When in Rome

Breezing along on a breeze

I have just released a new soap - When in Rome.  This wonderfully aromatic basil and spearmint scented soap will be fresh start to the day and put you in the mood for scooting around town with the wind in your hair!

Packed full of excellent quality oils including olive oil, olive pomace, shea oil, rice bran oil, meadowfoam seed oil and a dash of castor oil (for that silky skin feel!), When in Rome is a treat for the skin and the senses!

Sophisticated and youthful, When in Rome is all natural, hand crafted, vegan and contains no palm oil.  Now available in store!

Top photo: Detail from the cover of "The New Target Book for Girls".

A Glorious Day

Guess what I'm doing?

Well, I'm doing a few things, but this is one of them:

 

Otherwise, on this wonderfully sunny and springy public holiday, I'm making a new soap, a new perfume and listening to bossa nova while catching up with some reading.  Perfect, yes?!  I hope your day is as relaxing!

Mister X...

Sophisticated.

I love the smell of vetiver.  It's a wonderfully complex, green and smokey scent and I have used it as the sole fragrance in the new soap Mister X... .  This soap is also filled with some very good skin conditioning oils, including olive oil, olive pomace, shea oil and macadamia nut oil.  I have also added some Mojave living clay, a mineral rich bentonite clay from the Mojave desert.

All natural, vegan and pure luxury!  And no palm oil!  Now available through the shop - the shop button is above.

The Fez No.1

The gin and tonic of soaps!

Having spent the last 4 weeks curing, The Fez No.1 is now ready and available through Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's shop.  

This beautiful new soap has a wonderfully aromatic scent of juniperberry, wormwood, lemony may chang and lemongrass.  It is packed with skin loving and super conditioning oils including olive oil, olive pomace, shea oil and vitamin E-rich rice bran oil.  And it looks a treat too, with a rich golden yellow swirl of natural annatto colouring.

All vegan, no palm oil and totally natural!

The Adventurous Madame X...

A new soap

Just released today, Madame X... is a wonderfully sensuous soap.  Spicily scented with ylang ylang, rose geranium and black pepper, it is packed with super luxurious and skin-loving oils including olive oil, olive pomace, cocoa butter, apricot kernel oil and the exotic musk melon oil.  

The soap has a deep and mysterious colour - from Australian red clay.  It gives the soap an antique feel - it makes me think of a late eighteenth century adventuress racing across the moors in a glittering black carriage.  But I have some imagination!  What is clear is that this soap feels and smells luxurious.  

Now available in Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's store, which you can access by clicking the shop button above.   Let me know if you have any questions about Madame X... - I shall be discrete...

Tea and...Sunday Spice!

A deliciously scented new soap

A wonderful addition to the Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez collection - Sunday Spice.  With a blend of oils packed with skin-loving goodness, like olive oil, olive pomace, cocoa butter, shea oil and avocado oil, Sunday Spice is a rich and luxurious soap.  Scented with carrot seed and ginger essential oils, this soap will make your mouth water!  Delicious!

Sunday Spice is all natural, vegan and palm oil free.  Gentle on your skin and a treat for your senses!  

Now available through Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's store.  Pay a visit by clicking the shop button in the right-hand column.

Madame X...

Coming Soon

I wanted to create a scent for a soap that suggested an adventurous spirit.  Something floral and exotic, yet edgy.  I trialed some combinations of essential oils and finally settled on this new scent.  A dangerously exciting blend of rose geranium, ylang ylang and black pepper creates the perfect scent for the mysterious and daring souls amongst us. 

Madame X... is lavishly packed with skin-conditioning oils including olive oil, olive pomace, cocoa butter, apricot kernel oil and musk melon oil.  It is coloured with the beautiful muted red of Australian red clay.  So, whether you will be riding your horse at full speed across the moors, jumping from one Parisian roof to another in your cat-suit or just making a dramatic entrance into the ballroom, you can rest assured that your skin will be in perfect form for your busy life.

