My handmade coffee soap finished curing today (after 3 weeks). Some soapers wait at least 4 to 6 weeks before they use it, but some say 2 to 3 weeks is OK. I figure somewhere in the middle, which is 3 weeks is best. So today I washed my hands with them and they are great, lots of nice bubbles and a very soft smell of fresh brewed coffee.

I plan on using it as a “kitchen sink” soap. Coffee is great with removing odor from your hands. Especially after handling garlic, fish, or other annoying stinks. Here is a picture of my soaps. I think the wavy lines make them look very pretty too.

Caffeine has been appearing a lot among many beauty products these days. Caffeine has been known to help smooth the skin and detoxify its surface from the daily exposure of pollution. An article from BBC mentioned that caffeine can also help fight skin cancer, you can read more about it here.

The recipe includes: Safflower oil, Palm oil, Soybean oil, Avocado oil, Olive oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Distilled Water, Instant coffee powder, fresh ground coffee, and peppermint oil.

This is the first charcoal soap I’ve made since I began my soap obsession. It contains palm oil, soybean oil, extra virgin olive oil, and castor oil - of course a dose of activated charcoal too. I decided not to put any fragrance or essential oils since I wanted a really pure facial bar. I figure it would be less harsh on the face. But thinking back, I could use a bit of peppermint or tea tree to hide the “nutty” smell of castor.

With this recipe, I decided to leave out coconut oil. And I think it’s looking very good.

Coconut tends to make my other soap bars much harder. The palm oil does help it harden a bit better here too. The soybean & olive oils are both moisturizing for the skin.

The castor oil also nourishes the skin, but the best part for me is that it helps with the removal of blackheads. The castor oil makes more of a soft bar. But it will harden up the longer it cures. And the super ingredient is the activated charcoal, helps to detox your skin and remove impurities.

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I want one of these for my next celebration… whether it’s with champagne or seltzer water, the flower will begin to bloom when introduced to any bubbly liquid. This also reminded me of those blooming teas, but much more exciting to look at and you can eat the flowers too. This flower look so alive and colorful, almost too pretty to be eaten. Wow, this is such a great idea!

A description from The Wild Hibiscus Company:

“Wild Hibiscus Flowers have a sweet raspberry rhubarb flavor although they offer much more than just flavor.

The texture of the flower is firm but pliant, delicious on the palate at the end ofa glass of bubbly. The flower and the syrup are delicately sweet so you can control the effect on the flavor of the Champagne by how much syrup you put in. The flowers are best served as a garnish in Champagne or a good Sparkling wine. Place a whole Hibiscus Flower in the bottom of a Champagne flute, pour some of the Crimson Syrup in on top and then fill up with Champagne! The spectacular, crown shaped flower sits in the bottom of the flute with all the bubbles streaming off and opening up the flower. The Champagne graduates from crimson at the bottom to light pink at the top.”

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Last year while I was shopping at the local PW Market (in the bay area), I saw this bright yellow cleaning container that had a picture of a cute chick that read “Bon Ami”. The French name and the cute chick already caught my attention. So I picked it up and read more about it from the labels. To my surprise, it is one of the most environmentally safe cleaning product around.

Bon Ami could be considered less harmful to the environment than other cleaners because it does not use phosphates, chlorine, perfume or dyes in its formula. It also cleans surfaces without scratching. Notice the use of the little chicks. As chicks do not scartch for food during their first few days of hatching.

When I was growing up, my mom used only Ajax or Comet for cleaning. I suppose her friend introduced her to this brand and it worked well for her. So I was not familiar with Bon Ami. Plus those other brands were easy to find, usually at your grocery store or Target.

Photo from Bon Ami.

Bon Ami has been around for 120 years. The history behind Bon Ami is very interesting. The company starting manufacaturing the product around 1886. Here is a little excerpt from the company’s website,

Feldspar was discarded from a quartz mine, until someone suggested that this soft mineral might be combined with soap to create a less abrasive product to clean hard surfaces without scratching them. This appealed to Scotsman Robertson’s thriftiness. Robertson formed his venture and began operations in an unused grist mill located on property owned by Gurdon Hicks Childs. The feldspar was ground to a fine powder, mixed with liquid soap in wooden troughs, cured and cut into cakes, imprinted with the Bon Ami name, wrapped and packed in quarter-gross boxes for market.

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How cool is Google map… now they have street view too? I thought this was really neat. Good way to check up on those front lawns. I wonder if it’s time to mow them or maybe bring out the goats to help trim it a bit.

Here is a little clip of the streets of SF Bay area. On a clear day you can see the green mountains in northbound going towards San Francisco. Here’s an image of a lost guy here.

