Handmade Beauty Connection
A Publication of The Indie Beauty Network 1. IBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing IBN Members! Handmade Beauty Recipe of the Week: Milky
Morning Cleanser
April
17,
2006
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 7, Issue 17
To subscribe, click here
2. Lifestyle CEO Report: Business Growth Expert Jim McCaffrey Joins Me!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win something wonderful!
4. Feature Article: Herbal Vegan Delights
5. Handmade Beauty Book Review: The Blossoming Heart by Robbi Zeck
6. Announcing IBN Live!
1. IBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing IBN Members!
Welcome
Renewing Members!
EcoBotanica
| Guru Darshan K. Wilson | New Mexico
* Ecobotanica Face and Body Care to
complement a conscious lifestyle. Creams and lotions deliciously blended
from select ingredients to delight your senses and nurture yourself. Gently
handmade with sacred mantras to work with your own intention to heal.
Ayurvedically inspired , with organic ingredients, therapeutic grade
essential oils, no petrochemicals or harsh preservatives. We donate part of
proceeds to heal the earth.
Sinjin
& Sage Handcrafted Soap | Peggy Deustch-Knudson | Iowa
* Ahh! Handmade soap. One of life's affordable luxuries! Sinjin &
Sage was a passionate hobby that developed into a small, home-based
business. Named after my two, beautiful grandchildren, I strive for
uniqueness in each batch. From extra-virgin olive to the last drop of
fragrance or essential oil, freshness and quality are most important. Ahh!
Handmade soap, another of life's luxuries!
Patti's
Potions | Patti Eder | Wisconsin
* Patti’s Potions is your reliable source for handcrafted, natural,
environmentally friendly soaps, lotions, balms, and a variety of other
skincare and home fragrance products. We are forging a new path in the
skincare industry thanks to our decidedly different approach to skincare.
This is a woman-owned and family-run business. Visit our newly designed
website today.
Venus
Bee
* VenusBee is a hip & delicious collection of fragrant potions that
encourage aromatic replenishment, & poetic beauty. It’s about
ritualizing the care of the Self. Each herbal and aromatherapy infused
potion is hand-crafted using primarily certified organic botanicals, true
therapeutic-grade essential oils, chant, song & prayer. Potions are
designed & made from scratch employing a creative process blending
intuition, wise woman ways, magic & Pagan-based beliefs. No animal
testing is employed.
Danielle
& Co. | Danielle Fleming | Pennsylvania
2006 Handmade Beauty
Business of the Year Nominee!
* Promoting healing and wellness
through mind and body care. Our products are handcrafted primarily using
natural ingredients including oils, clays, spices, herbs, flowers, butters,
bee products, and more. We specialize in creating botanical and herbal
blends. All of our items are Enviornment-Friendly and Cruelty-Free. We use
recycled plastic, glass, and paper and ask our customers to protect the
environment by recycling our containers and wrapping. We do not use any
animal by-products.
Welcome New Members!
Autumns
Eve | Cheryl Misener | California
* Beautifully designed handmade
soaps and other products.
Maryam's
Soap Nook | Maryam Diaab | New York
* We offer more
than 50 types of quality handmade glycerin soaps made with olive oil, shea
butter, monoi de tahiti oil, goatsmilk, vitamin E, and silk fibers. We use
only the highest quality of essential oils and fragrance oils here at
Maryam's Soap Nook. We also offer whipped shea butter, and body massage and
bath oils as well as body polish (body scrubs) made with the highest quality
oils, butters, fragrances and essential oils.
Kosmetique Educational |
June Woods | United Kingdom
* Coming soon in the United Kingdom!
Educational courses to formulate your own soaps and cosmetics! This is a
very exciting new era! Email for
course schedule.
Tuple, Inc. | Janet Erio |
Illinois
* Tuple is a cottage industry in the
startup phase. Our first product will be handmade soap. We use vegetable
oils, lye and essential oils to create soap with a silky lather and great
scent.
Susan Jenkins | Scent
Sanctuary | Canada
* Your source for quality soap making
ingredients. The one stop shopping site for exotic butters, base oils,
fragrance oils, packaging and so much more. From the hobby soap maker to
professional soap maker, we have high quality ingredients to make your
products stand out.
Sandy's Sensations |
Sandra L. Scott | Oregon
* Sandy's Sensations our products are
handcrafted for the woman with a flair for the natural. Our Body Butters and
Massage Bars are designed to enhance the skins moisture and are made with
natural ingredients including essential oils. Our products are free of
petroleum and synthetic product.
Sandra Bolish |
Pennsylvania
* Handmade beauty products.
IBN Members On The Move!
I'm so excited about all the great things IBN members are doing. Below is just a sampling!
- Congratulations to Renee Deal of Deal Farm Soap Co. who is featured in her local paper in an article about how she manages her business as a mom! Check it out here!
- IBN members Peggy Deustch-Knudson of Sinjin & Sage Handcrafted Soap and Patti Eder of Patti's Potions helped organize the recent Iowa Soap and Candle Gathering. The enjoyed a demonstration on making bath bombs and a round table discussion on current insurance issues and private labeling. There was a presentation about distillation of hydrosols and how to create labels using MS Publisher. I'm told that fun was had by all!
