June 10, 2002
Happy Father's Day!! (Yeah, I know it's not until Sunday, but I celebrated most of the month for Mother's Day in May so it's only fair that I do the same for Father's Day!!) If you're a dad, you're a very special person so enjoy your day and make sure someone treats you to something you especially enjoy!
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A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 |
Vol. 3, Issue 22
This Week's Sponsor: The Scent Shack
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1.
HBN Update: Welcome New & Renewing Members & Exciting Member News!!
2.
HBN Member Success Spotlight: KARE Handcrafted Soap
3.
Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win a bar of handmade soap in the
"Cedar" scent made by HBN member Sunlit Soap!
4.
Create The Life You Love™:
Making Yourself Memorable,
Part II: Be Consistent
5.
New at MakeYourCosmetics.com: Hemp
Seed Face Polish With Green Tea & Vitamin E
6.
Handmade Beauty Product Review by Donna Maria
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
& Renewing HBN Members & HBN Members On The Move!!
~ Welcome New HBN Members!
Meadowcrest Soap Company |
Shea Rosa | Utah
* handmade soap, toiletries and candles made with soy and other natural
ingredients
Rosie
Cheeks Herbal Soap | Kimberly Dravenstott | Ohio
* Srubbing Buzzles
and other bath and body luxuries handmade in small batches
Lucyland
| Lucija Kordic Hadziselimovic | California
* professional graphics art services
for your handmade toiletries products ... labels, brochures, and more!
Cowgirl
Enterprises | Donna Baase | Colorado
* wholesale of our popular
Cowgirl skincare line; perfect for your retail store or online storefront
Rainshadow
Labs | Casey Kellar | Oregon
* fine bath, body and home
fragrance products available today, manufactured and private labeled for you
Harmony SoapWorks
| Diana Thompson & John Adams | Washington
* handcrafted soaps, balms and bath products
made with quality ingredients to soothe your skin and senses
BK
Pumice Products, Inc. | Debbie Jenkins | Idaho
* fabulous pumice (PuMouse™) scrubbers in a variety of colors to suit any
gift giving need; wholesale available
~ Welcome Renewing
Members!
Soaps and Scents | Lynette Vail | California
Brambleberry,
Inc. | Anne-Marie Faiola | Washington
~ HBN Members On The Move!!
Announcing The Impending Publication Of "Make Your Own Cosmetics!!"
I am pleased to announce that I recently signed a contract with Champion Press for the publication of two books tentatively titled, "Make Your Own Cosmetics," one for adults and one for teens. The books are planned for a late fall release, just in time for the holidays!! Chapters in each book are slated to include: Cleansing, Toning, Moisturizing, Mask/Scrubs and Make-Up.
HBN members, click here to find out how you can send in your original cosmetics recipes for possible feature in the book!!
Learn more about our members and their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through HBN's Online
Member Directory!
2. HBN Member Success
Spotlight: KARE Handcrafted Soap
This
week's HBN Member Success Spotlight shines on HBN member KARE
Handcrafted Soap, whose owner, Karilee
Valeriano believes in eating and living as naturally as possible. In
addition to making soap for her family, she makes bread from scratch from
Montana grown wheat which she grinds herself in her kitchen. The family's
milk and butter come from a neighbor's cow and their eggs are laid by their
own chickens. Knowing all that about Karilee, it's no surprise that, after
she perfected a soap recipe, she was in business ...Click here
to read the whole story!
Member Success Spotlights are one of the many benefits of HBN membership. To
learn more about Karilee and all of the other HBN members
profiled in HBN's Success Spotlights, click here.
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia
Question: Last
week's winner was HBN member Michelle Rotherham of La Crescenta,
California. Michelle won a tube of my Vitamin E Enriched Shea Butter Lip
Balm!
Last
Week's Question: I am a collection of 38 time-tested healing items. The
healers in my collection can help you deal with everything from fears and
anxieties to unwarranted guilt and lack of confidence.
Last Week's Answer: Bach Flower Remedies
This Week's Question: I do not produce an essential oil, but I am a real plant that a popular fragrance oil is named for. I am hardy and sweet smelling and I grow in abundance in full sun in humid areas. My leaves, which curl up when dried, are braided into beautiful coiled baskets which are made by hand using me, pine needles and pieces of Palmetto leaves, and sold mainly in the low country of Charleston, South Carolina, and the surrounding islands including St. Johns, Fripp, Kiawah and Pawley's.
Be the first to submit the correct common and botanical name of the plant described and win a bar of handmade soap in the "Cedar" (a perfect Father's Day gift for a special man in your life!!) scent made by HBN member Sunlit Soap! Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry.
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.
Making Yourself Memorable, Part I
4.
Create The Life You Love™: Making Yourself
Memorable Part II: Be Consistent
In the last issue, I started a 10-part series entitled "Making
Yourself Memorable." Part I focuses on the importance of being
an expert. If you missed that article, you can read it here.
This week, we address the importance of consistency to the
growth and prosperity of your business.
Consistency and predictability are among the most significant and valuable positive things you can add to your business to solidify a memorable brand. People have to know what to expect from you. Otherwise, they become confused and your brand does not achieve and maintain a clear identity with your target audience. Consistency is critical - no matter what you are selling! You want people to be able to recall what you sell day after day, month after month and year after year, and be able to rely on your ability to fulfill their desire for your goods. They need to know that they can return to your place of buisness to find the products they love.
In short, give the people what they want when they want it and you will be successful!
If you have store hours, be there during store hours. If you can't be there personally, at least be open even if it means you have to hire part-time help or have a relative or close friend available to pitch in in an emergency. If you carry a certain number of soaps in a certain number of scents, do your level best to have them in stock. How disappointing it is when we go to a store to buy something we love only to find that they are flat out of stock. If Murphy's Law prevails and you have no choice but to be out of stock, always offer your customer an attractive alternative or a "rain check" for the product they want.