The first time I ever saw a goat was at the SF Zoo, the petting zoo actually. They are really cute and funny animals. The kids love to be around them and they are great with the kids too. M is better with animals than me, so he had lots of fun brushing the coat. I just stood there watching, until I decided to see for myself. Their fur is not very soft, definitely not like a cat, but much more tougher… maybe more like a Pot Belly pig.

The latest news I have to share about how great goats are come out of Washington state. Goats do a great job of clearing up land that has been taken over by unwanted shrubs and vines. They can eat up blackberry bushes (thorns too) with no problems at all! This popular method of clearing up land with goats grew out of southern California. It began as a great way to clear the foothills to prevent wildfires. Now that people are more interested in “green living”, the idea of using goats are becoming more popular. The benefits of using goats really out weight the use of machines or manual labor.

In Bellevue, Washington goats were used to clear out a steep quarter-acre lot. It took four days and 60 goats to chew throught the blackberry vines and Scotch broom. Even local gardeners jump in by hauling away the goat droppings to use as fertilizers - all free and organic. The contractors saved about $6000 to $9000 by using the goats. You can read more about it at seattlepi.com. The goats go for hire at about $450 a day for the goats, a $250 transportation fee and extra for setting up their fencing. I will have to remember to hire the goats if there are ever some clearings to be done.

But the neatest thing about goats is that they have the best milk around. Very nutritious. People who are lactose intolerate can still consume goat milk. And soap made with goat’s milk are the best. Leaves you feeling very pampered. I think someday I would consider having a few herd of goats too. Maybe in about five years time. First I have to get over the fact that animals just smell funny! Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t shopped at Kiehl’s for at least 5 years now. I stopped because I think they are overpriced and there are also much better products to chose from now. I used to know people who would only use Kiehl’s. Of course, they did so because their favorite movie stars raved about the products in magazines. That kind of thinking I just can’t understand. We really need to learn to be more self reliant and learn to understand ourselves better before buying something just because a certain celebrity is using it.

At the moment, I am trying to create my very own personal skincare treatment. I’ve decided to see what Kiehl’s had to offer. I am in need of a really good eye cream, one that is made of natural ingredients and contain no parabens either. So I saw this - Creamy Eye Treatment, 0.5 fl oz for $24.50. Wow! With that kind of price you can own most of NYC.

I actually tried to read their list of ingredients, but couldn’t as it was too small (print). But they did suggest these three main ingredients - Avocado oil, beta caratene, and shea butter. I am aware K’s recipe are proprietary. I want to experiment on my own eye lotion and create something that would suit me well.

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I am going to miss shopping at the old Long’s Drugs. Earlier this summer, CVS drugs has acquired Long’s for $3 Billion. They will be changing the name of all their 521 stores to CVS now. Long’s Drug is based out of Walnut Creek, California and has been in business for 70 years. I didn’t realize Long’s Drugs has been around that long or even had an annual revenue of $5 billion per year. And many of their retail location are in good prime real estates.

Burlinggame, Ca from smalltown.com

I have been shopping there for as long as I can remember. My mom use to take us shopping there when we were new to town. She enjoyed shopping there because they never messed up on her receipt. Everything was easy to find, from school supplies to garden soil. And all the workers are really nice. It really feels like shopping at a small town drug store. I rather shop at Long’s before I even go to Rite-Aid or Walgreens. Definitely not Walgreens, that place scares me!

And when I left home for college, my friends and I used to spend hours browsing the cosmetic section. We would get to try out new brands, smell new scents of lotion, and of course grab snacks in the middle “sale” aisle. The prices were perfect for us college kids. But this is before my friends graduated to high end cosmetics. Good bye Long’s and hello Sephora. But once in a while, I can still find some really good lipsticks by Nutrogena or Burt’s Bee.

Good bye Long’s. Thanks for being one of the last nice drug stores in town. I feel like a chapter in my life has just closed. I hope CVS doesn’t change too much of what Long’s was to all of us.

Primal Elements was found in 1993. Faith and Scott Freeman, founders of Primal Elements, make the most exciting looking soaps from Belmont Shore, CA.

These soaps go throught a hand-made process to produce “Vegetable Glycerin Soaps”. Not the synthetic glycerine soaps you see in drugstores either. Those can be drying to your skin.

In soap manufacturing, the real gycerine is taken out and resold to other beauty care producers. They can then put a little bit of glycerine in their creams, shampoos, or body wash. Or just sell as a by product itself.

So if you want the glycerine to stay in the soap, the best way to go is with all natural handmade soap. Once you use handmade soap for at least five days, you will notice the difference in your skin. I’ve noticed my blemishes have healed faster and my skin are less bumpy. I would strongly recommend handmade soap for the elderly or babies. But mostly for anyone that hates to deal with dry skin.

Here are some cute animal soaps from Primal Elements.