Monday, April 29, 2013

DIY is all the rage... and I hope to fuel the fire!

Most of you know that I have sold my own line of skin care products about 14 years now.  It started out as just a few lip balms and creams for my mother when she had cancer and wanted to use completely natural skin care products.  From there in morphed into diaper balms, herbal salves, muscle cream, and various other potions that I sold online as well as locally at farmers markets and local health food stores.  In 2008 I was blessed to be asked to work for a doctor in Colorado, (Dr. Peter Eckhart) who needed a full line of skin care products developed especially for his patients who were unable to use any skin care products currently on the market (even natural skin care lines) as they were sensitive to many natural ingredients, essential oils, etc.  It was a lot of work, but very rewarding as I was able to develop a line including hand cream, lip balms, shampoo, conditioner, bar soaps, liquid soaps, facial creams, bath salts, and a full mineral makeup line, among other things.
You may be wondering why my store isn't brimming with my skin care products, and the simple answer is I can't keep up with the demand right now.  I don't advertise, or promote my products at all, I just fill orders by word of mouth, and for the loyal customers that I have.  I have a stash of several of my products in the back of the store that I keep for those who know about them and come in (makes me giggle like it's some underground smuggling ring) but most of my stuff is not on the shelves.  Eventually I hope to to slowly start putting my products out in the store for everyone, but until then, if you'd like to try out some of my products feel free to ask me about them.
But with that said, with the introduction of websites like Pinterest, recently (and not so recently) making your own skin care products is becoming quite the fad.  When I started I was the geeky mad scientist in my kitchen formulating all my products from complete scratch without cool tutorials, or nice little books sporting easy recipes, and got weird looks from people when I said I didn't just "make" them but developed them all from scratch.   But now all that has changed as DIY is what all the "cool kids" are doing.  People are getting more and more interested in making their own products they can feel good about putting on their skin cause they know everything they put into them.
And since I have been immersed into this world for over a decade now, I am working on bringing not just my skin care products to the store, but bringing in the raw ingredients to help you make your own!
Oils, butters, waxes, essential oils, containers, etc.  All of these things I already order on a regular basis, and in very large quantities, so it is a perfect fit for the store.  Also because this is a world I've been in for over a decade now, my blood boils at the VAST array of horrible recipes that are floating about, and the doomed to failure "do it yourself" posts that abound on Pinterest.  So I'd like to help people start of on a good foot, knowing basics, and poised for success,  ending up with a product that they love to use, not just a glob of goo they are forced to use up because they don't want to waste the ingredients.

When I first opened the store, the "make it yourself" cosmetics weren't trendy enough yet to have the broad appeal needed for me to add this element to the store.  But I feel now, with the growing interest and boundless questions I receive it will be a great new addition.  Also, there just aren't many places in our area that offer raw materials for skin care at great prices.  The Co op in Moscow has some great products, but they can be expensive when you are just experimenting and learning (and quite frankly even if you aren't just learning!).  I've been working and planning this section for over a year and a half now, and this summer is finally the launch!

When people find out that I've worked with skin care and developing lines of products for all different types of customers, I get bombarded with questions about classes, and recipes, and online tutorials.  I'm not going to lie, I wish I was super woman and could wiggle my nose and have all those things to offer right now.  But what I can say is this is something I am very passionate about, and I am delighted to offer my experience and help guide you to the right ingredients for your skin type, the type of product you wish to make etc., but classes or tutorials won't be in the near future.  Pointing you in the right direction, and helping you know if a recipe you would like to try will most likely work or not and why is something I will be happy to do!


So that's just a little heads up for whats in store for the store this Summer.
Feel free to post questions, or things you would like to see me cary, or just your thoughts on the whole idea.



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