Beauty with Irina and Katrina- Cosmectic Glacier Clay Chic Soaps

Christmas Ideas

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Discover with Me vlog // Chic Soaps

Discover with Me vlog // Chic Soaps

Black Friday Sale 2014

Black Friday Sale 2014

Christmas Baskets

Christmas Baskets

Part One: Handmade Soap versus Factory Made Soap

Not all soaps are created equal. And to be honest, some parts of the skin care industry are just plain dirty. Pun intended.

The term “Soap” is actually so heavily regulated by the cosmetic industry that many companies can’t even call their detergent laden products “soap.” Instead, they’re stuck calling them “moisturizing bars” and “body bars.”

Trust us, Chic Soaps are the real deal: SOAP.

Let’s start with what makes up handmade soap versus factory made soap.

Real soap is made from a simple reaction between water, lye and fats/oils. This process is called “Saponification.” how fitting? Large batch handmade soaps don’t exist, because this process can only be done on a small scale!

Unlike the food industry, unless the cosmetic industry is calling their product “soap” it doesn’t need to tell its consumers exactly what the ingredients are. Here at Chic Soaps we never leave you in the dark.

Meanwhile, factory made soap is made by combining together chemicals (including petroloeum) in a slurry mixer at which point it is dried using a vacuum chamber and an atomiser. Sure it sounds cool, but that really can’t be good for you. And it isn’t. The Ingredients in a bar of factory soap are somewhat like this: “Sodium tallowate, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium cocoate, sodium laurel sulfate, water, sodium isethionate, stearic acid, coconut fatty acid, fragrance, titanium dioxide, sodium chloride, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT, FD&C blue no. 1, D&C red no. 33.”

We can’t wait to tell you what beautiful ingredients our products are made from! For example, take a look at the ingredients in our Obsidian Soap: Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Activated Charcoal. That’s it, that’s all folks.

Stay tuned for Part Two of this article to get the lowdown on some more differences between factory and handmade soap.

Irina Marchenkova, President, CHIC Luxury Soaps.

www.chicsoaps.com

The History of Handmade Soap

No one really knows where it came from… That said, the first ever handmade soap seems to have been found in clay cylinders around 2800 BCE in modern day Iraq. Originally (and often to this very day!) soap was made with a combination of animal fat and/or vegetable fat and ash, or an alkaline salt product. Archaeologists have found a soap recipe on a Mesopotamian clay tablet from 2200 BCE.

Interestingly enough, soap wasn’t even first used to get that squeaky clean just out of the shower feeling, but to do the after dinner wash up. To get that pesky bacon grease out of the pan, basically.

Soap making guilds started popping up as early as the 7th Century.

By the 8th century, there were soap factories in Italy and Spain that were capitalizing on their close proximity to olive groves. Olive oil became the primary ingredient to their soap.

During the height of the industrial revolution, Eugene-Michel Chevreul from England determined the perfect quantity of animal fat to be in soap. Thus began soap making on a commercial level, marking the end of homemade soap. People began buying soap from catalogs in stores.

And the rest is history…

Irina Marchenkova, President, CHIC Luxury Soaps.

www.chicsoaps.com

Use of Lavender Essential Oil in Cosmetics and Soaps

If you frequent cosmetic stores for skin care, or have been keen on the ingredients of your cosmetics and soap, then you must have met the word lavender countless times. If you have been curious enough, you might have queried the use of lavender essential oil in most of the cosmetics and soap you see or use. Many people often assume the word as a feminine name, brush it off and stop there. Let’s dig deeper than that and see what it really is, and what makes it such a common ingredient of cosmetics and soap.

Lavender, botanically christened Lavandula Angustifolia, is a perennial shrub that grows up to 1 meter in height. It is typically known for it spikes of appealing violet-blue flowers that extend right above the foliage. The use of lavender finds its roots from the highly beneficial chemical constituents of the oil from the flowers of the plant. This rich and volatile oil contains an amazing 40 constituents that include geraniol, cineole, nerol, borneol, Coumarins, Tannis, linyalyl acetate, linalool, Flavonoids and many others.

Lavender essential oil is extracted by distillation of the flowers. The process involves steam distillation to obtain a pure natural essential oil. This essential oil is home to the ethereal essence of the lavender plant, which is packed with vast beneficial properties traversing both health and cosmetic uses. Talk of soap, perfumes, air fresheners or antiseptics and you are not so far from lavender.

