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A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 6, Issue 48
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-- Sponsor --

1. HBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members!
2. Lifestyle CEO Report: I Love My Life!
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win some goodies!
4. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Wise Woman Emollient
5. Handmade Beauty Recipe of the Week: Cranberry Sugar Scrub
6. Feature Article: The World According To Tea
7. Handmade Beauty Benefit Of The Week: The Organic Handmade Beauty Box!!
8. Nominate Your Choice For The 2006 Handmade Beauty Business of the Year!

Renewing Members!

New Members!

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.

\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.

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. Register today! Licensed child care is available! Email me if you'd like a personal "Suggestion" sent to someone who loves you to give you the Conference as the ultimate holiday gift to support your business endeavors!
• Blog - Come blog with me about everything from business to life and everything in between! New blogs include tips on "balance" and getting help to manage home and business successfully!
• Book - Set for publication this month, and featuring the revolutionary new "Lifestyle CEO Business Action Model (BAM!!) Copies can be reserved for shipping in late November!

Last Week's Question: What is the name of the first book authored by Stephanie Tourles, today's guest on the Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Show?

Last Week's Answer: The Herbal Body Book: A Natural Approach to Healthier Hair, Skin, and Nails

This Week's Question: The Premier Issue of the Handmade Beauty Business Magazine is at the printer's! While we are working out some glitches on our first print run, we have a great issue in store and it will be worth the wait! One of the articles is called "The Organic Panic" and it provides useful insights into the world or organics, especially as it concerns personal care products. For the article, I interviewed an expert in the field who also was the guest at the Handmade Beauty Banquet earlier this year. To win this week, state that guests name.

Be the first to correctly answer this week's question and win a delicious treat!

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!

Wise Woman Emollient
1.3 oz | $57.00

OK, OK, I hear you! Less than 2 ounces of product for over $50! It's a lot I know, so let me just tell you why you're worth it.

Wise Woman Emollient is for skin that is "different than it used to be." Anyone out there know what I mean? A base of certified organic coconut oil blends with nearly a dozen select essential oils including myrrh, carrot seed, jasmine and rose to result in a creamy emollient perfect for treating just about any skin type. Sea buckthorn and calendula top off the list of aromatics in my mine; they are among my all time favorites for the skin!

I enjoyed a min-facial at Beauty Bliss & Beyond, a small spa near my home a week ago and my esthetician Tiffany told me that my skin was a bit on the dehydrated side so I've stepped up my use of this product. Whether it's still dehydrated or not, I don't know, but it sure feels smooth and healthy. I make sure to apply it to damp skin that is freshly washed so it can penetrate deeply. Doing this also means I can use a little less product and not have to replace it so soon. With simple yet action-packed natural ingredients like organic coconut oil, organic beeswax (but jut a touch!) and vegetable glycerin, it's no wonder my skin feel so great. But that's not all! I think most of the punch Wise Woman Emollient packs (and much of the reason for the hefty price tag) is the absolutely top notch exquisite essential oils that it contains. Many are my favorites featured in my book, "Making Aromatherapy Creams & Lotions": myrrh, carrot seed, frankincense, rose, sandalwood, sea buckthorn berry, calendula and rosehip seed -- and that's just a partial list!

You can buy Wise Woman Emollient and lots of other great products packed with true essential oils at Garden of Eve. Go ahead -- you're worth it!

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!

Tea drinking has been an interwoven part of my life from the time I was a little girl growing up in the south where I drank iced tea straight from the Mason jars it had been brewed in. Hot tea with lemon is my wintertime drink and sitting around drinking brewed hot tea with friends is an activity I always treasure.

While I relish a plain cup of tea with lemon, I agree with Denise Jacob of HBN member Affusion Skin Care that peppermint tea is for any time of the day. As Denise says, “its wonderful iced or hot and really soothes an upset stomach while leaving your breath fresh and clean.” Chamomile, another favorite of Denise's, is always in our tea basket, which on any given occasion probably contains at least ten different teas, to fit our mood. Denise says Chamomile “is great for relaxing over stimulated children.”

I asked Denise if she could name her favorite, but she couldn’t stop with one, and neither would I! She has three blends she makes and sells that she includes in her favorites. One is Affusion’s “Too Stinkin’ Early” Tea, which obviously is a morning wake up tea for all of us who prefer morning to start later. Denise makes the blend from green tea which she says “gives you a caffeine boost without the jitters of coffee, while the Gingko Biloba in the tea sharpens mind function. Her other favorites are her “Digestive Tea” which she loves iced. At bedtime it’s a pot of Affusion’s “Sleep Tight that includes passionflower, oatstraw, peppermint and lavender. She calls it her “herbal help for the incurable insomniac.”

