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In this episode, we feature Suganya, a young mother on her passion in soap making. Watch her videos as she shares her soap making journey and handmade liquid soap recipe. Meet The Makers: Suganya "Inspired by my 2 years old son to make showering fun, I started off by making a simple melt & pour elephant soap. I progress on to make liquid soap for my husband and has been continuing my making journey ever since." - Suganya There’s no feeling, no emotion in the world more beautiful than a mother’s unconditional love and care for her children. Suganya's journey started with a simple request from her son and she has been making her own handmade soaps ever since for her family. Making the switch to natural products is something that every single person will do differently - especially when it means doing it for the whole family. Each of us is unique and may require some time to change our habit from buying on-the-shelf products to using natural handmade soaps. Read our 5 tips to get you started on using natural handmade soaps. Suganya started out with a fun and simple Melt & Pour Soap making class as she wants to make animal shaped soaps for her son. Her whole idea was to make showering fun. When they first moved here in Singapore, her husband's skin was dry as he was acclimatising to the weather condition in Singapore. They avoid harsh soaps, as these are more likely to strip the skin of moisture making dry skin look even worse. Now, she makes her own plant-based liquid soap for her husband which are gentler to the skin.  Aside from body wash, you can also make other liquid based soaps for laundry, dishwashing, shampoo and handwash. Learn more about Natural All-Purpose cleaner for your home. Join our Community of Soap Makers! If you have always wanted to give soap making a shot, come say hello to us! Seasoned soap makers are also welcomed! We just love to gather soap makers together and form a little community! Our studio is conveniently located at 81 Ubi Avenue 4 #10-19 UB.ONE Singapore 408830 (We are just 5 mins walk from Tai Seng MRT). See Class Schedule here. Try Suganya's Soap Recipe! Cold Process Liquid Soap Ingredients: Coconut Oil: 350g Castor Oil: 50g Sunflower Oil: 199g Potassium Hydroxide (KOH 85% purity): 124g Distilled Water: 372g Watch the step-by-step demo on How To Make Cold Process Liquid Soap Get other Soap Recipes: View Rose & Charcoal Soap Recipe. New! 2-class Package Perfect for beginners looking for a quick start. 1x CP Liquid Soap Making Class 1x Advanced CP Soap Making Class FREE 1x Melt & Pour soap making class FREE 6-month Unlimited DIY plan #sugarnspicesg #SoapMakersSeries #MeetTheMakers #coldprocesssoap #singaporemaker #natural #handmade #sg #singapore #diy #roseandcharcoalsoap #soaprecipe #passion #lye #saponification

Feel good about cleaning with this natural all purpose cleaner made with simple plant-based ingredients and refreshing essential oils! I'am a clean-freak! Yes, there you go, I've said it. Being a mom of 2 little ones makes it twice as hard to keep the house clean and neat. There are so many types of cleaning detergents that I previously used everyday and if I may add, most of them are filled with chemicals. Don't believe? Check the labels! My son had a terrible eczema outbreak when he was a toddler. As a mom, it hurts me to see my boy in pain each time it gets dry, especially on his hands and knees. We highly suspect it was from the floor cleaner that we used as he was learning to crawl at that time. Ever since then, I was determined to find an alternative for all the cleaning solutions that I frequently used and at the same time,  finding a way to minimise the clutters of cleaning bottles under my sink storage. It was only a year ago that I got to know about Sugar & Spice soap making classes. They conduct various soap classes which are suitable for beginners like me. I was especially excited for the Cold-Process Liquid Soap Making Class where you get to learn to make Liquid Castile Soap from scratch! I have learnt a lot during the class and I have come to love the cleaning powers of vinegars, baking soda and Castile soap - as well as essential oils! They are all made up of natural ingredients and are ALL amazing at cleaning just about everything you own. Castile soap is a pure soap made from vegetable oils — usually olive oil and coconut oil — and lye (potassium hydroxide for liquid soap), and just a few other simple ingredients. It is the traditional way to make soap. There are no harsh detergents, and it’s also VERY moisturizing and nourishing with the oils it’s made of. Because of its natural ingredients, I now get my little ones to help me with the cleaning duties around the house. Ever since I know how to make my own Castile Soap, I simply use this as the base for all of my cleaning products. I love using sweet orange and lemon essential oil for cleaning the kitchen and dishes because they have a fantastic ability to cut through tough grease. However, in my bathroom I love using eucalyptus and tea tree oil to help prevent mildew. That’s right, I only need to have two different variations of this spray to keep my house clean. Once you make your own you will become just as obsessed with how easy and safe this cleaner is too! Natural All-Purpose Cleaner Ingredients: 2 cups distilled water 4 tablespoons liquid Castile soap 10 drops essential oil (sweet orange or lemon are both great for cutting through grease) 1 glass spray bottle Instructions Measure the distilled water into a glass measuring cup, and add in remaining ingredients. Carefully pour the mixture into the glass spray bottle, and shake well to mix. Recommended Classes based on the above article: Cold-Process Liquid Castile Soap Advanced Cold-Process Soap Making Class #MakeTheSwitch #LoveYourSkin #SafeForKids #SayNoToHarshChemicals #CleanHomeHappyMom #CastileSoap #PlantBased #EssentialOil #Eczema #SugarandSpiceSG #Workshopsg #SoapStudio #SoapRecipe Nora is the contributor of this article and she is continuing her passion in advocating and educating the benefits of using plant-based handmade soaps by joining Sugar & Spice as an Instructor.

