Handmade Beauty Connection
January 27, 2003
A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 |
Vol. 4, Issue 4
To subscribe, click here.
Sponsor: Essential Wholesale
|
Essential Wholesale | Toll Free: (866) 252-9639 USA Only Exotic Butter Body Lotion Valentine EO Blend (10ml
$14.00) NEW…Short Run PRIVATE LABEL Services Check out Essential Wholesale for all your Toiletry and Soap Making needs...
Essential Wholesale | Toll Free: (866) 252-9639
(USA only) |
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
& Renewing HBN Members!
2. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: The Perfect
Sugar Scrub
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win 5 pounds of
Turbinado sugar!
4. Create the Life You Love™: Do I Really Work
From Home??!!
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review by Donna Maria: Valentine Essential Oil Blend by Essential Wholesale
6. Join Me In France This Summer ... At A Reduced Price!!
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
& Renewing HBN Members!
Leslie's Garden Handcrafted
Soaps | Leslie Plant | Maryland
* renewing member; hands
down, no questions asked - the best lemongrass soap in the universe
Natural Impulse Handmade Soap
and Sundries | Karen White | Alabama
* renewing member; handmade
veggie soaps in over 30 scents
Moonhawven Corporation | Dr.
Joan Goodman | Texas
* renewing member; essential
oils and other aromatherapeutic supplies and consultations
Rainbow
Meadow | Melody Upham | Michigan
* renewing member; essential
oils and other great soapmaking supplies
The Parsonage
| Julie Pieper and Richard Darr
| Virginia
* renewing member; dozens
and dozens of handmade soaps - enough to make you dizzy
Gail Adrian Fragranceur
| Gail Adrian | New Jersey
* renewing member; customized
aromatherapy perfumes that are beautiful personalized gifts - ask me how I
know!
Briarwood Farm
Botanicals
| Linn Stillwell | New Hampshire
* renewing member; organically
managed herb farm and Pain Ezzz Cream
Kathleen Lewis Beauty
Worldwide | Kathleen Lewis | New York
* renewing member; wonderful
handmade products - try the Narcissus line!!
Nubian Body Sensations |
Maxine Glover | New York
* handmade bath salts, salt scrubs, body butter, loc butter, lotion, and
soaps
Learn more about our members and their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through HBN's Online Member Directory, now with 4 ways to search: (1) by state/country; (2) by member business name; (3) by keyword search; or (4) using our new alphabetical listings.
2. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: The Perfect Sugar Scrub
If you're looking for a body scrub that's great for rough spots, you can stop searching now! The Perfect Sugar Scrub easy to make scrub with a wonderful texture includes whipping cream and sweet almond oil to make your skin soft and supple. The scent is fabulous too!
When you visit MakeYourCosmetics.com, it's easy to buy the ingredients you need by clicking on our Partner links:
Essential
Wholesale: pure essential oils, base carrier oils such as avocado,
sweet almond, jojoba and shea butter and specialty packaging supplies!
Bramble
Berry, Inc.: over 75 different fragrance oils
(including their exclusive "Relaxing" and "Rosehip
Jasmine"), all soap tested, soap molds and unscented soap
bases!
SunRose Aromatics: pure essential oils (many organic), carrier oils and other aromatherapy products, each carefully selected for quality. Check out their new Perfumer's Emporium.
The Scent Shack: fragrance oils and soap supplies. Fragrance oils are
pre-tested in cold process, melt & pour soap, and candles, and test results are listed at the Web site. Scents tested by soapers for soapers!Lynden House International, Canadian supplier of soap and candlemaking supplies such as fixed oils, perfumes, essential oils, molds, powdered milks, colors, pre-made bases, candle wax, wicks, embeds and more!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: the winner of last week's contest was Mary Lindsey of Vacaville, CA who won a generous sample of cold pressed unrefined shea butter from HBN member African Shea Butter Company!
Last Week's Question: Poetically speaking, I am attributed to adorning the foreheads of both conquerors and poets, and the first part of my common name describes a particular water/land formation. Several other plants share the second part of my common name. On the whole, I alone can be added to several tasty culinary delights. What am I?
