Handmade Beauty Connection
A Publication of The Indie Beauty Network 1. IBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing IBN Members! This weeks' recipe: Rhassoul
Sea Salt Body Scrub
February
27,
2006
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 7, Issue 10
To subscribe, click here
2. Handmade Beauty Business Magazine Update!
3. Lifestyle CEO Reports: "Bizy Mom" Liz Folger Joins Me On
Today's Show!
4. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win something wonderful!
5. Feature Article: From Russia With Love
1. IBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing IBN Members!
Welcome
Renewing Members!
From
Nature With Love | Kibby Mitra | Connecticut
* 1,750 products with no minimum order requirement. Small & bulk
sizes sold wholesale. Our selection includes ingredients, supplies and
accessories for soap making, hair care, skin care, aromatherapy, toiletries,
cosmetics and spa products. Our line includes butters, vegetable and fixed
oils, essential oils, hydrosols, fragrance oils, cosmetic clays, bath salts,
sugars, herbs, muds, color additives, preservatives, milk powders,
exfoliants, melt and pour soap bases, skin care bases, soap molds, equipment
and packaging supplies.
Body
Blessings | Twanna Toliver-Maheia | New York
* Body Blessings is a creative, spiritually inspired beauty and
pampering company, driven by the desire to ensure that all our customers
will always feel pampered.
Natural
Impulse | Karen White | Alabama
* Natural Impulse is a small family business dedicated to serving the
needs of ablutophiles (bath addicts) and olfactomaniacs (scent lovers)
everywhere. We create handmade vegetable oil soaps in over 30 scents, plus
Scrubby Soap for Feet (fun glycerin soap with a loofah slice embedded),
Vanilla Salt Scrub, Jojoba Lotion, Tingle Toes Mustard Foot Soak, herbal
baths (tub teas), bath salts, dream pillows, solid perfume, and other
sensual treasures for shower, tub, body, and soul. Be sure to check out our
accessories and gift sets. And don't forget the rubber ducky!
Susan's
Soaps & More | Susan Soros | Texas
* Visit a spa without leaving home! That’s what you’ll experience
when using Susan’s Soaps & More products. Want to relax after a long,
stressful day? Need to jumpstart your body to get going in the morning?
We’ve something luscious just for you. At Susan’s Soaps & More we
handcraft our all natural products with fabulous aromatherapy scents like
Lavender Sage and Rosemary Mint. Our product line includes soaps, shampoo
bars (including dog shampoo), body butter, sugar scrubs, lotion bars,
hydrosols, sachets, insect repellant, solid perfumes, lip balm and baby
products. Retail and wholesale.
Welcome New Members!
Bella
Bella Natural Skin Care | Elizabeth Hornak | New York
* A small family owned business committed to creating quality natural
skin care products such cold process soaps, lotions, creams, lip balms and
other spa products
YA'C
Band & Body Products | Melissa Bailey | Virginia
* A mother and daughter business that hand makes natural skin care products directly from their home and from scratch. Products include shampoo, hair oils,bath oil, bath salts, body scrubs, whipped lotions, body cremes and lip balms.
Learn more about our members and their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through IBN'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 Business Magazine Update!
The
1Q 2006 issue of the Handmade Beauty Business Magazine is so exciting to
prepare! It gives me such great pleasure to be able to put a full-color print
publication in your hands -- one that is designed just for you and our
growing industry! I've added a new column by noted employment attorney Chris Farella,
Esq., who will give you valuable tips on how to find and engage employees
and contractors to grow your businesses.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to own your own retails store? Well wonder no more!! This quarter's magazine will feature a spread on handmade beauty business owners who have retail stores. From the bustling streets of San Francisco and New York City to smaller towns here and there, members will share their trials and triumphs and help you understanding the pros and cons of launching your own retail store.
f you are a member of IBN, your subscription is included in your annual
dues! Join IBN and get your subscription
included with your membership! Or subscribe
today!
Please support our magazine sponsors!
To learn how you can associate your brand with the first and only full color
print magazine representing our growing industry, click
here to request our Media Kit! And don't forget to tell
me what you'd like to see in the magazine -- that way, I can put it in
there!
Last week, I traveled to New Jersey to set things in motion for a July 2006 Handmade Beauty Business Conference at the Wyndham Hotel in Secaucus, New Jersey. (Read more about that next in week's issue!) While there, I high tailed it across the FDR Bridge to Harlem, New York for a photo shoot with IBN member Carol's Daughter. Several members joined me to chat it up with Carol's Daughter founder, Lisa Price, share products and learn from each other. We spent some time meandering among the beautiful and softly backlit shelving units of the Carol's Daughter Flagship store displaying a wide variety of products, most containing the dozens and dozens of fragrance combinations created by Lisa herself over the years. There were lots of things with lots of shea butter -- shampoo, conditioner, baby products, body sprays, body balms and more. The store is sprinkled with photographs of Lisa's mom, Carol, for whom the store is partially named. We didn't get a chance to visit the Carol's Daughter Legacy store, the smaller retail outlet in Brooklyn that Lisa opened herself several years ago. After sniffing and stocking up, we enjoyed a delicious lunch buffet at Manna's in Harlem and had fun networking, sharing war stories and enjoying each other's company.