Harmful ingredients exist in all shower gels, which are carcinogenic and bad for health. Most people do not know or do not bother about the seven most harmful ingredients in shower gel. These ingredients damage our brain, disrupt hormonal balance and cause cancer if we are continuously exposed to them in long term. We should always read the contents of shower gel. Familiarise ourselves with the contents before using the product and never select products only because of attractive advertisement, appealing packaging or nice fragrance. The most common ingredients in shower gel that risk our health are: 1. Parabens Butylparaben, propylparaben, methylparaben and ethylparaben are the most regular parabens found in shower gels. They are used as preservative. They disrupt our hormonal balance, which increases the risk of developing breast cancer, skin cancer and prostate cancer aggressively. 2. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS / SLES) This emulsifier is used in many cosmetic products such as shampoos, toothpaste, shower gels, liquid soaps and laundry detergent. SLS upsets the natural moisture of the skin, and in combination with other chemicals creates nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic. 3. Dioxane Dioxane occurs in a number of shower gels as a solvent. Studies show that dioxane is a carcinogen and toxic to the brain, central nervous system, kidneys and liver. 4. Propylene glycol This glycol is a common ingredient in products for hygiene. It's associated with dermatitis or eczema, the abnormality of the kidneys and liver and can increase the sensitivity of the skin. 5. Diethanolamine (DEA) DEA reacts quickly with preservatives to create an extremely potent carcinogen called nitrosodiethanolamine (NDEA). NDEA is easily absorbed through the skin and is linked with bladder, esophagus, liver and stomach cancer. It also prevents the uptake of choline (part of the vitamin B), required for the functioning of brain. To eliminate your exposure to NDEA, avoid these ingredients: Cocamide DEA or Cocamide Diethanolamine, DEA Lauryl Sulfate or Diethanolamine Lauryl Sulfate, Lauramide DEA or Lauramide Diethanolamine, Linoleamide DEA or Linoleamide Diethanolamine, Oleamide DEA or Oleamide Diethanolamine, and any product containing TEA or Triethanolamine. 6. Perfumes Perfumes in shower gels are typically derived from petroleum products and can dry your skin. Toluene is found in many synthetic flavors and can lead to anemia, decrease in the number of red blood cells, damage to the liver and kidneys, and interferes with the development of the fetus. Excellent alternative for these odors is a mixture of essential oils or herbal fruit extracts that their labels are marked as "natural flavor". 7. Triclosan Triclosan reacts with chlorine from the water to create chloroform, a known human carcinogen. When mixed with other ingredients, which are used for disinfection of the water, the chloroform can increase trihalomethanes, which are proven to induce cancer in laboratory animals. After decades of use in antibacterial soaps, the FDA finally banned triclosan from soap in 2016 over concerns about its long-term safety and contribution to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Unfortunately, it is still used in more than 2,000 consumer products like toothpaste, detergents, cosmetics, clothing, kitchenware, furniture, toys, carpets, plastics, and paints. We discussed in detail how this chemical is bad for both the nature and health in another article: 7 Reasons Why Antibacterial Soap Is Bad? Are we taking our comfortable and convenient life style for granted? Be wary of the most dangerous mindset in a developed society: all products sit on store shelves are safe to use. Take a look at some scary evidences in the following articles to see how wrong we can be. Study Finds Cancer-Causing Chemical in Nearly 100 Shampoos and Soaps The Top 12 Cancer-Causing products in the Average Home To find brands that are transparent and do not use any harmful or questionable ingredients, reading and understanding the ingredients list on product labels is essential. Check out these 3 useful tools that can make your search for the safety information on product ingredients super fast and easy. Want to have more control in choosing safer personal care products without breaking the bank? Why don't you try making them yourself? Join our Liquid Soap Making Class or Bar Soap Making Classes and learn how to make your own body wash, shampoo, laundry and dish washing bar/liquid soap from the safest and natural ingredients. Too busy to make? No worry, check out some popular handmade soaps available in our online shop. All our products are handcrafted from natural plant-based ingredients, free from toxic chemicals and palm oil, 100% handmade in Singapore and registered with the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) of Singapore. #health #Soap #carcinogen #shower #showergel

Featuring Real Stories from soap makers in Singapore. Li Ting shares how a change in lifestyle can turn into an unexpected start in her soap making journey. AN UNEXPECTED START I’ve never bought a single bar soap for myself. My closest encounters with bar soaps were the hand soaps I use in hotel bathrooms during business trips or vacations. So years back, I would never have imagined myself to ever make my own soap. My interest in soaps piqued on my journey towards a low waste lifestyle. After seeing pictures after pictures of children swimming in plastic-laden rivers, whales dying of starvation with a stomach full of plastic waste and realizing that plastic almost doesn’t ever go away, I started reviewing every aspects of my home to see how I can minimize my own contribution to plastics. In the process of swapping to everything reusables, the notion of hand/body/hair wash bottles being single-use items hit me. Even though we might use the same bottle for a month or more, each bottle is used once and thrown into the trash or recycling bin, unless we reuse it for other purposes. But there is a limit to how many we can reuse. On the contrary, after we use up a bar of soap, nothing is left behind! I started watching every video I could find on soap making, reading up on the benefits. I was taken aback to find out that all the body wash that my family and I have been using our entire lives are really detergents and not soaps. When I looked closely at the ingredients, I realize that even the brands touted to be most gentle to our skin contain synthetic ingredients that potentially can do more harm than good. Looking at the number of people around me, young and old who suffer from eczema and other skin conditions, it occurred to me that soaps with all-natural ingredients, without synthetic additives to make more lather or give a better smell may be a gentler option for them. But the irony - it is difficult to find options that contain less. Majority of soap makers started off wanting to make a better soap for health considerations. I, on the other hand, started my journey to save our planet. But the health benefits gave me a strong conviction that making my own soap IS the way to go. YOU CAN’T MAKE SOAP IN YOUR KITCHEN IN SINGAPORE I was really excited to design my own soap so that I have full control over what goes in, but to my dismay, I could not buy the one key ingredient to make soap in Singapore! I’ve watched soap makers all over the world making soaps in their kitchen on Youtube, but I didn’t realise that sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a controlled material in Singapore. Lye, as soap makers more commonly call it, are only sold in limited places that obtained NEA’s license/permit and even so, lye cannot be taken out of those facilities. Not giving up, I searched further and chanced upon Sugar & Spice. At Sugar and Spice, soap makers can buy lye and rent the facilities to DIY our own soaps. That was my glimmer of hope. I remembered texting to request for a recce of the location