One of the lovely things about travel is how it randomly brings new scents into your life. I was out of my travel size hand cream and had no alternative (body lotion or what not) when I headed down to Sonoma last Friday, and I just had to do something about it. Across from the gate was Butter London's boutique, so I stepped in, hoped for the best, and the best turned out to be this relatively natural smelling Lemongrass Sage Hand & Nail Creme. It went perfectly well with my Ayalitta perfume I was wearing that day and I was glad to embrace a new scent in my life (at least while traveling). The cream itself is very light, not nearly as effective as my favourite* but it did the trick and saved my hands' skin from falling apart during this trip. I liked it so much that on the way back I got another tube for my dear friend Tina, who always takes care of business when I'm away, and also got me on the plane in the first place. She loves lemongrass and she liked the scent immediately.

* I like using Aveda's hand cream, which is very nourishing, and basically saves my hands from being as dry as the desert with all the frequent washing I need to do as part of work; it also has a surprisingly light scent, unlike most of their other products, and does not clash too much with most of the perfumes I'm wearing.

Using pure and simple ingredients for making nourishing and uncompromising bath and body products. To avoid the whole notion of needing to use powerful synthetic preservative and emulsifiers, I've avoided using any water altogether in these products.

Instead, using light-weight yet moisturizing natural oils such as jojoba, virgin coconut, avocado, tea seed, rice bran and shea oils, I've concocted a simple line of body and bath products that I love using and wanted to share with you. Fractionated coconut oil helps to improve these nourishing oil and create an oil base that is fast absorbing and that leaves the skin silky and moisturized for more than a day, yet without clogging pores or feeling greasy at all.


Anointing oils, highly fragrant and act like a perfume for the entire body, leaving it moisturized and nourished but non greasy. I'm really excited about sharing these oils with you, I've been experimenting with a few types of oil bases (mixtures of various nourishing oils, along with the fractionated coconut oil to give it a non-greasy finish that is the natural equivalent of a "dry oil". Not all perfumes are suitable for body products. I chose the ones that incorporate beneficial oils to the skin. My personal favourite so far is Song of Songs, which stays on the skin the longest (24 hours later, when I bathe again, the warm water releases the scent yet again from my pores!). White Potion is more delicate and releases the scent better on the skin than from the bottle. The salycilates in the tuberose tend to get camouflaged in the oil bases and remain dormant. They won't wake up until they hit a warm living skin... The Tamya tropical oil is really fun. I am hoping to package it in a spray bottle rather than a pour-bottle. It really feels like a "dry oil" and the scent is very light and refreshing. Megumi is the newest addition. I created a vetiver base first (there was a gentlemen who kept requesting a vetiver body oil), and I felt it really needed a little extra something, which is the jasmine as in Megumi. The spiciness is due to the addition of ginger and cardamom, which are less irritating to the skin than the allspice in the perfume formula. It's a very warm, woody and sensual scent with a light jasmine tough that makes it feel more perfumey.


Sugar scrubs are my favourite way to exfoliate. A good sugar scrub should be easy to work on the skin and my personal preference is for scrubs that exfoliate as well as moisturize and nourish the skin. It saves that step of applying a moisturizer after bathing, which to me is a huge bonus as it saves time! Most of the sugar scrubs I like are quite messy in the bath tub, which although requires more frequent cleaning of your tub (which is never a bad idea), is a lot of fun in the process. Scrubs that in addition to the sugar have exfoliants such as ground nutshells or coffee beans are among my favourites... the sugar itself dissolves in the water. The ground nuts and shells should be large enough to not stubbornly stick to the surface of the tub.

I made my sugar scrubs with both white and brown sugar, and added exfoliants such as cacao nibs and ground coffee, in a carrier of vegetable glycerin and nourishing oils. after using them you don't need a moisturizer, and the skin is left exfoliated, soft and non greasy.


Bath salts, a pure way to unwind and cleanse the body from toxins. Although these are not by any means new products (I launched them on Mother's day 2009) - I just created a larger size packaging for my bath salts, and will change the collection a bit. The Lavender, Licorice & Vanilla bath salts are a very slow seller so I will likely discontinue them and will replace them with a Vetiver scented bath salts. I found some really neat bath salts that I'm excited to use - Ancient Canadian Sea Salt from Manitoba!

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Every year I make some bath products for gifts for friends and regular customers for the winter holidays. Sometimes it's a bath or massage oil, or sugar scrub, and last year it was bath salts, which turned out really nicely. Bathing rituals, short or long, seem to be an important thing in the winter time. A hot bath helps to bring the heat back to your body if you spent just a little too much time running around outside and freezing your legs off. It's also a way to unwind and relax in this stressful season preparing for the holidays and making sure there's enough food on the table for the season. And lastly, it can be invigorating to take a bath if leaving the house is nearly out of the question and you start suffering from cabin fever. Especially a fragrant one!

A few weeks ago (just before my back got the best of me), I went back to the bath salts I created last year and modified them a bit to make them even better.

I pack most of them in those little tiny pickling jars I found and they are really cute. They have enough room for 100gr of bath salts and make a perfect little gift that smells heavenly. This year, I decided to use some ground-glass lab bottles that I didn't have any other use for and they look fantastic. I am on the lookout for more fun glass containers (like the shell one in the front, which I found in an antique shop). The salts I using this year vary, for the Geranium and for the Yuzu bath salts I now use Himalayan rock crystal salt, which is naturally pink and gorgeous.

As far as the scents go - I modified the formulas for a few of them, making them essentially simpler. I find that simpler is better with bath products - they seem to blend better with the base and not change or turn as much over time as the really complex perfumey ones do.

Another thing that had to change in the formulation was the salts ratio. Last year I used a recipe from a certain book that called for baking soda in addition to the salt. The result was a disaster: the soda absorbed all the oils, and turned the whole mix into a solid yet moist chunk of smelly salts. Besides, once I was able to get it out of the jar, it had those fizzy soda things floating in the bath. It just seemed very unnecessary to have soda in there. Using a combination of salts (sea salt, epsom salt and other exotic salts if you can find them) is a much better idea.

They all remained true to their essence and you might not even notice the difference if you tried them last year:
Hinoki is inspired by the Japanese wooden bath, usually carved in hinoki wood which is particularly resilient and has an exotic, tranquil and serene aroma. Here is it blended with the Japanese wood oils of hinoki (Japanese cypress), shiso leaf and seaweed to create an extraordinary bathing experience.
Yuzu is a Japanese citron, a fruit that is used in bathing rituals during the Winter Solstice. The bath salts are citrusy and refreshing and while being sweet it also has a hint of greenness to it from the Japanese mint and rosemary. It's mouthwateringly delicious with additional notes of litsea cubeba, grapefruit and clementine.
Geranium is the same gorgeous, luscious fruit geranium with vanilla and myrrh undertones and citrus spark.
Lavender is herbaceous yet sweet with the addition of licorice notes (tarragon, aniseed) and yummy vanilla.
Lastly, Spruce, which was based on the original Bois d'Hiver bath salts. It's still very similar in concept - incensey woods, coniferous notes and spices. However, instead of fir, spruce takes the centre piece and it's a little more refreshing, balsamic and less sweet and jammy. I think it's far more appropriate for a bath and the sandalwood lingers on the skin beautifully after leaving the bath. The new formula smells so different I had to change the name.