Merry Christmas!

It's been a hectic pre-Christmas, but I've had some good quality me-time today!

I do have some not-so-good news to announce though. Due to personal issues, our soapmaker will no longer be providing us with the awesome soaps she's been churning out so far, at least not until the dust has settled some and the situation has been reassessed.

Have no fear though, I'm currently weighing my alternatives! I've come across several other wonderful soapmakers, and am looking into ordering from them.

Either way, I'd like to wish all of you Merry Christmas!

May this day be full of lovely presents, great company and most importantly, delicious food!

Cheers,
Wen

What's Coming For Christmas?

Our soapmaker says our soaps are cured enough to ship! YAY!

Hopefully, everything will arrive in approximately 2 weeks' time. Just in case you're curious, here's what goodies we have in store! The gingerbread, chocolate mint and christmas pine soaps are special edition soaps for Christmas. Mmm!

Handmade Soaps:
Gingerbread (Seasonal)
Chocolate Mint (Seasonal)
Christmas Pine (Seasonal)
Chamomile Honey (Signature)
Kahlua Cream
Overdrive
Blackberry Sage
Cucumber Melon

Bath & Body:
Cranberry & Cucumber Gel
Chamomile & Lavender Toner
Kalahari Silk Oil

I'll be posting descriptions of each goody later on!

Chocolate Mint

So... my latest addiction is my chocolate mint soap. It smells exactly like an After Eight slice! It's the titillating scent of gourmet dark chocolate with delectable hints of sweet peppermint. Ahh... Heaven in my shower stall. My soapmaker only sent me a measly sample sliver (evil woman), so I've been hoarding it, and cutting it into small pieces to make it last longer. I don't know whether it's just me, but the scent actually relaxes, yet rejuvenates me, and I can detect a faint cooling sensation from the peppermint.

On the bright side, we've got a whole lot of chocolate mint minibars coming in! I'm loving this scent so much, I'm actually thinking about creating a whole range of chocolate mint, from lotion or solid perfume to lip balms and dry oil mists. Yummy!

My original plan was to make this a seasonal scent along with Gingerbread Spice and Christmas Pine, but I'm sorely tempted to make this available all year round! I'll update later on my decision.

Overdrive

Just for you blokes! We figured you might not want to smell like flowers, so this soap is scented with spice, citrus, and the exotic notes of sandalwood and warm musk. Can you say masculine?

Ingredients: Olive Oil, Water, Coconut, Palm Kernel, Palm, Sodium Hydroxide, Shea Butter, Rice Bran, Castor, Fragrance, FD&C colorants

Cucumber Melon Soap

The crisp, juicy scent of cucumbers mingles with the sweet scent of melons in this bar to bring you a wonderfully refreshing fragrance! Yum!

Ingredients: Olive Oil, Water, Coconut, Palm Kernel, Palm, Sodium Hydroxide, Shea Butter, Rice Bran, Castor, Fragrance, FD&C colorants

Chamomile Honey Signature Soap

Our signature soap, this mild, gentle soap was developed specially for those with sensitive skin. Chamomile, comfrey, plantain and honey were added to this bar for their skin soothing properties. With no added fragrance or colorants to irritate sensitive skin, this bar has only a faint, natural aroma from the honey.

Ingredients: Olive Oil, Water, Coconut, Palm Kernel, Palm, Sodium Hydroxide, Shea Butter, Rice Bran, Castor, Honey, Chamomile Powder, Plantain Powder, Comfrey Root Powder

Our Soaps are Coming!

Our soapmaker in the US sent us some pictures of the soaps that will be coming in soon, and they look great! YAY! Our soaps are 100% handmade using the cold-process method, and contain no harsh detergents. They won't dry your skin out - our (helpful, kind, generous) testers so far have all agreed that our soaps leave them feeling clean and refreshed without that tight, dry feeling.

Some of our yummy ingredients:

Olive oil - A classic oil that's great in both food and skincare, olive oil is provides gentle cleansing, and contributes to a mild, skin-pampering bar that's suitable even for sensitive skin.
Coconut oil - Foam, baby, foam! Coconut oil creates that rich and fluffy lather everyone loves and adds cleansing power to a soap bar.
Palm oil - This seemingly commonplace ingredient contributes to a harder and longer-lasting bar in conjunction with coconut oil, as well as adding cleansing power.
Shea butter - Rich in skin-loving unsaponifiables, shea butter adds moisturizing and conditioning properties to soap, as well as helping to make your bar harder and longer lasting.
Rice bran oil - Also high in unsaponifiables, including antioxidants such as gamma oryzanol, tocopherols, tocotrienols and squalene, rice bran oil contributes to a mild, moisturizing bar that's gentle on the skin.
Castor oil - A humectant, castor oil pulls moisture from the air into the skin and gives a bar creamy lather as well as soothing, emollient properties.

