Handmade Beauty Connection
March 3, 2003
A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Vol. 4, Issue 9
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1. HBN Update: Welcome New
& Renewing HBN Members!
2. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: Hula
Honey Rose Cream
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win samples of
some lip balm flavorings
4. Create the Life You Love™: Good, Better Best ...
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review by Donna Maria: Qi
Body Butter by Old Thyme Bath Company
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
& Renewing HBN Members!
Flower Peddler | Michelle
Keiper | Virginia
* renewing member; a
garden of natural handmade soap, candles and bath products awaits you
NatureBath | Kathleen Healy |
Ohio
* renewing member; meticulously
handmade products, formulated with the highest quality ingredients
Natural Indulgence Body
Essentials | Christina M. Haas | Pennsylvania
* renewing member; handmade
soaps are vegetable-based and contain the finest ingredients so you can indulge
your skin naturally
Woodsong Soap Co. | David
& Sharon Willson | Michigan
* renewing member; handmade
soap and other bodycare treats
Ta Daa' Soap Co. | Aline
McKay | Texas
* handmade soaps; Congratulations
Aline for being the winner of the free year-long membership at the Texas
Soapmakers Convention last month!
Vanessa's Gift | Trisha Kernan
| Washington
* Make-it-Yourself Body Care
Kits put you in control to make healthful choices
Heal Bath and Body | Shana
Wood | Georgia
* products made with
conditioning fruit and vegetable bases, botanical oils and extracts; products
protect the skin from everyday challenges
Wheaton SoapWorks | Jane Kern
Brooks | Illinois
* handmade soap
RENEW
body and spirit | Maureen Piziali | Michigan
*
Natural body care products, from soaps to lip balms -- scented
with essential oils only
HBN Members In The News!
WOW!! Check out HBN member Kathleen Lewis Beauty Worldwide featured in the March 2, 2003, issue of the New York Times' Fashion & Style column in an article entitles "Makeup In The Back Room." The column, authored by Ellen Tien, spotlights 6 new indie (independent) beauty companies and Kathleen is one of them! Says Ms. Tien, Kathleen's creams, oils and soaps are made, poured and wrapped by hand in her studio -- a line "rich in its simplicity." Go Kathleen!!
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: Hula Honey Rose Cream
Hula Honey Rose Cream is a rich blend of oils and rose concrete to provide your dry skin with a wonderful emollient.
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 Valerie Rickard of Wooster, Ohio! Valerie won an autographed copy of Soap For Body And Soul by Lisl and Landt Dennis!
Last Week's Question: When I was very young, I married a professor from Transylvania. We settled in California and began living a simple life in an adobe hut, exercising daily, eating a vegetarian diet. When we opened our first health spa, we didn't even have places for people to sleep so they brought their own tents. What we did have was lots of natural spring water, goat's milk and fresh air and everyone loved our spa. Today, our spa which started so humbly, is visited regularly by the rich and famous. We have been so successful that I decided to open a second spa - much more luxurious in the Japanese style.
Last Week's Answer: The spas are Rancho la Puerta and The Golden Door. The speaker is Deborah Szekely.
This Week's Question: I am a spa destination enjoyed by designer Donna Karan. I feature a private 1,000-acre island in the Caribbean, an infinity pool and the Shambhala retreat center. What spa am I?
Be the first to state the name of the spa described and win a trio of lip balm flavorings (Strawberry, Raspberry and Tutti Fruity), courtesy of HBN member Hogan Flavors & Fragrances.
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™: Good, Better, Best ...
I'll never forget Ms. Pollack, my 5th grade teacher's favorite mantra:
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is your best!
I have repeated these words to myself often as I learned how to do one thing or another better than I already could. No doubt many of you have done so as well. But if you're like me, the responsibilities of being a real live adult, complete with business and family obligations, may have forced you to whittle down the number of things you try to do well. Not that you don't want to be well-rounded and versatile -- we all want that. But you may have had to limit your new challenges if only because there are only so many hours in a day. You simply cannot become the best at everything that you are merely good at!
So I have edited Ms. Pollack's mantra to say:
Good or best. Put it to the test. And only start with good if you can't start with the best!
In other words, I strive to maximize my time daily by tackling the limited number of "best" options, rather than the unlimited number of "good" ones. For example, creating and selling handmade beauty products is something I truly enjoy doing. However, as I was forced to make some decisions about what were the best paths for my life, it became clear that manufacturing was merely a "good" option for me, while creating and growing HBN was the "best" one for me. This is because when I viewed the lack of professional organizations serving this industry in light of my legal and business-related background and professional training, the "best" choice for me and the industry I care so much for was to serve the industry rather than compete in it. Had I continued to manufacture and sell products (a "good" thing), I would not have been able to give the "best" of my time and energy to the formation and growth of HBN -- which is the "best" choice for me. So while I continue to make products as a hobby, I put the "best" of myself into serving the legal and business related needs of my clients and HBN members in general.
Take a moment today to ponder the "good" and the "best" options in your life. What is hindering you from achieving the best for yourself? Your family? Your industry? Do you have so many "good" options that you can't seem to choose and accomplish any of the "best" ones? Take some time to eliminate some of the "good" options from your To Do list and concentrate instead on the "best" ones. If you do, you'll lower your stress level, feel more satisfied overall and accomplish more of what you were put on earth to accomplish!
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review by Donna Maria: Qi Body Butter by Old Thyme Bath Company
Qi Body Butter
1.5 oz. | $6.00 (also available, 4 ounce for $12.00)
Qi Body Butter was not what I was expecting when I opened a package of goodies from Old Thyme Bath Company. The name of the company made me think that I was going to have a nostalgic experience of some sort, but this product is nothing of the sort. Instead, it's a very sophisticated combination of essential oils and natural goodies blended together to celebrate "the Qi of beauty."
I really love the feel of Qi Body Butter on my dry skin after bathing. It's a dense, oily blend of, among other things, shea butter, coconut oil and essential oils. The blend includes (but is not exclusively composed of) two of my favorite essential oils -- ginger and orange! They combine to create an exotic aroma that is sweet with a little bit of ginger bite. Ginger lovers will really like this product!
As with most oils suspended in a beeswax base, a little Qi Body Butter goes a very long way so I suspect this small jar will last me for a while. The shea butter has crystallized into little "beads" that melt readily into my skin when I massage it on. I love the feel of it as my hand smoothes the butter into my skin. My elbows and knees especially love it. And you can't beat the combination of shea butter and coconut oil on dry hair like mine so while the jar's open, I dab some there too to lend a soft shine and a bit more manageability for my flyaways!
To purchase your own Qi Body Butter from HBN member Lisa Bardsley, contact her in Portland at Oldthymebathco@cs.com or (503) 516-7954. Wholesale is available.
Visit The Handmade Beauty Connection Archives.
Visit our suite of Web sites serving the handmade toiletries industry:
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 nearly 4,000 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
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