My shop!!

 Now you can start shopping my handmade items! Not yet all available online, but bit by bit I upload all. And oh, always so happy to take up custom orders!! 

Go visit! WWW. HANDMADE BY KRISTINAMARI . COM

Ingredients of my handmade cold process natural soaps and shampoos

 Solid Shampoo "Citrus Paradisi" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, macadamia, castor), grapefruit (citrus paradisi) essential oil, water. 

Grapefruit essential oil is good for getting rid of dandruff and promoting the growth of healthy hair follicles.

Solid Shampoo "Lavender" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, macadamia, castor), lavender (lavandula angustifolia) essential oil, water.

Lavender essential oil promotes hair growth and hair thickness by improving blood circulation, antibacterial and antifungal. 

Solid Shampoo "Lemongrass" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, jojoba, castor, palm), lemongrass (cymbopogon citratus) essential oil, water.

Lemongrass oil has astringent property. When applied to the scalp, it can help your hair remain clean and fresh between shampoos. It also promotes contraction hair follicles, thereby preventing hair shedding with regular use.

Soap "Sea-Buckthorn" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, mango butter, sweet almond, sea-buckthorn), water.

Sea buckthorn oil promotes skin hydration, elasticity, cell regeneration, and even helps treat and prevent acne, has anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce swelling and redness associated with many skin conditions, including eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.

Soap "Cacao-Spearmint" - saponified natural oils (cacao butter, coconut, olive virgin, palm), spearmint (mentha spicata) essential oil, cacao powder, water.

Cacao butter doesn't just moisturize the skin, it helps to protect it from dryness. Spearmint gives fresh scent and sensation. 

Soap "Ginger Scrub" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, palm), ginger (zingiber officinale) essential oil, poppy seeds, water.

Ginger improves the skin's texture—and fights signs of aging. The antioxidants present in ginger increases collagen production, reduce skin damage, and inflammation. Ginger has also been known to reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation (dark blotches of skin). Poppy seeds gentry scrub the skin without any artificial waste for the planet.

Soap "Coffee with cinnamon" - saponified natural oils (coconut, olive virgin, cacau), cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) essential oil, ground coffee, water.

Cinnamon Essential Oil is reputed to calm dry skin, effectively alleviate aches, pains, and stiffness in the muscles and joints, address acne, rashes, and infections, enhance circulation, nourish the skin, slow the look of aging, and revive the skin tone.

Coffee grounds make an excellent exfoliant, gently sloughing off dead skin cells to reveal the fresh, healthy-looking skin underneath.

 Solid Shampoo "Orange and honey" - saponified natural oils (coconut, mango, olive virgin, sweet almond, castor), sweet orange (citrus sinesis), grapefruit (citrus paradisi) and lemongrass (cymbopogon citratus) essential oils, raw honey, water. 

Super nice aroma and soft yellow color to compliment your daily hair care routine. Hair and the scalp benefit from the different oils and essential oils, plus from raw honey.

Soap “Rose clay” - saponified natural oils and butters (shea, cacao, olive virgin, coconut, sunflower), rose geranium hydrosol, kaolin rose clay.

Gently exfoliating and cleaning the skin, while shea and cacao butters moisture, suitable for whole body and face. Slightly scented by using hydrosol instead of water.

Soap “Rock-rose and menthol” - saponified natural oils and butters (cacao, olive virgin, coconut), cistus ladanifer hydrosol, menthol crystals, water.

Soap for the summer! Cistus ladanifer (rock-rose) has many healing benefits for the skin, it also helps with sunburns. I added also menthol crystals so that after a long day in the sun, the skin gets a slight cooling effect as well. Perfect for summer night shower , it has nice smooth lather and cacao butter adds moisturizing elements to the soap. Scent is mild with a hint of rock-rose and menthol. 

Soaps and shampoos for sale

 My handmade shampoos and soaps officially for sale!

These are the reasons why should you try and switch to handmade shampoos and soaps.
They are natural and SLS free, that means healthier for your skin and for you and for the earth !
I package them plastic free, so all those plastic bottles are saved for the earth, I also package them by recycling carton packages.
What you should know about using solid shampoo for the first time!
Don’t expect it to be like the commercial ones, it will feel different as it is different. (I have quite light hair and after first use I felt them thicker and with more volume , washing the shampoo off don’t feel as slick, but once hair is dry they are soft )
Moist your hair, and hands, then work a little lather between hands then massage it into hair and wash as normal. Making as much lather so all hair is covered.
Never leave your soap or shampoo into water or running water after the use as it will run out quick that way.
My packages have a cotton rope that is perfect to use once you start using the shampoo , pass it through the hole and hang it after use!
Soaps have natural oils and you should wash and leave the lather a bit of time on your skin, so the oils can give the qualities to the skin, unlike the shower gels that have SLS and you should wash it off immediately.
My handmade solid shampoo “Citrus paradisi “ have the following oils - coconut, olive virgin, castor, macadamia, grapefruit essential oil .
Grapefruit oil contains lot of antioxidants and is good for the hair growth.
Pricing is simple, all are 6.50 euros per 100gr of soap/shampoo.
As they are handmade they never come out the same weight so I use calculated price for each one rather than unit price .

