Its been a while

It has been quite some time since my last post. There nothing much to post actually. I've been lazy a bit. I had gout attack on my left leg last 3 weeks. It only went away after a week. After that, rolled my ankle and torn a bit of ligament 2 weeks ago. Still not fully healed. Limping a bit right now.

Well, hopefully all is well this week. I need to be able to stand for a long time since need to prepare a couple batches of soap for my brother-in-law's wedding.

We are gonna make two types of guest soap. Lavender and oatmeal (haaaaa...) of course, since those are the two that I am familiar with. So it wouldn't take me long too finish cooking them.
Need to get myself some lavender essential oil then. Run out of stock.

That's it for today.

The mother's day flea market did not go quite as well as I had hope... the sale was poor. I think the location and the crowd may not be the best for me to sell the soap.... the are interested punters.... but most just end up looking and smelling the soaps....

Good thing that I was with an experience "flea-marketers"... so when punter weren't looking she came out with several ideas to make the soaps more interesting... I am really grateful to both of them..

Well, at least I had learn a good lesson.... product packaging and presentation are important for sales... and 1 more.... make sure the product suits the market and crowd...

Mother's Day

This Saturday I'll have a booth at the Sunway Club selling my soaps, in conjuction with the club's Mother's Day celebration. I'll have my Oatmeal and Lavender soaps for sale.(as Picture). I hope they will sell well. Then I can start to make aloe vera soaps. I have an aloe vera plant at home ready to be used.

Oatmeal soap

I've been using my home-made oatmeal soap for a couple of days now. It's a milled soap. I used the coarse oatmeal. At first, it felt so rough (the oatmeal). But after the first bath, it feels good. Its exfoliates well. Since now I have been using my own soap, whenever I use a supermarket soap I can feel the difference.

Of course the supermarket soap has more bubble... they have SLS. But I reckon many now know that it is not good for the skin. I have made another two batch of oatmeal soap, but this time I ground the oatmeal a bit more so as not to be too rough. One batch is without fragrance, another one I tried a blend of orange, lavender and ylang ylang. I don't really like the smell, but my wife like it. It smell something like cinnamon.

I running out of storage space. Needs to rearrange the store to keep the soaps before I can sell them.

Vegetable soap

Thingking of the recipe... I guess the soap I'm making is more suitable to be called vegetable soap rather than organic soap. No doubt that the material used contain no harmful chemical nor anything from animal. However, there is no guarantee that from the product manufacturer that the their oil that I'm using is organic.

I've finished making several batches using olive oil, palm oil and vegetable shortening. Some with added lavender essential oil while some with oatmeal. How different do they feel compared to normal soap available in the market (or should I say detergent...). After this I might try using sunflower oil and/or corn oil.

But I do not know what should I use to substitute the vegetable shortening (the only solid oil I know).
I will post some pictures of the soaps once available..

PVC mold.

Yesterday I was feeling really good. It was a public holiday here in KL. Spent the day serching for PVC pipes suitable for soap mold. Bought two metres of 50mm diametre pipe and had it cut into 4 equal lenght by the shop attendant.

At home, I took out a small handsaw and Dremmel-like tool (Taiwan made). Proceed to split the pipes into halves along the lenght and reattached them along the split using duct tape. Now I have 4 split-able mold with hinges. To aid airing of the soap, I used the Dremmel to drill small holes around the mold.

Night came..... this is my favourite time to cook up some soap. After reaching the perfect trace (I think), I proceed to pour it into the mold, with a funnel on top of the mold. First block.... the traced soap mixture could not pass through the small funnel hole... they are too tick... had a couple of spills.. a bit piss off... nevermind that. Then I started to spoon them into the mold. It was going well although time consuming... then ... disaster strike... the saran wrap I used as a stop at the bottom of the mold (using rubber band only) give way to the weight of the soap!!!!!!!!! I had soap all over the kitchen floor.... arghhhhhhhh!!!!!! It was almost 1.30 a.m. by then. good thing that the soap had traced properly... they are like blot of pudding on the floor and not runny.... so I was able to scoop the top part and reduce my waste.

Then, within five minutes I prepared a second mold, now using duct tape to secure the bottom stop and manage to pour the mixture of soap into the mold using spoon. Insulate it using a sleeping bag and leave it there to solidify.

Cleaning up is hell....... the kitchen was slippery with soap all over the place..... by 2.30 a.m. all things are clean up. Changed into my sleeping cloth and went to sleep with unsatisfied feeling because my first try at PVC mold was a failure...

Making soap in Malaysia

I have been searching so many websites to find are there any instructions or "How to" for making soap in Malay. But I have found none. I know I'm not the first one in Malaysia that wants or is making home made soap.

Yesterday I read about a retired teacher and his wife, in Terengganu, venturing into making soap using used cooking oil. They have teamed up with a marketing company owned by a Japanese to promote their soaps. Their soaps include one which has Pegaga (a traditional "ulam"/salad).

It started from the need to make extra monthly income after retirement and it blossoms. SIRIM (Malaysia product and service Standard assurance body) conduct courses on how to make detergens and cleaning agent. I wish I had know about this much earlier before I started working in a bank. Now, with workload which not permitting me to take off day to attend the course, I have to do my own research on how to, recipes, where to source materials etc. I might contact SIRIM for assistance then.

Come to think of it, I might just as well write a "How to make soap in Malay" and sell it to the public.... and become a millionaire because of that...hahahahahhaa.. dream is good.

Oatmeal soap

Two batches of soap cooked.... hehehehe... First traced too much, making it hard to pour into the mold but hardens well after 24 hours. Second batch, made the mistake of pouring on light trace... it would not harden enough. Being too soft, the soap (lavender scented and marbled) broke when I tried to get it out of the mold. There was no separation, it looks beautiful but it just won't set.

So, for the first batch (which is a plain vegetable soap), I remilled half of it into oatmeal soap. Smells nice... and I haven't taken it out of the clam shell mold yet. Hopefully it comes out properly, as it has started to hardens after several hours in the mold.

The second batch was a bit of disaster.. so I remelted it in a double boiler, being careful not to scorch it. I don't know what happened, but the beautiful lavender marbled soap turn into gel like pudding, pink in colour. Slop them into the mold and now I wait to see how it turns out.

R & D is expensive... but it has to be done... I am looking forward for the oatmeal soap, to use them and to sell them at weekend flea market.

That's all for now.