Thursday, March 31, 2011

After a loong hiatus, back with some Soap !!!


I am back!! I know some of you might have forgotten me, cause its been three years since I blogged. Was working, had a baby and many other things going on. But now I am back. This time with something different to offer. Yeah! I wont let you keep guessing about the title of the post. You read it right! Its about SOAP not food this time. I have kept this secret long enough with me that I finally couldn't contain it anymore and decided to broadcast it :). Yes, I started making soap. Now you may ask, Why in the world I am making soap when such a plethora of soaps are available in the market. Well, that is the irony.The soap that we find in stores is mass produced and contain a whole range of dangerous ingredients. This can include things like petroleum, irritants, detergents and more. This is bad for our skin as well as the environment. It might cost less than natural soap, but it costs more in the long run. So I went ahead and tried purchasing natural products like Burt's Bee products for skin care, Like body wash and lotions. But it costs a fortune to indulge in those. Being a frugal that I am, decided to venture into natural homemade skin care products. It started 2 years ago. I did a lot of research. I dint shy away from trying out new recipes. It was long journey and in the process I added other homemade products like lotions, lip balms to my line of skin care products. Right now I am working on shampoo's and body washes. In my blog I would like to share more of my experiments and recipes and lots of other fun info. So stay tuned. Just take a look at some of my homemade products.



These are few of the skin care products I made. In Anti clockwise direction( for the above picture ) : Whipped Shea Butter in white tin. couple of lip really cool lip balms, Ayurvedic Hair oil for hair falling and dandruff. Lavender soap, actually it was a little lavender in color but looks white in the pic. round green tea soaps ( strong anti aging soap ), Sandalwood-turmeric soap. the soap got its color from combination of turmeric and sandalwood. Shikakai shampoo bar - the one right on top of the white jar of cream. These are the ones I hand on hand for the picture. I usually make a lot of other lotions and soaps.



Milk and Honey Soap( smells divine and pure indulgence )



Sandalwood-turmeric soap( not kidding when I say it improves youthful complexion )



Green Tea Soap ( great for mature skin )



Shikakai shampoo bar ( it has real shikakai and aritha powder and lots of other good for your hair herbs )



Really cool lipbalm ( it is cool and nourishing your lips indeed )



Whipped Shea Butter ( Great for wrinkles, scars, eczema )



The ingredients I use for making my soaps and lotions. Almond oil, apricot kernel oil, olive oil, organic coconut oil, grape seed oil, canola oil, essential oils like lavender oil, tea tree oil, sweet orange oil, peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, witch hazel, rose water, castor oil, vitamin e oil, organic aloe vera juice etc.



These are few of the nutrients or herbs I use to enhance my products. Shea butter, beeswax, Kasturi turmeric, neem powder, vattivelu( not sure about the english name ), hibiscus flower powder.

Most of my products have Indian herbs cause thats what I know about, though I try to used others too. All the skin care products I do are chemical free and almost 100% natural. definitely good for skin. I would like to run posts about the hazards of commercial soaps and creams, the benefits of natural products and uses of different oils and herbs in maintaining a glowing skin.

Untill then...

be Nourished!!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your informative posts. Found the one on ghee particularly useful. Have a question about coconut oil: which one do you use for cooking? Thanks.

Swaroopa said...

Hi, I use Tropical traditions expeller pressed for cooking.It doesn't smell coco-nutty.

Cynthia said...

It is so good to see you posting again.

Anonymous said...

Greet artcile, but it would be better if in future you can share more about this topic. Keep rocking.

Aruna said...

hi Saroopa,
good work and great looking stuff! I myself have been making bath salts, body scrub and candles and am thinking of trying out making soaps:)
I am also impressed with your Indian veggie growing skills. If it is okay with you, please email me your email address so that I can contact you over growing Indian gourds well. I am growing well gongura, vankaaya etc, but sorakaaya and birakaaya are not at all doing good.
Keep up the good work on whole grain recipes as well:). I made very recently a very crispy and well-tasting teff flour dosa that has urad dal, brownrice flour in it.

Aruna said...

a quick question, Swaroopa-- are you using lye for making these soaps? Or, any other substitute?

Swaroopa said...

Hi Aruna, Thank you and good to know that you make bath salts and scrubs.
I'll contact you off the chat, it would be interesting to know info from each other. And yes I use Lye to make soap. Because there is no way you can get a soap without lye. The good thing to know is during the process of soap making, the lye neutralizes. Hope it helps.

Swaroopa said...

Aruna, please leave me your email address so I can contact you.

Divya said...

Hi Swaroopa! It is very interesting to know that you make your own soaps. I have been using essentials oils as moisturizers for quite some time..and they work like wonders. Please do write about the method of making these soaps..I would love to try them on my own. Also, I find your other articles very interesting..especially the one on soaking grains. I myself believe in the traditional ways of cooking and keep looking for ways to enhance the nutrient content of food...it is nice to meet someone with similar inerest!

www.ChiCha.in said...

hii.. Nice Post

Thanks for sharing

´Grit said...

Hi Swaroopa, Your products sound and look really good and healthy. I've been wanting to switch to only natural products for some time now.
Do you sell any of your products, as I would be interested in buying them.
I live in Denmark. My email adress is
gritestl@gmail.com.
Thanks.

´Grit said...

Hi Swaroopa, Your products sound and look really good and healthy. I've been wanting to switch to only natural products for some time now.
Do you sell any of your products, as I would be interested in buying them.
I live in Denmark. My email adress is
gritestl@gmail.com.
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi....do u sell these soaps and lotions as well ??? I live in Dubai, plz let me know if there is any way that i can order them .

Ishta said...

Hi Swaroopa.....I live in Dubai. Do u sell these bath soaps and lotions as well ? Plz let me know. My email address is.... ishta76@gmail.com

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