Sydney Vallentyne of HBN member St. John’s Botanicals, says her personal favorite tea blends are made from ginseng, orange, and cinnamon. She is also partial to any of the lemon or licorice based blended teas. To find your own favorites, she says you have to "taste, taste, taste,” she says. “Try lots of combinations using lemon, orange or cinnamon as bases or follow your own taste buds. Fruit based teas are very popular.” Sydney says the benefits of making and drinking herbal teas are that “they are toning and satisfying without the after burn out of the usual caffeine drinks.”

"Herbal tea is easily digested and assimilated. It is also a great way to nourish and tone our bodies, supporting overall health and wholeness and helping to prevent disease," says HBN member Kathy Wiegel of Green Woman Herbs. “The act of sitting down in a nice quite place, sipping and enjoying a cup of tea is most relaxing, too.” She recommends the following herbs to start with:

1. Lemon balm & chamomile: taste great, tension reliever, soothing, relaxing and aids digestion.

2. Peppermint, spearmint and fennel: great tasting and aids digestion.

3. Alfalfa, red clover blossoms, nettles, dandelion root and leaf and rooibos (south African red tea): high in vitamins and mineral content, very nourishing

4. Burdock root and astragalus: nourishes and tones the immune system.

5. Hyssop: relieves many cold and flu symptoms and is relaxing.

“By making your own herbal teas, you can choose the herbs that are best suited for your individual needs and wants,” Kathy says. "Food supplies us our nutritional needs and herbal teas nurture our wholeness and well-being.”

Marla Wilson of HBN member Marla’s Apothecary says flavor is really important. “Taste your herbs, smell them, imagine what they will be like together. She recommends anise, fennel, cardamom and spearmint and says the list goes on an on. Her favorite is her special cream blends, one is peach cream herbal and the other is strawberry cream tea. At dM's recommendation, my husband and I tried Marla's peach cream herbal and we both love it.

Marla lives in Hollywood and is a well known tea maker for the stars. Marla combines her herbal tea blends with aromatherapy recommendations as well. While she keeps her client list a secret, she creates teas for them by first talking with them about the things they love. “We talk about food, flavors, smells and what they are trying to bring into their lives. For instance if someone is working on fear and asthma, I would choose teas or hydrosols that would help them lift the tension and contraction from the thoracic area.” To find your own personal herbal tea favorites, she says, “TEST them, TASTE them, see what you like. Have your friends over for a taste test -- any excuse for a tea party!

Before you make your own tea, Denise of Affusion says “study the herbs first and see what they do. Many herbs can affect people on medication or with certain medical conditions. “Always consult a health practitioner when combing herbs with medication if you have any major health conditions or if pregnant or nursing,” says Kathy of Green Woman Herbs.

Tea goes well with all kinds of foods, but especially with breads and finger sandwiches. Here's a simple recipe for one of my favorites, Cucumber Sandwiches.

Ingredients

1 loaf white or wheat bread
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 large cucumber, peeled and slice thin and lengthwise
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. onion salt

Blending Procedure

Step 1. Combine cream cheese with onion salt and garlic powder. (Note: We sometimes add 1/8 cup mayonnaise to the mix.)

Step 2. Cut bread slices into rounds and spread with cream cheese mixture. Top each with a slice of cucumber. Makes about 48 round tea sandwiches.

Announcing The Organic Handmade Beauty Box!

As I write this message, a variety of HBN member products are on the beauty editor's desk at Self and Shape Magazines! Sugar scrubs, soaps, body butters, pedicure pumice, lip balm and more -- all in the July and September 2005 Handmade Beauty Boxes!!

Get your organic products ready! The November Handmade Beauty Box for Natural Health Magazine is here! Natural Health targets 18 to 50's male and female. The magazine is for those who have adopted a natural health lifestyle. Provides practical information on natural health and includes articles on natural and whole foods, healthy cooking, fitness, exercise, holistic remedies, alternative medicines, healthy living, natural/organic beauty and body care and the environment. The circulation for Natural Health is over 700,000. Learn more about the publication at their website.

To read about the 2005 winners, click here!

Best & Success!!
Donna Maria
Editor, The Handmade Beauty Connection
The Handmade Beauty Network | www.handmadebeauty.com