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A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 6, Issue 52
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-- Sponsor --

Renewing Members!

New Members!

HBN member Stephanie Weise of Footbridge is ready to sell her business in January 2006! Established Wholesale accounts/retail markets. Shea Butter Skin Care and Lotion Bars, web domain, equipment and  consultation -- everything you need to step in and take the helm. Email serious inquiries only. No phone calls please.

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.

They are proliferating their way around the globe and people are calling and emailing wonderful comments. Thank you! In case you didn't know, they're here!

The color photography is fabulous! The advertisements are colorful, expressive and integrated well into the content. The articles are exclusive and informative. You won't find this information anyplace else in the world! The layout is fun and easy to follow. The paper is wonderful. Every corner is perfect. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my whole life.

If you are a member of HBN, you either already have your copy or will get it this week. (International members may take a little longer for mailing.) If you are a subscriber, the whole lot are going out today! If you are neither and you are a handmade beauty business, what on earth are you waiting for? The best holiday gift in the world is right here on my desk just asking to me sent to you!

Please support our magazine sponsors!

Subscribe today!

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 (recently featured in Vogue and Celebrity Living magazines) 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 next month, and featuring the revolutionary new "Lifestyle CEO Business Action Model (BAM!!) Copies can be reserved for shipping next month!

The online version of our magazine is here! Today's Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Show features the wonderful group of contributing editors to this new magazine. Writers in our Self, Health, Food, Family and Office columns will be on hand to share their diverse experiences and encourage you to soar to new celebratory heights during this holiday season! We will take caller questions and comments.

To join the show live at 1:00pm EST, log onto GlobalTalkRadio.com and click on "Listen Live." Call your questions or comments in to (800) 773-0355 and be entered to win!

To request a show reminder before the show airs on Mondays, email me with LCEO SHOW REMINDER in the subject line.

Last Week's Question: The Premier Issue of the Handmade Beauty Business Magazine is here! (Subscribe today!) 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 guest's name.

Last Week's Answer: Gay Timmons

This Week's Question: One of the contributors to the Lifestyle CEO Online Magazine is a handmade beauty buff and soapmaker from California. She is one of the Seed Members of HBN and in her handmade beauty heyday, she customized soaps and taught soapmaking in her California studio. She was also an active participate for years in the Handcrafted Soapmaker's Guild, a member of HBN.

Be the first to state the name of that person and the name of her business and win a bar of Gingerbread Man soap, courtesy of HBN member Danielle & Co. 

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!

Last weekend, I was headed out to a holiday party. My husband didn't want to be my date because it would have meant missing the USC/UCLA football game. So I resigned myself to cutting a rug all by myself. Hubby set up the family room with two televisions and a CD player so he and the kids could be happy together and he wouldn't miss the game. (Wish I could have been a fly on the wall...) So up the steps I went to get ready. I drew a bath and hopped in. The party started in 45 minutes so I knew I'd have to move quickly.

An hour later, I woke to the sounds of cheering for yet another USC touchdown (the ended up trouncing UCLA 66 to 19) and the discomfort of a cool tub of water. What had happened? I had fallen asleep. I guess that proves how much I needed to be going out to a party. Anyway, I went anyway and I arrived refreshed and renewed after bathing with this HBN member products.

Mango Soap | 4 oz. | $6.50 (in the decorative must-have packaging)
A really nice bar of soap made with mango and shea butters and silk protein, plus some bergamot essential oil which gives it a sophisticated touch. Creekside Soaps. Bar soap is great, but it's fun to combine it with other types of cleansers -- especially when they happen to be handy -- so I added...

Warrior Queen Cleanser | 8 oz. | $17
Thick and rich, this cleanser is like putting something the texture of thick yet pourable honey or molasses on the skin. It foams up well and offers a really unique chocolate/mint aroma to awaken me without assaulting my senses. inky loves nature

Yes, I know it’s usually slow down and smell the roses. That’s what we’re always being told to do by those who just don’t understand how many things we still have to do. There just aren’t enough hours in the day (or night!) for all we have to accomplish, especially during the holiday season. Yet somehow it gets done, but at the same time we can often get “done in.”

I don’t know about you, but I want Christmas to be more than a blur. I want to stop and be able to smell the lovely scents of the season like the lovely air and body mist sprays of HBN member Marla of Marla’s Apothecary. She is a certified aromatherapist and her aromatherapy products are hand-blended using organic or wild essential oils whenever possible. I have “Overwhelm” in my downstairs guest bathroom and I spritz it on me and around me a lot and feel immediately like I can conquer the next thing on my list. I like the smell; it’s 100% pure essential oils - nutmeg. cedarwood and vanilla.

Aromatherapy products incorporating essential oils have been around for literally centuries and were used for therapeutic reasons. But it wasn’t until a French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse burned his hand in a laboratory explosion that the science of aromatherapy was founded in the 1900s. He discovered the healing process of lavender oil when he applied it to the burn.

