So many people have found our Gentle Body Polishes surprisingly good to use, that I think it’s worth knowing that you can actually make a very simplified version of it in your kitchen. Even without the added clays, essential oils and carrier oils that we include in our formulation, just the ground red beans and oats alone can leave your skin surprisingly smooth and revitalised. It really is worth giving a go on your own!

Ingredients

• 100g adzuki (red) beans (organic, if possible)
• 100g rolled oats (organic, if possible)

Directions

• Toss both these ingredients into a blender to be ground into a fine powder (or to whatever degree of coarseness that you prefer).
• Allow this mixture to cool before storing in an airtight container. Out of curiosity, I have kept samples of my blends for as long as 8 months without any noticeable change in the powder’s scent (but don’t worry, none of the Gentle Body Polish that I sell to the public is ever made from any red bean/oat powder that is more than 2 weeks old)

How to use

• Take a desired amount using a clean dry spoon and place it in a clean bowl.
• Add just enough water to make a spreadable paste out of the ground red beans and oats.
• Massage it into damp skin (cleansing it first is optional - up to you).
• Rinse off with warm water followed by cool water (I hear from beauticians that this helps to close back your pores that are relaxed and opened when exposed to warm water or steam, but I can’t verify this :p, then gently pat dry.

Results

• Soft, smooth skin that should feel plump and comfortable.
• You may smell vaguely of red beans.

Hope you’ll have some fun in your kitchen making this, and that your skin has a chance to get that tiny bit extra pampering it deserves.

OKAY once again, thank you for your tremendous support of late—sales have gone through the roof (by my standards, anyway) and I’m barely keeping my records in order. I have made some slip ups (forgetting to include an item, for example) and I may be overlooked some email messages and orders. But believe you me that I’m really trying very hard to make sure that all of you are attended to in the best way possible, and in the shortest time possible. :”>

So here’s what I’m doing right now - I’m sorting out the order sheets that belong to those of you who may have had outstanding orders due to you because of items running out of stock, or if you have placed Pre-Orders and are waiting for current batches of soap to cure. If you haven’t already, please check the Curing Completion Dates calendar on the bottom of any page on this website for dates to estimate roughly when your parcel will be despatched (I aim to deliver them within 5 working days of the curing completion date for the soap in question).

Thankfully the bulk of the pile of order sheets has been mostly tamed and I should be able to get through this round of Pre-Orders fairly smoothly. If you are still awaiting my response via email to an order or enquiry, hang in there—I’ll start going through them again on Monday.

And I will be calling on those of you who have sent me emails expressing your interest to be soap tinkerers and shipping whizzes soon.

Till the next update, do take care and have a blessed time with your family and friends.

I was supposed to go to bed much earlier this evening, but couldn’t resist skimming through my emails.

Tonight I’m really blown away at the thoughtfulness of so many of my customers.

The ones who know of friends and family members who were suffering from eczema or acne or a rash, and bought our soap to give to them to see if it could help improve their skin condition.

The ones who tried the soap, found them beneficial, and spread the word to their colleagues etc.

Thank you all for reaching out to your own circles of influence to offer them possible relief for their skin. You put your kindness into action and so many people are now the better for it.

Give yourselves a pat on the back!

I’d like you to know that for all new batches of Skin Treats moiturizing oils, I will be using more costly dropper bulbs made of natural instead of synthetic rubber. I was told that they are much better at resisting chemical reactions when exposed to essential oils compared to synthetic rubber, even at 100% concentration.

And in case your wondering—no, I’m not about to raise prices on account of my packaging cost going up.

On a side note, I’m a bit amused that while Malaysia is a rubber producer, these bulbs were made in Taiwan. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, but I would have liked to have found a local manufacturer and supplier of these types of high quality bottles and droppers.

Here’s the schematic for Saturday’s booth layout:

A couple of things for you to take note of for this Saturday’s Markets event:

1. If you have any recyclable items at home you wish to discard (eg. aluminum cans, old newspapers, etc) please bring them to the Markets as the organisers will be having their first Recycle Drive in front of Palm Square (next to OCBC Bank) as well.
2. The Market’s registration counter for the public will be located opposite Duck King and Guo Ren Guan. Remember to get your goodie bags here okay?