As an example of the benefits of consistency to a small enterprise, let's look at HBN member Mama Coco's. This example is most relevant as a good example of how a very small business can operate in a consistent fashion and attain a predictable brand image. Mama Coco's is a Hawaii-based business owned by Lymari Hughes, a wife and mother of two toddlers. After first making and selling everything from soap to lotions, Lymari stepped back and realized that she wasn't making any money. Her reality check convinced her that a problem was that there was no consistency in her business plan and that she had spread herself too thin. Customers liked her products but she did not have a real consistent brand image and, as a small manufacturer, she could not keep up with making and selling several different products and make a reasonable profit.
Lymari decided to focus on lip balms, and to create the best ones possible. She developed a fabulous recipe and today, she offers 4 flavors of lip balm which are sold in fine specialty shops from Honolulu to Beverly Hills to New York City and around the world. (See my review of Lymari's lip balm in today's product review.) Mama Coco's lip balm is made with freshly pressed organic virgin coconut oil, cocoa butter and honey. Sometimes, Lymari presses the coconut oil from the meat herself by roasting it so the water evaporates. She then presses out the fresh oil from the meat. Lymari says that this fresh pressed organic oil can be rubbed directly into the skin to obtain fabulous results. (And I agree because she sent me some and it's fantastic!!) She also tells me that the fresh pressed oil is more fragrant and skin-loving than the virgin coconut oil which is processed in bulk because bulk processing destroys some of the nutrients and compromises the fresh coconut aroma. (My nose seconds that opinion!!)
When I get lip balm from Mama Coco's, I can count on choosing from the same 4 fragrances packaged in the same silver slide top tins. I can also count on the same label featuring the beautiful Island lady smiling at me with those lovely "Mama Coco" lips. I can also count on each tin being carefully and neatly wrapped in the same color of tan tissue paper, complete with hospital corners. Mama Coco's is a perfect example of how a small business with one person at the helm as "chief cook and bottle washer" can have a successful business with a consistent and memorable brand image ... and still have time to enjoy raising a family. Mama Coco's consistency makes it easy for people to remember her and it also makes it easy for satisfied customers like me to tell other people about the product. One thing in 4 flavors ... how simple, consistent and memorable is that?
Next Week: Be Internet Savvy
5. New At MakeYourCosmetics.com: Hemp Seed Face Polish With Green Tea & Vitamin E
In celebration of Father's Day, this week's recipe is a really nice recipe for a facial grain product designed for men. Check out Hemp Seed Face Polish With Green Tea & Vitamin E submitted by HBC reader Angie Tripp. The essential oils lend a fresh, woodsy fragrance, suitable for oily or combination skin. Again, Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful daddies out there!
When you visit
MakeYourCosmetics.com,
it's easy to buy the ingredients you need to make your goodies by clicking
on our Partner links:
Essential
Wholesale: natural unscented cosmetic bases, pure
essential oils, absolutes, carrier oils such as avocado, virgin coconut,
sweet almond, jojoba, shea butter and specialty packaging supplies!
Bramble
Berry, Inc.: over 80 different, fully
tested fragrance oils (including the exclusive "Relaxing" and
"Energy" blends), over 250 soap molds, essential oils and
unscented bases.
SunRose Aromatics: pure essential oils (many organic), carrier oils and other aromatherapy products, each carefully selected for quality. Check out their Perfumer's Emporium.
The Scent Shack: fragrance oils and soap supplies. Fragrance oils are tested in cold process, melt & pour soap, and candles, and test results are listed at their 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!
6. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Mama Coco's Coconut Cream Lip Balm
Mama Coco's Coconut Cream Lip Balm
1/4 ounce tin | $4.50
OK, there's lip balm and then there's Lip Balm! Mama Coco's makes Lip Balm! and you just ought to try it!! I chose the Coconut Cream flavor as my favorite. I gotta say that this stuff is the smoo-cream! (That's my new, as of just now, term for "the smoothest and the creamiest!") It's not like most lip balms ... that' s not to say that most lip balms aren't nice ... they are. But I've never used one made with virgin coconut oil like what Mama Coco's uses in this stuff! It smells just like the coconut meat I ate when I cracked a fresh coconut several years ago in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. So after I put it on my lips and it was the smoo-cream, I just had to lick my lips and taste it. Ahhh! Delicious! Does anyone like cream soda? Well, it tastes sort of like that, only more delicate. In fact, I wish Mama Coco could make some cream soda in this Coconut Cream flavor.
Mama Coco's makes no secret of the other fresh ingredients (many of them certified organic) she chose for her lip balms: cocoa butter, beeswax, honey and several herbs including two of my favorites, calendula and sea buckthorn. These goodies all combine to make a smooth lip experience. You will want to put this on your lips before you go to bed at night. You'll also want to have some handy in case someone special with a sweet tooth wants to give you a kiss!
In addition to Coconut Cream, Mama Coco's lip balm in available in Hawaiian Vanilla, Ka'u Orange Cream and Tradewind Mint. And at only $4.50 a pop, you can splurge on all 4 and make 3 other people's lips as happy as yours! These great balms can be found at Mama Coco's, where you'll find an organized, easy to use Web site and shopping cart.
Visit The Handmade Beauty Connection Archives.
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MangoButter.com: 400+ 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™
Handmade Skin Care.com: secure online shopping!
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Donna Maria, Editor-In-Chief, DonnaMaria@HandmadeBeauty.com
The Handmade Beauty Connection
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© Copyright 2002 Donna Maria and affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Click here for important legal information.