- Congratulations to Erin Shriver of Biotropica products are featured in this month's US Airways Magazine, and their Bug Stuff product was recently featured in an article in several outdoor magazines including Saltwater Fly Fishing and Fly Fishing Trade.
- IBN members Gina Rafkind of Shakti Aromatic Energy and Kelly Holland Azzaro of Ashi Aromatics have joined with others to take over management of the Natural Ingredient Resource Center. The organization will focus on providing people with natural ingredient profiles, safety information, educational seminars and other things designed to help raise awareness about what a "natural" ingredient is. Good luck to you and your colleagues!
Send your news to me and you could be included next time!
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. Lifestyle CEO Report: Business Growth Expert Jim McCaffrey Joins Me!
\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.
Jim McCaffrey of the Sand Hill Advisors, a wealth and asset management firm,
joined me to discuss the importance of small business owners moving past
simply "running" their business to actually "growing"
their business in order to maximize accumulation of financial wealth.
Join us LIVE at 1:00pm EST at Global
Talk Radio.com. Just click on "Listen Live" at the home page
to join us! Enjoy all of my Lifestyle CEO Radio Shows at
this link. And last week's guest, Andrew Sherman who shared great tips
on how to protect and leverage your trademarks and copyrights (if you have
trademark questions, you want to listen to that show!), wants everyone to
know about his upcoming one-day intensive on the role of diversity in
America's growing companies. You can get the details at his website!
Mark Your Calendar For These Upcoming Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Shows:
April 24: Laurel Delaney of Global Trade Source, a company that helps small US businesses export their products around the world, will join me to talk about how your small business can Go Global!!
May 1: Cathy Townsend, Senior Business
Development Coach at Peter Montoya and graduate of CoachU, one of the
premier coach training programs in the world, will join me to discuss the
benefits of hiring a business coach to help you grow your business. What is
a business coach and how can one help you? How much do they cost? How do you
choose one? Last Week's Question: Studies
have shown that an increase in consumption of foods containing this chemical
helps to lower blood pressure, particularly when combined with a decrease in
salt intake. I met a man yesterday who is in the process of patenting a
cream containing this chemical, and who is also involved in testing to
satisfy the FDA's drug approval requirements so his cream can be marketed
nationwide as a drug to treat high blood pressure. How cool is that? To win
this week, state the name of the chemical. Last Week's Answer: potassium This Week's Question: State the name of the world renowned
non-profit educational institution which, under pressure, recently scaled
back its "endorsement" of a new line of skincare products produced
by Klinger Advanced Aesthetics. 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!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question:
last week's winner was Nancy Eagles of Vancouver, British Columbia. Nancy
won a bar of Orange Patchouli soap, courtesy of IBN member Blooming
Lotus!
4. Feature Article: Herbal Vegan Delights
by Annette Esterheld
Greenridge
Herbals, Melbourne, FL
A job change, not of her own choosing, led IBN member Colleen Miller on a pathway towards starting her own handmade beauty business, Greenridge Herbals. She was an editor for a horticulture trade publication and content with her job, but wished she could work hands-on with plants and not sit at a desk all day long.
"All of a sudden downsizing occurred," she says, "And my job was consolidated with other editorial positions." Colleen says she was confused and sad as to what she should do next, but she went with her instincts and made the move to the country. "If the company had not downsized, I would not have done that on my own," she says. " It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me, though I didn't realize it at the time." "The birds, the fresh air and the long hikes through Southern Illinois woodlands were comforting to my spirit and my soul started to be refreshed and renewed with ideas and inspirations," she says.
Starting Small -- Very Small
For over 12 years, Colleeen has been a vegan, meaning she not only doesn't eat animal products, but there are no dairy items in her diet either. After the downsizing at her job when she was thinking about what she wanted to do next, she was at the same time experimenting with lotions and creams in her kitchen trying to develop products that would not include animal products. "I don't believe that animal products are necessary when we have so many other wonderful plant-based ingredients that work in harmony with our skin." says Colleen.
She bought $20 in supplies at a local health food co-op. After several months of experimenting, she tried selling at a local farmer's market. Colleen says she didn't sell out of her products the first week, so she started going every week. "I took my time and was reliable, showing up every week," she says. "Customers knew that they could depend on me for products. At the same time it was also the best way to find out how customers reacted to my products, by watching their reactions to smelling and sampling the various creations I had made."
Colleen used every penny she made at the farmer's market to make more products to sell. After a summer of doing the market every Saturday, she had a nice savings account to put towards the business, which she named Greenridge Herbals, taking the name from the country road she drove on to her home in the country.
Colleen's Truly Natural Niche
Colleen's products are completely vegan, meaning they contain no animal products including beeswax, silks, tallow, lard, lanolin, etc., all of which are commonly used in skincare products. Her products are also considered "aromatherapy" products because she only uses plant-based essential oils, no fragrance oils which are synthetic and have been linked to allergies. "Many products on today's market are labeled "aromatherapy," but they still contain fragrance oils," she says. "I think manufacturers just aren't educated about this and the result is customers end up getting confused," cautions Colleen. "We only use essential oils. Fragrance oils can irritate sensitive skin types, so we really have a specialty with dry sensitive skin products."
