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The
Handmade Beauty Connection
October
17,
2005
A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 6, Issue 43
To subscribe, click here
1. HBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members!
2. Lifestyle CEO Report: Talk With Author and Handmade Beauty Expert Janice
Cox!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win some Wild Oats & Honey Masque
4. Handmade Beauty Recipe: Glow Grains
Body Scrub
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Holding Hands Balm by HBN Member Healing
Yew
6. Feature Article: How To Read A Cosmetics Label
7. Handmade Beauty Benefit Of The Week: Product Photography Services And 4th
Annual Holiday Gift Guide!
1. HBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members!
 Renewing
Members!
Heaven's Rx | Beth
Montanez | Michigan
* pure body care
New Members!
Blue Ridge Gypsy Studio |
Julie Hilton | Virginia
* SkinFree Organix, for the most
delicate and trouble skin and GreenDog Naturals, for your pets
Jasmine Simone | Yashica
Carter | Georgia
Crowning Glory Bodycare | Lynette Simmons | New York
* handmade lotions, soaps, butters
and oils
Two Rivers Herb Company |
Heidi Wolf | Wisconsin
* handmade beauty products
HBN Members On The Move!
HBN member Johnetta Miner of Women's
Wellness has been asked to assist Hurricane Katrina survivors in
Manhattan on October 18. Thank you Johnetta for your wonderful spirit of
volunteerism. Keep us posted on how you are able to help and how we can help
you! To learn more about what Johnetta and other HBN members are doing to
help Hurricane survivors, click here.
HBN member Vanessa Nixon Klein of Herbs
of Grace is pleased to announce the launch of The Matte Collection, 21
velvety shades of mineral makeup.
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. Lifestyle CEO Report: Talk With International Author And
Handmade Beauty Products Expert Janice Cox!!
 \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.
Have you ever thought about how great it
would be to have your book published, but you don't know how to get started?
Well, on TODAY'S
LIFESTYLE
CEO RADIO SHOW,
you'll get plenty of inspiration and tips from Janice
Cox, author of several books including Natural Beauty At Home, Natural
Beauty From The Garden and Natural Beauty For All Seasons. Janice and her
writings and recipes have been featured in numerous magazines, including
Cosmopolitan, The Herb Companion, The Herb Quarterly, Family Circle and
others. On today's show, Janice will share how she got started making her
own beauty products and how she converted her passion into a lucrative
writing career. We will take caller questions and comments.
Air time is 1:00pm EST and you can join in at your computer here.
To request a show reminder about 1/2 hour before the show airs on Mondays, email
me with LCEO SHOW REMINDER in the subject line.
Coming Next Week:
Peter Montoya -- the Personal Branding Expert!
 More
of what's in store at Lifestyle CEO:
- Conference
- Lisa Price of HBN member Carol's
Daughter has been confirmed as a speaker at the first Lifestyle CEO
Conference on January 28, 2006 in Washington, DC. Registration is
available. Time for early bird discounts is running out! Register
today!
- Blog
- Come blog with me about everything from business to life and
everything in between!
- Book
- Set for publication next month, and featuring the revolutionary new
"Lifestyle CEO Business Action Model (BAM!!) Copies can be reserved
for shipping in November!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: last week's winner was Kia
Skrine of Hollywood, California! Kia won some delicious soap!
 Last
Week's Question: This week is Fire Prevention Week. State the name
of the organization that bills itself as the world's leading advocate of
fire prevention.
Last Week's Answer: National
Fire Prevention Association
This Week's Question: State the ages and gender(s) of Janice
Cox's (today's Lifestyle CEO guest) two children.
Be the first to correctly answer this week's question and win some
Wild Oats & Honey Masque!
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!
4. Handmade Beauty Recipe: Glow
Grains Body Scrub
Glow
Grains Body Scrub uses sea salt (to lightly exfoliate), spirulina (to
cleanse and detoxify), clay (to draw impurities from the surface of the
skin). Make some and soak today!
When you
visit MakeYourCosmetics.com,
it's easy to
buy the ingredients you need by clicking on our Selected Supplier links:
Essential
Wholesale: pure essential oils, over 200
cosmetic bases, hundreds of carrier/fixed oils such as meadowfoam,
cranberry, jojoba and shea butter plus a new Short Run Private Labeling
Program!
Bramble
Berry, Inc.: over
105 different fragrance and essential oils (including their exclusive
"Energy" and "Relaxing"), 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!
From
Nature With Love:
over 1,600 ingredients and supplies, including cosmetic ingredients, spa
supplies, bath accessories and packaging supplies!
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Holding Hands Balm
 Holding Hands Balm
1/2 oz. | $4.50
OK, so you finally set aside some time in your busy schedule to refinish
that family heirloom -- an old side table -- so you can paint it and display
it proudly in your family room. You've collected all of the equipment you
need and you sit down and get read to start sanding it down to a smooth
finish. Ooops! You forgot the sandpaper! As you look down at our hands, you
realize that you don't need any because you could probably do a better
sanding job with your own hands. Yikes! It's time for some
Holding Hands Balm!
