Another new addition to my handmade soap is this skin nourishing facial soap. It’s made with skin detoxing French Green clay and healing carrot seed essential oil. Both ingredients are beneficial to skincare.

According to Mountain Rose Herbs, french green clay is super absorbent due to the constitution of its micro molecules.

It’s used to remove impurities from your skin. The toning action from the clay is also stimulating to the skin. Thus helping to revitalize the complexion and tighten the pores.

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Introducing the “Chocolate & Sea Salt” handmade soap. It’s fresh off my curing rack.

Ingredients: Oils of coconut, palm, rice bran, and soy. Guava juice, sodium hydroxide, wheat germ and sunflower oil, cocoa powder, and fine Brazilian sea salt.

The guava juice smells fruity, but none of the scent made it to the final bar. So it’s a rather unscented bar with the slight chocolate scent from the cocoa powder. It’s the first time I’ve used guava juice instead of water or milk. Turned out to be a great bar of soap that my skin loved.

Notice the white speckles? They’re from the salt. Only the top portion has the chocolate and looks to be seeping. I’m starting to think it looks a bit creepy, so maybe that’s perfect for Halloween.

The cocoa powder is added because it’s rich in antioxidant and has natural moisturizing properties.

Brazilian Sea Salt. Photo from Amazon.

The salt (Brazilian sea salt) makes it a harder bar. When I was cutting the bar, the bottom edge tend to crack a bit. After several use, the edges smooth out on it’s own.

The salt in the soap also provides a relaxing and soothing effect on the skin. And instead of taking a messy salt scrub shower, why not just use a salt bar instead? Other popular salts being used in soap include Himalayan salt, Dead Sea salt and Hawaiian sea salt.

I love using the Himalayan Honeysuckle as I always feel much more refreshed after each shower. Maybe it’s something to do with the salt?

The only down side with a salt bar is that it doesn’t lather too well. To fix that, just use this soap with a bath sponge and it will produce loads of sud and foam.

So lather up!

These are my new “Seabuckthorn & Green Tea Handmade Soaps”. Since I was having so much fun with hot process soaping, I decided to make these the same way.

You can usually tell if it’s hp soap by the little bubbles around the surface. This is noticeable even when I made sure to fill the mold all the way with soap. Hot process soap is tricky in that sense.

Ingredients: Olive oil, soybean oil, coconut oil, palm oil, distilled water, seabuckthorn oil, rice bran oil, green tea powder, and green tea melon fragrance. Because they are half circle bars, they fit well in the palm of my hands.

The last Seabuckthorn soap I made was was nice and I added lots of good ingredients. Including red palm oil, which gave it the deep golden color.

For this version, I just kept it simple. Except I also added green tea powder. Green tea is making it’s mark in many cosmetic products due to it’s benefits to skincare.

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In addition to the Peppermint Poppy soap, I also made another batch of hot process soap. It’s made with fresh goat milk and scented with a sweet floral scent of Bali jasmine blossoms.

This batch was much easier to work because there are no sea salt or other extra ingredients. It’s also a much smoother bar too.

Sometimes exfoliating soaps are nice, but some days you just want a smooth bar of soap. But each type of soap has their own benefits. And most of all, handmade soaps leave your skin well moisturized and clean.

Once the soap was done cooking, I poured them into my empty (clean) goat milk carton. After letting it cool down for 24 hours, I sliced them into medium sized bars.

The bars are pretty and a good size too. With fragrance, there are variations and difficult to describe. So I went with a lighter jasmine scent that is not overpowering. But it’s a nice sweet scent that reminds me of someplace tropical and breezy.

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Here is my latest handmade soap: Peppermint Poppy. Because I wanted to use it within a couple of days, I went with hot process soap making. With traditional cold process, the cure time would have been at least three weeks or longer.

When I was pouring hemp milk into my cereal, I immediately thought about making hemp milk soap. Hemp oil seem to be more common for soap making then with hemp milk. To make sure I didn’t mess up, I also added equal amounts of goat milk.

The hemp milk I got was from a natural health food store. Hemp milk taste a little like soy milk, but creamier and nuttier. It is naturally rich in omega 3, 6 and 9. It also contains minerals, vitamins and antioxidants, high in vitamins A and E.

Besides the hemp milk, I also added other stuff to this batch. There is fine Brazilian sea salt, peppermint essential oil, and poppy seeds. It’s going to be one difficult to name soap. So I just decided on “Peppermint Poppy Soap”.

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I don’t mind a little bit of milk in my coffee, especially in my cafe au lait. I also don’t mind goat milk in my cereal or handmade soap.

I actually really prefer goat milk anytime. As it’s easy to digest and is much more nutritious then cow milk. Just when I was happy with goat milk, I came across this article about camel milk.

It’s the king of milk in north African and Middle Eastern countries. Doctors in Russia and India often prescribe it to convalescing patients. It’s perfect for ailing patients as the milk is rich in vitamins C (three times that of milk). Loaded with vitamin B, unsaturated fatty acids, and also has 10 times the iron that’s found in cow’s milk.

Smiling mother and baby camels.  Notice there is no sand here, just green pasture.  Photo from Oasis Dairy Farm.  It’s America’s first camel dairy farm!