It is however not a new discovery. Lavender essential oil has served countless generations for natural beauty and cosmetics, rolling way and ages back to the ancient Egyptians. Lavender oil was commonly part of the embalming paraphernalia. Such a long while ago, lavender oil had already found its way into cosmetics and perfumes. And by then, there were already many different types of lavender soap and, of course, lavender perfume. The Greeks were not left behind in the harvest; they too had several cosmetic purposes for lavender oil. The Romans took the lavender race a step ahead of the rest, using its oil as a solution to multitude health complications and applying it for other purposes as well, including as an insect repellent.

That history is evidencing the fact that lavender essential oil is rich with health and cosmetic benefits and that is why it finds its way into many cosmetics and soap as a vital ingredient in facilitating cleansing while sending an alluring aroma that is also therapeutic. It also illustrates that those beauty products with lavender digs beyond the surface and goes down into the inside with immense therapeutic forces that work wonders beyond any other ordinary product. Way back in those nostalgic ancient times, these benefits were probably realized by chance, experience, observation and trials. It is in these modern times that pure scientific research has unearthed the verity behind this mysterious plant and placed full use to it.

Research has revealed many cosmetic uses of lavender essential oil. The oil offers an excellent solution to the enhancement of quality of cosmetics and toiletries where it optimizes the production of sebum from the skin oil glands, making it extremely beneficial for moisturizing patchy skins, or oily ones for the dermatological problems of acne, seborrhea, eczema, psoriasis and spots. Lavender essential oil also takes credit for its speedy cell-rejuvenating properties. Its use in cosmetics and soap stretches to excellent treatment of any kind of burns. If you wish to use lavender essential oil unblended, all you need is to neatly apply a small amount of it to the burn area and get the relief and healing. Solution of lavender water also treats sunburn; the liquid is sprayed right onto the reddened skin. And, as an after shave, Lavender Dew steals the show.

Over the years that lavender has been known to have wound healing properties, it has served an excellent application in all cases of external injuries for promoting healing. It also has wonderful antiseptic properties, instantly disinfecting the wounded area. It also works well as a room spray for killing airborne germs. The soothing effect also makes it handy in treating insect bites or stings. As much as lavender essential oil will therefore also serve as an accelerator to healing of cuts and bruises, it also reduces the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines by tightening the skin. This is a great cosmetic effect as it makes you appear a lot younger, healthier and with shiny smooth skin. That serves the reason many cosmetic producers are churning out more lavender-based to help enhance natural and organic beauty as well as nourish the skin.

The cosmetic bases of lavenders essential oil provide revitalizing natural perfume and aromatherapy benefits. Lavender oil is heralded for extensive use in beauty and therapy products from soap to perfume products and cleaning industry. The aromatic essential oil is used in cologne and toilet water. Lavender oil also finds its way into bath products and stimulating, cleansing facial steams. It is a mosquito repellent and can also be used to flavor jellies and vinegars.

From the research, geraniol, cineole and coumarin have been found to be the best known active components of lavender. These component chemicals have very strong cleansing and germicidal effects and are particularly believed to expand the uses of lavender essential oil to the medicinal arena. Lavender oil helps treat pain and inflammatory conditions. It also brings relief from various skin irritations and digestive complications. It helps relieve cramping, stomach aches and diarrhea, while for respiratory cases, lavender essential oil is often used to help relieve common coughs, and bronchitis, as well as asthma and colds. Pretty many cosmetic and soap makers and hobbyist add lavender essential oil to salves and homemade balms for easy rubbing on the chest and hence inhalation. Research shows the medicinal uses then extends to the treatment of sports injuries, muscular aches, headache and rheumatism. A couple drops of lavender essential oil rubbed on the temple relives headache and migraine. For muscle aches, you need to put 5 – 10 drops of lavender oil in a bowl of warm water, then soak a piece of cloth in the mixture and wring it out. Massaging the aching muscle with the damp cloth brings relief from pain. The oil also has analgesic properties quite useful in cases of arthritis. It is therefore clear that the anti-inflammatory effects and pains numbing makes it great for first aid kits.

Lavender oil has calming and relaxing properties that soothe stress, making it useful in the evening bath. It is added as the water is running. Sprinkling some lavender essential oil also induces sleep due to the calming effect. It is also known that lavender oil has balancing and harmonizing effects on emotions. This makes its perfume so calming; notably the aroma also comes from the lavender soaps, making them all so refreshing.

Lavender essential oil still finds its uses in massage, and the lavender perfume is the most used essential oil in the aromatherapy industry. The perfume industry has benefited for over 150 years using lavender essential oil as a base fragrance for countless perfume brands.
As a flower, lavender still serves in aromatic wands and wreaths floral arrangements. Fresh bunches of lavender offers excellent craftwork material for the wreaths and the wands floral patterns. They may then be dried for durability. Dried lavender bunches serve decorative purposes when hung in the closet, where they also double as linen insect repellents.

