About 5 years ago, I've been struggling with acne breakdowns and searching for good facial cleanse with clean, non-toxic ingredients. One day, I stumbled on a blog post about handmade soap as a facial cleanse. After a lengthy research, I thought it was worth trying it. I started doing soap washes in the morning and evening, followed by moisturizer like a cream, lotion or a tonic. Within days, I noticed how my face cleared up. It also added shine and softness to my skin. Afte

You are browsing on the web or in store and notice a soap labeled as antibacterial. You are thinking, it might be a special, powerful soap, its more expensive, has more ingredients so should be really good for you then. Some companies will place antibacterial label on their soap and make more sales this way. They add essential oils such as peppermint, eucalyptus, tea tree, lemongrass, cedarwood and many others to give the soap antibacterial value. In addition, they will incor

In lieu of recent events, hand hygiene is a hot topic. Germs and microbes are everywhere, in air, soil, water as well as in our bodies. Some of the bacteria is essential for us but many other can be quite harmful. For centuries, soap have been one of the main defenses against these harmful germs. So what is soap exactly? Soap is a combination of oil, water and alkali (salt). When oils and liquid combined in the proper proportions, they go through a chemical process called sap

Ever wondered how is soap made from the scratch? There are two classic methods to make soap: cold or hot process. Whether you use one or the other method, chemical reaction between fats and lye results in creating soap. When oil fats come in contact with lye, a chemical reaction called saponification takes place. During saponification, the lye and oil molecules combine and chemically transform into soap and glycerin. The saponification process can take 24-48 hours to be 100%

Some people might say handmade soap isn't trendy. Nowadays its all about appearance of the product, not the content of it. People go for vibrant colors and overpowering fragrance scents. In the past, I did too. But then one day i made a change. I didn't want to use harsh chemicals on my skin anymore. As I did extensive research, I discovered extensive list of harsh chemical ingredients in most commercial products that were damaging to the skin. And as I did more digging about

When I use to live in California, i would get extremely chapped lips that would look like blisters. It would be painful and uncomfortable. I tried every chapstick and salve sold in stores and nothing helped. When I moved to Washington I started to use Burt's Bees peppermint lip balm, which helped quite a bit. After awhile I wanted to create my own recipe with simple, pure ingredients. I used basic ingredients to make a pure lip balm without any harsh and unnecessary chemical

For decades calendula have been known for its beneficial skin properties. It is often used to soothe and repair skin conditions such as acne, swelling, cuts, eczema and psoriasis. Most commonly calendula is utilized as a salve or lotion for baby's diaper rash due to its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and skin healing properties. I've made calendula salve for baby diaper rash in the past and it works like a charm! I left this calendula soap unscented so it can be freely use