Madame X... will be available in the Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez store in four weeks.

Dessert Time!

Here it is!  Lemon Meringue!

I have been making this soap for a couple of years now and I love it!  It is deliciously scented with lemony may chang and gorgeously coloured with botanicals (annatto) and topped off with white peaks.  And it is a treat for your skin too, with its olive oil, apricot kernel oil and evening primrose oil (and a dash of my an old favourite, castor oil, for a silky-skin finish!). 

Now available for sale in the Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez store - your passport to soap wonderland is one click away on the button, top right. 

New! One Fine Summer

Now available for your purchasing pleasure

I am a big fan of this soap.  It looks great - I love that soft green from the botanic colouring (chlorophyll), and the scent is wonderful.  Very evocative of bright sunny days and I've never come across such a scent before! 

This soap is made from a luxurious blend of olive oil, coconut oil, olive pomace, macadamia oil and shea oil, with a touch of castor oil for that silky-skin feel.  

One Fine Summer is packaged in the most summery box you'll ever see - a beautiful lemon yellow, and labelled with one of a broad range of gorgeous patterns.  Take a look in-store - the button is top right.

Gourmand

Delicious Lemon Meringue

Alert, sweet tooths!  I have whipped up a batch of sweet, lemony Lemon Meringue soap!  A drools-worthy delight!   But it's not all about the smell; it's about the luxurious feel of it too.  A luscious blend of olive oil, coconut oil, apricot kernel oil and evening primrose oil make this soap a super skin conditioner.  Naturally coloured with annatto, it even looks like a slice of lemon meringue!

But there's one thing you can't do with this soap, and that's eat it!  All natural, all vegan and a luxurious treat for your skin, Lemon Meringue will be in Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's shop in just 3 weeks time! 

Desirable New Labels

Flowers, ribbons and diamonds abound

I love it when the days start getting milder and you can see signs of new growth on the trees.  It's hard not to have a spring in your step this time of year!

But the changing season isn't the only reason I am chipper.  Karena at Magic Jelly has given this blog a spring clean and I am very happy with the cheerful, festive feel it now has.  And there are new patterns for the ribbons on the soaps too!  It's great fun putting together the packaging for the soaps I have made, it gives me a real lift seeing them waiting for their new owners.  Here is what I mean:

So, these are in my shop right now.  See the fancy "Visit the Shop" button to the right?  That will take you straight to the shop and you can make your selections there.

Open for Business

Yes, That's Right

Finally, after some time, I have opened the shop!  You can buy soap, if you want it, right here!

Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez

I hope you love the design of the shop and the packaging as much as I do.  I have been lucky enough to have Magic Jelly design all of this and give a beautiful, nostalgic but modern feel to Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez.  

As you know, dear reader, Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez soaps are all natural, vegan and full to the brim with luxurious skin-loving oils.  But not only that, the essential oils used in the soaps will bring the world's flowers, spices, herbs and woods to the palm of your hand.

There will be some further tweaking to this blog too - I will have a button in the side column which will be your very own chauffeur on the glamorous road to soapsville, Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez!  So, you can read about it here and buy it with a twitch of a finger!

I have already received some orders from some wonderful people (they must be wonderful, such exquisite taste!) and I am finding out what people are favouring.   I have almost run out of The Emporer's Chai (so hurry!) and South Pacific is a winner, as is Love Lies Bleeding.  Spicy and floral.

In the pipeline, I have a surprise new scent.  For those with a sweet tooth and a longing for bright summer days, you are in for a treat - a candy-sweet scented soap, packed with olive oil, olive pomace, macadamia nut oil and shea oil.  It's a bright, happy and luxurious soap.

I have also just completed a batch of Lemon Meringue soap which will have you drooling!  A wonderful sweet lemony scent in a rich blend of apricot kernel oil and evening primrose oil.  No, you can't eat it, but you'll want to!