And here’s the full list of vendors there on the day, and their booth numbers—satisfy your curiosity and really take the time to explore the market! I’m sure it’ll make for a terrific afternoon outing for the family.

See you on Saturday!

OUTDOORS :
1 House of Allure
2 HULLABALLU
3 Thr5t
4 OMG It’s Us
5 Peep Boutique
6 Twizs
7 Vintage Biri-Biri
8 Xisters
9 Oh&h
10 ZIKKOS
11 Kiiss
12 FURUI Clothing
13 EMO.EGO
14 EmiKaz
15 The Bubble Lab
16 CHACHIMEWE
17 Luscious Delight
18 Arts Cream Gallery
19 Myglasscubicle
20 Owhsome
21 Guiirin
22 Sunny Sideup Closet
23 Un-Masqued
24 The Petticoats Lingerie
25 Like iGloo
26 Trendy Confessions
27 Winkstick
28 I Heart Badges
29 Love and Craft
30 Blurry Boutique
31 Notbook-notbuk
32 Calaqisya/Cala Man
33 Swit Martini
34 Helmelia Hisham
35 Karen Wong
36 MOOKS/Ripcurl
37 Miracle Watts
38 .::[ALLkinds OF Everything]::.
39 Mimpi Murni
40 Phat Culture
41 KALLA
42 Sewfabby
43 JUS Black Box
44 Pretty Little Freaks
45 ARARED
46 Chasseur de Rêve
47 Sharonsen
48 Nick Chong
49 Luvpercent
50 Soak Republic
51 PitterPatterPlace
52 Emcee Couture
53 Project Swissify
54 6Tea’s Boutique
55 6Tea’s Boutique
56 HisPebbles
57 Keyna Boutique
58 The Hanging Thread
59 Lana Laang
60 My DIY Little World
61 Roadblock Fashion
62 Jainabee
63 Kee’s Creampuff
64 House of Dollface
65 Delirious Accessories
66 Eggbash Cothing
67 DisturbiaDistro
68 Baked Cookies
69 Kindersoaps
70 PurpleDotz
71 Lush Serendipity
72 NaisWear
73 Tanks for 5
74 MICCAZ
75 Daphne Clothing
76 Pastiche
77 Mibead
78 Ninu Handmade
79 All In Online Store
80 Sugar Dressing
81 Jewels Paradis
82 CuppaTea

INDOORS :
1 WWF Malaysia
2 Lovely Candy Shop
3 Novels for Nepal
4 BreadnButter
5 Adrien Ritzal
6 Whenever Store
7 Jesslyn Tandela
8 Glossy Additction
9 Bisou Rose
10 Makeover Now
11 Maz Mynrose
12 Nakalicious
13 Dusky Wings
14 Sara Ong
15 Kiss & Tell

I don’t think it’s just the effect of essential oils though. All I have on the curing rack at the moment are Friday’s batch of Goats Milk and Patchouli, and some bars of Songbird. This feeling of well-being is ALWAYS present when I’m here.

I look at my hard floor work area in the back. It is lined with vinyl squares. It finally dawned on me that THIS was the scent that gets me going each and every time I step into this place.

Why?

I spent my university years studying at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. The university housing, as well as the terrace house that I eventually shared with my flatmates used a lot of vinyl flooring, especially in the kitchen areas. And those years were chock-full of heady experiences, emotional highs and lows, a sense of invulnerability, curiosity and an inexhaustible supply of optimism.

It was a happy time, and the vinyl flooring here evokes those memories and emotions.

And that is what is being channeled into all the stuff that I make here, for you. How cool is that?

Have a terrific week ahead everyone!

I hope you’ll find the interview informative. Comments are most welcome!

Apart from producing endless streams of photographs of our offspring, I have also used it to film some short videos of me at work. Here’s the most recent one:

I hope you found it interesting! It’s actually kinda nice to be able to show you around my office and give you a glimpse of what’s involved in making soap around here. In any case I’ll have to work harder to write more on this blog. :”> In the meantime, you can always hop over to our Facebook page where I am much more active with updates at the moment.

Additional tip: enlist the help of your kids to clean your home this way.