Another soap just off the rack is this Gardener’s Honey soap. In addition to the honey, it also has organic oatmeal and organic yogurt. To keep it really natural, it’s not scented but still smells very pleasant.

Ingredients: olive oil, grapeseed oil, palm oil, soybean oil, coconut oil, illipe butter, wheat germ oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, organic oatmeal, honey, organic yogurt, calendula petals and geranium petals.

I chose all these ingredients because of their soothing and conditioning abilities. It’s the same ingredients found in a facial mask, but put into this great bar of soap. Not only is a great facial and body soap, but also ideal for gardeners or anyone with super dirty hands! As the bits of oatmeal is very exfoliating.

This is also the first time I’ve soaped with fresh yogurt and illipe butter. The yogurt did leave a soft bar while it was being cut. But after several weeks of curing, it’s perfectly hard and nice as my other soaps.

The soap is also topped with calendula petals and geranium petals harvested from last summer’s flower garden.

Benefits of Illipe butter from Mountain Rose Herbs:

• Moisturizing chronically dry skin
• Mature skin
• Sunburn
• Healing sores
• Damaged skin
• Rough skin (such as on feet)
• Mouth ulcers
• Dry or over processed hair

The Japanese have been using buckwheat pillow for centuries.  Buckwheat hull pillow provide firm and even support for your neck and back.   It has the ability to perfectly conform to the contours of our head.  Thus resulting in better and sound sleep.

Buckwheat pillows can be expensive.  So I decided to make my own using buckwheat hull and some linen fabrics.  Having a zipper is also helpful as you can adjust the amount of hull for personal comfort.  And with zipper openings, you can remove all the hulls before washing the pillow case.

The list of benefits for using buckwheat hull as pillow filling includes:

grown without pesticides as they are naturally pest resistant

biodegradable (can be composted and even used as mulch)

naturally hypoallergenic (for those allergic to feathers)

odorless, pest and fungus resistant

I used 100 % linen fabric and filled it with 1 lb of buckwheat hull.  The hull is very light but feels substantial once stuffed inside the pillow. It may be a small pillow for most, but it works fine for me.  Maybe it’s more of a travel pillow.

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Last weekend I got to make soap with my new soap mold.  I made two batches, this Honey & Almond along with the Ginger Citrus.  But the Ginger Citrus that hasn’t turn out yet.  So I will post about that later.  There were some issues with the fragrance and my recipe.  I have to wait another 2 weeks to see what becomes of it.

But in the meantime, I am especially happy with these cute  “Honey & Almond” loofah bar.

The lighter color is just just honey and beeswax while the tan one has extra almond meal (ground up almond).  I think this would make a neat body bar as the loofah help stimulate new cell growth while getting rid of the old ones.  Along with the all vegetable handmade soap, it gives you softer and smoother skin too.

I ended up adding almond meal to the rest of the soap as I wanted to make a nice facial and body bar with honey, pure beeswax, an almond.  The honey is good for the skin and the almond meal will add to extra exfoliation.

Loofah starts out as this tasty vegetable.  Once it’s mature and dried, it’s made into loofah.  When I was younger, my mom used to grow some of these in her garden.  They taste slightly sweet and are good in soups and stir-fry.  Photo from Wiki.

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I had initially wanted to attend the Tour de Fleur in Half Moon, but the tour packages are all sold out.  I guess it’s really popular and you should order the tickets months in advance.  The Tour de Fluer is organized by the city of Half Moon Bay and would include a behind the scene tours of local nurseries, wineries and farms.  Maybe next summer, so instead we went berry picking!

We headed out to Pescadero (a small town near San Francisco) for berry picking at Phipps Country Store and Farm.  It was too late for strawberry picking, but there were Boseyberries and Olallieberries.  Even thought the berries looked ripe and were black (purple), and yet they were still very sour!   A tiny few were sweet.  I’ve had mulberries that were much sweeter.  In between M and I, we picked about 1 pound of berries.  Cost of berries is $3 per lb.  Entrance fee is $3 per person, which includes tour of the animal farm full of exotic chickens, peacock, goats, and more.

