Fun session: Melt and Pour Soap Making

It has always been on my wish list to go for soap making class since 1 or 2 years back. But I never enroll myself to any due to the reason that I have no time. 

And then I do not know why with essential oils, I went on to google how to make soap, then I start to look around and ask around to see where to buy the ingredients. There, I discover there is this melt and pour soap which is as easy as making jelly. 

Called up my sister-in-law and asked her if she is interested, she likes the idea. So, we went on to source for the ingredients. All we need to buy is melt and pour soap base because we already have the essential oil to replace the scented oil. 

I bought a pot for this purpose as I foresee that I will have a few session to play with it. 

The steps:

1. Cut the soap base and melt it at the stove (melt easily)
2. Remove from stove. 
3. Add 5-10 drops essential oils of your liking (about 100ml soap base)
4. Mix well and pour into the mold
5. Let mixture cool down (about an hour)
6. Take it out from mold. 

Happy mom with happy daughter!

Thank you, gugu for joining us and helping us to take nice photos.

Rubbing essential oil on the bottoms of the feet for my kids

When I watched 《妻子的浪漫旅行2》，I noticed that one of the wives, who is also one of my favourite actress since young,  in the show is rubbing some kind of liquid on her soles every morning and before bed. I am curious to find out what is she doing or using.  

I asked around and even googled about it, finally I got the answer, it is essential oil that she is rubbing on her bottoms of feet every day.

Sometimes, things just happen at the right time. Soon after that, I was invited to attend the essential oil sharing session. Haha.

And, the fact that my favourite actress is using essential oil is definitely one of the reason why I grow fond of essential oils immediately.

I googled and found out that our feet soles has larger pore than any other part of the body, and the essential oil can penetrate through our skin into the body faster. 

I thought of improving my kids wellness through essential oils and this is the easiest way for me to use it on them.

I diluted lavender (3 drops) in carrier oil in an 8ml roller bottle to make this kid's friendly "sleep well magic potion", a name given just for fun. I get my kids to rub the oil on their feet soles every night before bedtime to calm them down and get good sleep at night. 

I also diluted peppermint (3 drops) in carrier oil in an 8ml roller bottle to create "wake up magic potion" for my kids. It is for refreshing and focus purpose.

The kids have been rubbing the oils every day and night since I make the 2 bottles for them. They will ask for it every night.

I changed my son's magic potion at night to eucalyptus radiata diluted in carrier oil, a gift from my auntie. I rub it on the lung and chest area shown on the foot reflexology chart, hoping to improve his asthma symptom. 

For my daughter, I rub the oil on the colon area, hoping that it will improve her digestion and put on some weight. 

Just a bit sharing of how I use the essential oil on my kids who are aged 8yo and 11yo this year. You may refer to dilution ratios for kids and babies for more inforamtion.

Lavender Cotton Wool Balls

My husband and I spent Labour Day 💪 to reshuffle the furniture in my kids bedroom to make it more spacious. 

After all the moving, we did one round of cleaning up too. Looking at the tidy and clean room💫, I thought of adding aroma by dripping 5 drops of lavender essential oil onto cotton-wool balls. I chose to use lavender essential oil because it can create soothing and relaxing atmosphere in the bedroom. Since my kids bed frames comes with drawers, I put the cotton-wool balls in the drawers. It can helps to repel insects too and give the clothing kept in the drawers a flora scent which replaced the synthetic air-freshener. 

Now, whenever I walk into the room, I will be greeted with a light breeze of flower scents. 

The lavender cotton wool balls will last for a week and you will need to drip some more essential oil to them. 

Adding Lavender Essential Oil in My Skincare Regime

Lavender essential oil is one of the first 3 bottles I bought.

The reason I wanted it because of the two properties in it: anti-inflammatory and antibacterial; and also its calming quality.

I always have acne problem even at the age of 30++. For my case, it is definitely not due to food, but stress and hormonal changes. My skin was in the most terrible state earlier this year. Breakouts on both sides of my cheeks, around the temples, my forehead and a few pimples on the nose and chin, creeping down on my neck. Yes, it was that bad until I almost want to go see doctor to ask for antibiotics. I have tried it before, when I was taking antibiotics, I noticed that my skin will get better.

I am the kind of person that could not stand the rough surface on my face, I will make sure I make it "smooth" by peeling off the dead skin or extract any pimples and blackheads by using my fingers. You can imagine the wounds and scars all over my face. Ouch!

That is why I am always looking for something that have the three properties: anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and calming.

I tried tea tree oil products out there, but it does not help, I do not know why, it could be due to other ingredients in the products that trigger my pimples. I stopped using them after a while because I do not like the smell smell of tea tree in the products.

On the first day I got it, I mix a drop in my normal moisturizer and gently rub it onto my face. I can immediately see the differences on my skin the next day. It dries up the wound and calm my skin effectively. However, I also notice that my skin seems dry. I can feel that my palms are dry too due to the direct application of the lavender essential oil.

What I do then is to dilute the 5 drops of lavender essential oil in 7ml carrier oil. Drip 1-3 drops to apply on the face and follow by moisturizer. After a week, I had a facial appointment, the beautician was surprised to find my acne suddenly in control. I told her what I used and she said just to note that essential oils are very concentrated, she suggested me to dilute it further so that it wont cause my skin become dry. As I noticed the effects and less breakouts, I no longer apply the diluted lavender essential oil to my whole face and on the spots only.  After 3 weeks, I am now more confident to wear foundation without concealer to come to work. Most importantly, there is no longer feeling like volcanoes 🌋awaiting for the right time to erupt on my face. 😓 This is serious, no joke. 🙈 Lavender's calming quality really soothe my skin. Its anti-inflammatory also treats the wounds on my face and kills the bacteria due to my bad habit of touching my face every now and then.

💞 for lavender essential oil, within a month, I can see a lot of improvement it does to my skin.

Studying which essential oils to add on to my daily skincare routine and I will definitely update it here. 

By the way, if you are interested to try out, here is where I get my essential oil from.