Can’t help myself, these are just so adorably cute!!! Couldn’t stop smiling when they came out.

Bottom (cake part) is scented with vanilla essence..just like real cake! Topped by jellied orange soap and an orange segment. YUMZ.

Packaging will probably be in an organza bag. With a big notice DO NOT EAT ME!

I’ve got all these ideas all coming in now…all excitable. This weekend is the last weekend I can spend soaping - next weekend is mayhem as my home is invaded by a hoard of relatives!

I called in sick today due to swollen,teary eyes. Hey, I think I’ve actually set a record here because the last time I called in sick was in january with tonsilitis - in my previous job I was sick every other month!

Anyway, my eyes are feeling better now but it’s still crying without any provocation from me. Not sure if it’s the hayfever working overtime or its just me rubbing with dirty fingers. Not nice.

As bacon usually works from home, whenever I am sick we would go out for a nice lunch - snotty nose and voiceless throats including. However, bacon had chosen to run off to the circus with the blokes, and I am all alone with no one to whinge at to bring me soup or tea….or just whinge.So I’ve spent the morning creating packaging, and here’s what I came out with:

Organza bow

The rustic twine

Twine on black

Obi twine

Yellow on wax

Simple black bar

My favourite is the last one, Simple black bar. I love the contrast of colors of the board with the logo and a tiny bit of the soap is visible (excuse the shoddy plastic wrapping). What would you, as a consumer, choose? Which packaging would entice you to splurge on a bar of handmade soap? Seeing that I created all of it, I really need help to decide, as I love all of them.

Yes, I know the website name is visible. No, it has not been officially launched, the weight/pricing/description is still work-in-progress, but I have actually started selling and needed to come out with packaging on the double. If you would like to purchase anything, please add it on and click cash on delivery when checking out - I will invoice you with the total price including shipping. Yes, shipping and checkout is also slightly mad at the moment. SIGH. Trying to doubly function as my own helpdesk which is getting slightly crazy.

Official launch will be in mid-end july.Any offers of help in configuration/ideas is very much welcomed.

Feedback (or purchases!) on the actual site is very welcomed. Please visit http://www.cleanducky.com

And vote here for your favourite packaging!

Presenting my first bulk order…

10 kissables blush lipbalms - 4 Orange blossoms, 3 Strawberry Sunshine & 3 Cherry Blossoms

All prettily wrapped up in organza because she’s giving them away to friends, which hopefully will return to buy another 10 more each.

Go me!

Just today, I’ve made one large soap, three bath bombs, one bath bar and a batch of lip balm. Running out of time to clean the house..arrrgh.

Here’s a sneak peek of what I’ve been working on the past week.

Barking up the wrong twee is made out of pure tea tree essential oil, perfect for spotty backs and pimply face.

Citrus slices embedded in clear soap. Scented with lovely pure orange and lime essential oil. Yumz

Yummie lip balms. Made from bacon’s bees. Actually, it’s bacon senior that used to own bees, and these are his own beeswax. Yes, literally home made beeswax. It really is fab, when I manage to make a good batch ;). Do not fret, made a lovely batch today that’s good to go. My bestseller, even though I have not started marketing them officially yet!

Ok I think it’s enough teasing for the moment ;).

Inspired by a sweltering hot English weekend. Smells of summers in California,where sugarfree iced tea with a squeeze of lemon welcomes my parched lips in the 100deg. afternoons.In the land where iced tea is looked upon with scorn and disgust, I can only fondly recall the smells of the american version of Teh O ais Limau (iced lemon tea in Malay). Of afternoons spent hiding away from the warm sun that I now so desperately seek.

Ingredients: Clear Glycerin soap, real brewed tea (giving color and smell) and lemon essential oil. Embedded with clear glycerin ice cube.

For those of you who’ve been wondering what the heck have I been making that looks suspiciously like food, here’s what wikipedia says:

Bath fizzies are composed primarily of sodium bicarbonate and/or other soluble carbonate, sesquicarbonate, or bicarbonate, and citric acid and/or other organic acid, which create an acid-base ‘fizzing’ when the solid reacts with water as it dissolves, producing carbon dioxide gas and strewing its interior contents, which can include aromatic elements or possibly small fragments of sparkling glitter, into the bath.

Bath bombs come as a large single-use tablet or ball, distinguished from other fizzies which come as grains.

The bubbles tickle as they nucleate on, and then release from, the skin and hair of the bather. Bath bombs may be considered therapeutic to the extent they contain essential oils to help a bather become energized or calm, such as mint or lavender. They can also contain cleansing agents like sea salt or surfactants.

I have been a big fan of baths ever since I discovered Lush and the cold winters. It is now a daily thing where I lay in my bath and spend about 30 minutes reading a book or a magazine. It is also due to this fact that I started making my own, as I add good-for-you stuff in my bombs like essential oils and butters.Those that come from the shop are usually very drying to my skin and sometimes I even come out with itches.