Made with shea butter, organic jojoba oil and beeswax, this product will
soothe your hands to a polished finish. The organic calendula oil (made from
calendula -- one of my favorite herbs for softening skin -- and organic
sunflower oil), offers a gentle herbal aroma. Otherwise, it's unscented.
There's also some wheat germ oil and Vitamin E so the oils in the product
stay fresher longer. The convenient slim tube fits easily into a purse,
pocket, office drawer or glove compartment so it follows you wherever your
busy life takes you without making a mess.
Jane Anderson, Healing Yew's owner, makes the calendula oil herself using
organic calendula flowers. The easy to use slim tubes are the simple
wrappings for many other products including a line for baby and mother and a
lemon verbena "Knitter's Balm" to soothe hands of those of us who
like to knit. Large quantities of most products are available at wholesale
prices for those of you looking to stock your retail shelves for the winter
months.
You can get Holding Hands Balm,
Knitter's Balm and other herbal balm products at Healing
Yew.
6. Feature Article: How To Read A Cosmetics Label
 Do
you ever become frustrated trying to read and comprehend cosmetics
product labels? One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is,
"What do all those words mean and how do they help me choose the best
product for me and my family?" This little primer will unlock some of
those mysteries!
While the cosmetics industry is largely self policing, federal Food &
Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines require that cosmetics labels inform
consumers of the information they need to make informed purchasing
decisions. When you are purchasing cosmetics, look for this information on
the label.
1. Identity of Product
Product labels must contain a
statement identifying the product itself. I'll never forget the time I
received a wonderful delicious looking product on a pretty plate. It was
covered in clear wrapping and a sticker on top said simply, "Chocolate
Fudge." Of course I knew it was soap, but the label didn't tell me
that. Some people would have purchased that item and taken a bite. YIKES!
Don't buy anything that doesn't identify itself on the label.
2. Name and Place of Business of
Manufacturer
This information makes it easy to
locate the manufacturer so you can buy more product or provide easy
feedback. I can't count the number
of times
I have enjoyed a product and wanted to buy more, only to find that the label
itself didn't make it easy for me to do that. There should be a full address
(including city, state and zip code) or a partial address (city, state and
zip code only), depending on whether the manufacturer's telephone number is
listed in their local phone book. These days of course, you are also likely
to find website and/or email addresses too. Before you buy, look for an easy
way to contact the manufacturer right there on the label in case you need to
follow up for any reason.
3. Net Quantity of Contents
This information tells how much product is in the container. For liquid
products (lotion, body wash, misters, body oil, etc.),
it will
be in fluid ounces and in metric units for liquids (milliliters). For
non-liquid products (lip balm, bath salts, etc.), it will be in net English
units (ounces) and metric units for weight/mass (grams). Many manufacturers
have been admonished by the FDA for being untruthful about the amount of
product in a container. For example, a perfume manufacturer might put 10
ounces of perfume in a 12-ounce
bottle and claim that there is 12 ounces of product in the bottle.
That's a no-no. While there's no real way to be sure of
quantity without
weighing a product on a scale, use your common sense.
If
it looks and/or feels
like there's less product than the label claims, skip it,
or return it for a refund.
4. Warning Statements
Sprinkled throughout federal law are various requirements that labels
contain warning statements when necessary to protect the public. One such
warning is: "Warning
– The safety of this product has not been determined."
Because there are so many ways to determine the safety of a product, the FDA
leaves it up to individual companies whether or not to include this warning
statement. Products can be tested in fancy labs or they can be tested on
family and friends. The regulations do not tell companies what testing
methods to use and I have rarely seen this warning on a product. In addition
to this warning statement, some companies also include a label letting
consumers know that the FDA has not evaluated the statements on a label. You
will usually see that where labels make claims indicating that a product has
some type of natural healing or aromatherapeutic benefits.
5. Ingredient Declaration
Another important part of a cosmetic product label is the area listing the
ingredients contained in the product. These are supposed to be clearly
indicated in descending order of prominence in the product. So if a product
contains 60% sweet almond oil, 20%olive oil, 10% shea butter and 10%
beeswax, that is the order in which the ingredients should be listed in the
ingredient declaration. This gives an idea of how much of the ingredients
you want to use on your skin are actually in the product. Some companies
include the names of the essential oils or fragrance oils in the product,
but all the law requires is that "fragrance" be used.
Additionally, ingredients that appear in very tiny quantities (usually less
than 2%) can but do not have to be listed on a label. A product label that
lists a lot of natural ingredients at the beginning of the ingredient
declaration has more of those natural ingredients than a label listing them
in the middle or at the end of the declaration. In addition to the common
names for various ingredients, you should also see the INCI names given to
those ingredients. INCI stands for International Nomenclature For Cosmetics
Ingredients, the names given to ingredients to support the process of
international labeling harmonization. So for example, a declaration listing
shea butter as an ingredient should also contain the INCI name for the
ingredient: Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) or Shea Butter (Butyrospermum
Parkii). HBN members can locate INCI names for dozens of commonly used
cosmetics ingredients at
this link.
