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 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!
Back to Business
After a very enjoyable break away, I'm back and full of beans! Or is that suds? I could not wait to get back into the soap-making so I have started this week with a batch of rose-scented, rosehip oil enriched fun. This soap also has apricot kernel and rice bran oil, to supplement the very skin-friendly olive oil, and I have coloured it with a mica to give it a rich dusky swirl.
These little beauties have been freshly cut off the block. As I'm writing this, the soaps have filled my office with the sweet green and rosy smell of rose and rose geranium essential oils, an evocative contrast to the grey skies and falling leaves I can see from my window.
Happy Mothers' Day to all those mothers out there.