So, there is a lot lined up here at Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez.  Not just soap here on the blog; you'll have the usual found-photographs, flowers, melancholy musings, a bit of jazz music, graphics, design, art and what-not (do you like the word what-not?).  Have a look around.

New Packaging

Look at THIS

I have been flat out this weekend boxing up soap ready for sale.  A lot of fiddly work, but a lot of fun too.  I'm very happy with the results.  Take a peek in my drawers (...I bet that's a line from a Carry On film...):

 

The labelling and the ribbons have been designed by my good pal Karena at magicjelly.com.au.  She has done a remarkable job and I am so happy that she devoted the time away from her own commitments to work on these wonderful labels.  Like all of Karena's work, these have a modern, fresh appeal but still pay homage to the past, a thoughtful nostalgia.  I recommend anyone check out her site for further beautiful work! 

Fresh Cut

Even the Palms Are Swaying

The weekend's batch of South Pacific soap has now been cut and has been squirreled away for its four week curing time.  It will nearly be spring when it's ready!  Dust off the deck chair, polish the mai tai jug and get ready to swoon!

South Pacific

Soaping on a Sunday Afternoon

I am hoping to have the Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez shop open in about two weeks, so I have quite a few things to do, like make soap.  

So, I made a block of South Pacific soap today.  This is the one scented with ylang ylang and may chang essential oils - a mix which makes a super-uplifting and dreamily tropical scent. 

But that's not all; this soap is packed with olive oil, and olive pomace (when olive oil just isn't olivey enough for you!), coconut oil, luscious cocoa butter and gentle apricot kernel oil.  This mix of oils makes this soap a fantastic conditioning soap, gentle and creamy. 

A New Soap for Spring

Spring Sherbert

Winter is the season of indulgence.  It's also the time to plan - it's about anticipation.  You know what is just around the corner - SPRING!  Well, it's months off yet, but it's good fun planning ahead.  Dust off those gardening books, get out those holiday brochures, buy a ridiculously lightweight and cheerful shirt online.  

Avid readers of this blog (!) will remember I made a batch of Spring Sherbert a couple of weeks ago.   You know the one - it was brimming over with olive oil, apricot kernel oil and cocoa butter and it was scented with a floral dreamcloud - or lemongrass and lavender essential oils to be precise (for those more practical types).  The soap appears to be a modest little number, a soft and creamy yellow like the finest alabaster, but it fizzes with springtime joy when you smell it.  Yes, I love it!  And this is what Spring Sherbert is doing today:

Romance

A Winter's Day - Love Lies Bleeding

On this cold winter's day, have I been lying on the couch under a blanket eating crumpets and reading Tennyson?  No!  I've been making another batch of what I can now call an old time favourite - Love Lies Bleeding.

In making this soap, I have not been content with using just olive oil, I have added olive pomace.  Olive pomace is a low-grade olive oil in terms of cooking, but in terms of soap-making, it means a concentrated boost of olive goodness.  Olive is a wonderful oil for soaps, and I always use it as a big part of any soap mixture.  It produces a firm bar of soap, which makes it better value, and is very gentle on your skin.

I have also used meadowfoam seed oil.  The skin loves this oil as it is highly emollient, leaving your skin moisturised.    Apricot kernal oil is rich with vitamins E and A and matches your skin's sebum, meaning your skin will drink it in!  Topping off this trilogy of extra-luxurious oils is rosehip oil, bursting with vitamin C (though, to be fair, vitamin C isn't much of a stayer, so it's not likely you'll see much of this once it is in a soap!), anti-oxidants and omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids - in other words, one of the best skin friendly oils you're likely to come across!

I've used mineral colourings, as usual, in this batch; the swirl being a rich earthy red.  Scented with rose, rose geranium and geranium essential oils, the soap is lively, sweet and, I must say, thoroughly romantic.  This is a great skin-conditioning soap.  Here are some sneak previews for you - the colouring and essential oils, the soap mix, the poured soap and a Holga photograph of roses to put you in the mood!