I’ve never tasted camel milk. But it’s been described as being much more salty then regular milk. A reporter for the BBC news wrote, “The taste is akin to walking through a burnt-out building, eating a smoked ham and smoked cheese sandwich.” That is a funny way to describe it.

But the owners of Oasis Dairy in southern California describe the taste as more like low fat cow milk, but very fresh and mildly sweet. But it’s also noted that with any milk, taste can change depending on what the animal is eating.

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Since I use olive oil both for cooking and soap making, I thought it was interesting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be enforcing how the oils are labeled.

I have heard other soap makers mention how some olive oil are not always 100% pure. They are usually mixed with other oils but are not labeled so on the bottle. This would definitely ruin any soap recipe.

Starting in October of this year, the federal government will differentiate the cheap oils from the gourmet oils.

With the cold-pressed, pure, golden hued oils as being top of the line. Real olive oil lovers describe the taste much like those used in wine tasting. With terms like nut or apple flavor and a peppery finishes.

The new regulations will include indicators for fatty acid composition, which helps separate olive oils from seed oils. There is also the ultraviolet light absorption, which indicates the oil’s state of preservation, as well as a taste test by experts. What they are aiming for is to establish a common language for the oil trade. And providing consumers more assurance about the quality of olive oil that they purchase.

Photo by Gaia Herbs.

Since almost all U.S. grown olive oil comes from California, the California Olive Oil Council had adopted their own mandatory quality test for it’s member in 2003. To get the seal of approval for “extra virgin” oil, it had to meet an acidity test and a taste test.

This new regulation would definitely help out the small olive oil farmers that press and bottle their oils in small batches.

In Europe, where a majority of the world’s olive oil comes from - they too have also clamped down on purity of olive oil since the 1990s.

Olive oil can demand higher prices then nut or seeds, but cost much more to harvest as they are very labor intensive. It’s also important to note that not all olive oils coming from Italy is from that country. As many oils can come from other countries and may even be mixed with other oils too. I sometimes find olive oils from Turkey that is packed in Italy.

These handmade soaps were made using extra virgin olive oils.  Many expert soap makers actually prefer using pomace olive oil. Which also happens to the the lowest grade olive oil and a bit cheaper. It’s suppose to make for a really good bar of soap. I have tried making it with both pomace and extra virgin olive oil and really didn’t notice any major differences.  Pomace olive oil can be found at large warehouse type stores sold in huge tin containers.

Other interesting notes on olive oil: it’s best to buy those packed in darker glass bottles. Some say it’s best to refrigerate them after opening, to keep it from going rancid. I don’t usually refrigerate mine since I go through them so fast, they never go bad in my kitchen!

Ever since Açaí (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) berries came into the health market, it’s interest has not slowed down. Native Brazilians have been eating acai berries long before the rest of the world knew about it. And to the natives, it’s just part of their daily diet.

My latest bar of Açaí Berry Superfruit handmade soap.  It’s made with acai berry extract. And also other superfruit such as pomegranate juice powder.  I also included organic beet powder and grape seed extract.

Acai has also found it’s way to the beauty industry too.  Some of Ikove Amazonian beauty products are made using Açaí as it provides a remarkable concentration of antioxidants that help to combat premature aging.  It contains essential amino acid complex and valuable trace minerals.

The Acai berry extract or pulp can be added to anti-aging creams, after sun products, body creams and lotions. Science Daily News noted, “Acai berries are packed with antioxidants that are essential to assist our bodies as they help fight illness and reduce the aging process.” It’s just good all around.

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Destination spa vacation had been very popular in the past years.  But not everyone can afford to go on such vacations these days.  A staycation is probably a better idea.

In Asia, such places known for relaxing spas include Thailand and Indonesia. They provide services including massage, facial, body wraps and much more. Thaiways.com noted, “the meaning of spas changed to cover a relaxation in natural surroundings, using water as the main constituent, combining other natural therapeutic methods like massages and aromatherapy together with chemical-free ingredients.”

I like the idea of applying aromatherapy and natural surroundings. It’s easy to make spa day everyday with this Asian Spa handmade soap.

Made with all natural ingredients and essential oils. It’s has a fresh and aromatic scent of lemongrass. I also added a touch of tea tree essential oil, which is beneficial for troubled skin.

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Sometimes the sweetest things in life are thorny. There is the thorny blackberry bush with sweet berries. And in the floral world, it would be roses. Most of all, I’m thinking of the thorny kaffir lime tree.

They are loaded with as much leaves as sharp pointy thorns.  Wearing leather gloves would help and clipping off the thorns when they are young is another idea.   My mom usually pick loads of them in the summer to share with friends and relatives. They live in the cold northern states (Minnesota and Michigan) and can’t grow a tree of their own. Or at least not dedicated enough to wheel them in for the winter.

These are the first matured kaffir lime leaves picked fresh from mom’s garden.  I prefer cooking with the large mature leaves as they are very aromatic.  The leaves are naturally glossy and has an unusual hour-glass shape.

Young kaffir lime leaves can also be used, especially to flavor drinks. All you need to do is crush it up and squeeze out the juice.

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