Velvet Cream - a new soap
I haven't made a new variety of soap for a while. I've been busy just restocking some 'old' favourites after the Christmas rush. So, yesterday, I whipped up a log of Velvet Cream. This soap is made up of the usual olive oil and olive pomace - a great base for soap because it is super mild and gentle. Added to this is a generous amount of cocoa butter and mango butter. This will give the soap its creamy, luxurious feel. Finally, I added a dash of castor oil. I find that this gives the soap a silky feel on the skin.
For scent, I used vanillin and tolu balsam. I don't know how this will take in the soap - this is the experimentation part. I haven't used either before. The vanillin tends to crystallize, which might be annoying, but has a delicious vanilla scent. The tolu balsam is soft and mellow and has a rich vanilla/resin scent. Overall, I think the scent is delicious, so I'm hoping it holds in the soap for the duration!
Here it is then, in its mould. I'll have more pics after 4 weeks when it is ready to use.
A guide to some mighty fine soap!
After the Christmas rush, I have sold out of a number of varieties, which I am currently busy replenishing. However, there is still soap left in the store and below, you will find some of my favourites:
Top row:
Evening Star - Gentle and indulgent, Evening Star soap has a rich and creamy lather,
brimming with luscious oils including macadamia nut oil and pine nut
oil. The scent of basil and star anise is fresh and seductive, just
what you need after your day out on safari. A Pernod martini is
recommended after use.
Sunday Spice - A gourmand's delight, Sunday Spice is a creamy, rich soap packed with
luxurious oils for your skin like cocoa butter, shea oil and avocado
oil. With the mouth-watering scent of carrot seed and ginger, you'll
think you're on the bank of a river, sitting on a gingham picnic rug
with a slice of home made carrot cake in your lap! A super luxurious
and delicious soap.
South Pacific - We all have our own Bali Hai and in this soap you will be wafted there
on a dream of exotic lemon and tropical flower scents. Enriched with
coconut oil, cocoa butter and apricot kernel oil, your skin will think
it's on holiday too! A great conditioning soap.
Middle row:
The Emperor's Chai - With delicious and spicy cardamon through a creamy blend of cocoa
butter, macadamia oil and pine nut oil, you will have your very own
dream cup of chai in a bar of soap! All that, and beautifully served up
packaged in its own box.
St Clement's - Wonderfully scented with mouth-watering sweet orange and may chang
essential oils, this beautiful soap will have you dreaming of summer
escapades through the citrus groves of southern France. Blended with
oils including olive oil, olive pomace, macadamia nut oil, vitamin
E-rich rice bran oil and jojoba, St Clement's is well suited to
condition and gently sooth sun-kissed skin.
Madame X... - With the seductive scent of ylang ylang, rose geranium and black pepper,
this spicy floral will bring out your adventurous side. Lavished with
super rich oils including olive oil, olive pomace, cocoa butter, apricot
kernel oil and exotic musk melon oil, your skin will feel sensuously
smooth and silky, ready to start your day of mystery and intrigue!
Packaged in green - the colour of the unconventional! What a soap!
Bottom row:
Smokey Joe - This soap is a sophisticate. A luxurious blend of oils including olive
oil, avocado oil and vitamin E-rich rice bran oil make for a fine
conditioning soap. The smokey, green and earthy scent of cade and
vetiver takes this soap to another level. It is the lapsang souchong of
soaps.
One Fine Summer - Lying in the grass looking up at the blue sky, walking through the pines
by the beach front or drinking your first Pimm's No.1 cup for the
season, One Fine Summer will evoke your fondest summer memories. With a
gorgeously breezy citrus-floral scent and lavishly blended with
macadamia nut oil, shea oil, olive pomace and olive oil, One Fine Summer
is a luxuriously creamy, all-natural and vegan soap. A superb
skin-conditioner.
Spring Sherbert - A sumptuous blend of oils including apricot kernel oil, cocoa butter,
olive oil and vitamin E-rich rice bran oil give this soap its fine
lather and conditioning properties. But for you romantics and dreamers,
it will be the fizzing floral scent of lemongrass, lavender and
lavendin that will fill you with the excitement of a new spring day.
Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez soaps are $7.50 and postage is $7.00 for up to 3 soaps, and $11.00 for 4 soaps or more. Let me know if you have any queries or if you would like to reserve a favourite soap which is not currently available.
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".
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 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!
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...
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.
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.
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.
Sunday Spice
Sweet and aromatic, Sunday Spice is a deliciously scented, skin-loving sensation. Mouth-watering like a freshly baked carrot cake, this soap is for the gourmand. With carrot seed and ginger essential oils, the soap is packed with luxuriously gentle oils including olive oil, olive pomace, cocoa butter, shea oil and avocado oil. This is one superb skin-conditioning soap.
All natural and vegan, Sunday Spice will be in Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's shop in four weeks time.
A new soap!
If you're a daydreamer, you'll understand how the first days of summer hold a special resonance in your vivid imagination. Whether it be lying in the grass looking up and pondering how blue the sky gets, exploring the pine trees by the beach, or sipping your first Pimm's No.1 for the season, it's a bright and happy time.
And bright and happy really does describe this soap! Starting with a base of olive oil and coconut oil, it is further lavished with macadamia nut oil, shea oil and super-charged with olive pomace. A superb blend of oils to condition your skin, with a dash of castor oil to make your skin feel like silk.
One Fine Summer is gently scented with green geranium and Madagascan tagetes, a green floral with sweet citrus notes. A sweet and youthful scent. Natural chlorophyll colours the soap a perfect soft green.
One Fine Summer is all-natural, vegan and pure luxury! It will be available in Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez's shop in two week's time.
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!
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.
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 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!