so I could decide what equipment and ingredients I needed to bring. I wasn’t sure a recce would be welcomed so I was really glad when my request was readily accepted. That was when I met Nora for the first time, where she super patiently answered my endless list of questions. SUGAR & SPICE – A HEAVEN FOR SOAP MAKERS How would I describe Sugar and Spice? It’s a heaven for Soap Makers! I saw the pictures of Sugar & Spice studio when I browsed their website, and the actual place looks every inch as welcoming. It’s pretty, it’s cosy, nothing like a laboratory that I was initially prepared for. And the best part of it all, everything you need to make your first bar of soap – equipment and ingredients are available. There was no need for me to buy my own blender, soap mould or soap cutter. For anyone starting out to make soap, there’s literally zero fixed cost. And if you choose to, you can use your own carrier and essential oil, there’s no questions asked. There’s also an instructor around during our DIY workshops, so help is always at hand should we need it during the process. Sugar & Spice is open 7 days a week, so as long as you can secure a vacant slot, you can make soap! MY FIRST TIME I will never forget my first-time making soap. Even though I had gone through proper training and watched countless videos, I couldn’t stop running the whole process through my head to make sure nothing goes wrong. Checking every equipment is ready before getting started, accurately measuring out the oils, and getting the temperatures of my lye solution and oils to be within close proximity before getting them to saponify was nerve wrecking yet exhilarating. Even when my batter had already reached thin trace, I wasn’t confident and added the essential oils a tad too late, ending up with a trace thicker than I desired. I’m sure many soap makers would be able to identify with these experiences. No matter how many times we make soaps, there’s still something to learn every time, especially when we alter our recipes. And that’s what keeps it interesting! I was very lucky that there was an experienced soap maker during my first DIY workshop. She was very kind to watch over my process and jump in when I needed help. I was inspired by how composed she was, packing away equipment that she finished using all throughout the process. That motivated me to master clean-as-I-go in my future soap making sessions. WHERE MY JOURNEY IS HEADING Staying true to the reason I started making soap, I made my first batches of soaps for families and friends, to have them consider swapping from bottled body/hand wash to a good old bar of natural soap. With the hope to promote this swap further, I started my.naked.bar to make soaps bare of packaging and bare of synthetic additives. Nothing fancy, just cold process soap with all the goodness of a rich blend of oil and natural additives. Soaps that could be even bare of essential oils for those who have allergy concerns. Video from: The Straits Times In 2017, Singapore produced 8,443 tonnes of solid waste daily. Our landfills at Semakau is projected to fill up in 2035, just 16 years from now. There’s only so much recycling we can do. The way to go is to REDUCE our consumption and personal contribution to all waste alike. Li Ting is a regular soap maker at Sugar & Spice and a strong advocate towards a low-waste lifestyle. Join her in I am an Earth Defender to do a little more for our planet every day. For our planet, for our children. #JoinOurCommunity #SoapMakersUnite #cpsoap #allnatural #EcoLiving #sugarnspicesg #semakau #sg #singapore #ourhome #ourplanet #soapclasses #soapbusiness #mumpreneur #noplastic #soapbars #plasticpollution #minimalist #lowwaste #ecolifestyle #ecofamily

The Team at Sugar & Spice Studio is introducing a new Soap Makers series this August. In this episode, we feature Soap Makers from different background in Singapore to learn what drives their passion in soap making. Meet The Makers: Marianah, who will be sharing her soap making journey and handmade soap recipe. Meet The Makers: Marianah "I've always had a fascination with handmade soaps for as long as I can remember. Before there were workshops, I could only buy them online or whenever I travel. But now I can finally create my own soaps using my own recipes." - Marianah Marianah has been fascinated with handmade soaps since she was teenager. She has been reading about soap making but she faces a common issue with all soap makers that wishes to start out their soap making journey - Where to buy Lye in Singapore? So, where can you get lye in Singapore for soap making? Lye is one of the key ingredient in soap making and soap makers in Singapore can only get lye by renting a soap making workshop approved by NEA with a license/permit. These workshops must meet the strict safety requirements imposed by the authority. As lye is only allowed to be used in these premises, it has become illegal and irresponsible (to ourselves and the environment) to use lye and make cold process soap at home. We are a group of soap makers who faced the same problem of getting lye to make our DIY cold process soap in the beginning. Eventually we decided to setup a workshop by applying to NEA for the permit and started out our very first soap maker's workshop in early 2017. Now our workshop allows soap makers around Singapore to gather here and make their own cold process soaps with lye safely without any worry of compromising the environment and our own safety. Prior cold-process knowledge & safety handling of lye is required before you could book for a DIY workshop at our studio so if you are new to soap making, you could start with a 2-hr Basic Cold Process Soap Making Class or Cold Process Liquid Soap Making Class. Join our Community of Soap Makers! If you have always wanted to give soap making a shot, come say hello to us! Seasoned soap makers are also welcomed! We just love to gather soap makers together and form a little community! Our studio is conveniently located at 81 Ubi Avenue 4 #10-19 UB.ONE Singapore 408830 (We are just 5 mins walk from Tai Seng MRT). See Class Schedule here. Try Marianah's Soap Recipe! Rose and Charcoal Soap: Olive Oil: 370 g Coconut Oil: 280 g Shea Butter: 110 g Cocoa Butter: 56 g Castor Oil: 25 g Sodium Hydroxide: 120 g Distilled Water: 268 g Lavender Essential Oil: 25 g Rose Geranium Essential Oil: 10g Charcoal Powder: 2 tsps diluted in 3 tsps of olive oil Rose Clay Powder: 2 tsps diluted in 3 tsps of distilled water Watch a full step-by-step video on How To Make Rose & Charcoal Soap. August Happenings! Natural Skincare Workshop (Moisturizer & Serum) 25th August 2019 Learn how to make your own natural moisturizer & serum! Enjoy Natural Goodness With Handmade Soaps. Buy 5 @ $54 only! Pamper yourself with our set of cold process handmade soaps. #sugarnspicesg #soapmakersseries #meetthemakers #coldprocesssoap #singaporemaker #natural #handmade #sg #singapore #diy #roseandcharcoalsoap #soaprecipe #passion #lye #saponification #handmadesoap

