A selection
It's coming up to that time of year again and the (sometimes) painful task of buying gifts is here! I have noticed over the years that the people who are the least frazzled by gift buying seem to follow a few simple rules:
1. buy early;
2. buy thoughtful; and
3. buy small.
I think buying for men is particularly difficult for some people, but here at Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez, I have a few solutions for you:
Top Row
The Emperor's Chai delicious cardamom
Mister X... green and earthy vetiver
Lemon Meringue lemony may chang
Middle Row
Smokey Joe sophisticated smokey cade
Evening Star aromatic star anise and basil
A Siberian Wood a dry wood
Bottom Row
Spearmint Julep fresh spearmint
St Clement's zesty sweet orange and may chang
The Fez No. 1 the gin and tonic of soap, lemongrass, may chang, juniperberry and
wormwood
Each soap is available from the Shanghai Lil and the Scarlet Fez shop for $7.50, plus postage. Each soap is hand crafted from all natural ingredients, vegan and without palm oil. Packaged and labelled in a range of beautiful boxes, these soaps make a thoughtful (relaxed gift-buying person's number 2 rule) and small (relaxed gift-buying person's number 3 rule) gift for men. Buy now and I can help you with relaxed gift-buying person's number 1 rule too!
My further advice is, if you have to buy a gift for a fellow like curly-locks below, I'd suggest Smokey Joe. He looks the type.
Photo from Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez collection.
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!
No more need for matchsticks holding your eyelids apart in the morning:
Here is Spearmint Soap!
I must say, this is the last word in fresh. This new batch of soap has a creamy, silk-like lather and best of all, is scented with wake-me-up-now spearmint. I have enriched this little number with a healthy dose of apricot kernel oil, good for keeping your skin supple.
I used two mica colours here - seafoam and blue. Here's the blue getting ready to swirl.
We'll be ready to wake you up in four weeks!