Here
we are smiling from ear to ear. From left to right: Dawn Fitch (Pooka),
Johnette Miner (Women's
Wellness), Lynettte Simmons (Crowing Glory), Lisa Price (Carol's
Daughter), La Shonda Tyree (Nyah),
Nicole Perkins (Nidasii), Danielle Fleming (Danielle
and Company), Ingrid Anderson (Symren),
Jenya Bushmich (Alpha
Skin Care) and me!
Photo by Darryl B. Johnson
3. Lifestyle CEO Report: "Bizy Mom" Liz Folger Joins Me On Today's Show!
\Life.Style CEO\n. A person who owns and manages a business, not
solely for financial gain, but also to enjoy the personal rewards of
entrepreneurship, independence, flexibility and fun.
"Tips From A Bizy Mom." Liz Folger, author of "The Stay-At-Home Mom’s Guide To Making Money From Home," will join me on today's show to talk about the wide world of opportunities for moms who want to work from home. Of course, my vote is for a handmade beauty business, but alas, there are lots of other ways that moms can generate income from home. Don't just sit around wishing you could be making money in your home. Do something about it! dM and Liz talk about how -- and we chat it up about an IBN member who is featured in Liz's book!
Upcoming Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Shows:
March 6, 2006: Employment attorney Chris Farella, Esq. joins me to discuss what you need to know about interviewing and hiring employees and contractors to help your business grow. This is a great opportunity to "quiz" an employment attorney about your needs!
March 20, 2006: Mom and entrepreneur Lisa Druxman, tells us how she took a neighborhood fitness class and expanded it to the nationwide "Stroller Strides" brand of fitness classes for new moms.
April 3, 2006: Noted attorney Andrew J. Sherman, Esq. of the worldwide firm of Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Olinski will join me to answer questions about licensing and/or franchising your business. What's the difference between the two and how can you use them to expand your brand?!
4. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: last week's winner was Roger Rollin of Pittsburgh, PA. Roger won an assortment of sample mica colors, courtesy of IBN member Monave Mineral Cosmetics!
Last Week's Question: Today's guest on the Lifestyle CEO Show has two sons. State their first names and the name of their new travel show, which is slated to begin airing soon on the Food Network.
Last Week's Answer: Jamie and Bobby; the show will be called Good To Go
This Week's Question: A Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania company is at the forefront of a new technology that encases scent molecules in plastic so the plastic gradually emits aromatic molecules for about a month. The new technology is said not to interfere with the freshness of the product it contains so it is useful in the food and beverage industry. To win this week, state the name of the company.
Be the first to answer and win something delicious!
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's name will be
announced in the next newsletter! Welcome to the Land of Plenty ... of Confusion! A number of years ago when Jenya first came to America, she was both
delighted and overwhelmed at the abundance of information and the variety of consumer
products that are available here. “I was totally lost in the lists of unknown ingredients found
on the labels of conventional health and skin care products,” she says.
“Our skin is a living, breathing, detoxifying organ. It absorbs a huge portion of what we put on it.”
Jenya began making handmade soaps and facial serums for herself and her loved ones as a hobby. But when her mother died of cancer, she became aware in a first hand way of how harmful things around us could be.
“Everyday common things such as food, cosmetics, and even water can be our friends or our enemies,” says
Jenya. Jenya's first efforts at manufacturing products for sale to
a larger market went down the toilet -- literally! “At the beginning I made a lot of mistakes, but I
eventually managed to create a number of high quality products that earned a lot of very positive feedback from everybody who used them.”
Jenya, who’s based in Somerset, New Jersey, says she didn’t have a lot of money to start her business, just $1,000 of her own money and the encouragement of those she made her handmade beauty products for. Coloring The World “My best selling product is mineral foundation and concealer, she says, “I think this is due to the ever-growing popularity of mineral makeup and
the fact that I have a superb product that provides natural, long-lasting, flawless
and complete coverage. It is non-drying and at the same time has great oil controlling properties,” says Jenya. “The foundation is water- and sweat-proof, stays in place all day and protects the skin from harmful sun
rays," she adds. She says her foundation is made from minerals only. “It doesn’t contain organic powders, bismuth
oxycholoride, parabens, carmine, talc, fragrances or dyes,” she says.
"It's also ideal for people with chemical sensitivities, sun-damaged, aged or wrinkled
skin," she adds.