Prices range 3.25 - 3.45

Recycled and recyclable packaging

Natural soaps, solid shampoos and healing balms

 I am not quite sure from where to start so I just start.

I started to make cold process soaps, solid shampoos, and some healing balms and lip balms.

Already more than a year I have not used commercial shower gels, I have used soaps, and I have to say they last a lot of time. So they are better for the skin and lot more cheaper! 

To have the full benefits of the soap it is good to cover with yourself with the lather and not get it immediately washed off with water, the key word is enjoy! Its a good time for yourself! 

And then I started to be very intrigied by doing my own shampoos, for all the good reasons - no chemicals, no parabens, no sulfates, I know exactly what I am putting into it, so I know exactly what I am getting my body to absorve. Also lots of plastic waste is saved. Good for me and for the planet, what can be better! 

Now I have used only my made solid shampoo over a month now and what I have to say is, I like it! Of course at first it feels different, it will not react and give the same feeling as the commercial liquid shampoos with all the chemicals in it. If now to explain what I felt, is that it made the hair not so silky while wet, but once dried it feels nice. And it makes the hair more soft and light, so it appears I have more hair, or maybe that this is the feeling of healthy hair. 

If you have started to care about what products you put on yourself, then I recommend to try solid natural shampoos out. I really like the smell of the lemon grass as well. I did a patch of lavender as well which I like and is not that feminine, that said my husband uses that one.

Also I did healing balms for Christmas presents, and for myself, the patch is all out, but I am up for orders. 

Cardigan project

So this is how I improvise. 

I have more or less the idea what I want to make, then I draw it on my notebook, to have some indication of the measurements and cuts, I had the idea to use some of Drops patterns, mix and match them.

As I had this yarn with gradual color shift, I had to make some adjustments to have the color going evenly throughout the back and front and both front top parts, I decided to use steek.

The with the sleeves I figured steek should give the right outcome here as well.

The color with the sleeves and top part was totally random, but you also have to have some luck to create awesome pieces, right?!

Well I am still in the decision how to make the lower part, as the diagonal pattern isnt as nice as I would like, I made a test piece. So lets see what I will come up with !

all starts with putting the idea on the paper

top part steek, the sleeve hole

two sleeves knitted at the same time, steek in the middle

puff sleeve

My patterns / tutorials shop on Etsy

If you want to do something beautiful whilst you need to stay at home, then check out my beading tutorials shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/beadtutorials

Mulgi mustrid

I haven't done a lot of embroidery work (not to include the beading projects), so it intrigued me. I bought the materials and remembered a skirt that my sister had given me. Well and as I am 1/4 of mulk (Estonian region) and I found their traditional patterns so cool, well my skirt has now the patterns all over!

Steek cardigan!

I love to challenge myself and learn new techniques and tips and patterns and woah so many times my time spent searching and trying and remodeling takes so much more time than the actual project itself. But well this is the way I am, easy is boring.
Well here is my first steek cardigan, it was intimidating to cut it but well it fits perfect and I dont have no more fear of doing it more times !

Lace self-designed top

I knew what I wanted in general, and then started to search for patterns that would fit the idea. I modified my first plan to that much that I made an open back. Otherwise quite the idea I had in mind and what I draw on paper.
Here are general guidelines to make it, no counts, but all the patterns used for the different parts.

So I started from the middle, I knitted the waist line, pattern down, the right side the same curve as the left side on the pattern. For me I repeated the pattern ten times.

Then I picked up all the stitches with the same 2,5 needle size, then the next row lessened the stitches by two and the same time went to needle size 4.
At the sides two times made the extra stitches to widen the top at chest. From the bottom of armpits, went up by tree, front and two back parts. Few rows before finish made the neck line.

Then united the waist line piece just from the bottom for few stitches and picked up all the round to make the bottom part. Started with the original pattern and first leaf last row didnt take both sized together, that made the pattern one stitch wider, same the second leaf. The third had already 30 stitches more.

All the edges have crochet finish.

Then found the buttons I wanted and voila! Super happy with the result! :)