Last Week's Answer: bay laurel
This Week's Question: A popular condiment and ingredient in confections and liquors, I was the herb of the year in 1995. A member of the Apiaceae=Umbelliferae family, I bloom from June to September in warm temperatures. I come in several varieties, the most popular of which yields a sweet oil with a touch of spice -- a scent that is quite difficult to mistake for anything but me. What herb am I?
Be the first to answer this week's question, and win
5 pounds of course Turbinado Raw Sugar (so you can make all the sugar scrub you want!), courtesy of HBN member Essential Wholesale.Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry. Put "TRIVIA CONTEST ANSWER" in the subject line or your answer will not be considered.
While time does not permit me to respond personally to all entrants, the
winner will be notified by email and their name posted at HBN's home page.
4. Create The Life You Love™: Do I Really Work From Home??!
After lunch at a restaurant a few weeks ago, my server asked me if I was planning to go to work on Martin Luther King's birthday. I answered that I was working by choice, and she asked what I did for a living. I told her, and also offered that I worked from home. Her response: "Oh, well, you pretty much have the day off anyway then, huh?"
HA!! Her comment, though well meaning, illustrates the challenge that work at home professionals have to overcome in order to gain the respect of our potential customers. We can only earn their business if we first gain their respect, and in order to do that, we must dispel some of the stereotypes of work at home professionals. But I fear that many of us have a long way to go to convince those who would buy our products and services that we are indeed working from home, and not sitting around piddling and watching our favorite soap operas and a few episodes of Judge Judy.
Here are some things you can do to ensure that your at home business is professional. Taking these steps can help stem the tide of those who would not do business with us simply because we work (we really WORK!) from home.*
1.
Invest In A Business Phone Line.
When I want to do business with another business
person, I expect that if I call them on their business line, I will get a
professional and business-like greeting. In other words, I expect a salutation
that instills confidence in their ability to perform whatever service it is I
want from them. I don't expect (and I don't like) to hear someone pick up the phone
and say "ugh-hello?" with a mouth full of lunch. I don't expect to hear
someone pick up the phone and then drop it because they are handling their
newborn at the same time. And I absolutely hate hearing: "This number
accepts calls only from recognized numbers. Your number is not recognized."
Invest in a business phone line that you can answer professionally. If you are
unable to have a business line for some reason, then let the answering machine
pick up at home if you are not in a position to take a business call. (Oh! And
if you are using your home line as a business line, please don't let your 3-year
old leave the voice mail message!)
2. Set Aside Space For Work
Only.
Whatever you do, don't set up your office in your bedroom or in a corner of
the dining room. Why? First of all, you'll never enjoy sleeping or dining in
your home again! Secondly, and seriously, how can you perform quality service
and maintain professional standards if your work is competing for space with
your laundry or the family place settings? Have an office, even if it's the size
of a closet, where you can get your work done. If you're manufacturing
something, set up separate space for that. If it's not possible to have a truly
separate space, then set aside specific times of the day and week when family
space will be used for manufacturing only. That way, your family will know when
they won't be able to access that area (this is especially important if it's the
kitchen!) and you will be more likely to accomplish your goals during that
specific time if everyone in the household knows that it's important for you to
have that space for a particular period of time.
3. "Go To Work."
In a conversation over lunch last week, I described my morning routine to a
friend. "Well, I get up in the morning and bathe and
dress my daughter. I feed her, and if there's time, we play around a little," I explained. "Her father takes over at 9:00 so I can go to
work." My friend said, "But I thought you worked from home."
"I do," I said, "and at 9:00, I Go To Work."
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the frame of mind of a work at home
professional. If you view your work as something you can get to when you get
around to it, the public will see that and they will not respect your business.
(Plus, you'll be making it that much harder for the rest of us ...) On the other
hand, if you respect your work and prioritize it appropriately, you will gain
the confidence of prospects and it will be that much easier to sell your product
or service. If you need to take a walk around the block or a drive to the local
coffee house to make you feel like you are going to work, then do
that -- do whatever you have to do to maintain the frame of mind that, even
though you work from home, you still get up and go to work each
day!
