Lemongrass and hazelnut oil soap 香茅榛果油肥皂

Just found there were dried lemongrass / citronella at home, it is time for me to use it to make soap. Lemongrass water can help repelling mosquito. When we have mosquito bites, we may use lemongrass water to wash our body to relieve itchiness and redness. This time I want to make one which can reinforce keeping water, so I use hazelnut oil. To combine it with sweet almond oil and olive oil give plenty of moisture to skin and wash gently.

When I mixed sodium hydroxide with lemongrass water, there was strong bad smell coming out. When the saponified process of mixture was almost done, the smell reduced. The soap has pretty creamy bubbles that feel like having rich essence in it. Feel silky and nourished after using it on face.

Ingredients: Coconut oil, palm oil, pure olive oil, sweet almond oil, hazelnut oil, jojoba oil, lemongrass water.

Super fatting: Wheat germ oil.

Essential oils: Geranium oil, tea tree oil.

家裏剛好有一些乾的香茅，正好是時候用來做皂。香茅水有助驅除蚊子，當我們被蚊子叮咬後，我們可以用香茅水清洗身體去減輕痕癢和紅腫。今次我想做一款可加強保水的，所以我使用棒果油，再加上甜杏仁油和橄欖油能提供足夠的滋潤給肌膚和温和地清潔。

當我將氫氧化鈉和香茅水混合的時候，有一陣強烈的怪味，但當皂化過程差不多完成時氣味就減退了。這款肥皂的泡沫很綿感覺像有很豐富的精華在裏面，用在臉上感到很幼滑和潤澤。

成份: 椰子油，棕櫚油，純橄欖油，甜杏仁油，榛果油，荷荷芭油，香茅水.

超脂: 小麥胚芽油.

精油: 天竺葵油，茶樹油.

Sweet almond oil lotion for face / body 甜杏仁油乳液(身體及臉部適用)

This lotion was made by natural material without any chemical composition, so the storage period is short. It is better to finish it within 7-14 days, but it can be kept for a month in refrigerator. Sweet almond oil is very good for dry and sensitive skin. It can soothe redness and itchiness. I applied it on my cleaned face every morning and night. It is very comfortable and light, not oily or any heavy feeling. The redness on my face is improved. The simplest ingredient is already the best.

Ingredients: Sweet almond oil, rosemary water, vegetant emulsifying agent.

這款乳液全部由天然材料製造而成，沒有任何化學成份，所以保存期較短，最好在7-14日內用完，但可在雪櫃的話可放置一個月。甜杏仁油尤其適合乾燥、敏感肌膚，它能有效地減輕皮膚發癢現象，消除紅腫。我每天早晚洗臉後塗在臉上，感覺很舒服及清爽，不油膩和任何厚重感，臉上的紅印有改善。最簡單的成份已經是最好了。

成份: 甜杏仁油，迷迭香水，植物性乳化劑.

How to recognize natural handmade soap? 怎樣辨別純天然手工香皂

Oil + sodium hydroxide + water = soap + glycerin (a soap with glycerin simply). However, there are many different types of soaps selling in market. Some would say they are “handmade”. How to define?

I think almost everyone who uses natural handmade soap at the first time could feel completely different texture and feeling comparing to commercial soaps / cleansers / detergents in market, including me. I have used natural handmade soap for some time already. I am so delighted to see how big improvement of my skin. Skin problem is not always a bothering issue to me now. I hope for those who still suffer from skin problem can read below article and understand why natural handmade soap is so uniquely different.

Natural handmade soap:

The more natural a soap is, the more difficult to make. All made by hand throughout all the processes. Each time can make very limited pieces, thus output is not much and the cost of it is relatively higher than general soaps in market. Natural handmade soap does not have much fragrance, its colour would change with time and is a bit soft. The surface of soap is usually moist and damp when using. There would have flaw over surfaces. The flawed area of soaps is different from one another. Even the weight of soaps has little bit discrepancies. It is not easy to make it in transparent colour. Even if it is transparent, large amount of alcohol solvent is needed to add into soap. Generally, natural handmade soap is in creamy white or creamy yellow colour.

Because it is manufactured by cold processed (room temperature), the nutrient of vegetable oil is not damaged and kept in soap. When we use this type of natural handmade soap for washing, our skin is nourished and kept healthy.

Handmade soap made by soap base:

This type of soap is more like art form. Modeling is so beautiful and colourful, even with transparent texture (needs to add alcohol solvent and transparent agent in the process in order to make it transparent). Flowers can be put into soap, and the colour of flowers can still be able to maintain. Finishing usually would add colourant / pigment, flavouring essence / perfume or essential oil. Soap is made by heating and melting soap base.

