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!