This may sound unbelievable to most of the clean freaks, but no joke, if you are unaware of this biggest joke in the history of soap, read on to learn the facts and reasons why antibacterial soap (either in liquid or bar form) does more harm than good to both the nature and health. Rediscover the truth that washing with just plain soap and running water remains one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and to prevent spreading germs to others. 1. Antibacterial soap is no more effective than regular soap Several studies have looked into the effectiveness of antibacterial soaps. A study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found that there was "no significant difference" and antimicrobial soap was "no more effective than plain soap" at preventing infectious illness. Another study found that the incidence of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea did not differ significantly between households given plain soap compared with those given antibacterial soap. An analysis about the effect of hand hygiene on infectious disease risk also discovered that the use of antibacterial soap showed “little” added benefit compared with the use of non-antibacterial soap. As mentioned in an announcement of U.S Food & Drug Administration (FDA), research has produced no evidence that antibacterial soap provides any health benefits as compared to old-fashioned soap. This means that if you are washing your hands or body with antibacterial soap, you are exposing yourself and the environment to increased amounts of the chemicals used in the soap without any measurable benefit. 2. Antibacterial soap is bad for the environment When an antibacterial soap is used, it doesn't just disappear down the drain. It gets into our environment and could have disastrous consequences. As Eco Watch reported, the antibacterial chemicals in soap aren't completely removed by wastewater treatment facilities. The chemicals get transferred into the ecosystem and could contaminate surface water. The most common antibacterial additive found in consumer soaps is a compound called triclosan. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the use of triclosan as a pesticide! We highlighted some harmful effects of this chemical in our previous article - How Harmful Is Shower Gel? Now we are going to share more facts and data about the risks of using this chemical. A Swiss company called Ciba-Geigy was the first to synthesise and patent triclosan in 1964, and, by 1970, it was in use around the world as a surgical scrub in hospitals. Today, it is estimated that 75% of antibacterial liquid soaps sold to consumers contains triclosan. Research has shown that small quantities of the chemical can persist after treatment at sewage plants and disrupt algae's ability to perform photosynthesis. More evidences show that accumulation of triclosan in the environment negatively impacts aquatic ecosystems. US Geological Survey (USGS) also frequently detected the chemical in streams and other bodies of water. The chemical is fat-soluble and it builds up in fatty tissues. This raises a concern among scientists that it can biomagnify to a greater levels in the tissues of animals higher up the food chain, as the triclosan of all the plants and animals below them is concentrated. Evidence of this possibility turned up in 2009, when a survey of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of South Carolina and Florida found concerning levels of the chemical in their blood. 3. Antibacterial soap contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria Maybe you've heard about how the overuse of antibiotics is causing the rise of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs." Well, the same can be said of antibacterial products like soap. As epidemiologist Allison Aiello explains to Scientific American, when bacteria are exposed to triclosan, they can undergo genetic mutations. These same mutations not only protect them from triclosan (or whatever other antibacterial product you are using), but can make them more difficult to kill with other antibiotics. This is currently a huge problem in medicine. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists it as one of the ten threats to global health in 2019. Several studies have hinted that triclosan is fueling the development of resistant bacteria. This article from Harvard University illustrates in detail how the phenomenon works. 4. Antibacterial soap disrupts hormones Animal studies have shown that triclosan alters the way some hormones work in the body and raises potential concerns for the effects of use in humans. A number of studies have found that, in rats, frogs and other animals, triclosan appears to interfere with the body's regulation of thyroid hormone, perhaps because it chemically resembles the hormone closely enough that it can bind to its receptor sites. Studies done on cells and animals in labs suggest the chemical can impact hormone signalling and other biological processes. All these findings give rise to the worries that the use of triclosan could lead to problems such as infertility, artificially-advanced early puberty, obesity and cancer. 5. Antibacterial soap increases risk of allergies There are a lot of theories about why allergies are on the rise and one is that the overly-sanitised environment that we live in is harming the development of our immune system. A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology supports this theory when it found that triclosan leads to food allergies among children, including peanut allergies. Another study discovered that children with prolonged exposure to triclosan have a higher chance of developing hay fever. 6. Antibacterial soap impairs muscle function The list of risks associated with triclosan goes on! A study, reported in Smithsonian Magazine, found that triclosan "hinders human muscle contractions at the cellular level and inhibits normal muscle functioning in both fish and mice." The researchers weren't even exposing cells to super-high dosages during the study. They used levels of triclosan similar to what we experience every day. This is especially concerning given other findings that the chemical can penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream more easily than originally thought. 7. Antibacterial soap may promote the growth of tumour and cancer Recent evidence suggests that triclosan may play a role in tumour and cancer development, perhaps through its estrogenicity or ability to inhibit fatty acid synthesis. While both triclosan and triclocarban (another common ingredient in antibacterial products) persist in the environment and are a source of toxic and carcinogenic compounds including dioxins, chloroform, and chlorinated anilines, more and more scientists, medical doctors, and public health professionals are concerned about the continued widespread use of the chemicals in more than 2,000 consumer products. These products include soaps, toothpastes, detergents, cosmetics, clothing, kitchenware, furniture, toys, carpets, plastics, and paints. Because of that, people’s long-term exposure to triclosan is higher than previously thought, raising concerns about the potential risks associated with the use of this ingredient over a lifetime. One reason why plain soap is still the best – Less is more One of the main reasons why we are having a massive health problem on our hands is there are more and more harmful chemicals like triclosan get into the food and water systems. It seems like they already have gotten into our systems since studies found traces of triclosan in 97% of breast milk samples from lactating women and in the urine of nearly 75% of people tested! So, it is rather obvious to spot the one solid reason why plain soap is still the best option as compared to antibacterial soap – the absence of harmful chemicals like triclosan. Washing with plain soap and water has been shown to reduce bacterial presence on hands by 82%. Studies upon studies point to the beneficial health impacts of washing with just plain soap. Soap retains its place on the throne of personal care products with an amazingly simple two-fold effect: one chemical and one behavioral. Clearly the chemical properties of plain soap and its tendency for increasing washing time are enough to dramatically increase the health of consumers without adding antibacterial compounds. Washing with plain soap will remain a cornerstone of public health and should continue to be a major part of your daily hygiene. To really minimise, if not eliminate, your exposure to harmful chemicals, consider switching to non-toxic products now! To find brands of soap that are transparent and do not use any harmful or questionable ingredients, reading and understanding the ingredients list on product labels is essential. Check out these 3 useful tools that can make your search for the safety information on product ingredients super fast and easy.