Alkali is not touched during the soap making process, so children may participate in it in company with adults.

I don’t recommend using this type of soap myself as the soap is not 100% natural. As for a handcraft or an art for decoration, it is acceptable.

Soap manufactured by factory:

The shape of soap is very neat and soap body is hard, even hard to dissolve in water. Label of ingredients may mark not include soap base or soap is in weak acid.

A manufactured soap generally, for profit, uses cheap and low cost of animal oil / fat or high cost of vegetable oil (such as coconut oil), then mass produced by machine. Preservatives are added during the process and then adding salt to separate out soap (from which the most precious glycerin is extracted for resale). Next, adding flavouring power / essence, paraffin and other additives to make it dry out as soon as possible; more modern method nowadays uses solidified agent to make synthetic surface-active agent becomes block form. This type of soap is powerful to wash grease / oil off, thus it makes skin so dry and chapped. Moreover, chemical composition contains in it may block skin pores, lead to skin allergy and pathological changes. This is the type of soap which dermatologist suggests patient not to use. It does not merely affect our skin. There is a new research saying that chemical composition can be absorbed through skin and go into our body organs and damage them.

油脂 + 氫氧化鈉 + 水 = 皂 + 甘油 (簡單來說就是有甘油的皂)。不過，市面上有很多不同種類的香皂出售，有一些宣稱是"手工製"，究竟怎樣定義呢?

我想差不多每一個在第一次使用純天然手工香皂的人都能夠感受到它的手感和洗感是完完全全與市售商業的香皂 / 清潔劑 / 去垢劑不同，包括我在內。我已經使用純天然手工香皂一段時間了，我很高興看見自己皮膚大大的好轉及改善，皮膚問題不再是我時常擾人的煩惱。我希望那些仍然受皮膚問題困擾的人能閱讀下面的文章並理解為何純天然手工香皂是那麼與別不同!

純天然手工香皂：

愈天然的純皂愈不好製作，採用人工操作，少量製造，因此產量有限而成本也遠遠高於一般市售肥皂。手工皂不太香、會變色、有點軟，使用期間表面經常是溼潤狀態。表面會有瑕疵，瑕疵位置都不太一樣，重量也會有一些誤差。不容易做出透明質感，如果做成透明也必須加入許多的酒精溶劑，因此手工皂正常來講是呈現乳白色至乳黃色。

因為是採用冷製(室溫)製作，所以植物油的養份能夠不被破壞並可以保留在皂內，我們使用它的時候，皮膚也能吸收養份及保持健康。

皂基製作的肥皂：

藝術型態的手工香皂，造型漂亮五顏六色，甚至具有透明質感(製造過程需要添加酒精溶劑及透明化劑才能使之透明)，可包含花草而能夠保存花草原來的顏色，成品通常會加入色料、香精或精油，這些是使用皂基加熱融化製作的皂。

因為過程中不會接觸到強鹼，小朋友在大人的陪同下也可以參與其中。

因為這種香皂不是百分百純天然，我本人不建議使用這類香皂，而作為一件手工藝或裝飾的藝術是可以接受的。

工廠製造的肥皂：

肥皂形狀工整、非常的硬，遇水也很難溶。成份標示，有寫不含皂鹼或者肥皂呈現弱酸性。

一般香皂的製造，為了利潤，使用成本低廉的動物性油脂，或成本稍高的植物性油脂 (如椰子油)，以機器大量生產，過程中添加防腐劑然後加鹽把肥皂析出 (其中最寶貴的甘油成分抽出另行轉售)，再加香粉、石蠟和其它添加物，快速進行乾燥；現在較新的作法是使用凝固劑將合成的界面活性劑結成塊狀。這類的香皂脫脂力太強，往往造成皮膚乾裂，且含有的化學成分會對皮膚產生毛細孔阻塞、過敏或病變。皮膚科醫師說不要使用肥皂是指這一類的肥皂。這不僅只針對皮膚， 有最新的硏究指這些化學成分會經由皮膚吸收進入人體影響身體器官的病變。

Cocoa butter and coffee soap

Many people like drinking coffee. Coffee is very good to eliminate bad smell. Grinded coffee putting in soap can help rubbing off skin cuticle. I only put very little amount of coffee powder in it this time, so the coffee smell is not quite strong. I shall put more next time if I do it again. This time I used cocoa butter, the smell of cocoa and coffee matches with each other.