Making Spring Sherbert - A New Soap

Last week, I made a batch of soap using a generous proportion of avocado oil.  I was happy with the result, though I have yet to test it.  Avocado oil holds the promise of adding an extra special quality to soap but it does tint the soap a very soft green.  I don't have a problem with this; I think I should use it as a feature, but with this batch of soap I had also added a yellow swirl, which just disappeared in the green.  The final cut bars look a bit blurry.  Ok, but not the best.

So today I remade this recipe, this time exchanging the avocado oil with cocoa butter.  Cocoa butter tends to make a soap creamy, a favourite quality of mine for soap.  I started, as usual, with olive oil.  The olive oil I used was a new sort, and it smelled of freshly cut grass.  This made me happy, because I wanted the soap to be a fresh springy number.   Sadly, this smell doesn't stay in the final soap, so the pleasure was one that can't be shared.

I also used apricot kernel oil, a super oil for your skin.  A touch of rice bran oil for that vitamin E goodness and I'm done.  

The scent I used here is lavender and lemongrass, which when combined offers up a dreamy spring-fresh perfume.  Lavender is a sophisticated scent, though many have rather homely associations with it.  The dry sweetness of lemongrass is refined and uplifting.  Here, with the lavender, the lemongrass sparkles - a fizzing floral lift.  Thus, Shanghai Lil & the Scarlet Fez's new soap is born - Spring Sherbert!  

Here are some process shots showing cocoa butter, essential oils, the soap mix and the poured results:

Spring Sherbert, like all Shanghai Lil & the Scarlet Fez soaps, is 100% natural, vegan and super luxurious!

Spearmint Julep and the Five Best Qualities of Soap

Depending on the mix of oils you add, soap will take on a range of desirable characteristics.  A hard bar is not only long lasting but tends to have a higher moisturising quality.  

A cleansing bar will, you got it, cleanse.  I wouldn't want this quality to be too dominant as it would perhaps be too successful in removing the oils on the skin and result in dryness.  That doesn't mean a soap with a lower cleansing characteristic will leave you dirty!  The dirt on your skin sits on the top with the outer layer of oils, so ideally, you only want to remove this layer.  Anything stronger may wash away your healthy skin oils you want to keep!

People love bubbles in soap, which accounts for the high bubbling you'll get with supermarket soaps (which are mainly detergents really, stuffed with sodium laureth sulphates and similar surfactants.  I don't want this kind of thing in anything I use on my skin).  I'm not a big fan of a lot of bubbles - some, but just not a lot.  We have very hard water in Adelaide, so getting all-natural soap to froth up is a challenge.  A good dose of coconut oil is the answer here.  

Creamy soap is my favourite.  I tend to think this feels more luxurious, but it is ultimately a preference of bubbles vs creaminess.  Something in between is ideal.  

Conditioning is probably the most desirable.  It refers to the emollient qualities, or moisturising qualities of a soap.  A good conditioning soap will leave some oils on the skin, helping it to retain moisture.

So this leads me to my latest batch of soap - Spearmint Julep!  The star of this little number is apricot kernel oil, a soothing and skin-nourishing oil.  It also has rice bran oil - abundant in vitamin E and a key to a good lather.  Spearmint Julep is an excellent conditioning soap, just what I want!  With it's super fresh spearmint scent (natural essential oil, of course!) this soap is a household favourite.

Here is a montage of Spearmint Julep coming to life.  The ingredients, the colour, the oils and finally the soap in the mold.  Due for release in 4 weeks!

Smokey Joe is Back in Town

Freshly cut off the block, here is the result of yesterday's batch of soap, using avocado oil (and olive, coconut, caster and rice bran oils!).  This is a personal favourite; I find it is very gentle on my skin, which is prone to dryness.  The lather is creamy and rich.  The scent is cade and vetiver.  Smokey Joe!