HBN member Marge Clark of Nature’s Gift says “essential oils impact the emotions.” “The oils lift your spirits when you are depressed, calm you when you are anxious, soothe you when your nerves are ragged and help ease you to sleep,” she says. Anxiety and ragged nerves certainly describe me when the holiday lists stress me out. I always plan too much and give myself a headache. Marge says to soothe the headache try lavender oil. “Just a touch on the temples and back of the neck can soothe the headache,” she says. She also recommends putting one or two drops of lavender on a cotton ball and tucking it into the corner of your pillow case.

HBN member Candace Newman of Good Medicine Tin also recommends lavender, as well as orange and peppermint for the holidays. “Pure therapeutic grade essential oils are at the top of the list,” says Candace, “for reminding us of the season we celebrate and helping to relieve our stress.”

“Aromas can make lasting memories,” says HBN member Terri Dorsey of Naked Herbs. She offers gourmet spice blends to enhance our holiday cooking and baking—something my daughters and I do a lot of at Christmas time. Terri also recommends sipping a nice cup of her hand-blended herbal teas while baking cookies and breads scent your kitchen with some of the smells of the season like vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

For me making those mini-cranberry muffins and homemade chocolate truffles to share with friends and co-workers is two-fold. I have presents to give (and who doesn’t love home baked goodies?) and I’ve literally busted some of my own stress by baking the treats.

I’m not a big exercise buff, but that 15 or 20 minutes on my treadmill also helps with my stress. Once I’ve walked, made myself some tea and sat down again, I can conquer the next “to-dos.” “Exercise is a huge stress reliever – even if it’s just getting outside for a nice, brisk walk,” says Carrie Myers-Smith of Women In Wellness. “Many people get out of their workout routine during the holidays, when it’s the one thing they should make sure they do,” she adds. She gives the advice that if we work out in the morning, “you’re more likely to stick with it, too, since there’s nothing to get in the way and prevent you from doing it.”

Like HBN members, Carrie has a lot she needs to get done each day. She’s a personal fitness trainer, a licensed wellness coach, cofounder and president of Women in Wellness and fitness editor for Fit Body magazine and a wife and mom of four sons, whom she home-schools.  “Plan, plan, plan ahead,” says Carrie of the way she tries to stay on top of her lists of gift-buying, holiday baking and normal work load. “This combats a lot of the stress,” she says. It also “makes sure my focus is where it should be for this time of the year. It’s not about how many gifts I can give someone, but rather, the meaning behind it.”

There’s no way for us to avoid stresses this season. We just have to have our tools like baking, aromatherapy, fitness, and the ever present lists to help us get through. But its one of the highest stress periods and the sheer number of demands made on us throughout the holiday season is more than enough to keep most of us at the edge of our stress threshold.

While the holidays are supposed to be filled with cheer and festivities, many people will suffer bouts of depression, says Ball State University psychologist Dr. Jay Zimmerman. He recommends avoiding or reducing alcohol consumption, creating new family traditions that are simpler, including exercise in the daily routine, maintaining close friendships and confiding in those you trust to help get through the day. “The holidays are always challenging,” he says. “They can be as wonderful as they are stressful. Just take a deep breath.”

To his list, I add: get plenty of rest, eat healthy meals and observe usual family routines as much as possible, make time for yourself, and lastly, but certainly not least, maintain your sense of humor, one of our most valuable coping mechanisms.

Wishing you peace and joy during the holiday season! And here's one of my favorite cookie recipes that melts so wonderfully in your mouth that you'll be stress fee in no time!

High Tea Lemon Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups cornstarch (yes this is correct)

Lemon Frosting (see below)

Step 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add powdered sugar; cream until light and fluffy.

Step 2. Add lemon peel and vanilla extract; beat well. Add flour and cornstarch into butter mixture and beat well until well blended.

Step 3. Roll cookie dough into 1 inch balls. Place onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake approximately 12 minutes or until bottoms are brown. Remove from oven and cool. When cool, spread Lemon Frosting onto top of cookies.

Lemon Frosting (makes enough for double batch of cookies)

1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
4 cups powdered sugar

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and stir until well mixed. Dip the tops of the cookies in the frosting.

Yields: App. 6 dozen cookies

Help HBN Celebrate 6 Years of Serving the Handmade Beauty Industry!! 

Nominations are now being accepted for the Handmade Beauty Business of the Year Awards!!

The nominations are rolling in! To celebrate, with your help, we will honor a member who exemplifies the spirit and tenacity of the handmade beauty industry. Our goal is to recognize and share the winner's amazing accomplishments in the hopes that others will be encouraged to pursue their dreams. The winner will also be posted to HBN's website, included in the Handmade Beauty Business Magazine and included in any other locations as deemed appropriate by HBN.

Judges are Alison Deyette of Style Bakery, Anissa Mook of Indie Shopping and Tanya Sharma of CiCySuds.

To read about the 2005 winners, click here!

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!

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