Sometimes the name of a fragrance doesn’t always fully explain what you will smell. Here is a quick guide to hopefully help you understand each frangrance by the essences it contains.

Fragrance Oils:

Banana Tutti Frutti: Top notes of fresh bananas and juicy grapefruit, middle notes of kiwi, juicy bubblegum, and strawberries; and a hint of vanilla as a base note.

Coconut Bay: Tropical sweet coconut.

Coconut Lime: Sweet and tart at the same time. A customer favourite.

Coconut Vanilla: Tropical coconut, warm vanilla and a breezy summer beach.

English Lavendar: Crisp Lavendar like the Yardley your Grandmother used to wear.

French Vanilla: Classic, smooth and creamy.

Lick Me All Over: Pretty spring flower bouquet.

Lilac: Snapped fresh from the tree in the backyard.

Love Spell: Fresh orchard citrus with musky undertones. **BESTSELLER**

Midnight Pomegranate: Bite into sweet fruit by moonlight. Dense, yet bright.

Orange Dreamsicle: Crisp, cool orange and smooth, creamy vanilla. Just like a creamsicle.

Rice Flower & Shea: Light, delicate and fresh. **BESTSELLER**

Saffron & Cedar: Warm and woody, great for men and women.

Sex on the Beach: Sweet peach, juicy orange and tart cranberry.

Sun Ripened Raspberry: Tart, juicy and mouth watering, plucked right from the bush.

Pink Sugar: Warm cotton candy. delicious!

Passionate Kisses (tealights only)

Sweet Pea: Sweet delicate floral.  **BESTSELLER**

Vanilla Sandalwood: Strong and woody, mellowed with a smooth vanilla. Great for men & women.

Essential Oils & Essential Oil Blends:

Anise Star: Ask me.

Bergamot: Light orange, like earl grey tea.

Citrus: A sharp blend of lemon, sweet orange & lime.

Eucalyptus: Strong, fragrant and soothing.

Karma: A blend of sweet orange, patchouli and French lavendar.

French Lavender: Like countryside lavendar, freshly picked and dried.

Lavender & Bergamot: Like lavender tea.

Lemon

Lime

Patchouli

Peppermint Supreme

Pink Grapefruit

Pink Grapefruit & Tangerine blend

Rejuvenating: A delightful blend of spearmint and eucalyptus.

Rosemary ( French )

Sensual: Patchouli, Coriander, Natural Musk, Ylang Ylang, Orange, Rose

Serenity: Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Orange, Rose

Spa: A zesty blend of Rosemary and Pink Grapefruit.

Spearmint

Sweet Orange

Tangerine

Tea Tree

Vanilla 10:Fold

Ylang Ylang

Lip Balm Flavours:

Cherry Kiss

Mint Kiss

Vanilla Banilla

Glycerin soap comes in a variety of colors and fragrance to match your mood, your style or even your decor!

$5 a bar or buy 5 and get one free

These beautiful salt candle holders, from the foothills of Himalayan Mountains are more than just pretty to look at – they’re good for you! Salt crystal candle holders generate healthy negative ions that cleanse the air. Ever experienced the change in the air after a good rain? That’s from negative ions, and that’s what these candle holders can do.

Price: $12 each

Beautiful salt lamps, from the foothills of Himalayan Mountains are more than just pretty to look at – they’re good for you!

Salt crystal lamps generate healthy negative ions that cleanse the air. Ever experienced the change in the air after a good rain? That’s from negative ions, and that’s what these lamps do, and they don’t lose their power over time.

Price: Small $29   Medium $39   Large $49

Celebrate Mother’s Day on Thursday, May 8th, 2008, from 11 am to 8 pm, as Tiara Festival celebrates the power of women, highlighting their struggles and successes through fashion and art.

Starting at 11 am, watch the colourful wedding costumes of women in a CULTURAL PARADE at LIUNA Station Grounds.

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR ALL DIVERSE WOMEN IN OUR COMMUNITY AND CELEBRATE THEIR STRUGGLES AND SUCCESSES  BY WEARING YOUR OWN ETHNIC, TRIBAL OR TRADITIONAL WEDDING COSTUMES.  BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES.  PLAY ANY MUSICAL INSTRUMENT TO SET THE FESTIVE MOOD.

From 11:30 am to 4:30 pm, doors will be OPEN TO THE PUBLIC at the Continental Express Ballroom where you can find handmade clothing, accessories and ornaments created by tribal and ethnic women around the world at the INTERNATIONAL ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW, presented by women entrepreneurs.

