My love for taking baths continues

I have recently discovered something wonderful...I want to share with my readers this great little invention called bath truffles. Yes, yes, I know you are going to tell me I'm sort of late to be talking about this, its been done for many years now.
Everyone knows bath bombs, thanks to Lush, we have all gotten a big round colorful ball for the holidays. But aside from fizzing and making a big colorful ring in my tub, I don't quite see the use of those things and that is why I don't really carry any bath bombs at Dans ta bulle. Well apparently the new trend in baths these last few years is the bath truffle! It combines the fun aspect of the bath bombs along with cocoa butter, which acts like a bath oil and makes your skin ohh so soft. The next generation of bath gadgets I suppose. Well, all I can say is I love it! Dot and Lil makes some that we sell at the store with really fun scents like satsuma and honeysuckle and Amarille made some specially for the boutique, so we have a great collection of scents you can choose from. So come have a ball and go home and take a bath!

Workshop schedule

Here is the schedule for our workshops for the coming weeks

Cream making Saturday January 23 9am - 12pm

Soap making 102 Saturday January 30th 9am-12pm

Soap making 101 Saturday Febuary 6th 9am - 12pm

Please call to reserve your spot, only 6 people per workshop. Cost is 60$. We provide everything you need, all you bring with you is a smile!

10 tips to a healthy complexion in winter

Want to look less tiered naturally and for (almost) free?
Here are some of my tips to a healthy looking face during the dull winter months. Considering its right after the holidays and the state of your bank account (thank you consumerism!) I tried to stick to the free and almost free tips. Here goes...
1. Splash your face with cold water to constrict blood vessels, this tonify your face instantly.
2. Moisturize! Slather on a nice thick layer of cream to fill in those lines. Please skip the pharmacy stuff, a basic natural cream will do, nothing too pretentious, miracles don't come in a bottle remember that!
3. Here is a tip for when you have more time on your hands. Put some milk and ice cubes in a bowl, dip a washcloth in this mixture and place the cloth on your face for a few minutes. It should reduce blotchiness and give you a bright glowy complexion.
4. At the end of your shower give your face a nice long scrub. Either use an exfoliant or a washcloth, remember to rub gently but for at least one minute.
5. Store you eye cream in the fridge. When you apply it massage it well into the eye area to accelerate circulation. While we are talking about eye cream, when you go to choose one, read the ingredient label carefully, try to avoid petroleum based creams and look for some active ingredients.
6. Discover mineral makeup! This one is my favorite tip! Choose one with no fillers or starch. You don't even need that much, just a dab for the under eye circles and little spots where needed (pimples, brown spots, redness, etc.) Its a great product and when used sparingly seems invisible. Its one of those things where a little goes a long way and too much can take you back. (You can come at the boutique for a free trial!)
7. After brushing your teeth at night brush also your lips with your wet toothbrush; small circular motions. Then slather on some lip balm and bonne nuit!
8. Become friends with an eye lash curler. No need for pricey mascaras with scary vibrating wands, those could put an eye out! Best way to curl ones lashes is in 3 steps: Once at the very tip of the lash; then once again at the middle; and a last time at the roots or as close as you can get to the lash line.
9. Fix those eye brows. Well shaped eye brows can make anyone look better! But just like tip #6 a little bit goes a long way especially if you do it yourself. Just a bit in the center to eliminate any allusions to a unibrow and a little under the brow line.
10. Nothing says tiered like a frown so this last tip is not only free but fun and super easy...SMILE!!!! It takes less muscles to smile than to frown and it makes anyone look better.

So that is it! 10 tips to make you look and feel better and survive the winter. Let me know how it works out.

Its my first posting of the year, I would like to with you all a healthy and successful 2010.

Savon d'Alep: description, historique et divers usages

Depuis les débuts de ce blogue, j’ai envie de vous parler d’un produit vedette de la boutique, le savon d’Alep. Je préfère écrire ce texte en français puisque ce savon légendaire impose une explication qui lui est digne et seule la langue française peut bien traduire son histoire, sa renomée et ses vertus. Allons y donc en français : langue lyrique pour faire l’éloge de ce savon mythique.

D’abord un peu d’histoire...Venu tout droit de la Mésopotamie, le savon d’Alep a été rapporté pour la première fois en Occident par les Croisés. Sa fabrication n’ayant pas changée depuis plus de 400 ans, le savon d’alep s’avère un produit plus qu’autenthique. Dans des chaudrons de cuivre, le savonnier élabore la pâte du savon grâce au mélange d’huiles d’olive et de laurier, réputées pour leurs vertus hydratantes et réparatrices depuis l’anquité romaine. La cuisson et l’élaboration de la recette en soit reste un mytère...un secret bien gardé et transmis de génération en génération.