We've thought long and hard about whether to include soaps with fragrance oils and colorants in our range, and we've decided that while some may prefer their soaps all-natural, some do want their soaps fragrant (with aromas not usually found in nature, that is) and colorful (again with shades not usually found in nature). We've decided to offer both, and let YOU decide what you want.

Our soaps will be offered in 1oz minibars and full-sized 4oz bars.

Our soapmaker's recipe is awesome, it cures to a wonderfully hard bar which lasts a nice long time! A 1oz minibar will last about 5-6 weeks if used only on the face and about 2-3 weeks in the shower if kept properly in a soap dish with good drainage between uses. 4oz bars will last... 4 times longer, of course!

The timeframes given are just estimations... if you're the sort who really loves a good lather, and showers 3 times a day, your soaps are obviously going to finish a lot faster!

Chamomile Lore

Whether it's English, Roman or German, this little herb is known for its wonderful calming qualities. I thought it would be interesting to highlight a few tidbits about the herb we've named our company after.

This herb derives its name from the Greek "kamai melon", which means "ground apples". It has a distinct, pleasant herbaceous apple-like scent. It makes a great tea, slightly sweet and lacking the bitter overtones that tend to accompany most herbal teas. I personally love Tazo's Calm tea. It's great for aiding the digestion as well as unwinding and relaxing... important for someone who can't seem to welcome sleep like I do... and for some reason, it also calms my allergies. When I start sneezing and wheezing and my head gets stuffy, it's time for some Tazo.

The tea is relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain, which is a stark contrast to the essential oil. Chamomile essential oil is about double the price of most other essential oils. It's soothing, calming, anti-inflammatory, beneficial for dry, flaky, itchy, irritated skin and one of the few essential oils generally considered mild enough for use in baby products along with lavender and neroli. Because of the price though, chamomile essential oil is usually blended or used sparingly.

The hydrosol is the water from steam utilized during the distillation of essential oils. Miniscule droplets of essential oil remain in the water after the distillation process, giving hydrosols the water-soluble properties of the herb as well as a little of the oil-soluble properties. It's wonderful as a calming spritz for cranky, anxious people, as a mildly astringent and soothing toner for sensitive skin, though as it's mildly astringent, it probably should not be used over a long period of time by those with dry skin. Do note that hydrosols are completely different from some "floral waters" which are really just water with essential oils.

On to the interesting stuff... in folklore, chamomiles are used in prosperity charms to bring money (YAY!) and attract luck during gambling. It is the patron herb for gardens and is one of the nine sacred herbs of the "Lacnunga", which is an ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscript. It is dedicated to St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, and is strongly associated with the Sun. It is a herb of healing, and represents "patience in adversity" due to its hardy nature. Sprinkling chamomile around one's property is believed to remove curses and bad spells. Added to the bath, it attracts love (man-hunting women, take note!).

In the world of culinary interests, chamomile isn't used much, but the foliage of the English chamomile can be chopped and stirred into butter or sour cream for the topping of baked potatoes and there is a Spanish wine that's flavored with chamomile, known as "manzanilla" or "little apple".

That's enough for one read, I should think... more soon!

The Past

Some of you may have known us back when we were Sinfulicious Soaps. Sadly, we're discontinuing that range due to supplier difficulties.

This was our counter in the Monica Quen boutique in Medan Damansara. It's looking somewhat diminished now, but we're hoping to fill it up soon with some beautiful handmade soaps by Lindsay from Soaper's Workshop.

Stay tuned!

Still no webpage...

Although we're definitely working on it.

We've decided to go with AISO.net, also known as Affordable Internet Services Online. They're a wonderful 100% solar powered webhost. All we need now is to get everything set up in time for Christmas!

Until we get that up and running, this will be our information center. We're working on getting our range in as well... including handmade soaps, a new facial oil, a facial gel, some rhassoul-based masques and so on and so forth. Some lovely Christmas gift baskets are on the list too!

We'll be working overtime until then.

Keep watching this spot!