From 5 to 8 pm, witness the opulent history and tradition of women in the ticketed presentation of  MULTICULTURAL FASHION & ART SHOW and MUSIC & DANCE SESSIONS at the Continental Express Ballroom.

WITNESS COMPELLING STORIES of WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD AS WE PRESENT ART & FASHION AS SOCIAL MEDIUMS FOR CHANGE.  ENJOY THE MUSIC and DANCE with the beat of LATIN PLUS.

TICKETED:  $20 adult   $15 students ($10 if group of 10 min.)

A 30-minute fashion show will be presented at 6 pm featuring women of all ages. Grand Raffle Draw for ticket holders at 7 pm.  Grand Prize: $1500.00 original painting.  Prizes will be on display throughout the day. Tickets on sale until 7 pm.

Your ticket also entitles you to win prizes during the hourly raffles. Food and drinks will be provided by LIUNA Station.

Multicultural organizations, students and community agencies have been invited to participate.

To join Tiara Festival, email to tiarainc@gmail.com or visit www.womenpower.ca for more details.

Tiara Festival is a fundraising event presented by Kultura Life & Art Inc., recipient of 2001 Media Relations Award from Human Rights & Race Relations Centre Canada, in collaboration with Womenpower International and The Immigrant Journal.

It is made possible through the generosity of LIUNA Station and media sponsors H Magazine, Latin Life Magazine, and The Voice in Diaspora.

Kultura Life & Art Inc. is a registered non-profit organization that promotes and upholds diversity through art, culture, and heritage.

Directions

From Toronto
QEW Niagara to 403 Hamilton
Exit on York Blvd.
Follow York Blvd. to John Street
Turn LEFT on John Street and Continue North to Murray
Turn LEFT on Murray
LIUNA Station is on the RIGHTFrom Niagara Falls
QEW Toronto to Burlington Street
Follow Burlington Street
(using through traffic overpasses) to James Street
Turn LEFT on James Street North and Follow to Murray
LIUNA Station is on the LEFT

The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.

The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.

Roman History

It had been reported that a factory producing soap-like substances was found in the ruins of Pompeii (AD 79). However, this has proven to be a misinterpretation of the survival of some soapy mineral substance, probably soapstone at the Fullonica where it was used for dressing recently cleansed textiles. Unfortunately this error has been repeated widely and can be found in otherwise reputable texts on soap history. The ancient Romans were generally ignorant of soap’s detergent properties, and made use of the strigil to scrape dirt and sweat from the body. The word “soap” (Latin sapo) appears first in a European language in Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes, but the only use he mentions for it is as a pomade for hair; he mentions rather disapprovingly that among the Gauls and Germans men are likelier to use it than women.

A story encountered in some places claims that soap takes its name from a supposed “Mount Sapo” where ancient Romans sacrificed animals. Rain would send a mix of animal tallow and wood ash down the mountain and into the clay soil on the banks of the Tiber. Eventually, women noticed that it was easier to clean clothes with this “soap”. The location of Mount Sapo is unknown, as is the source of the “ancient Roman legend” to which this tale is typically credited. In fact, the Latin word sapo simply means “soap”; it was borrowed from a Celtic or Germanic language, and is cognate with Latin sebum, “tallow”, which appears in Pliny the Elder’s account. Roman animal sacrifices usually burned only the bones and inedible entrails of the sacrificed animals; edible meat and fat from the sacrifices were taken by the humans rather than the gods. Animal sacrifices in the ancient world would not have included enough fat to make much soap. The legend about Mount Sapo is probably apocryphal.

Muslim History

True soaps made from vegetable oils (such as olive oil), aromatic oils (such as thyme oil) and lye (al-Soda al-Kawia) were first produced by Muslim chemists in the medieval Islamic world. The formula for soap used since then hasn’t changed. From the beginning of the 7th century, soap was produced in Nablus (West Bank), Kufa (Iraq) and Basra (Iraq). Soaps, as we know them today, are descendants of historical Arabian Soaps. Arabian Soap was perfumed and colored, some of the soaps were liquid and others were solid. They also had special soap for shaving. It was sold for 3 Dirhams (0.3 Dinars) a piece in 981 AD. The Persian chemist Al-Razi wrote a manuscript on recipes for true soap. A recently discovered manuscript from the 13th century details more recipes for soap making; e.g. take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix them all together and boil. When cooked, they are poured into molds and left to set, leaving hard soap.