La pâte est ensuite étalée, puis découpée en morceaux. Celle-ci sera exposé au soleil pendant huit mois sur les toîts pour permettre un bon séchage. Sa couleur passera du vert foncé au beige clair et va acquérir sa dureté légendaire. Au fur et à mesure que vous ulilisez votre pain de savon, ce dernier vous dévoilera ses vraies couleurs: sous la surface d’un beige claire se cache un vert foncé et un arôme distinctif.
Les vertus du savon d’Alep sont bien connu au Moyen Orient. Tout d’abord il faut mentionner que c’est un savon qui n’est pas parfumé. Bien sûre il y a des versions à l’eau de rose ou à l’eau d’oranger, mais le savon d’Alep authentique n’a pas d’odeur ajoutée : il sent légèrement l’huile mais ne laisse aucune trace de cet odeur sur la peau. Il est aussi important de noter que c’est un savon qui ne déseche pas la peau, au contraîre, on peut dire que c’est un savon hydratant. Vous vous demandez comment un savon peut être hydratant? Logiquement un savon c’est un dégraissant qui enlève le gras n’est ce pas? Mais le savon d’Alep c’est un savon surgras, c’est à dire que durant la fabrication on a utilisé plus de gras que le nécessaire pour le procédé de saponification. Donc on trouve encore dans le mélange des mollécules de gras non saponifiées même après le procédé de saponification complété quarante huit heures plus tard. Cela semble un peu technique mais il faut aussi ajouter que l’huile d’olive et l’huile de laurier surtout, sont des gras végétaux difficilement saponifables, il y aura toujours de l’huile qui ne deviendra pas savon. Ce sont là de très bonnes nouvelles pour votre peau, surtout l’hiver! La peau sèche est un problème très communs auprès de nos clients et souvent il suffit simplement changer de savon au lieu d’investir dans des crèmes ultra hydratantes (et ultra chers!) pour règler le problème.

Le savon d’Alep est aussi employé pour faire la lessive ou la vaisselle, il existe même des versions liquides.
Comme tout produit extraordinaire, le savon d’Alep est imité, il faut donc faire attention aux immitations, car ils peuvent avoirs des résultats décevants. Souvent ce que nous rencontrons sur le marché, ce sont des savons qui sont constitués principalement d’huile de palme et contiennent peu ou pas d’olive ou de laurier dans leurs recettes. Afin d’imiter la couleur, la plupart du temps ces imitations contiennent aussi des colorants artificiels.
Il faut rechercher certaines caractéristiques particulières au savon d’Alep afin d’être sûre que l’on à fait un bon achat. La couleur beige, brun sur le dessus et vert foncé dans le centre du savon est la caracteristique la plus importante. Vous verrez que la couleur n’est pas parfaitement uniforme, cela est bon signe. Ensuite son odeur particulière. La texture sur la surface est importante aussi, le savon d’Alep n’est pas lisse ni brillant comme un savon à l’huile de palme. Enfin, un vrai savon d’Alep a un sceau sur le dessus qui identifie le nom de la savonnerie ainsi que la quantité de laurier dans la recette avec des étoiles, plus il y a d’étoiles, plus le savon contient de l’huile de laurier. Donc si vous recherchez un savon pour le visage ou comme shampoing il faudrait un savon avec le maximum de laurier, c’est à dire 25%-35%. Si par contre vous recherchez un savon d’Alep pour faire la lessive moins de laurier c’est mieux. Pour un savon corporel un savon avec 10% 15% de laurier devrait suffir.

What is a loofa or luffah?

We often get clients at the boutique who wonder what a luffa actually is, so to demystify this, here is all you need to know about this great plant.
The luffa is the seed pod of a plant when mature, the fruits become a tough mass of cellulose fiber that makes a great scrubbing sponge. Its not actually a sponge, which is an animal from the sea, its closely related to the pumpkin and the cucumber, they are from the same family, the curcubit family. You can use the luffa to scrub your whole body, it effectively removes dead skin and costs much less than fancy body scrubs. Although those are quite fun from time to time! They last about six months to a year in the shower and once you are done with it you can throw it into the compost bin.
But that's not all! The luffa can be also used to scrub pots and pans, clean the bath tub and the sink or even your car if you own one! In some Asian countries the young fruit and the flower are eaten, just like the okra or a squash.
So there you go! Now you know all you need to know about the luffa!

