Sorry folks, I haven’t been able to keep up with production quite as well as I thought I would, so these two soaps won’t be ready for sale till the final week of September. :”> My last 6 Breakfast Bars went out in a 12 Soaps For The Year package (thanks Nentze!) this morning. I’ve just one bar of Summer Fizz left at the moment.
Dark Chocolate, Spiced Coffee, DreamTime and Tangy Lavender are all curing as we speak, and they’ll be nestled in their muslin bags in a weeks’ time.
Oh—Happy Merdeka Day to all Malaysians. Let’s all channel our energies towards bringing real, positive change in our country. One baby step at a time. Don’t hold back. 
Okay, I’ve got a happy problem—the only soap I have that’s ready for sale is Goats Milk and Patchouli. Everything else, believe it or not, has been sold out, and new batches are out on the curing racks right now:
These will be ready in the final week of August. And I’m not through with this round of production yet! There are still more to come. I’m trying my bestest to keep up with production, scheduling a batch every 2-3 days. It’s hectic but there’s no denying I’m enjoying the challenge. 
With the new wholesale orders (and lovely new customers, hello there!) coming in, I’m making adjustments to my estimations of what to make, how much and when.
So I do apologise if you were thinking of getting soap this week—could you hold out for another week or two? All I have at the moment are the 30g sample-sized soaps for the Sampler Pack of 3. If you’d like to go ahead and place your order, please do—I’ll reserve your soap for you and will advise on the earliest date I can have them delivered to you.
At the root of all this excitement and activity is the fact that you have played a tremendous role in supporting what I do. Thank you for your affinity towards my all-natural soap, and you can be sure that I’ll always have the best of interest at heart for your skin’s wellbeing. I’m grateful and humbled.
I’ve had a lot of people ask which kind of soap would be suitable for them, or telling me that they weren’t sure of which scents they’d really like. So I’ve decided to put up a listing for a Sampler Pack of 3, where I’ll bundle 3 bars of soap weighing over 30g each, so you can try 3 different soaps at a go! I guess it makes sense too, for those who need to find out which kind of soap is suitable for their sensitive skin, without having to worry about purchasing the ‘wrong’ kind of soap.
Just e-mail me with your choice of samples and I’ll pack them up for you in a jiffy. Hope you’ll find this useful! Purchase the sample pack here.
For the curious, here are the dates on which the new batches of each type of soap will be ready for sale:
- Breakfast Bar (August 2nd)
- Clarity (August 3rd)
- Dark Chocolate (August 4th)
- DreamTime (July 27th)
- Goats Milk and Honey (August 7th)
- Goats Milk and Patchouli (July 31st)
- Spiced Coffee (August 11th)
- Summer Fizz (July 29th)
(Psst—Tangy Lavender is Done! )
I think this photo sums up how I feel on most days (in a good way). In fact, I’m beginning to feel that the word “busy” is way overused and I’ll need to find some other way to describe the state of my day-to-day activities. 
(In case you’re curious, here are some words you can use instead of “busy”.)
Reuben’s a bit under the weather, soldiering rather cheerfully through a cold. He still can settle himself to sleep without much help from me, just a piece of cloth with a dash of eucalyptus essential oil placed by his pillow to help clear up his nasal passages enough to let him breathe a little easier. Poor darling. I’m managing the brood on my own this weekend as my hubby is away in Langkawi for his company’s annual retreat. They’re living it up at the Andaman (but I hear that they haven’t kept the place as well as they should have for a 5-star establishment).
As for myself, I’ve been working in as much soaping time as I can while all three children are fast asleep, and have finally replenished all my soap varieties (phew!). They’re now curing. This coming week, Tangy Lavender and Summer Fizz will be ready to ship—and while they look a tad different from the current product photos, they still have the same lovely scents that you have come to know and enjoy. I’ll be working on new photographs soon and will put them up as quick as I can.
This photo of my curing rack was taken just last week. Today there is another rack identical to this (they’re both from IKEA, RM69 each) next to it (we removed the towel rail you see to the left of this rack), and they’re both chock full of soap! Haven’t had time to photograph the new setup, but what’s even more amazing is the whole cocktail of scents floating about in my office these days.
Alas, it will take more than heavenly or invigorating scents to keep me going at all that needs to be done. There’s just no substitute for an uninterrupted night’s sleep.
Phwoar. I’ve enjoyed every moment of each day for the past few weeks, but oh my, the amount of things I end up cramming into my 24 hours is approaching near ridiculous. Even finding time to reply e-mails has proven to be tricky! Thank you for your patience—you guys know who you are.
Anyway, just to let you know that I’ve finally managed to squeeze in some soaping sessions to put these on the curing rack:
- Tangy Lavender (ready by 23rd July 2010)
- DreamTime (ready by 27 July 2010)
- Summer Fizz (ready by 30 July 2010)
I’ve also had to stock up on my essential oils to cater to some wholesale orders and enquiries I’ve received. As a bootstrapping operation it hurts when you know that you could have gotten a much better deal if you bought supplies in bulk… but at the end of the day, managing cashflow is all important to a small business’s survival. There’s no doubt that the old adage of ‘cash is king’ rings true!
Apart from that, we’re enjoying moments like these:
From left to right: my dad, Brandon, my brother, his wife, and Andrea. That was taken after a home-cooked bak kut teh dinner at our place, the first meal I cooked for my dad and brother since I got out of confinement. The kids adore their uncle and aunt, and vice versa. Grandpa is always tickled pink by the things that Brandon and Andrea say.
It’s all good, but I can’t help but think that my mom’s missing from the photograph. I do miss her so.
…
Alright then, it’s back to work!
This, ladies and gents, is a 15g bottle of pure vanilla planifola CO2 extract. Professional chefs use this in their creations—none of that vanilla essence you find in supermarkets. It smells like a slice of heaven, and it WILL be appearing in at least one new soap that I’ll be making soon. Will have to experiment first.
It cost me RM215, but if it turns out well in my test batches, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll be getting a truly luxurious, “scent-sational” bath experience like no other!
And I mean this in a really good way! While I was away on confinement for the better part of June, I had a backlog of orders both retail and wholesale that have pretty much cleared off all the soap I had on my curing rack.
Time to schedule some hardcore soapmaking sessions! But I reckon it will be more of sneaking them in while all three children are slumbering.
Goodness, I have three kids already?! 
Spiced Coffee is back on the shelf, and ready for sale!
Laden with ground coffee beans, this bar of soap will lift your spirits out of the doldrums with its invigorating blend of ginger, lemongrass and lime oils. Click here for more details.
You can also visit this Flickr page for more photos of this and other soaps.
It has long been an interest of mine to create a line of skin salves or balms to address various skin concerns, particularly:
- an anti-mosquito blend. I’ve had enough of seeing my poor Andrea come home from playschool or my in-laws’ dotted with angry, itchy mosquito bites!
- to soothe eczema flare-ups. My soap can help soothe skin over the long term by reducing irritation caused by harsh detergents and other external factors, but sometimes a more intensive treatment that is left in the skin may be required.
- to calm down and heal skin that’s itchy and inflamed from bug bites, diaper rash, minor cuts and nicks.
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