In semi-modern times soap was made by mixing animal fats with lye. Because of the caustic lye, this was a dangerous procedure (perhaps more dangerous than any present-day home activities) which could result in serious chemical burns or even blindness. Before commercially-produced lye (sodium hydroxide) was commonplace, lye (sodium hydroxide), potash (potassium hydroxide), and soda ash (sodium carbonate) were leached from the ashes of a hardwood fire for soap-making at home.

Modern History

Later, castile soap was produced in Europe from the 16th century. In modern times, the use of soap has become universal in industrialized nations due to a better understanding of the role of hygiene in reducing the population size of pathogenic microorganisms. Manufactured bar soaps first became available in the late nineteenth century, and advertising campaigns in Europe and the United States helped to increase popular awareness of the relationship between cleanliness and health.

Soap has also been used to punish people for cursing or occasionally, for other infractions. This is done by forcibly placing soap into a person’s mouth and, sometimes, forcing them to swallow it. It is commonly known as “washing one’s mouth out with soap” or any of numerous variations of that phrase, or, more recently, “mouthsoaping”.

Commercial Soap Production

Until the Industrial Revolution, soap making was done on a small scale and the product was rough. Andrew Pears started making a high-quality, transparent soap in 1789 in London. With his grandson, Francis Pears, they opened a factory in Isleworth in 1862. William Gossage produced low-price good quality soap from the 1850s. Robert Spear Hudson began manufacturing a soap powder in 1837, initially by grinding the soap with a mortar and pestle. William Hesketh Lever and his brother, James, bought a small soap works in Warrington in 1885 and founded what is still one of the largest soap businesses, now called Unilever. These soap businesses were among the first to employ large scale advertising campaigns.

In the United States, one of the first manufacturers of soap was the Armour and Company in Chicago in 1888. The soap was made from tallow, a by-product of the meat production process. In 1948, Armour soap became Dial soap, the first deodorant or antibacterial soap introduced in the USA.

The most common soap making process today is the cold process method, where fats such as rendered lard react with lye. Some soapers also practice other processes, such as the historical hot process, and make special soaps such as clear or transparent soap, which must be made with ethanol or isopropyl alcohol.

Soap makers sometimes use the melt and pour process, where a premade soap base is melted and poured in individual molds. While some people think that this is not really soap making, the Hand Crafted Soap Makers Guild does recognize this as a legitimate form of soap crafting.

Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that whole oils containing intact triglycerides are used and glycerin is a desireable byproduct. Industrial detergent manufacturers commonly use fatty acids, which are detached from the gylcerol heads found in triglycerides. Without the glycerol heads, the detached fatty acids do not yield glycerin as a byproduct.

Lye

Reacting fat with lye (sodium hydroxide) will produce a hard bar soap. Reacting fat with potassium hydroxide will produce a soap that is either soft or liquid. Historically, the alkalis used were sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and sodium carbonate leeched from hardwood ashes.

Fat

Soap is made from either vegetable or animal fats. Sodium tallowate, a fatty acid sometimes used to make soaps, is derived from tallow, which is rendered from cattle or sheep tissue. Soap can also be made of vegetable oils, such as palm oil, olive oil, or coconut oil. If soap is made from pure olive oil it may be called Castile soap or Marseille soap. Castile is also sometimes applied to soaps with a mix of oils, but a high percentage of olive oil.

An array of oils and butters are used in the process such as olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, hemp oil and shea butter to provide different qualities. For example, olive oil provides mildness in soap; coconut oil provides lots of lather; while coconut and palm oils provide hardness. Most common, is a combination of coconut, palm, and olive oils.

Process

Cold process soap making is done without heating the soap batter, while hot process soap making requires that the soap batter be heated. Both processes are further described after the general soap making process description.

General soap making process

Soap making requires the use of saponification charts to determine the correct lye/fat ratio. If excess unreacted lye remains in the soap, the resultant high pH can burn or irritate skin.

Conversely, a high proportion of excess fat will result in greasy sludge that will not form solid bars of soap, although some soap makers deliberately “superfat” their soap so that some oils will remain in the finished bars of soap. This can be done by either adding a small (5-10%) excess porportion of fats, or by discounting the formulated amount of lye to 90-95%.