6. General Marketing Statements
As a consumer, you can see the importance of
trusting the company you are buying your products from. Recommendations from
friends are always good indicators of a quality product. You can also draw
some conclusions from looking at the company's website, brochure, business
card and other marketing materials -- and from talking to the manufacturer
on the phone or by email. How well do they seem to know their products and
their own manufacturing process? How long have they been in business? Do
they have product testimonials from satisfied customers? How quickly do they
answer your questions or fill your orders?
7. Additional Notes
On any given trip to the department store or your favorite body care
products shop, you will find dozens if not hundreds of products comply with
the regulations in different ways, or do not comply with them at all. This
is generally a function of the fact that the regulations themselves are not
always vigorously or consistently enforced and also, many companies either
do not know about the requirements or interpret them incorrectly. Either
way, the above information at a minimum should advise you about the details
of a product. If you don't see that information at least, choose another
item.
Remember too that the regulations generally require that products be safe
for use by consumers and that they be free of unacceptable levels of
bacteria and contain no dirty or putrid matter. It is not always easy to
tell in advance if a product is a problem, but once you get it home and use
your senses to observe it, if anything seems amiss, throw it away or return
it. Does the color seem off? Does it smell bad? Are there unidentified
particles around the lid or top sides of the container? Has the product
separated? While every product is different and each of these issues does
not always indicate a problem, use your common sense. If you are not
satisfied, don't use the product.
Other claims on cosmetic labels are things like, "organic,"
"natural," "botanical," "no animal products,"
"vegan," handmade" and "cruelty-free." While the
dictionary and some trade organizations and consumer groups may define these
terms (HBN defines "handmade" for purposes of HBN membership as a
product that is made "by hand from scratch using raw materials"),
no federal laws define how and whether these terms can or should be used on
a cosmetics product label. California state law defines when
"organic" can be used on a cosmetic product label sold in that
state. Other state laws may contain requirements in addition to federal
laws. Consult your state's consumer products or health department for
details. Countries that have placed their regulations online can often be
found using search engines to query for "countryname+cosmetic+regulations"
(where countryname is the name of the country and + is a
space).
This information provided here is meant to be a general and informational
overview of how to read a cosmetics label. The information here is not legal
advice. Consult an attorney or cosmetics
regulatory professional for advice more specific to you and the products you
make and/or buy.
The FDA's website is a good place to start here (for manufacturers) and
here
(for consumers). A more complete treatment of this issue will be included in
the 1st Quarter 2006 issue of The Handmade Beauty Business
Magazine. Stay
tuned for an article on cosmetics preservatives in next week's issue of this
newsletter!
7. Handmade Beauty Benefits Of The Week: Product Photography Services
& My 2005 Holiday Gift Guide!
 "HBN's
photography services are wonderful!! The photos were so
professional and we used them for both our product catalog and our
website. The photos were delivered using various file
types which made it easy to create our catalog using several types of
software. It was one less thing for us to have to worry
about. We have received so many complements on our catalog and we love how the
pictures of the products bring the catalog alive. The HBN
discount also made it cost effective for our business. We definitely
recommend that other HBN members use HBN product photography services."
Nicole Balaam and Erica Massenburg, Home Spa
Luxuries.
Don't your products deserve the best photographs available too? For more
information on how HBN's discounted product photography services can help
you create the best images for your special product line, click here.
And look for a review of Home Spa Luxuries' wonderful Pedicure Balm
(photograph by HBN of course!) in the near future!
 Are you an HBN member with a holiday item or a collection
of products that make a great holiday gift?? If so, I want to know about it!
Please send me all the
details by November 1 and it could be featured in my 4th Annual Holiday Gift
Guide! A holiday stress relief basket, a collection of your soaps with a
holiday theme, a sampling of raw materials/ingredients, a collection of
fragrant essential oils, a make-it-yourself cosmetics kit!!? What do you
have that people want to buy as gifts for the holidays? All you have to do
to be considered is send me an email with a link to the product at your
website. Put HBN's 2005 Holiday Gift Guide! in the subject line or I won't
see it.
I look forward to telling
readers all about your holiday goodies!
Best & Success!!
Donna Maria
Editor, The Handmade Beauty Connection
The Handmade Beauty Network | www.handmadebeauty.com
Copyright (c) 2000
- 2005 by The Handmade Beauty Network (HBN) and Donna Maria. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction is prohibited. HBN does not necessarily endorse any product, event or ideology featured in The Handmade Beauty Connection (HBC) or on HBN'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 HBN's Web site, including Recipes, is solely at your own risk. HBN 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 HBN, Donna Maria (unless she is the reviewer) or any other person or company.
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