Christmas has arrived at the 316

This holiday season why don't you give a green, locally made, natural item as gifts!

I wanted to let you all know that the holidays have arrived at the store. On Friday, most of the artisans and the suppliers brought in their creations for the season. We, of course got the cupcake soaps! They are in the window, you cannot miss them. Other great Christmas soaps have been created just for this occasion. Some amazing gift ideas also starting at 10$. You can get a great gift for an office buddy or a teacher! We have something special for everyone on your list. AND something else not too many places offer...Free gift wrapping!! YAY!

Water based nail polish versus regular polish

I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while now and today is the big day, I will explain for once and for all the difference between regular nail polish and the natural water based polish. What inspired me today you ask? Actually on my way to the store, in the metro, I noticed a young girl biting her nails. This seems like a pretty lame inspiration but for me this was big! I had to almost hold myself back from talking her out of doing this very harmful act. The reason why I was so affected is because this girl was wearing a very stylish dark purple polish. I have nothing against purple polish or those who wear them but I am pretty sure this was not a natural polish, and the thought of this poor girl eating all those toxic ingredients (along with some of her own nails and skin) made me really mad. And so here we are, I am going to explain why regular polish should be avoided at all cost! Here goes!!

Regular polish contains formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalates and FD&C colors. You wonder what this four syllable words are? I do not want to get into very scientific explanations but to summarize, these are harmful chemicals that the human body cannot get rid of, so it is accumulated in our system. What this accumulation can do? Well, we do not quite know, some people speculate by saying it might cause cancer and other ailments. But what I say is, why take the risk if it can be avoided or replaced by something else.

These harsh solvent-based nail polishes are simple solutions of nitrocellulose resins in strong solvents. Nitrocellulose is used because it forms a very hard film as the solvents evaporate from the base. These same bad smelling solvents are used to remove the polish by dissolving the film.

On the other hand, water-based polish, uses an emulsion resin in the form of billions of very small particles suspended in water. So as the water evaporated, the particles touch each other and form a hard film which is no longer soluble in water. It may seem like these two systems are similar but actually they as different as night and day. One cures by reversible solvent evaporation and the other by creating a tightly knit film. One can be easely removed while the other not so easily.

In a nutshell, here it is, the difference between regular and water based nail polish.

Testing zone: Manicouagan clay

Saturday I had a really long day and what I was looking forward to was the thought of a nice long bath waiting for me at home...
So when I got home you can imagine what was the first thing I did, set up my bath. Warm water, a few drops of rosehip oil with some orange blossom essential oil and a nice handful of mud! Actually, it was Manicouagan clay, this gray sandy mud that comes from the north of Quebec from the region of Manicouagan, where it gets his name.
It all started 215 million years ago when a big meteorite crashed in this region that created the unique set up for the development of this special clay. I will spare you the scientific details which can explain the many reasons why this clay is so great and go right back to my bath tub experience.
As I was saying...I placed a handful of this mud into the bath and went right in. Most of the mud got diluted into the bath but I kept a small walnut size dollop of mud to play with (I lost my rubber duck during my last vacation) and I spread the mud all over my face, chest, shoulders and my back.
First thing I noticed was that there are very small particles in this mud and as I rubbed it on my face I realized that this is like an exfoliation at the same time, those small particles were buffing away all the dead skin. After my bath, my skin was glowing. Not only did the clay cleanse and exfoliate but it felt as though my skin was rejuvenated, like a day at the beach or something.
I have to say that working in the cosmetic industry, I have tried a lot of products. Many have claims to do almost magical things, make you look younger and more beautiful. Well this product also has many claims, I cannot vouch for all of those claims but I gotta say that it definitely cleanses, exfoliates and revitalizes you skin all in one step. And you can see some results after just one use. That in itself, is already very impressive.
I give this product a 9 out of 10. The reason its not a full 10 on 10 is because you have to clean the bathtub after your mud bath, it leaves a gray dusty residue that has to be rinced away. But aside from the cleaning this is an excellent product. Try Argile Eau Mer's clay it's really great!

The sponges are here!!

I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting for our sponge order to come in. I am very happy to announce that we got a nice big shippment of natural unbleached yellow sponges and silk sponges at the boutique. Come in and be one of the first people to select your favorite shapes.

October workshop schedule

Here is the october schedule for our workshops:

Prenatal sophrology: Friday October 16, 2009 7pm-8pm
Soapmaking 101: Saturday October 17, 2009 9am-12pm
Cream making 101: Saturday October 26, 2009 9am-12pm
30 day detox cleansing: Thursday October 29 7pm

To find out more or reserve your place please call 514 842 3019