I was thinking to make the soap like layers. But when I poured in at the second time with the coffee-coloured soap into mold, its weight “pressed” the first layer with light yellow soap in mold down already which turned out this very interesting look – the side has thickness but the middle is in thin layer.

One thing I need to improve is the coffee beans were not grinded small enough. The foaming of the soap is great with delicate and light bubbles. Moreover, it contains cocoa butter which is very suitable to use in winter.

Ingredients: Coconut oil, palm oil, pure olive oil, canola oil, cocoa butter.

Additives: Grinded coffee and little bit of oat powder.

相信很多人都喜歡喝咖啡，用咖啡來消除異味效果卓越，將磨碎的咖啡放入肥皂裏能有助去除皮膚的角質層。今次做的這款肥皂只放了比較少的咖啡粉，所以咖啡的香味不是太強，如果下一次再做的時候，我會放多一些咖啡粉，這款肥皂用了可可脂，可可豆和咖啡的香味很配襯。

我本來想做分層皂，但當我把有咖啡顏色的皂液在第二次倒入模具的時候，它的重量已把在模具內第一層帶微黃色的皂液向下壓，造成這十分有趣的樣子 − 側面有厚度而中間是呈薄薄的一層。

我覺得唯一要改善的地方是咖啡粉磨得不夠細，肥皂的泡沫十分棒，泡沫細緻輕柔，再者它包含可可脂，十分適合冬天使用。

成份:       椰子油，棕櫚油，純橄欖油，芥花籽油，可可脂.

添加物:   磨碎咖啡及少量的燕麥粉.

Extra virgin olive oil liquid soap

I bought some bottles of extra virgin olive oil recently, so used it to make soap to see if there is any different from pure olive oil. This liquid soap contains high proportion of olive oil. It came out in fresh light green colour which was very beautiful. I added some cocoa butter and honey water to make it moister. The smell was lovely too!

Handmade liquid soap is quite watery comparing to commercial liquid soap in market because there is no thickening added into it. From my point of view, extra virgin olive oil and pure olive oil using in soap don’t have much difference. Both are moist to our skin. I think the nutrient of extra virgin olive oil is only better than pure olive oil when we use in foods.

Ingredients: Coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, cocoa butter, honey water.

Essential oils: Geranium oil, tea tree oil

我最近買了一些初榨橄欖油，所以用來做皂看看和用純正橄欖油做的有沒有分別。這款液體皂含高比例的橄欖油，出來的效果呈現新鮮的淺綠色，十分漂亮，我加了一些可可脂和蜜糖水去使它更滋潤，香味也很甜美!

手做的液體皂因為沒有添加任何的增稠劑，所以會比市售的商業液體皂水汪汪的。從我的角度而言，初榨橄欖油和純正橄欖油用在手工皂上沒有太大的分別，兩者對肌膚都很滋潤，我覺得唯一只是用在食物上初榨橄欖油的營養比純正橄欖油的更好更高。

成份: 椰子油，初榨橄欖油，可可脂，蜜糖水.

精油: 天竺葵油，茶樹油.

Deep clean shampoo (liquid soap)

Before I used handmade soap, my scalp was having acnes occasionally. I just though it was probably like normal pimples / acnes on face. It was a bit itchy and hard but no white head or liquid in it usually and it was gone pretty quick compare with those pimples / acnes on face. I didn’t suspect it could be caused by something else until I stumbled upon book of handmade soap in bookstore. Actually many hair shampoos and hair conditioners, as well as cosmetics products, in market contain dimethicone or cyclomethicone which can smoothen our hair. Since it acts as a sealed particle, if we keep using the shampoos and conditioners, it will cover our hair, making hair cuticle becomes thicker and following hair treatment cannot go in. It turns out our hair quality getting bad.

Then I realized that it should be hair shampoos and hair conditioners blocking my head’s skin and leading to pimples / acnes. Having a second thought was that I felt my hair seemed not washed thoroughly whenever I washed for a very long time (I have thick hair).

The first time after I used this handmade shampoo, the experience was amazing. I could feel my head’s skin and hair are complete clean. I wash my hair every other day usually. I felt my hair was pretty dirty and oily already on the second day when I used hair shampoo and hair conditioner in market. But now my hair is still pretty clean and not so oily on the second day. Moreover, I don’t have pimples / acnes growing on my scalp. Note that there is transitional period to use handmade shampoo. Different people may feel different. For me, for the first 3-4 times after using the handmade shampoo, my hair was a bit sticky as it was washing off the chemicals over hair. About a week later, hair became very smooth and soft.

