Thoughts

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8 Ways to Naturally Colour Soap

April 21, 2013 in Body, DIY, Thoughts | 22 comments

I’ve been asked a few times over the past couple months how I colour my soaps. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a store like Lush or The Body Shop branding itself as “natural”, and seeing how many artificial, petroleum-derived colourants they use in their products. That’s just not my style.

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I tend to use natural colourants, ranging from naturally coloured oils to oxides. The saponification process is a bit of a wild card, in that you never know how a coloured ingredient will be effected afterwards. Apparently rosehip extract, which is bright pink, turns black turning saponification. Whoops, haha. Anyhow, here’s how I colour my soaps, without the use of any artificial dyes.

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Why I Use Lard or Tallow in My Soap (And Why You Should, Too)

March 10, 2013 in DIY, Thoughts | 33 comments

I wasn’t originally going to publish this today, but I received a few comments on yesterday’s entry about the use of tallow in soap making. I’ve also had a quite a few questions over the years about the use of lard and tallow in my soaps, so I thought I’d finally bite the bullet, as it were, and write a full entry on why I use it, and what the alternatives are if you are morally opposed to using animal products.

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DIY Body Product Equipment You Need

February 22, 2013 in Body, DIY, Thoughts | 13 comments

Well, I’ve been making some neat products (and some great messes) over the last few years with my beloved DIY products. In the process, I’ve figured out that there are two categories of equipment; things that you can share between your kitchen and food prep life, and things you cannot. There are also things that can be shared, but are a huge pain in the backside to clean once they’ve crossed into the DIY world. So, I thought I’d warn you with a list of things I learned the hard way.

Things you definitely want a dedicated DIY version of

  1. A coffee grinder—these things are amazing for making any kind of make-up; mincing herbs for soap, salts, and scrubs; blitzing titanium dioxide for dissolving into soap; and anything else that requires a lot of finicky mixing or annoying chopping. Pick one up at Value Village for $5. You won’t regret it, I promise.
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Valentines Day Feast Menu

February 4, 2013 in Cooking, Recipe, Thoughts | 9 comments

Going out for dinner on Valentine’s Day is like going shopping in that last week before Christmas, except now you’re forcing someone to come with you. It’s a rather odd ritual, when you think about it. When was the last time you thought “Gee, I’d really like to share an intimate, heartwarming, candlelit meal with my significant other, 40 other couples, and a waiter?”.

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Anyhow, that’s why I think a homemade meal is the best way to go. Not just any meal, though—a feast. A feast worthy of love and leftovers. And whenever I think feast, I think Indian. It’s easier than you think to whip yourself up a miniature buffet as most of the prep overlaps—use your food processor to chop up a few onions, and then to make a garlic/ginger paste. After that you pretty much just have to sauté the onions, garlic, and ginger with different spices, add some veggies/lentils/etc., top it off with broth/tomatoes/cream/coconut milk, and let simmer. Do that a few times, et voila. Feast.

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Grandpa Jim

February 3, 2013 in Thoughts | 8 comments

I’m sorry to say that my grandfather, Grandpa Jim, passed away early on December 18th. While most of you did not know him, I wanted to take some time to share some of my favourite memories and photos of him. I’ve been spending the last few days sifting through all my happy memories of growing up with Grandpa in Calgary.

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