5. Feature Article: From Russia With Love
by Annette Esterheld
Close
your eyes. Imagine being a child again. Remember the first time you climbed
aboard a shiny new bicycle, or the initial moment of intrigue when you
sniffed a bottle of cheap perfume at the local dime store? Now imagine
growing up in a world where neither of those things existed, or if they did,
they were impossibly hard to come by unless you were incredibly wealthy --
which you are not. Open your eyes and view the photo at left. You're looking
at a woman who grew up in a world where perfume and bicycles were not a part
of the typical neighborhood landscape. Eugenia (Jenya) Bushmich of IBN’s Alpha
Skin Care was born in the Ukraine. Because both her parents were medical doctors,
she grew up understanding the importance of health care, but it was
incredibly difficult to access the types of health related products that are
taken granted in America.
For Jenya, that was not necessarily bad news as it turned out. “In my
country, people often relied on folk remedies and traditions to tend to
their basic health needs,” she says, “and I was always interested in herbal and old–fashioned recipes for skin care, health care, and cooking, which are all connected.”
Colds and sinusitis were treated with chamomile flower herbal inhalations and homemade nose drops were made from fresh beet juice and honey, she says.
Jenya's interest in natural living carried over after she moved to this
country.
Royal Flush
“Later on my husband showed his faith in what I was doing by offering me another $1,000
to take an an aromatherapy course,” she says. “I now have the peace of
mind and assurance that I am equipped with a knowledge that will keep me from doing harm to my customers or to myself when I work with essential oils.”
Jenya says she never realized the amount of studying she would have to do to sell her products commercially. “I
constantly read and researched new and old books on aromatherapy, chemistry of oils and herbs, folk medicine, etc. I had to buy a few new bookshelves to
accommodate my constantly-expanding collection of books and articles!”
In addition to mineral cosmetics and makeup, Jenya makes all-natural skin care
products including botanical skin oils, aromatherapy massage oils, aromatherapy anti-aging skincare, aromatherapy
mists and natural sun block.
“We use only fresh, properly stored, food grade oils and aromatherapy grade essential oils
from organic sources wh
Juggling Jenya
Believe it or not, Jenya is balancing all of this with a full time job as a graphic designer for a major food distribution corporation, something she’s been doing for the three years since she started her company.
At this time, she doesn’t have any employees, just her younger son who helps her with the photographic aspects of her website and some of the website design. In some ways, she says that works best for her since she’s says “I’m rather a perfectionist at heart, and doing all
things myself helps me sleep soundly at night.”
At the same time, Jenya recognizes that in order to expand her business, she will have to consider hiring employees and make Alpha
Skin Care her one and only career. Being financially strong enough to hire more employees and to concentrate on her company would give her time, which she says is the toughest part of running her own
business while holding down a full-time job. “Time is such a precious
commodity and I need more than 24 hours a day!,“ she says. “I have so many projects and ideas, but I hardly have any time for their implementation.”
All of Jenya's "free" time seems to end up in a bottle or a jar
with a lid on top. “I hope that when this business is the only job I’m doing, I’ll be able to concentrate more on development and have weekends off at least once in a while,” says
Jenya.
Time Honored Advice
“It may sound cliché,” says Jenya, “But for those considering their own business,
be prepared for an extremely time consuming pursuit. You need time to study, to manufacture, to experiment, to buy supplies and to sell products, and to communicate with your client
base," she says. "“I would say that success comes most often to
those who are not just in it for the money. There are many, many more efficient ways to earn
money than owning your own business,” she says. “You need passionate
involvement to be successful as an entrepreneur. Otherwise, business
ownership will quickly overwhelm you."
Jenya says that a sense of belonging is important to any solo business
owner. “The Indie Beauty Network gives me a sense of belonging to a community,” she says. “One can see what other
successful IBN members are doing and get great inspiration. Sometimes it is inexpressibly valuable to gain feedback
from peers and see how other members handle the challenges that confront us in this work.”
Today, it's hard to imagine Jenya flushing any of her beautifully made products down a toilet. You can enjoy dM's review of some of her products at this link, and you can get your own Alpha Skin Care goodies at Jenya's website.
Best & Success!!
Donna Maria
Editor, The Handmade Beauty Connection
The Indie Beauty Network | www.handmadebeauty.com
Copyright (c) 2000 - 2006 by The Indie Beauty Network (IBN) and Donna Maria. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction is prohibited. IBN does not necessarily endorse any product, event or ideology featured in The Handmade Beauty Connection (HBC) or on IBN's website. All information is provided on an "as is" basis and no express or implied warranties are given. Any use of the information contained in the HBC or on IBN's web site, including recipes, is solely at your own risk. IBN and Donna Maria disclaim any liability in connection with the use of all recipes, products reviewed and other information. Except for sponsorships, HBC refuses compensation from companies to feature or mention their names or products. Opinions expressed in any Product Review are personally those of the reviewer and do not represent the views of IBN, Donna Maria (unless she is the reviewer) or any other person or company.