I really couldn’t tell the difference between these berries, I use to just call them blackberries.  Picking blackberries remind me of my childhood in the summertime.  Our family would head out with our cousins to the nearest river for fishing and swimming.  While everyone was having fun swimming, I was the only kid busy eating ripe berries.  I guess my love for fruit has never ceased.

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My beauty product review for today is from The Savanna Bee Company.

Photo from My Bathouse, on sale for $2.50 for 2 oz bottle.

I really like this body lotion as it goes on very nice.  It is lightweight in texture.  The gentle moisturizer combines beeswax and royal jelly with peach kernel, pecan and sweet almond oil. All of which are quality ingredients used in skincare.

The lotion is rich with antioxidants and infused with a natural mint julep fragrance.  It is meant to be used on all skin types. 8 oz bottle retails for $12.99.  But I have a small 2 oz bottle (as seen in pictured) that is perfect for travel.

The lotion I have from The Savanna Bee Company is “Mint Julep”.  Peppermint is my all time favorite scent (as well as herb).  It is the first scent I go to in the summer time.  I also like to use peppermint oil when I feel a headache coming. Most of the time it works, otherwise I have to reach for other pain reliever pills.

Ted Dennard is the founder of The Savannah Bee Company based out of Georgia.  They sell mostly high quality honey, such as Tupelo honey.  He’s been in business since 2002 and is still growing strong.  His company may not be as well known as Burt’s Bee, but it seem he has found his true calling in life.  Or at least with the bees that have provided him with so much more than great honey.  As for what he does, Ted said, “I just love it.  I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

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I have always noticed the different colors of honey in the market.  But I never realized the colors are due to the different varieties of flowers the bees visit.  Actually I learned a lot from reading Fruitless Fall and have even more appreciation for these tiny little busy bees.  And possibly eating more honey as well!

As far as the color of honey goes, the darker the color means more antioxidants in them.  And Buckwheat honey tops the list, it is considered one of the healthiest.  It is dark in color and rich in iron.  I will keep my eye out for this variety next time I’m at the grocery store.

But I did end up finding organic multi-flower (wild flowers) honey in a large 48 oz jar at my local drug store (Long’s Drug, which is now CVS) for only $12.  The label said it was wild harvested in the mountains of the Himalaya.  Far from smogs and pollution.

The color is much darker than the honeys I’m used to.  The taste is surprisingly very good. It reminded me of maple syrup and would be great with pancakes.  But so far I have only drizzled it on top of my toasted bagel and cream cheese.

Some other varieties of honey include:

Alfalfa, blackberry, blueberry, buckwheat, clover, orange blossom and wild flowers.

There are even white colored honey as well.  Some of them are from Hawaii and looked more like condensed milk.   I think that would be interesting to try as well!

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It’s not difficult to give yourself a nice homemade facial, preferably at least once a week. My recipe is more of a face “scrub” since the rice bran gives it a gentle scrub.

It’s easy to make at home and will save you money too. If you don’t have the ingredients I’ve listed here, you can also substitute with other ingredients too. Good things to try are oatmeal, ground almonds, baking soda, plain yogurt, ripe papaya, and avocado. Many of these ingredients are very moisturizing.

The rice bran I used was from a health food store and looks very much like this box. But you can also find rice bran at Japanese grocery stores too. Photo from Natural Health Alternative Products, UK.

Using rice bran as a beauty regimen is very popular amongst Japanese women.  They use it to wash their face and claim it’s their secret to smooth and soft skin. Rice bran powder can help heal blemishes, prevent wrinkles, and deep cleanses the pores.  The powder is  usually put into a small cotton bag before applying to wet face.  Then scrub in small circular motions and rinse well with water.  It’s that simple!

Rice Bran & Honey Facial Scrub

2 teaspoons of rice bran powder

2 teaspoons of honey

1 teaspoon of goat milk powder

A little bit of milk and some water to turn it into a paste.

I mix the whole thing in a clean Pyrex glass cup with a chopstick.  No blender necessary!

This amount would last me for a couple of days.  I keep this in the refrigerator, but maybe you don’t have to if you skip the fresh milk. I like to scrub gently then leave on my face as a mask. It’s not so messy. And then wash off with my Olive Leaf Luxury Handmade Soap. This way it’s less drying then just washing with regular soap. The face scrub really does leave my skin well hydrated. Enjoy!