I made an Etsy Treasury!

‘Pure Leather’ by kindersoaps

I have a soft spot for leather items - jackets, shoes, journals, gadget sleeves, and of course BAGS. So I’ve gone and done some window shopping here on Etsy to bring together what I feel are the nicest leather goods that I’d dearly love to own. Happy browsing!

Little Blue Flowers - Wide L… aosLeather $20	Unique Leather Cuff Bracelet… SeptemberRose7… $58
Leather Love Cuff- Lace Brac… LoveAtFirstBlu… $75	Steampunk Unisex Leather Cuf… sewlutionsbyam… $80
Handmade Leather Journal/dia… DancingGreyStu… $18	Underwater - Blue Matte Leat… Baghy $42
Sunflower - Leather Journal,… Kreativlink $47	9 x 12 Leather Bound Book La… KarleighJae $350
Handmade large Bouquet Clutc… afropumpkin $350	Handcrafted artisan genuine … chicleather $99
The FARRAGO Dark Brown Simpl… farragobags $152	Ultimate Kibber Field Briefc… Kibber $229
X-MEN Wolverine Origins Bike… gemzmall $74.99	Red Ladies fitted leather ja… santosleather $250
Revamped, vintage, steam pun… OmneeHart $260	Leather Victorian Leather Mo… LadyLuckLeathe… $319

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Apart from medication, the doctor sent me home with advice to put my feet up more often and not to do anything too strenuous. I’ll have to adjust to being even less active than I was last week, which feels very strange! But still, business will go on as usual here, though not quite as speedily as I would like.

Thank you for all your good wishes and prayers—they helped in some way or other, I’m sure! Have yourselves a great weekend.

My favourite line: “And if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?”

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mommies out there. And while I’m at it, why not treat your mom (or yourself) to some skin-loving goodness by getting her a bar or two of my soap? Go on, have a nose around the shop.

Then finally the window of opportunity opened and grabbed my first chance to create an Etsy Treasury. Oh, the (cheap) thrill! I called it “Mommy Wants These!”. You will not get a prize for guessing the rationale behind it.

Found that fun? Then please visit the Treasury and check out all the wonderful handmade things that other Etsy sellers lovingly craft for our enjoyment.

Happy weekend!

Here are some photos of the utensils I can’t do without when I pull on my gloves to make a batch of soap.

Stainless steel pots. The one on the left is for making the lye solution (sodium hydroxide + water), while the larger one on the right is for warming up the oils. It’s important not to use any utensils that contain aluminium, as the metal reacts with sodium hydroxide and won’t do anything good for soap. Trust me on this, because I found out from first-hand experience. Ahem. :”>

Clockwise from bottom left corner: 2 heavy duty plastic pitchers (to measure out lye and for containing raw soap), 2 slotted spoons (to mix lye and oils), melamine mixing bowl (I usually mix my raw soap in there), another heavy duty plastic pitcher containing hand blender attachment, two stick thermometers and a rubber spatula (for scraping off every last little bit of soap from the sides of my mixing bowl).

My two stick thermometers (also known as meat thermometers). Very important, as I have to keep track of the temperatures of both the oils and lye mixtures, ensuring that they both fall within the same range of between 32C and 42C, before I can mix them together to get saponification going. Falling out of this temperature range can mean a failed batch of soap (so I read), although I have yet to experience this.

You can find these thermometers at specialty baking shops, the more uppity departmental stores and also your local hardware store. I bought mine from Isetan KLCC, as I was still holding down a full-time job nearby at the time.

And finally, the item that works the hardest for me — my trusty Philips hand-held blender. Without it, I could be stirring my raw soap mixture for 3 hours before it saponifies enough to be poured into molds! Thankfully it usually takes me just 5-10 minutes tops to bring my raw soap to trace.

So there you have it — a little tour of my kitchen utensils that help me make soap. Isn’t it great that they’re familiar items? No fancy specialty gear needed. And for the record, all these are used ONLY for making soap — I don’t use them to prepare any of my meals. While I take great pains to make sure they are thoroughly cleaned after each soapmaking session, I can do without the possibility of having traces of soap, essential oils or at worst, LYE, in my food!

I took a short break from making soap but it looks like it’s time to restock again. My DreamTime bars are almost all gone now! Thank you to all who placed orders over the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s period, and a very warm hello to new customers who made their first purchases from us recently.

Ah, here’s the thing that I’d like to announce — The Kinder Soap Company’s 100% Money Back Guarantee. I’m so confident that my soaps will benefit your skin in some way or other, that I’m willing to offer a full refund on any purchase that you are not satisfied with, for whatever reason (except for them turning up a little worse for wear after going through the postal service, sorry :p. You needn’t send the soap back to me. Just write in to me at michelle(at)kindersoaps(dot)com and I’ll make arrangements for a refund right away (including shipping costs, if applicable).

Now how’s that for quality assurance and peace of mind? And as an internet shopper, would you feel more at ease with this kind of guarantee being offered to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

In other news, we found out today that we’ll be expecting a baby boy in June. :”> I’m just glad that with all the rushing around with my two little monkeys, baby no. 3 is growing very nicely.

I’m also happy to announce that I’m gearing up for this year’s Chinese New Year and Valentine’s double celebration by whipping up new soap recipes to fill your gift baskets! Also in the pipeline is a purifying french green clay facial mask which I am still perfecting, meant for congested and sensitive skin that needs some extra cleansing and pampering. Hoping to unveil that within the coming week.

Happy weekend!

I’m going to head over to my neighbourhood *yok choi poh* (chinese medicine hall) and ask the friendly uncle behind the counter to show me the nicest flower bud teas he has.

This morning I happened to find a parking spot right outside the *yok choi poh* when I went to do my marketing. After getting my groceries, I kinda wandered into the shop and asked the uncle (I **have** to find out his name) if he had any rose buds in stock.

And what beautiful dried rose buds they were! Each one was a deep, purpley red, without any yellowing on the fringes of its petals. For under RM10 I could walk out of the shop with a 100g bag of rose buds, which is a LOT for my use. Ooh, I wonder what other flowers uncle has!

Can’t wait to see how they look in future soap batches. 8->

My username there is @salameander. I don’t just talk about soapmaking though—my tweets are also a mish mash of running commentaries on my children’s antics, personal musings, and what I do as a Minister of Finance and Home Affairs.

So look me up, and I’ll answer the question: “What are you doing?”

Here they are, still snugly cocooned in bubble wrap:

…and after the wraps came off…

…then I soon discovered just how serious Beauty 360 is in ensuring their goods arrive safely without spilling, when I opened one of the bottle caps. Is that PTFE tape they used to wrap the mouth of the bottle?

I was impressed. And better yet, the tape came off so easily and cleanly that the bottles looked as if they never were touched by any of it:

Ah, I truly am a happy camper. Based on my experiences with buying from Beauty 360, I trust them entirely to meet my needs. They’re a locally-based company! I love the idea of not having to turn to a non-Malaysian source for these kinds of things as I like supporting local businesses.

I have some ideas for future soap recipes floating about in my mind, and I definitely will be creating some new soaps really soon. Watch out for my next post where I’ll be unveiling my batch of french pink clay castile soap!