The lye is dissolved in water; as this is an exothermic process, the solution will spontaneously generate heat and may even boil. The oils are heated separately (to the point of liquefaction if they are solid at room temperature). Once fats and lye water have both cooled to 80-100° F, they are combined. This mixture of lye water and fats is stirred until “trace” occurs and the mixture becomes a soap batter. There are varying levels of trace: a light trace implies a thinner soap batter and a heavy trace implies a thicker soap batter. Additives, such as essential oils, fragrance oils, botanicals, clays, colorants or other fragrance materials, are combined with the soap batter at different degrees of trace, depending upon the additive. With elapsed time and continued agitation the soap batter will continue to thicken. The cold process soap batter is then poured into molds, while hot process soap batter is poured into a double boiler or crockpot to sustain a high temperature.

Cold-process

Although cold-process soapmaking takes place at room temperature, the fats are first heated to ensure the liquification of the fats used. Then, when the lye water solution is added to the fats, it should be the same temperature of the melted oils and both are typically between 80-90° F. An external heat source is not necessary but the molded soap should be incubated by being wrapped in blankets or towels for 24 hours after being poured into the mold. Milk soaps are the exception and do not require insulation, which may cause the milk to sour. The soap will continue to exothermically give off heat for many hours after being molded. During this time, it is normal for the soap to go through a “gel phase” where the opaque soap will turn semi-transparent for several hours before turning opaque again. The soap may be removed from the mold after 24 hours but the saponification process takes several weeks to complete.

Hot-process

Unlike cold processed soap, all hot processed soap experiences a “gel phase” as a result of being heated, such as in a double boiler or crockpot. Hot process soap may used soon after being removed from the mold because the higher temperatures accelerate the saponifcation process and also drive off excess water.

Purification and finishing

The common process of purifying soap involves removal of sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, and glycerol. These components are removed by boiling the crude soap curds in water and re-precipitating the soap with salt.

Most of the water is then removed from the soap. This was traditionally done on a chill roll which produced the soap flakes commonly used in the 1940s and 1950s. This process was superseded by spray dryers and then by vacuum dryers.

The dry soap (approximately 6-12% moisture) is then compacted into small pellets. These pellets are now ready for soap finishing, the process of converting raw soap pellets into a salable product, usually bars.

Soap pellets are combined with fragrances and other materials and blended to homogeneity in an amalgamator (mixer). The mass is then discharged from the mixer into a refiner which, by means of an auger, forces the soap through a fine wire screen. From the refiner the soap passes over a roller mill (French milling or hard milling) in a manner similar to calendering paper or plastic or to making chocolate liquor. The soap is then passed through one or more additional refiners to further plasticize the soap mass. Immediately before extrusion it passes through a vacuum chamber to remove any entrapped air. It is then extruded into a long log or blank, cut to convenient lengths, passed through a metal detector and then stamped into shape in refrigerated tools. The pressed bars are packaged in many ways.

Sand or pumice may be added to produce a scouring soap. This process is most common in creating soaps used for human hygiene. The scouring agents serve to remove dead skin cells from the surface being cleaned. This process is called exfoliation. Many newer materials are used for exfoliating soaps which are effective but do not have the sharp edges and poor size distribution of pumice.

A 100% natural alternative to the petroleum jelly from childhood. Fresh and nurturing with tea tree oil and vitamin E.

$6

Hand poured in clear tea light cups so they can be used with any holder.

$10 a dozen

A fun gift for kids young and old. Scented glycerin soap embedded with a surprise inside.

$5 a bar

A bar of soap like no other. It leaves skin feeling clean and moisturized. Made with luxurious ingredients and scented just right to give you the ultimate bathing experience.

$5 a bar or buy 5 and get one free

$8

$10

Sugar scrub for those rough spots scented with peppermint oil.

4oz for $7

Rich body butter scented with peppermint oil. Your feet will thank you.

4oz for $7

$8

Leaves lips kissable soft and lightly flavored.

$3.50

$6 a bottle

$8

$12

Nothing like a soothing soak after a long day. Dead Sea Salts work magic to ease sore muscles and soften the lightly scented water.

 $8

Transforms your bath into a mildly explosive experience. 

$3.75 for each bomb

$8

This gift set includes peppermint foot butter, peppermint foot scrub and a pumice sponge.

$17.95

$22.95

$22.95

An ultra rich skin cream that smells good enough to eat. This is a favorite of Miss Colleen’s clientele.

$12 a jar