Learn how you can turn a Plain Jane looking soap into something beautiful. Most soap design techniques are a combination of basic techniques including blending of colours, layering and embedding. Here are some of the different techniques and variations you can try: Soap Design Technique: LAYERING Bored of single coloured soap? Play with colours and simply add layers! Match the right colour tone and play around with the different thickness and patterns of layering. This is one of the easiest way to move away from that boring-looking soap. If you are more adventurous, add gradients or ombre version of layering using shades or hues to create a pattern of colour change throughout a bar of soap. By taking advantage of the different colourants, the gradient can appear seamless and beautiful. Soap Design Technique: EMBEDDING Want to add depth to your soap? Add in some embeds. Sometimes, adding uneven shapes and colours to the soap can be surprisingly beautiful, adding a touch of uniqueness in every bar. This technique is also a good way to make full use of your extra soaps. Just cut them into pieces and add them into your new batch of soap and viola! Soap Design Technique: POURING There are many pouring techniques that you can try when you play with colours. Seen here is the watermark design created with dancing funnel pouring technique. In this design, to get the watermark effect, we pour different colours alternately. As we have to pour the colours into different columns layer by layer, timing is the key to avoid the soap batter becomes thicker while you pour in the design. Soap Design Technique: SWIRLING Soap making is a process of creating art. Visualize the pattern, add colours and swirl according to the pattern that you desire, and you will be surprised by an art piece created by yourself. Each bar and pattern is unique and you can see the beauty within only after cutting your loaf of soap. Seen here is the beautiful Butterfly Swirl. Want to master this and other swirling techniques? Learn more than 10 swirling techniques to design your soap! Soap Design Technique: 3D SOAP ART Upgrade your handcrafted soap from conventional 2D design to a stunning 3D soap art! Soap clays are fun and you can easily knead it into the shapes that you want. Learn the most delicate soap art techniques from Japan! In this workshop, you will learn how to make soap clay, flower confetti & 3D art soap. Alternatively, download these tutorials to make some intricate flower confetti from home. Expect some head turns when you add this technique to your soap.

On average, a woman uses 12 skincare and cosmetic products containing 168 unique ingredients every single day, according to the Environmental Working Group. Most of these products contain endocrine disrupters, which can affect hormonal balance and fertility. Some even contain ingredients with clear links to cancer. I believe more women need to know this information as we put them on our face and lips, we touch or kiss our kids with them every day without knowing some of them might not be safe for us. A huge problem in the regulation on personal care products Think ingredients with proven harmful effects are regulated in personal care products? Think again. A product can go straight from manufacturing to store shelves without any type of approval or mandatory safety testing in the first place. In Singapore, the Health Science Authority (HSA) regularly performs sample testing on cosmetic products (including skincare and toiletries) marketed locally. Prior to selling or supplying the products, distributors are required to notify HSA with each product’s full ingredient list. When a product failed a test (such as testing for heavy metal, arsenic, microbial contamination, etc.), or found containing any prohibited substance in its ingredient list, HSA will then direct the distributor to stop selling and recall the products from stores. That means there’s basically no way to be sure a product is safe before it’s sold in the market, and no way to get unsafe products off of store shelves other than sample testing and recalls done by the cosmetics sellers or suppliers themselves. This “passive” regulatory practice for cosmetic products is adopted by most of the countries, including US and European countries, mainly because mandatory safety testing on all products prior to selling demands exceptional huge resources. “It is the responsibility of sellers and suppliers to ensure that the cosmetic products they market are safe for use, do not contain prohibited substances and comply with Singapore's regulatory requirements,” said HSA when it announced 18 cosmetic products found to be unsafe in April 2018. Self regulation is the only regulation? So do cosmetic companies do a good job regulating themselves responsibly? There are definitely times when self-regulation has failed. - In early July 2019, HSA warned the public against using 4 skin creams that were found to have undeclared potent ingredients including steroids, antibiotics and antifungals. - In January 2019, HSA found 5 cosmetic creams to contain mercury and potent prohibited ingredients. - In July 2018, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay a $4.96 billion settlement to 22 women who found asbestos in talc in baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. - In April 2018, HSA has warned the public against buying or using 18 cosmetic products containing potent undeclared ingredients. - In mid 2017, HSA warned of high levels of mercury found in a whitening cream sold online and another 2 creams. - Guthy-Renker, the manufacturer of WEN hair products, settled a class-action lawsuit for $26 million after consumers said it caused rashes and hair loss. - After decades of use in soaps, the FDA finally banned triclosan from soap in 2016 over concerns about its long-term safety and contribution to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Unfortunately, it is still used in many products like toothpaste, mascara, and foundation. There are lots of chemicals known to be harmful but are still widely used in the cosmetic and personal care industries. Why? Authorities are a bit slow in this context as they have to wait for substantial and concrete scientific evidences before they can ban a chemical which has been commonly used for many years. The situation will get worse when it comes to the long-term negative effects of a harmful chemical. Sometime it can take more than a generation to reach a conclusion. Remember the history of our fight against leaded petrol and the war against tobacco? Choosing safer skincare is up to us Because there is very limited regulation of harmful ingredients in personal care products, it is, sadly to say, solely up to us to choose safer products for ourselves and our families. On a day to day basis, we are exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals from all kinds of sources — pesticides, plastics, car exhaust, and more that we can’t control. However, choosing safer skincare and cosmetic products is something we can control. This is a big part of our daily lives. Removing harmful ingredients from the products we use daily can have a big impact not just to our own health and happiness, but to the environment and economy as well. With less harmful chemicals being used, less toxins being produced, less people getting sick, the