If you wonder how they look like, look no futher! Apologies for the horrible video quality as it was taken on my phone late one night. If the bath bomb looks familiar, well, thats because it was made from my jello mould :).And oh, say hi to my color changing ducky and my radio ducky

I know most people think of lavender as the stuff of old women’s closets, but I absolutely love lavender. The aromatheraphy properties of it works with me, relaxing me and making me go all soft and fuzzy. Mandy , my spa specialist, also made batches of lavender essential oil infused shampoo and powder for me. It eased my itching (I am shockingly allergic to sea water!!!) and calmed me down as well - which is not an easy job for a highly excitable personality such as me!

Apparently I’m not the only one. From Wikipedia

During Roman times, flowers were sold for 100 denarii per pound, which was about the same as a month’s wages for a farm labourer, or fifty haircuts from the local barber. Lavender was commonly used in Roman baths to scent the water, and it was thought to restore the skin.[citation needed] Its late Latin name was lavandārius, from lavanda (things to be washed), from the verb lavāre (to wash).[9] When the Roman Empire conquered southern Britain, the Romans introduced lavender.[citation needed]

During the height of the Plague, glove makers at Grasse would scent their leathers with lavender oil, and this was claimed to ward off the Plague. This story could have some validity as the Plague was transmitted by fleas, which lavender is known to repel.[citation needed]

Pure Lavender essential oil had also been known to be used as an antiseptic and is good for a clear blemish-free complexion, in the lines of tea tree oil. Ahhh. So with that in mind, I now have about 40ml of PURE lavender essential oil in my newly-formed ‘Quackbotary’. I stressed on the PURE as most products that I’ve come across in the marketplace does not contain actual oils extracted from the lavender buds, but lavender essence. Essential oils also cost about 10 times more than essence. Somewhat like using vanilla essence to bake a cake compared to pure vanilla pods. It defies the purpose and does not provide users with the aromatheraphy properties of pure lavender essential oil. Those that actually contain oils seemed to use such low concentration (0.001%) of it that it kinda deemed it pointless. Morevor, the amount of synthetic chemicals that goes into creating the fake smell is not all that good for anyone really.

With that in mind, please welcome my lavender jello bombs. Apologies for the cracking - not sure what the heck happened, but I think its the D that I got in Chemistry in form 5 that failed me in my measuring of ingredients and moisture. I made another batch today and will be monitoring the situation. I have a birthday coming up that I am creating for, so will definately not be sending out defective batches! Or worse, those that morph into a pile of unrecognizable bulk after I give them away! I actually used the bomb pictured and had a good long soak in the tub with my duckies, and it was very lovely, just like most of my other bombs. If you have no idea what a bath bomb is - well, watch out for my video in the next couple of days! No, not of me having a bath, just running one :). And no, a bath bomb is not me farting in bath.

I have pouty lips.A little bit of lipgloss always seems to make my lips pop out like a goldfish, and I am never one who is daring with lipcolor as any vivid colors just makes my lips look punched in. With a great body parts comes great responsiblity, and I am a great purveyour of lip balms and glosses.

I can easily buy about 10 lipbalms/glosses a year - I love the different flavours and colors. If I forget to put any on, by afternoon my lips will start to chap and peel. I easily need to reapply every hour, and that becomes tedious when I start doubting what actually goes into the lipbalms and if it is actually good for me.

Enter this:

Made by yours truly from all pure inggredients: unrefined Shea Butter,Cocoa Butter, Sweet Almond oil, grating of pure english beeswax,pure honey and two drops of sweet orange essential oil.

Packaging is still non-existant as I am awaiting the great dreyb to design the logo - but I was impressed with the feel of the end product as it only took me 15mins to make that pot, with all ingredients by hand of course. I am still looking for cosmetic grade coloring which will blend into my little pot of goodness, but at the moment, this really tastes like a pot of oranges!!!

I have spent a gross amount of time this week discussing and brainstorming about my newfound obsession - making soaps and bath bombs. I have also spent an indecent amount of money getting in raw inggredients, and voila, presenting my chocolate orange bombs (they smell exactly like terrys chocolate orange!!).

Chocolate orange cupcake bombs

In the middle of a lovely summer’s afternoon, I suddenly yearned for Christmas morning. Where admist all the gaily wrapped presents and tacky red stockings lay the one mainstay of what Christmas is - a Chocolate Orange. Now in cupcakes so you don’t have to whack it to get it out.

The seaside collection -

Clam shell chocolate orange

Orange fish

Just like Grandma used to make

Made from sodium bicarbonate,citric acid,pure sweet orange essential oil, natural orange coloring and dusting of 100% pure cocoa powder.And lots of love

PS: I am currently looking for ideas of flavour combination ect. Any comments/accusations/suggestions are very welcomed, be it presentation or the pictures. I can’t decide between the wicker background or the polka dot background….ideas?

PPS:If you noticed a small watermark on the pictures…aha…it is currently a project under wraps that will be revealed in time..:)