Handmade Beauty Connection
March 24, 2003
A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Vol. 4, Issue 12
To subscribe, click here.
3
Good
Reasons To Join The Handmade Beauty Network Today!
1. HBN publicizes your company through our Web site, newsletters, and public relations efforts. We provide the outreach you need. Just look up to your right and see our Featured Member ... posting of a member's ad with a direct link to their Web site is a great way to get the word out about your company.
2. HBN members receive discounts on lots of services and products to help grow their business and save them time and money. Our Discounts page lists our many discounts -- and we add more every month!
3. HBN provides a unique opportunity for you to grow your business simply by networking with other progressive business owners. Together, we are a powerful voice in advancing the collective goals of this growing niche to raise consumer awareness about the benefits of handmade beauty products!!
See more of our benefits here. If you're serious about your beauty business, join HBN today and see how we can help you grow!!
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
HBN
Members!
2. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: Sultana
Lotion Bar
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win
a wonderfully fragrant bar of Lemon Balm and Lemongrass soap!!
4. Create the Life You Love™: Staying "On
Mission"
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review by Donna Maria: Triple
Strawberry Homemade Specialty Jam
1. HBN Update: Welcome New
HBN Members!
Women's Wellness | Johnetta
Miner | New York
* spa products are packaged under the
name of Lady Ja
Dragonfly
Soaps | Jacquelyn Barth | Pennsylvania
* soaps and bodycare products made in
small batches in small batches with therapeutic essential oils
Good Ground Botanicals |
Christine Laureano | New York
* aromatherapy products for body, mind and
spirit
OrganicBeeswax.com | Sandra
Thebaud | California
* quality cosmetic beeswax and organic
base oil; Bulgarian rose essential oil
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: Sultana Lotion Bar
Sultana Lotion Bar is a great new recipe for those of you who want a nice moisturizer in a unique package! Loaded with rich, skin-loving oils, it's also easy to make with a touch of mica added for color!
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: there was no winner from last week! After several months of trying, I finally stumped you??!!
This Week's Question: In
the late 1960's and early 1970's, I was sold at cosmetics counters
throughout the world, bearing the claim that I was "a facelift without
surgery." Controversial ads were run in women's magazines in efforts to
sell me. One of them caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission
and I was eventually pulled from department store shelves in the US. That ad
showed a "before" picture of a woman prior to using me, and beside
that, an "after" picture of the same woman after using me. The
problem was that the "after" picture was taken after a
professional application of make-up, so the ad was false and misleading. The
last jar of me is believed to have been sold by Bishop Industries, Inc.,
sometime around the end of 1971. What is my name?
Be the first to answer this week's question and win a wonderfully fragrant bar of Lemon Balm and Lemongrass soap made by HBN member Baisley Herbals. (If you missed my review of this delicious soap, click here to enjoy it!)
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™: Staying "On Mission"
Last week, I exchanged email messages with a cosmetics manufacturer I'll call Timothy who had received an inquiry from a UK retailer expressing an interest in selling Timothy's products. The UK retailer had been having some unidentified problems with her Web site for the last 6 months. Timothy told me he wanted to work with her, but needed quick information about regulations for beauty products and shipping to the UK, shipping costs and carriers, and contracts.
Even though the retailer was in a foreign country in which Timothy had no experience, had been having serious problems with her Web site for 6 straight months and had no track record of sales whatsoever, Timothy was still willing to work with her ... that is until we talked.
After thinking about how busy Timothy already was trying to fill US orders and garner new US customers, it occurred to me that unless he already had plans to expand into the UK, he'd probably be wasting his time figuring out all of the details associated with dealing with this one UK retailer -- who couldn't even demonstrate a viable online business. "Why." I asked Timothy, "would you go to the trouble of learning so many things for one potential customer under these circumstances?
Timothy ultimately decided to pass on the "opportunity," but the experience pointed out how important it is to stay "on mission." Sure, as a small business owner, the mission will change periodically and adjustments have to be made. New things have to be learned and new markets have to be explored. But you should do them on your own time schedule, not someone else's ... and certainly not someone who can't demonstrate ahead of time that it will be worth your time. Timing is critical when choosing the right time to add new things to an existing business. For Timothy, losing sleep over the fact that he didn't know the UK cosmetics regulations on account of one dubious email inquiry simply was taking him off mission into a tangential area that could have been a colossal waste of his time.
Creating
the life you love is about a lot of things, and one of them is the practice of
guarding your time zealously! Many others are out to waste it but don't let that
happen! Staying "on mission" means analyzing each new
business opportunity in light of your existing mission and your existing
future plans. If a new opportunity fits into neither, consider spending all of
2 minutes to politely pass on it and add it to your list of things to think
about for the future. In this way, you can continue to focus exclusively on
your mission, increasing your efficiencies and saving your valuable time and
personal investment for things that can product maximum return for you. Triple Strawberry Homemade Specialty Jam This week, I'm taking a break entirely from reviewing skincare and beauty
products to review some other types of items that I think make great complements
to a delicious beauty product. I'm starting with a delicious jar of Triple
Strawberry Homemade Specialty Jam by HBN member RJ Caulder of
Handcrafted Soap by RJ Caulder. RJ makes a mean bar of soap too (I'm saving some
up for future reviews), but her jams are fabulous too! Triple Strawberry Homemade Specialty Jam contains
lots of strawberries along with the usual jam ingredients of pectin and
sugar. But this one also contains a bit of triple sec for an added
"specialty" dimension. It's the perfect size to add to a basket of
pampering goodies you put together for a friend. Imagine - a delightful bath
with tea, a few crackers with a bit of jam, a good magazine and candle light.
Hmmmm. I also got a jar of Blackberry Brandy and Raspberry Amaretto - both
delicious!! Other flavors include Sprakling Cranberry and Brandied Peach. You
can buy RJ's fabulous jams at her Web
site.
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:
Triple Strawberry Homemade Specialty Jam
4 oz. | $2.75 or $12.00 for a lovely gift crate of 3
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 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