world will turn cleaner and people will become healthier and wealthier. While they are few and far between, there are still a number of companies that are paving the way for transparency, responsibility, and safety testing in cosmetics and skincare. Again, it’s not about blindly choosing brands that are “natural” or “organic” as they can contain harmful ingredients or be contaminated with heavy metals, just like one of the brands recalled by HSA in early 2019. How to choose safer cosmetics and skincare Choosing safer products involves finding companies that are transparent with their ingredients and committed to safety testing, and knowing what ingredients to avoid in their products so you can make informed decisions. This is not an easy task, as many “natural” brands don’t actually test their materials or are completely void of active ingredients, which give products their anti-aging or acne-fighting effects. To find brands that are transparent and do not use any harmful or questionable ingredients, reading and understanding the ingredients list on product labels is essential. But this demands lots of effort as it is rather tedious and time consuming to scrutinise a list full of indecipherable chemical names. We certainly need some tools that can make this process less painful. 3 Easy tools that help you check cosmetic and skincare ingredients quickly Here is the good news! There are 3 useful tools available online that can make your search for the safety information on cosmetic and skincare ingredients super fast and easy: 1. Environmental Working Group (EWG)’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. It provides a very comprehensive online profile for cosmetics and personal care ingredients and products, and their potential hazards and health concerns indicated by a safety rating between 1 and 10 (1 being the safest and 10 the least safe). You can easily get the following information by searching the name of an ingredient on its website: - Organ system toxicity & environmental toxicity reports with data sources. - Commercial products, brands and companies that use the ingredient. 2. Cosmeticsinfo.org provides scientific facts and the reasons an ingredient is used in cosmetics and personal care products. Search the name of an ingredient on its website and detailed safety information of the ingredient with data sources will be shown in an easy-to-read manner. However, as it's very much based on US’s FDA standard, its information may not be as thorough as EWG which covers sources of US, Canada and EU. For example, it failed to highlight the risk of Hydroquinone in cosmetic and skincare products. Hydroquinone is already prohibited by HSA in over-the-counter skincare products because inappropriate use of Hydroquinone can change the user’s skin colour, and cause skin reactions such as rashes, redness, tingling and burning. 3. Decode INCI is a very user-friendly skincare and cosmetic ingredients search engine. You can easily perform a search by uploading a label photo using your mobile phone. I have tried using a photo of the first draft label of our newly launched body lotion and the search results showed up in a clear and organised way. This tool is very handy especially when you are browsing some products in a cosmetic store. The only drawback is that the database is less comprehensive as compared to the above two. For example, there is no description at all for Hydroquinone… So which tool should you use? Here’s a good tip: For a start, use the photo uploading feature of Decode INCI to upload the photo of a product label with your mobile phone. If you can’t find the information of an ingredient there, copy-paste the ingredient name on EWG or cosmeticinfo.org to crosscheck the information. There is no need to type an ingredient name at all because Decode INCI will automatically convert your label photo into texts which you can copy and paste them anywhere! Simple and easy, right? Do try them out now. Hope you will enjoy using these convenient tools to evaluate the safety of your cosmetics and skincare :) Want to have more control in choosing safer skincare products? Why don't you try making them yourself? Join our skincare workshops and learn how to make your own skincare products from the safest and natural ingredients. Don't forget to register your interest and get notified of our upcoming workshops and events. Too busy to make? No worries, we can help you customise your skincare so that you can have full control of what's actually in your skincare. Find out more about the active ingredients and herbal extracts that we use here. Do check out our popular natural skincare products too!

Just one month after a heated discussion with my eldest son about the “moral high ground” between humanity and nature, last Sunday my second son discussed with me over the dinner about a new documentary on Netflix recommended by his brother - Our Planet. We were talking about how fast our mother nature can recover her balance and abundance of life when she is left undisturbed by human exploitation – a discovery highlighted in almost every episode of the series. What made me ponder after the conversation with my second son, was indeed how fast my two sons have grown up on the outside and changed on the inside… They are 20 and 18 years old this year. As a mother of two sons, I have seen them being influenced heavily by friends, media, Internet, etc. over the years. I did not notice or think about, however, the influence of my motherhood nature on them. They have never explicitly expressed if they support my plan to set up and run Sugar & Spice to encourage more people to opt for handmade products and DIY life style, which are good for the nature and health altogether. I had been assuming that they might not understand as it is not a big and lucrative business, but more like a small little drive to promote some public awareness. Now I guess my sons understand that, although they are still very obsessive over gaming and super lazy to study - most likely influenced by their sloppy mom as well. LOL Influence of a mother on her child may not be apparent, but it is always there. Such invisible presence has unimaginably huge impact on the life of a child. A mother's good influences will eventually create a caring and kind husband, father, or wife, mother in the future. Bad influences of her will do just the opposite. That's the power of motherhood. In the modern world where more and more mothers are facing tough challenges between family and career, the very subtle and gentle motherhood nature of all mothers keeps driving them to nurture and guide their young ones unconditionally, naturally and organically. This is just like our mother nature. She nourishes and embraces all of the lives on earth, without any discrimination. That's why we call her Mother Nature. Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! You are the most important person on earth in shaping a harmonious and peaceful world! Did Mother's Day slip your mind (again)? 14 Last Minute DIY Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day Our Planet is a series of documentary from Netflix created in collaboration with Silverback Productions and WWF. The series features jaw-dropping nature stories, grounded in the best science, and highlighting the most pressing challenges facing mother nature today.

