Caitlin Tham began making cold process soap as a hobby about five years ago. When she started giving it away, her friends liked it and it snowballed. Thus she created the Soaps & Spices Ipoh Facebook page about two years go to sell her handcrafted, naturally homemade toiletries which include organic mosquito spray, lip balm, facial bar, body salve, natural sunscreen, shampoo bar and pet shampoo bar among others.
“It all started when I thought it would be good to make natural soaps for my family. You see, the skin is porous and absorbent. It absorbs whatever it comes in contact with, much the same as sticking something in the mouth. Chronic use of harmful chemical laden products will cause the body to store the chemicals in the body fat or even in the brain. With enough accumulation of toxins in the body, illness can occur,” Caitlin explained.
According to her, the soaps are handmade with natural ingredients such as spices, grains, home-grown plants and natural herbs and spices that can be found in her garden and kitchen. It is free from artificial colouring, synthetic chemicals, preservatives and artificial fragrance.
“Nowadays, a lot of us are having hormonal imbalance, depression, nervous system breakdown etc because of all these synthetic chemicals. For instance, people love the apple scented fragrance not realising that it is synthetically produced because you can’t really produce it from the fruit itself,” the Ipoh girl elaborated.
Her main ingredients are coconut oil, palm oil, castor oil, neem oil, goat milk, yogurt, activated charcoal and moringa to name a few.
“I never make two batches of the same because I will create something new every time, just like an art!” she enthused. She also receives requests for custom-made soaps. “Some would like something citrusy while some prefer coconut milk base or goat’s milk base,” Caitlin added.
For updates on what she has to offer, interested readers can whatsapp the amiable Caitlin at 016 5299 328 or 016 518 7959 or swing by her Facebook page.
As for her main career, Caitlin is trained in bodyworks offering biodynamic craniosacral therapy, jin shin jyutsu, raindrop technique (with tuning forks) and lymph drainage therapy from her house.
Mei Kuan
