyaaa

I was searching the web late last night for photoshop brushes and I stumbled across Shiricki's website. She had some beautiful brushes up for free download because she felt bad about having to charge for them before (isn't she sweet?). From her site, I gathered that Shiricki is one of those rare, talented people who are just brimming with creativity all the time.

Anyway, I found out that she also makes soap which she sells on this website. And wow, what soap! Here are some pictures below taken from her site of the soaps she has made.


Strawberries Soap


Jellyfish Soap

She calls her felt soaps, cozy soaps because you can cuddle them in the shower. I know, it's the cutest thing! I feel like getting one just because they are so cute I can actually imagine myself hugging them in the shower.

These are my favourite. Her soap chocolates are absolutely gorgeous. They look incredibly hard to make and I am suitably impressed!

They aren't just good looking, here's a list for the ingredients she uses for one of her soaps.

"olive oil, coconut oil, cream, strawberries, blue poppy seeds, strawberry perfume-oil, beetroot juice, NaOH "

Yum, yum! It sounds like it would be absolutely divine on its own even without the felt. The felt obviously makes them that much more desirable!

Thank you, Shiricki for letting me share your amazing soaps with my blog friends and readers. It was truly a pleasure!

My Top 10

I've listed below a list of my Top 10 favourite and staple ingredients that I have to have stocked in my soap pantry. I'm sure some of these must be your favourites too!

10. Almond Meal


picture from Dane International Commodities Inc.

Some almond meal mixed with a dash of the liquid of your choice make for an excellent facial cleanser and scrub suited for the delicate skin of your face. There is really no need for a moisturiser after cleansing unless you have really dry skin as the almonds are loaded with its natural oil. If you don't have almond meal you can make your own by blanching the almonds in hot water and then grinding them in a blender.

9. Coconut Oil



This is THE oil for soapmaking and I just can't do without! It gives soap its bubbly lather which we all love! I also have around extra virgin coconut oil for its delicious, natural scent! It can be used in lotions, body butters, scrubs and it works wonders in a hot oil treatment for hair.

8. Olive Oil



Again, this oil performs divinely in soap and is essential if you enjoy making 100% olive oil soaps. I use regular olive oil for soaps as extra virgin olive oils are expensive. However, I believe they work just as well in soap. I do have my regular supply of extra virgin olive oil as well! Only, I use them in recipes which don't call for heat for fear of damaging any of its wonderful properties.

7. Unrefined Beeswax



This lovely wax has such a sweet smell of honey that it is my favourite wax to use in any recipes that call for wax. Coupled with regular honey, beeswax helps the scent to stick when I make my OMH soaps. It also feels beautiful and smooth when applied to lips in the form of a lip balm.

6. Vanilla Beans



There is absolutely nothing I don't like about vanilla beans. Even if I try to hate it, I just cannot. Vanilla is the smell most loved by everyone and imparts such a comforting warmth and smoothness when added to your products. It goes with just about every scent! I infuse oils with it, put it in my sugar jar, grind it and add it to scrubs as well as soak it in vodka to make vanilla extract.

5. Unrefined Cocoa Butter



Chocolate! That's what my cocoa butter always smells like. I know of a delightful supplier who sells the yummiest cocoa butter and have blogged about them before here. These huge chunks of fair trade cocoa butter are an absolute must in my massage bars. The chocolate-y smell is to die for! If you use enough of it in soaps, the scent will come through as the soap mellows over time.

4. Unrefined Shea Butter



Shea butter is so popular especially in its whipped form for an easy and nourishing moisturiser. I don't have a problem with its smell but it is quite strong and will be prominent in your finished product. This butter is said to have natural, healing properties and soaks in to the skin quite nicely!

3. Honey



Delicious, runny, golden honey; what will I do without you? I love the feel of a jar of warm honey in my hands. As it can be difficult to work with when it's cold, I normally warm it for a few seconds in the microwave. I use this in just about everything. When I'm lazy, I warm up a small bit of honey in a bowl of hot water and apply it to my face for a quick and easy face mask!

2. Full Cream Milk



Goat's milk, cow's milk, soy milk, almond milk, I love them all! If I can find a way to use them in my recipes I will. Fresh full fat milk as the liquid in your face scrubs, masks or cleansers feels delightful on dry, sensitive skin. In powdered form, it can be added to bath bombs or bath milks. One or two cups of full fat goat's milk powder in a bath can transform it in to something so indulgent and luxurious!