Understand the therapeutic benefits of essential oils and how to use them at the comfort of your home. I have never been a huge fan of conventional medicine. I try to stay away from medications as much as I can and place a stronger focus on remedies of alternative medicine. In the past years, I have fallen in love with essential oils for their amazing healing properties. Essential oils are made by extracting the natural oils from various parts of plants. Typically, steam distillation is used to produce the oils. Steam will run through the plant breaking down the cells that carry the oil. The oil and steam are then carried to a cooling chamber where they are condensed and separated. Now let's take a look at the top five essential oils I always have on hand at home: 1. Lavender. Lavender oil has this fresh floral scent with a dash of sweetness and herby aroma. On top of its amazing scent, it is also the most versatile essential oils. Therapeutically, lavender oil has a calming effect which does wonders for those suffering from anxiety. Medicinally, it can be used as an antiseptic and pain reliever to soothe minor burns. Properties: Calming, Balancing Emotional or Mental: Calm, Composure, Use for emotional overload, Tension & Panic Physical: Headaches, Insomnia, Acne, Bruises, Burns, Asthma, Flu, Colic How to Use: Diffuse, Bath, Massage, Topical 2. Peppermint. Peppermint oil has a very stimulating yet soothing aroma. This stuff is amazing. Not only it is effective in arousing your mental sharpness but it can be used to relieve congestion, headaches, digestive problems and nausea. Properties: Fresh, Stimulating, Regulating Emotional or Mental: Clear thinking, Concentration, Use for mental fatigue Physical: Indigestion, Sinus, Congestion, Headaches, Gall bladder, Nausea How to Use: Diffuse, Topical Cautions: Could be sensitizing 3. Eucalyptus. This oil has a very fresh and clean aroma that is sure to open your airways up. I love to drop a little of this in my diffuser and it’s a great natural way to clear my nasal passages up. Properties: Refreshing, Stimulating Emotional or Mental: Dispels melancholy, Promotes optimism Physical: Asthma, Bronchitis, Coughs How to Use: Diffuse, Massage Cautions: Do not use with infants 4. Lemon. With its uplifting and fresh scent, lemon oil can help get rid of bad vibes and increase concentration and mental awareness. Feeling less inspired to get your flow on? Diffuse few drops in your bath and be ready to feel renewed. Properties: Refreshing, Purifying Emotional or Mental: Trust, Clarity, Concentration, Use for confusion, Indecision or Fatigue Physical: Antiseptic, Blood, Purifier, Rheumatism, Gout, Liver, Cleanser How to Use: Diffuse, Bath, Massage Caution: Photo-sensitizing, do not use on skin and exposure to sun 5. Tea Tree. A widely popular form of alternative medicine, tea tree oil is awesome! Not only is tea tree oil’s astringent properties great for alleviating oily secretions of the skin – think oily face & scalp issues – but its terpinen content soothes minor wounds without irritation. I love to add a few drops to my shampoo; it leaves my scalp squeaky clean. Properties: Antibiotic, Calming Emotional or Mental: Strength, Morale, Use for tension or Stress Physical: Acne, Athlete's foot, Chicken pox, Fungus, Burns How to Use: Diffuse, Topical Caution: Could be sensitizing Do make sure all essential oils that you purchase or use are 100% pure. As essential oils are very potent, you should always dilute them before applying them directly on your skin (except lavender). You can dilute essential oils with carrier oils or water depending on what you are going to use the essential oil for. If you have any health concern, please consult your physician first before trying out any essential oil as part of your home remedy. Recommended classes based on the above article: Understanding the Basics of Essential Oils and How to use them for Pain Relief Creating a Spa Experience at Home Reference: Essential Oil Use Chart #essentialoil #homeremedies #therapeuticbenefits #plantbased #homediy Nora is the contributor of this article and she is continuing her passion in advocating and educating the benefits of using plant-based remedies and handmade soaps by joining Sugar & Spice as an Instructor.

What is flower confetti in soap making? A flower confetti in soap making means an intricate confetti-size (less than 1.5cm in diameter) flower-shape decoration used in the making of handmade soap. It is usually handcrafted from soap clay. The term “flower confetti” was first used by Japanese soap artists who design their handmade soaps with these decorations to give the soap a 3D visual of delicate design. It is different from the “confetti soap” which refers to a bar soap that contains colourful soap shreds that look like pieces of confetti or sprinkles in the bar soap. A confetti soap Handmade soap designed with flower confetti is very popular in Japan thanks to its fine and detailed appearance that always makes people mistake a bar of soap as a small piece of beautiful cake. The unique techniques of making flower confetti have been available to Japanese only for many years because they demands for enormous patience, which is not lacking in most Japanese. It is irresistible to any hardcore soap maker who has ever seen these lovely soaps. We are soap makers too. We fell in love with them at the first sight and instantly spent months of effort to master the techniques. Now we are going to share what we have learned to the world. This might be the first time someone is sharing these techniques to the world outside of Japan! It will be totally worth it as we are able to see more soap makers around the world creating more pretty soaps with flower confetti :) Basic techniques to make flower confetti In general, making a flower confetti is very similar to making a cake decoration with fondant icing and clay modelling. Almost all fondant cake decorating and clay modelling techniques can be used to make flower confetti. The only huge difference is probably the size. The size of flower confetti is smaller than most conventional soap moulds and yet intricate enough to make the smallest icing pipe looks too big for the job. The essential tools to perform the job are your fingers and eyes. However, modelling and sculpting tools used in miniature clay modelling can be pretty helpful in making flower confetti. In fact, making a flower confetti is just like making a clay miniature. That’s why the material used is called soap clay as well. Soap clay is a soap that has a clay-like texture. There are many ways of making soap clay, but making a “pure” soap clay without adding other materials such as clay or cornstarch is another story because the texture of soap by nature is not as pliable and stable as clay. Certain techniques are required to get the ideal texture and we will come back to this later. We will now show you the steps to make a basic design of flower confetti - mini rose. It’s similar to making a rose flower with fondant, just that the size is much smaller. Basic design of flower confetti - Mini rose 1. Roll 4 pieces of soap clay into 5mm-diameter balls. 