If you work at home, you are part of a growing group of professionals who provide quality products and services in an environment that allows them to successfully integrate vocation and family. Take advantage of that! But also remember that people are watching, and if we don't take our work at home jobs seriously, neither will they.
*Note: In offering these tips, I'm not
suggesting that we be inflexible. There may be times when you simply have to
do some filing at the dining room table. There may be days when your child
care provider is ill and you have no choice but to take a business call
while also viewing an encore presentation of Sesame Street. Those
times should be the exception, however. Professionalism should be the
overall norm, while emergencies are addressed as appropriate on a case by case basis. Valentine Essential Oil Blend I thought I'd take a break from reviewing finished cosmetics to review a nice
raw material I discovered recently and really have enjoyed using. Do you fancy yourself a pretty decent blender of essential oils to make nice
scents and helpful therapeutic blends to complement nearly any occasion? Well, I
do. But I have to say that every now and then, a new blend comes along - and one
sniff sends me back to the drawing board to hone my skills. Essential
Wholesale's Valentine Essential Oil Blend is just such a blend. When I close my
eyes and sniff, I smell rose, citrus, ylang ylang, bitter almond and a touch of
cinnamon. It's sensual but not overpowering, spicy yet smooth and understated. A fabulously simple way to use the Valentine Essential Oil Blend
is to add about 30 drops of it to an ounce of shea butter and stir. You don't
have to heat it much if at all. Feel the texture of your shea butter and if you
stir and it doesn't soften, heat it just a little and stir the blend in. If you
want an absolutely true representation of the scent, you'll have to use refined
shea butter. But if you don't mind the subtle shading of the scent with a bit of
a nutty aroma provided by pure, unrefined, crushed shea butter, use that. That's
what I did and it is fabulous. Refined shea butter is nice, but in terms of the
way it literally melts into the skin, nothing can hold a candle to unrefined
shea ... I mean nothing! I use my blend in my hair to tame the frizzies and I love massaging it into
my feet and elbows. You can get the
Valentine Essential Oil Blend at Essential Wholesale. There are some spaces left so be sure to check
out the links of great photos so you can see what you're in for when you come
with us! To view the full itinerary This trip presents a wonderful opportunity for
HBN members to enjoy a working vacation and we encourage all business owners to
check with their tax professionals to make sure that they receive whatever tax
benefits are available as a result of this trip to see first hand how some of
the ingredients used in your products are manufactured! Check the entire itinerary here. Aroma Tours has set up a special
page at their Web site for HBN members to register! Join us for this
fabulous trip! If you have any questions about the trip, just email
me!
Visit our suite of Web sites serving the handmade toiletries industry: © Copyright 2003 Donna Maria and affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Click here for important legal information.
5. Handmade Beauty Product
Review by Donna
Maria: Valentine Essential Oil Blend
by Essential Wholesale
10ml | $14.00
6. Join
Me In France
This Summer...
At A Reduced Price!!
For
two weeks only! The price is reduced to
Visit The Handmade Beauty Connection Archives.
IndieBeauty.com: the leading
industry trade organization
MangoButter.com:
450+ suppliers of raw materials and packaging, updated weekly!
MakeYourCosmetics.com:
ingredient encyclopedia & original cosmetics recipes
DonnaMaria.com:
sound advice for your small business, Create The Life You Love™
AromaGirls.com:
Coming Soon: "defining beauty for ourselves"
Have your ad seen by over 3,800 subscribers! ! Click here
to see why Essential Wholesale says that the returns from their newsletter
ad "just keep on coming," and why
The Scent Shack says, "Our sponsorship of The Handmade Beauty
Connection went over very well, we had a huge number of hits on the
day the newsletter was published, plus we got quite a few new customers."
Donna Maria, Publisher & Editor-In-Chief, DonnaMaria@IndieBeauty.com
The Handmade Beauty Connection
The Handmade Beauty Network | www.IndieBeauty.com