"My unique niche is that I use no parabens to preserve my products," says Colleen. 'We use only natural preservatives, which make our products excellent for sensitive skin types." Colleen says every product is developed using her own recipes that she formulated, often late at night, in her own kitchen over the past eight years. "It took me a few years to finalize my lotion recipes," she says. " I tried over and over and over to get them just right, but it's so worth it now. They feel so soft and silky and watching the emulsifiying process as they are being made is beautiful." Her products include facial creams, toners, masques, handmade soaps, specialty body creams, spa treatments and soy candles.
The Freedom of Entrepreneurship
A few years ago, Colleen traded the winding country roads and sunflower fields of the Midwest for the tropical breezes and long walks by the ocean in Melbourne, Florida. With the move, Colleen, who has a bachelor's degree in plant and soil science and is also a certified herbalist, now has year-round gardens filled with herbs, vegetables, fruit trees and flowers. The move brought another change, too. Colleen 's baby girl was born in the summer of 2005 and her kitchen contains not only the ingredients for lotions and potions, but the paraphernalia of items that tell you there's a baby in this home.
"I love being a mother and making my own hours," says Colleeen. "I also love working with small business owners who buy my products for their unique little shops, and I live vicariously through them and their dreams." She also loves the way her kitchen smells every day, especially with those new products that nature inspired her to dream up. She's very, very busy keeping up with her life as a mom and a business owner. She sells her products wholesale, retail and private label and she does trade shows specific to her products. She's also in charge of her website and she spends a lot of time trying to educate customers about handmade products using her website.
For her the toughest part of her business is keeping up with wholesale. "I have so much interest in wholesale right now because of my niche," says Colleen," but I have to step back every few months and not take new wholesale orders because I don't want to get too big," she says. "I like being small and knowing what goes into every aspect of my business, although in the future, I recognize growth might be a possibility," she adds.
Help From IBN
"Supporting the IBN is essential to keeping the handmade beauty industry alive and growing," says Colleen. "dM represents our interests politically and is an inspiration of what true professionalism is all about," she adds. "She inspires other business owners and sets high standards as well as a wonderful example of how to be a professional in this industry." "dM and IBN encourage us all to be different, to be ourselves, " says Colleen. "I love hearing from other IBN members and I think it's so important that we connect and try to help each other."
Future Possibilities
"I love making my own hours now with my daughter so young, but as she gets older, I'd love to have my own shop someday," says Colleen. She would also like to teach classes on soap and lotion making and write a book on growing herbs to use in skincare formulations. "Education is so important to me," says Colleeen, who has a master's in Education. "I have learned so much through others I would like to share my knowledge as well. My goal is to keep my customers happy and healthy with natural products."
You can get some of your completely vegan handmade products from Colleen at Greenridge Herbals! Remember, she sells wholesale, retail and private label.
5. Handmade Beauty Book Review: The Blossoming Heart by Robbi Zeck, ND
While
there's no shortage of aromatherapy books on the market today, this one is
unique. More than just a listing of essential oils and how they are
generally used, Robbi Zeck uses the oils in various treatment applications
including kinesiology, a method of delving
into the energetic characteristics of essential oils and their ability to
help people enjoy positive life transformation.
You may know Robbi through Aroma-Tours, which she owns with her husband Jim Llewellyn, and through which you can enjoy aromatic tours around the world.
To read the entire review and get your copy of the book, click here.
6. Announcing IBN Live!
You
asked for it! You got it!
I am pleased to announce IBN Live!, the new monthly live business teleconference exclusively for IBN members! IBN Live! will take place on the last Friday of each month from 2:00pm to 3:00pm EST. IBN Live! will cover the hot handmade beauty topics of the day! We'll discuss product liability insurance issues, any new legislative or legal issues affecting member businesses, upcoming trade shows, your ideas for new member benefits and opportunities, news about your company that you'd like posted at IBN's newsletter, media opportunities, etc. -- plus I'll answer your questions about how you can take advantage of IBN member benefits that you might not know about or just haven't had a chance to explore. IBN Live! transcripts will be made available in downloadable format for IBN members in our Members Only area.
The call-in details for our first call, which will take place on the last Friday of April (April 28 this month) from 2:00pm to 3:00pm EST will be made available to IBN members next week at this link. All calls will be on the last Friday of the month and will be from 2:00pm to 3:00pm EST so you can mark your calendars now!
Other Member Benefits!
Did you know that beautiful color photos encourage consumers to choose your products? Don't forget that IBN will display your product photo next to your company listing in IBN's Online Member Directory! Get the details on submitting your product photo here.
Also, you can your product photos taken by IBN for a fraction of the price charged by other photographers. Our photography services are offered to IBN members only at deeply discounted rates -- only $20 for an individual product on a sleek white background with perfect lighting and true color to highlight the best attributes of your product. All copyright rights are transferred. Discounts and packages are available for multiples and groups shots. Work with props and colored backgrounds is available. Some restrictions may apply. To see samples and request a quote, click here.
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.