1. Oats



Oats! How I love thee, let me count the ways. No, forget it, there are just TOO many ways. I use them in EVERYTHING! I keep regular oats, fine oatmeal and hydrolyzed oat protein. They are often used in my soaps, scrubs, bath bombs, bath milks, shampoo, conditioner, lotions and anything else I can think of. They just feel so soothing on the skin and have such a yummy smell I can't help but be in love. Oats, my number one favourite ingredient!

Do you have a Top 10 list of your favourite ingredients? If you do, I'd like to hear about it or better yet, why don't you blog about it? I'd be thrilled to know if anyone else shares the same infatuation that I have with my Top 10 list :)

I'll try to be good, I promise!

I'm back from busy, busy land and hoping that I've passed all my exams in my final semester. That being said, if I do pass, I will have completed my first degree :). So many things have happened!

I was doing a Bachelor of Business (Tourism and Hospitality) and I do not want to start working yet!! Well, work for real or full-time rather. I told you I'm lazy. Anyway, in high school in Malaysia or Year 11 here in Australia, I took purely science and maths subjects. Now, I have this crazy desire to take up science and maths again. It's either a Bachelor of Science or a Bachelor of Arts. If I do science I have no clue what subjects I will take but if I do arts I will take up two languages and linguistics.

I wouldn't mind doing a Masters but I don't want to be overqualified and besides, I don't know if I will be able to survive a Masters! If anyone wants to offer their opinions or advice it will be gladly appreciated :)

Back to soap and such! A picture below of the shampoo and conditioner I made for my sister. The recipe for this particular conditioner is different to the one I made before. I upped the water content plus added some extra goodies like green tea extract and dimethicone. Overall, I preferred the previous recipe eventhough it was simpler.



This conditioner is very light and suitable for people with oily hair or those who wash their hair everyday. Otherwise, if you have hair like me on the drier side, you will need to slather on heaps more. However, I find with this conditioner, you can get away with less washing as it conditions but doesn't weigh down the hair. In essence, it takes longer for you hair to become oily (accumulate sebum) between washes.

Still, I will try reducing the water content for next time to increase the strength of the conditioner. However, it still is a lovely conditioner and my friend commented on the softness of my hair which made me happy!

The shampoo has a rich lather and leaves your hair squeaky clean. That may or may not be a good thing depending on what you like. It does contain glyceryl cocoate for emollient properties and absolutely no sodium laureth sulfate! The main surfactant was a PBS base from Aussie Soap Supplies. I, personally, do not like the squeaky clean feel and might experiment with different surfactants.

Both the shampoo and conditioner are paraben free as well as pH balanced to about 4.5 - 5. There is some science to acidic shampoos and conditioners which tighten the cuticles of the hair instead of lifting them up like basic hair products do. It is supposed to make hair look shinier and feel smoother. I was doing some googling about pH and hair which you can do too if you are interested! There are quite a few articles.

The one in the picture is fragranced with Ginger Souffle by Aussie Soap Supplies. The colour was achieved by steeping some hops flowers in boiling water. I'm happy with the colour and although the smell is unlike the Ginger Souffle fragrance from Origins, it is still very pleasant. The smell of the ginger is a bit more evident and there is a touch of honey in it which works extremely well with the sharpness of the ginger.

I also scented another batch with Island Kiss (Escada Type) which by the way smells exactly like the real thing! However, the earthy smell of the hops messed with the fragrance a little. So, in my next batch I will have to keep an eye out for smell altering properties. Some of the surfactants had a strong smell as well but the fragrances covered it up nicely.

Anyway, I'm off! I am going to make a yummy eye cream next which will have a secret ingredient I'm eager to try out. See you all soon! I've missed all my blogging friends :(

A Long Break

Hi guys! I'm so sorry for my absolutely dead blog :(. I haven't forgotten about it! I still love formulating! I have exams until the 14th of November so I'll be taking a break until then. Expect more posts and a Christmas giveaway after that. Hope to see you all at my "grand reopening" :) Bye!

Xoxo,
Michelle

To Garden or Not to Garden?

That is the question I am asking myself at this very moment. My aunt loves gardening and I think she gets it from my grandfather who is also an avid gardener. He has a pretty little vegetable garden and a small part is being overrun by the notorious peppermint plant! I'll have to take pictures the next time I go back to Malaysia.