Ingredients: Coconut oil, canola oil, jojoba oil, castor oil, rosemary water.

在我接觸手工皂前，我頭髮內的頭皮偶爾會有頭瘡，我以為它只是像一般在臉上的暗瘡和粉刺一樣，它們有點痕癢和硬身，通常沒有白膿頭及膿水，比起臉上的暗瘡和粉刺，它們很快會消失。我沒有懷疑這可能由其他原因引起，直至我在書店偶然找到有關手工皂的書，才知道其實很多市售的洗髮精及護髮素(還有化妝品)包含矽靈，它可以使頭髮順滑，因為它作用似封閉劑，如果我們長期使用含矽靈的洗髮精及護髮素，它會覆蓋我們的頭髮頭皮，令頭髮角質層變厚變粗，讓之後的護髮品無法進入頭髮中，使髮質反而變差。

之後我意識到這可能應該是洗髮精及護髮素阻失我頭皮的毛孔而引致暗瘡和粉刺，再想多一會，每當我洗頭的時候，即使洗了很久總覺得洗得不夠徹底(我有很多頭髮) 。

在第一次用完這款天然手做的洗髮精後，感覺簡直無與倫比，我感到頭皮和頭髮是完全乾淨的。我通常隔天才洗頭，以前用市售的洗髮精及護髮素的時候，在第二天已感到頭髮很污穢和油膩的。但現在在第二天的時候仍感到頗乾淨和不會油膩膩的，再者我的頭皮已沒有暗瘡和粉刺了。對於手做的洗髮精，有一點要備註的就是會有過渡期，不同的人會有不同的感受，對我而言，在初期的第三及第四次使用的時候，因為要洗走頭髮上的化學成份，頭髮摸上去的時候會感到黏黏的，大約一星期後頭髮變得十分柔軟和順滑。

成份: 椰子油，芥花籽油，荷荷芭油，蓖麻油，迷迭香水.

Marseilles egg yolk soap

Marseilles soap, it is named from Marseille, France where they made traditional soap from vegetable oils about 600 yeas ago. The rule of traditional Marseilles soap must contain 72% olive oil. This soap is strong in cleaning yet can give moisture to skin. By 1688, Louis XIV introduced regulations limiting the use of the name Marseilles soap to soaps made in and around the Marseille area, and only from olive oil. Today this law still stands (although the regulations now allow other vegetable oils to be used).

I also made this classic soap to “feel” it. This time I additionally added egg yolks to give it moister as winter was coming. I didn’t weigh the egg yolks before adding into the soap so I didn’t deduct water from the soap. It leaded to have too much water in it because the soap was pretty soft and wet when the soap was taken out from the mold in summer time. It was like soft clay. I was worried that it might be failed. After letting the soap dry with time, it became harder and normal. I added little tee tree oil which maybe not “smell-friendly” with egg yolk. But my comment of the soap was wonderful!!! Skin is very smooth and shiny after using it. What a great experience!

Ingredients: Coconut oil, palm oil, pure olive oil.

Super fatting: Macadamia Oil.

Essential oils: Tea tree oil.

Additives: Egg yolks.

馬賽皂，名字源於法國馬賽這個地方。在大約600多年以前已開始用植物油製造傳統的肥皂，傳統的馬賽皂的指標必須含有72%的橄欖油，馬賽皂清潔能力很強然而又能為身體肌膚保濕。在1688年，法國的路易十六對馬賽皂名字的使用規定了製作標準，只有在馬賽或周邊區域製造以及唯一用橄欖油做出來的肥皂才可以使用這名字。至目前為止這法例仍然生效 (雖然現在條例容許使用其他植物油)。

我也做這款經典的肥皂去“感受”一下，隨着冬天的來臨我額外添加蛋黃使它更滋潤，因為我事前並沒有稱蛋黃的重量，所以沒有從肥皂裏扣除了水量，這引致肥皂內有很多水份，因為在脫模的時候正值時夏，皂體很軟和濕，這很像軟的黏土，我那時很擔心成品失敗。待肥皂隨着時間的風乾，皂體變得硬身和正常。我加了少量的茶樹精油，不過氣味好像和蛋黃有點兒不匹配。但我對這馬賽蛋黃皂的評價是極好的!!! 用完後皮膚十分滑和有光澤。無論是做皂經驗及用後感都是一個很好的體驗!

成份:       椰子油，棕櫚油，純橄欖油.

超脂:     澳洲胡桃油.

精油:       茶樹油.

添加物:   蛋黃.