Traditionally, stripped and dried lavender flowers are used as pot-pourri. They are also used in sachets as drawer fresheners and as moth deterrent. As an air freshener, fresh or dry lavender bunches works well at home in rooms and toilets, in the car, and so on. There are also lavender candles available in most home goods stores. They are increasingly popular and render such overpowering scent, so sweet, fresh, rejuvenating and flowery.
There are numerous lavender products out there in virtually any home supply or health stores. The range is vast and covers from creams and lotions to baby shampoos and even such luxury products as bath bombs, including an array of Sea Salt Bath Products as well as the Lush’s bath bombs. There are many amazing lavender products worth a trial.

Lavender has infiltrated all corners of home life and fills many stores due to its noted beneficial properties, easily utilized at home. The abundance in the market is not the end, many more lavender products get unleashed each and very other day. Seeking to use lavender essential oil, it is wise to get pure organic lavender oil. There are also others diluted with carrier oils; they will offer similar benefits but need to be applied in greater quantities. The range includes Organic Lavender, Spike Lavender, Australian Lavender French Lavender and English Lavender. Lavender essential oil is easily found at various online Soap making and Aromatherapy Specialty stores. Lavender oil is absolutely not for internal use and should be shoved away, strictly out of reach of children at all times.

CHIC Luxury Soaps has a variety of Lavender products, including, candles, soaps, creams, lotions and scrubs. Have a look at our website for a wide choice of lavender products.

Irina Marchenkova, President, CHIC Luxury Soaps.

www.chicsoaps.com

Shea Butter: a Big Blessing to your Skin

Everyone fancies a tight glossy and shiny skin that looks youthful vibrant and radiant; many people for just the good looks, some seeking to be become models or talk show superstars. Whatever reason you would wish to have a healthy and attractive skin, it does not just come spontaneously. Your skin, like any other part of the body, requires balanced nourishment and care in order that it may become the talk of the village.
Skin only differs slightly that it requires care both from the surface and from inside. Given the body and the skin share what you take for your meals, a healthy skin must ultimately be a reflection of healthy body inside. The benefits of shea butter for skin has been recognized by many beauty experts.

Shea butter is actually solid fatty oil that comes from the nuts of Karite trees, better known as Mangifolia. The tree grows in the semi-arid and savanna regions of west and central Asia. Shea butter is a derivative from the nuts found inside the fruits of Karite tree. Once the nuts are harvested, they are crushed and boiled, then processed in order to obtain this light colored fat, which in pure state resembles lumps of hard caramel ice cream. This fat is what is commonly referred to as shea butter. While basically shea butter serves best in beauty products and has gained wide popularity in the western world, it is actually also an edible fat that makes mouth watering delicacies. It has widespread use in numerous beauty products such as cosmetics, lotions, shampoos, conditioners and many more.

Apart from the tree shea butter comes from, what is in this miraculous fat? Shea butter’s chemical components include stearic acid, linoleic acid oleic acid and others. Melting at body temperature, shea butter is quite easily absorbed into the skin. The fat may be used refined or unrefined. Unrefined or raw shea butter is the purest form of this fat and is the least processed and most natural. Manual extraction helps shea butter retain its vitamins, minerals and most other natural properties. Refined shea butter is however processed and may, on the way, lose some of its essential ingredients.

Shea butter exhibits several noted health benefits owing to the powerful chemical ingredients that the fat holds. Skin and hair particularly seem to take a big share of these benefits, making shea butter a choice ingredient for an overwhelming wide variety of cosmetics. It is also found in medicinal formulas when it is blended with other botanical ingredients.
The healing qualities of shea butter make it no ordinary cosmetic ingredient since it beats several other fats to this end. The reason for the outstanding healing properties of shea butter lies in the presence of numerous fatty acids and plant sterols such as linolenic, palmitic, oleic and stearic acids.

These components of shea butter are oil-soluble fatty acids that do not undergo saponification. Saponification is the process that turns these fatty acids into soap when they come into contact with alkali. Shea butter contains a high percentage of non-saponifiable fatty acids than the saponifiable ones compared to other nut oils and fats. The non-saponifiable fatty acids have high healing capacities hence shea butter being a leader in therapeutic properties. Raw or unrefined shea butter is highly effective for curing skin peeling after tanning, frost bites, insect bites and stings, athletes foot, scars, stretch marks, skin rashes, burns, arthritis and muscle fatigue.

Shea butter also has the anti-ageing chemicals best known as antioxidants which help protect against the notorious free radicals that cause cell aging. The antioxidants in shea butter include catechins and vitamins A and E. Vitamin A and E are well known to protect the cells against environmental damage and the free radicals. Shea butter also has the cinnamic acid esters that helps protect the skin against damage from ultraviolet radiation.