Anyway, it was a beautiful, balmy spring day today and I was looking out into the back garden. Both the front and back garden are badly neglected because my aunt doesn't have time to look after them anymore. She used to devote her weekends to tending them but now she spends her weekends at the farm. So, the poor gardens are literally choked with weeds.

I saw a plant in the corner with pretty purple and pink flowers which I couldn't see properly at first due to all the weeds. They had grown so tall it was like pushing through foliage in a jungle. I started about weeding it and I used to love pulling up weeds as a child in my grandfather's garden. Anyway, I must have forgotten what it was like because I wasn't prepared for this...



and this



and this



and one small unidentified grayish white insect which sort of looked like that small insect next to the spider in the previous picture though I'm not sure if they're the same thing.

I think I now have four new phobias. Four different creepy crawlies in one pot, what are the odds?!? Okay, maybe the odds are good and someone should have told me that before I went outside! The millipede was the worse! I poked it with a dry leaf and it started scuttling out. It's like a worm that can scuttle!!! The worm-like appearance, the amount of tiny legs and that curling up thingy that they do eeewwwww!!

Ugh, so to garden or not to garden? Can I man up to the task?

I don't know.

Right now, I'm cowering indoors like a little girl in my millipede-free world with my millipede-free cup of tea typing on my millipede-free laptop.

I still get shivers looking at that picture.

On another note, ph paper is not so readily accessible and I will have to order them online from a supplier. Sigh, can you say too much hassle?? I was bored waiting for the delivery of the paper so I made some soap. Unveiling tomorrow or the day after!

Have a nice millipede-free day people! Unless, of course, millipedes are your thing then you're welcome to mine. Bye!

P.S. As I went to type center in HTML I typed centipede LOL!

The Hermit Life

I bet you've all been wondering (or not) why I dropped off the face off the earth *again*. Well, this time it's because I'm planning something big! I'm planning a *drum roll please* wait for it...wait for it...I'm planning a....GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

That's right! It's spring in Melbourne the weather is 21C today and I'm happy. I've been holed up in my house experimenting with my latest creation. I thought it would be easy to put this together but boy, was I kidding myself. There were so many unanswered questions I had that I've been doing a huge amount of research. It really needs to be just right.

So, I think I'm almost there. All I need to do now is to find some pH Hydrion paper. It's proving more difficult than I thought.

Okay, I'm rambling and I'm eager to show you what I've been working on! I've told Dan to contact his high school today to see if they have any. Fingers crossed.

I'll be back with the unveiling and the giveaway details ;)

Banana Bread

A few days ago, I was over at Joanna's blog Product Body who by the way is an awesome bath and body formulator, and found out about a trade she did with Leslie from The Hungry Housewife. You can read Leslie's take on the trade here. Leslie's banana bread for Joanna's product goodies! How incredible is that? Pure genius, I say!

That's how I discovered Leslie's recipe for a banana bread. If you had gone over to Joanna's blog and read about the trade and taken a peek at the pictures of the banana bread you will understand why I just *had* to make this. It was great timing because I had four bananas sitting in the fruit basket that were starting to turn black.

Ta-dah!



Wow wow wow!! These were so-very-incredibly delicious! I can't believe I actually made these! Why do they look like muffins? I wish I could say I did it on purpose just to be creative and different but the truth is, I don't have a bread baking tin so I improvised :).





Also, there are only three banana muffins pictured in this photo because I took these two days later and these were all that were left. 10 people tasted the bread and all of them gave a thumbs up! And this was without the blueberries!



So, if you are just dying to make some banana bread now and I know you are ;) scoot on over to The Hungry Housewife's blog and check out her banana bread recipe. Then after that, banana bread french toast maybe? All in all, this really is the perfect banana bread!

Merdeka

It is Malaysia's Independence Day today on the 31st of August. That is a picture of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia announcing Malaysia's independence from British rule amidst the cheers from the crowd

There are many things I may not like about Malaysia, but I still love my country. So to all Malaysians, here's to celebrating 51 years of our country's independence. May we always strive to live and work together in harmony.

Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Kenyir Lake - Waterfall!

We had the entire waterfall to ourselves, no one else came by! There were tons of fish swimming around in the little lake and ponds! Pretty silvery fish that nibbled at your toes. The water was absolutely divine, crystal clear and deliciously cool. We spent hours swimming and playing with the dangerous looking rope swing ;)