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!

I'm Done With Winter, It's Time To Dream

Remember those tropical reveries you have while you're sitting at your desk at work?  You've finished re-arranging your pens, reading the 'bunch-of-dates' quotes for the next week and you're on your third cup of tea by 9.30am?

Remember blue skies and sunrays?  Well, I've created a soap that will let you enjoy your reverie and take you to your own Bali Hai.  Say 'aloha' to South Pacific:

South Pacific is made with olive oil and coconut oil, superfatted with cocoa butter and apricot kernel oil.  Cocoa butter is an excellent emollient and skin conditioner while apricot kernel oil is super-gentle and nourishing.  Who needs a holiday tan when your skin will look and feel so good with this soap!

It is the dreamy, delicate scent of ylang ylang and maychang, however, which will send your mind drifting away to where the palms sway over the yellow sands.  And it looks good too, with it's soft green swirls like ripples in a lagoon.  You've got to dream, right?!

So, click on the gorgeous song below and get ready to see South Pacific in Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez's shop. Mahalo!

Prone to Hyperbole

It's raining.

 

 

Ok, so it hasn't flooded like it did in Venice in December 1968 and we don't have to walk on a 'passarele' to cross the road, but it's wet. 

Nothing to do but make soap, drink soup and listen to this:

 

Photos part of the Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez private collection.

The Emperor's Chai

So, it's the first day of winter and looking out of my window at the dark grey skies and glistening puddles I never doubted it for a second.   I've already brushed off the tweed and corduroy, brought the cashmere scarves to the front of the wardrobe and stocked up on Yorkshire Tea.  Winter, I'm ready.  Well, that's not quite true as I found out in yesterday's rain when my small umbrella with the broken arms just wasn't cutting it.  The poor thing looked like a screwed up ball of paper on a stick.

Coming home in the rain, armed with muffins, tomatoes and cheese, I was welcomed by the scent of the new soap I had made during the week.  The Emperor's Chai is a warm and delicious concoction, full of the gingery spicy smell of cardamon.  It looks good too, with a creamy caramel swirl.  I packed this beauty with cocoa butter, macadamia oil and pine nut oil, so it will have a silky smooth and luxurious lather.

Of course, I don't need to add that this soap is totally natural.  It will be in Shanghai Lil & The Scarlet Fez's store soon.

Jolly Hockeysticks

Some time ago, I was fortunate enough to come across a bunch of autograph books at a local market.  

The books date from between 1935 and 1941 and document a series of interstate trips taken by schoolgirls and their teachers.  I gather they were travelling to compete in sporting events.  Here, one girl has collected a photographic memento of her trip, collecting the photographs of her pals and escorts and filling the books with signatures, addresses and cute little notes.  It really is a lovely collection, you can sense the girls' excitement and this is sometimes displayed in the way they sit for their photographs.

I have my favourites, including one girl by the name of Elvey, who seems quite mischievous.  You can see her pulling a face in the montage below.  She is in most of the books and you get to see her grow.  By the later books, she is one of the 'trainers', proudly displaying her carefully curled hair.

Autumn Sunshine & Reading

After a grim weekend, it's nice to see some sunshine out on the last of the golden leaves in the garden.   Before settling down with a cup of tea, I thought about which book to flick through.  Here are my current thoughts:

Gone to Earth - Mary Webb
In Youth is Pleasure - Denton Welch
A Natural History of the Senses - Diane Ackerman
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Lady into Fox - David Garnett
Raven's Brood - E.F. Benson
Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner

I'm sure the sun won't last, so make the most of it while we can, and then we can just face the music.  And dance!

A Side Project - Perfume

When making cold process soap, there are some essential oils that just won't work.  They either disappear and you can't smell them at all, they do strange curdly things to the soap or they just cost a million dollars to use.  Experimenting with soap has led to a collection of essential oils that I know I won't use in soapmaking.  

So, I thought about making a perfume.  I respect the perfumer's art and so I knew that it would be no easy task creating something that might be wearable.  I have, in fact, created some horrors.  It can be very dispiriting to use your precious essential oils on a batch of perfume that, no matter how much you believe it should be otherwise, just smells like fermenting fruit. 

But I have had some luck.  I have made a wonderful uplifting floral, very simple but, I think, wearable.  Tenacity (the lack of) is probably an issue with natural perfumes, but frankly, I think the issue really is the tenacity (the abundance of) in commercial perfumes.  Some people wear perfume in a manner that reminds me of those young kids who drive through the city with their music doof doofing.  But, each to their own.

It is also nice to have simple combinations, like bay and lemongrass, made into a light spritz.  It's not heady, it doesn't invade the environment around you, and it's a refreshing pick-me-up.  So, I'm happy with some of my creations so far.

Last week, I made a batch in which I wanted to feature violet leaf oil.  I started with a spicy warm base, added the violet leaf and a couple of other florals, including honeysuckle.  I added carrot seed oil to bring it down to earth a bit and finished with clementine.  Perhaps I overdid the carrot seed oil - it's a lot stronger than I gave it credit for, but I'm ok with that.  

Trying it out now, it is, as you might expect, a spicy floral.  It's very boozy at the moment, but time will settle that.  What I find surprising is how long the floral notes stick around.  I think I have a base that has worked well and has anchored the florals.  I think I need to work on the top notes.   I thought top notes would be easy - they're all the fun oils, the citrus and herbs that are so uplifting but don't hang around for long.  But, as I said before, it's hard to avoid the fermenting fruit thing.  Ugh. 

I don't know where this will take me.  I enjoy the process and I enjoy giving away my experiments, which, I'll have you know, have so far been received well!  It did cross my mind that I'm the equivalent of the relative who gives giant macrame owl wall hangings to you for Christmas, but I feel safe that my selected recipients wouldn't let me get away with that!