Cinnamic acid has several derivatives found in shea butter, all which exhibit anti-inflammatory properties. Research indicates that aside its beneficial anti-inflammatory properties, lupeol cinnamate present in shea butter helps prevent the development of tumors. These anti-inflammatory properties render shea butter extremely beneficial for improvement of skin conditions.
Shea butter has rich and precious chemical constituents such as vitamins E and D, phytosterols, unsaturated fats with a large proportion of non-saponifiable components, essential fatty acids, provitamin A and allantoin, making it considered a super food for skin. Shea butter has been used historically for, baby care and skin care. History notes that the legendary Egyptian queen Nefertiti had all her beauty secrets behind the shea butter which further illustrates its benefits for skin.

With a long list of chemicals that compete to be in first place as skin treatments, shea butter seems to be lying secretly behind many beauty queens of the modern time. The benefits of shea butter to the skin go beyond the list of most other natural oils and fats. Among the shea butter benefits to the skin include sun protection. Shea butter works as a natural sunscreen by protecting the skin against the ultra violet radiations of the sun. The level of the protection, however, does vary depending on various pertinent factors including the nature of the shea butter, quantity used, sunlight intensity and so on. Shea butter holds the flag as the best skincare for winter and after-sun care. This is because it moisturizes the skin, provides nourishment and offers the required protection for the skin during the cold season and summer.

As a healing agent, shea butter has amazing properties. The non-saponifiable fatty acids, with healing properties, in shea butter run from 5% upwards depending on where it comes from, but can hit an amazing 17%. The anti-inflammatory properties it exhibits makes it is often used as a base in medicinal ointments. Since ages, it has been a choice treatment of blemishes, skin discolorations, chapped lips, stretch marks, scars, eczema, dark spots and in reducing the irritation caused by psoriasis. Shea butter has high content of vitamin A, making it highly effective in promoting healing and disinfection, and it soothes skin allergies like insect bites and poison ivy. Vitamin F present in shea butter acts as a rejuvenator for healing and soothing rough and chapped skin.

Shea butter also has commendable anti-ageing benefits. It is considered as one of the best skin moisturizers and anti-ageing agents. The butter also stimulates the production of collagen, the protein that helps the skin remain youthful and scintillating. The antioxidants, vitamin A and E, found in shea butter nourish the skin, keeping it supple and radiant and preventing premature wrinkles and facial lines. Where it has a plus is the speed with which it penetrates that skin. The process moves flawlessly without clogging the pores and is effective for dry skin.
The fact that shea butter is a superb natural moisturizer devoid of any additive chemicals makes it ideal for baby care. More, it is gentle and soft on the skin, making it most suitable for delicate and sensitive skin of babies. It can serve as an after bath application on skin for babies and also for healing such complications as eczema or diaper rash on the skin of babies.

When it comes to lip care, shea butter is still a forerunner. Its ease of absorption and enhanced moisturizing effects, added to being rich in essential nutrients makes it great for the lips during cold season and dry weather. It therefore makes one of the best lip balms for all weather conditions, doubling as a treatment for dry and chapped lips.

Shea butter also works to restore skin elasticity. The Non-saponifiable fatty acids and vitamin F in this butter are the most vital nutriments for maintaining skin-elasticity. The application of shea butter to the skin restores the elasticity of the skin, helping in maintaining an even skin-tone atop softening, hydrating and beautifying it.

All these benefits seen arise from the powerful chemical constituents that built the shea butter. The butter has high nutritional value. It has such chemical as the UV-B absorbing triterpene esters such as tocopherols and cinnamic acid. Besides that shea butter also has high percentage of hydrocarbons such as karitene, phytosterols and triterpenes.
Shea butter basically comprises of five fundamental fatty acids namely stearic, oleic, palmitic, linoleic and arachidic acids with a higher proportion of oleic acids and stearic which together accounts for 85-90% of fatty acids. Stearic acid is charged with the maintenance of solid consistency, while oleic acid influences the softness or hardness of the shea butter.

Shea butter also has phenolics. Phenolic compound serve as antioxidants. The butter has 10 phenolic compounds, eight of which are catechins. Catechin content of shea butter exceeds the total phenolic content of ripe olives.

Your skin is better of with raw shea butter than probably any other known lotion. At CHIC Luxury Soaps, we have soaps, creams and butters with Shea Butter in them. Probably the best product we have with Shea Butter, if you are looking for the benefits of pure Shea Butter would be any of our Mango Shea Butters including, White Chocolate, Tropical Passionfruit and Pina Colada.

Irina Marchenkova
President, CHIC Luxury Soaps

www.chicsoaps.com