2. Flatten the balls to become ovals. 3. Roll an oval from its longest side. 4. Roll it all the way to become a tube-shape petal. 5. Curve another oval to become a saddle-shape flower petal and stick it around the tube-shape petal. 6. Continue with the 3rd petal and stick it around the tube-shape petal by overlapping it with some part of the 2nd petal. 7. Finish with the 4th petal and you have a mini rose less than 1cm in diameter ready for use. It may look simple and easy from the pictures, but the key to make a perfect flower confetti is to get the right texture of soap clay (not too hard, not too soft, not too wet and not too dry). Using soap clay with the right texture can save you a lot of time in making flower confetti. With the wrong texture, you may end up wasting valuable time for a failed attempt. For soap makers who are interested in making flower confetti with their own “pure” soap clay, we have a comprehensive tutorial available for you to download here. This tutorial includes the following must-know contents about making your own flower confetti with soap clay: A palm-free base recipe and steps to make “pure” soap clay. Essential tips on getting the perfect texture of soap clay for flower confetti making. Basic techniques of making flower confetti. Important tips on making flower confetti successfully in the shortest time. Alternatively, you can join our step-by-step soap art class to have a hands-on learning experience and make your own flower confetti and art soaps in our cozy workshop with exclusive guidance from our friendly instructors. Once you have mastered the basic techniques to make soap clay and flower confetti, you are able to create other miniatures with soap clay and upgrade your soap design from a conventional 2D design to a stunning 3D soap art! To learn how to make more intricate and complex flower confetti, download our advanced tutorial here. To learn how to design and make art soap with flower confetti, check out our soap art class here. Happy soaping... #soapmaking #soapclay #flowerconfetti #soapart #soapdesign #Japan #technique

What is the difference between handmade soap and commercial soap? With soap companies spending millions each year on misleading advertising, it’s understandable why a consumer may question. Typical store-bought or commercial soaps that may be labelled as “natural” are actually detergents that include chemical hardeners, foaming agents and artificial fragrances. And it’s not only big-brand store-bought soaps that can be misleading. Artificial fragrances are being put in many "handmade" soaps as well. So make no mistake, the only way to know if you are getting the real deal is to ask what method the soap maker uses to make their soap, what ingredients they use and what they use to scent their soaps. Still, why handmade soap? Reason #1: True handmade soap does not contain “fragrance” Most authorities do not require the ingredients of a company’s trademark “fragrance” to be disclosed on the label. This means that your “fresh rain” or “cherry blossom” scented soap could contain hundreds of harmful chemicals without your knowledge. Some of these chemical concoctions have been found to be skin irritants and known carcinogens. Traditional handmade soaps are scented with pure essential oils, never fragrance oils as that would immediately defeat the purpose of being completely natural. When you use soaps scented with only essential oils, you not only benefit from the lack of harmful chemicals, but you actually benefit from the therapeutic properties each essential oil offers. Not to mention the smell is amazing! This can also be an exciting feature for the consumer as you decide what you want your soap to do for you. Example: lavender soap lends it’s relaxation and skin repair qualities, and citrus soap lends it’s invigorating and antimicrobial qualities. Need a pick-me-up first thing in the morning, try a handmade soap that has lemongrass essential oil in it, not “sunburst” fragrance oil. So, harmful unknown chemicals or therapeutic essential oils? We’ll stick with essential oils, period. Reason #2: Handmade soap is simply amazing for your skin! Handmade soap preserves the integrity of oils/fats/butters. Coconut oil goes in, saponified (made into soap) coconut oil comes out. Shea butter goes in, shea butter comes out. Because of this, the oils/fats/butters maintain their vitamins, minerals and skin-loving qualities in the final soap product. Skilled soap makers modify their recipe to produce characteristics in the soap naturally instead of adding chemicals to achieve the same goal. For example, to make a thick-lathering soap, add some honey. Commercial soap, on the other hand, is likely to add some synthetic chemicals in order to produce similar results. Reason #3: Soap made the old-fashioned way Our ancestors knew what they were doing, and did it for thousands of years. Why change it! Traditional handmade soaps are made one of two ways: hot process and cold process. Cold process soap is made by mixing sodium hydroxide (lye) with water, then blending it with oils, adding essential oils and natural colorants, and finally, pouring it into molds to make it nice and pretty (of course the very simplified tutorial). The soaps then sit inside the mold for 24 hours to saponify (become soap), before being removed from the mold to dry or “cure” for 6-8 weeks. Yeah, it’s quite a process. Hot process is essentially the same, but instead of placing the soap in a mold to cure, the liquid is placed in a heat source (oven or crock pot) and heated until cured. Without the heating process, cold process is a more authentic and gentler way to preserve the essence of all natural ingredients in the soap. These methods of hand-making soap is of course, the opposite of commercial soap which is made on a large scale in factories. Commercial soap is made using a continuous flow method with hundred of hands on the process... or probably nowadays, a hundred robot arms. The soap base is continually being made in the same “batch” of soap, never to rest or relax. It is then blended with filler ingredients and chemicals such as sodium isethionate (a foam enhancer) and dipropylene glycol (a chemical solvent... why it’s needed? Who knows...) and then formed into molds. Soap making is just like cooking, caring for a child or tending to the elderly - it all needs love, attention and time. We believe the hands-on approach of handmade soap provides soap the love and attention it needs. But why take our word for it? The best way to find out is to put it to a test! Purchase a bar of handmade soap from a local soap maker and give it a try. We can assure you, the experience will be well worth it. #Soap