Scent of the Week Sale, Oatmeal & Honey!

Oatmeal & Honey soap will be on sale for $4.00 from 08/12/09-08/19/09. On the 19th a new scent will be chosen to be offered at a discounted price!

A classic comfort fragrance, oatmeal & honey is rich, warm, and a little bit sweet.

Building a Nourishing Sugar Scrub

There are a huge variety of scrubs available on the bath and body market today, and the choices are at times overwhelming. In this post, I'm going to outline the ingredients included in my very popular Sugar Body Polish so you know just what it's all doing for your skin.

Sugar: By far the most ubiquitous ingredient in body scrubs and polishes, Blushie scrubs used refined white sugar, with a small grain size. I chose this particular type of sugar as it is very gently exfoliating, and lasts just long enough in the shower to get the dry skin off while still dissolving to rinse cleanly down your drains.

Shea Butter: Crushed from the fruit of the karite tree, Shea Butter almost needs no introduction. This rich, creamy butter is an excellent emollient (skin soother and softener) while also performing well as a moisturizer. Shea absorbs rapidly into the skin without leaving behind a greasy barrier.

Coconut Oil: I use a form of coconut oil know as "92 degree," which means that it has a much higher melt point than the usual 72 degree version, but will still melt when it comes in contact with the body. The addition of this oil, besides being an excellent emollient in its own right, helps the scrub keep its dense form while still being extremely rich and creamy.

Avocado Oil: Hands down my favorite oil in skin care, avocado oil is extremely nutrient dense containing vitamins B1, B2, A, D, and E and is loaded with multiple proteins and amino acids. This combination makes it an extremely soothing oil with regenerative properties. It skins into the skin easily and leaves the skin feeling dewy and soft.

Cocoa Butter: They make chocolate out of this, what's not to love? Cocoa butter is loaded with natural antioxidants and leaves behind a non-greasy barrier that helps retain and restore the moisture in your skin.

Polysorbate 20: What the heck is this? Well, Poly20 is an excellent, gentle emulsifier. An emulsifier is something that allows water and oils to combine, to create an emulsion- like a lotion. With the addition of Poly20 to my scrubs, when the oils and butters combine with the water in your shower or tub, they emulsify in use to create a soothing lotion that rinses completely clean instead of leaving behind a greasy feel.

Fractionated Coconut Oil: This is a version of coconut oil in which the long-chain fatty acids have been removed, making the oil liquid and room temperature. Due to the very small molecular size of fractionated coconut oil, this adds considerable glide and smoothness to the scrub.

Poppy Seeds: Add a bit of color and fun to the scrub.

Fragrance: A propriety blend of natural and synthetic fragrance components to create a delightful aroma.

Mica: A mineral-derivative coloring agent that adds a bit of sparkle to the scrub.

Phenoxyethanol & caprylyl glyvcol: A gentle, low-impact preservative designed to protect the user from environmental contaminations such as mold, yeast, and bacteria. Never ever use a body product that contains, or comes in contact with, water that does not contain a real preservative.

Scent of the Week Sale, Vanilla Sugar!

Scent of the Week Sale!
Vanilla Sugar soap will be on sale for $4.00 from 07/22/09-07/29/09. On the 29th a new scent will be chosen to be offered at a discounted price!

This bakery-sweet vanilla is lusciously rich and deep, a favorite of all vanilla fans! And I am a *huge* vanilla fan.

Scent of the Week - Sunrise Citrus

Scent of the Week Sale!
Sunrise Citrus soap will be on sale for US $4.00 from 6/21/09-6/27/09. On the 20th a new scent will be chosen to be offered at a discounted price!

Wake up! Sunrise citrus is a great way to start your day. An energizing blend of orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, yuzu and a touch of mango, this is any citrus lover’s fantasy fragrance.

Scent of The Week - Blackberry Sage Soap

Scent of the Week Sale!
Blackberry Sage soap will be on sale through the Etsy and ArtFire storefronts for US $4.00 from 6/14/09-6/20/09. On the 20th a new scent will be chosen to be offered at a discounted price!

Blackberry Sage is an intoxicating balance between sweet, juicy blackberries and herbal, earthy sage blackberry sage is wonderful unisex fragrance and a nice twist on a classic berry scent.

Market Season Begins

Spring has arrived in California with gusto, and I like to kick of my market season with something a little different. This year, I vended at the Vacaville Fantasy Festival, and it was a blast!

Vacaville is a bit of a drive from Blushie HQ, so we were up at 5am loading the car but arrived a bit earlier than expected. I'm generally okay with this, as the first day of any festival it's always difficult to judge just how much time you'll need to get things straightened out.

We tried out the new giant "SOAP" sign that Joey so carefully painted, and it was a hit. You could see people a block away point it out and then come wandering on over.

Surprisingly, it ended up being very hot both days (moreso on Saturday than Sunday) so we had to be very careful with the placement of Whipped Sheas and Bath Melts.

As the day got warmer, more people started dropping by in search of one of our lip balms. Best selling was the Unflavored balm, followed shortly by French Vanilla. The festival fire-eater even purchased and approved the Unflavored Lip Balm!


Best selling soaps at this festival were:
Blackberry Sage
Seaberry
Appletini
Sandalwood
White Peach

This season is off to a great start! Come visit us May 2nd and 3rd at the Livermore Wine Festival!

ArtFire Shop Up and Running

Of the numerous sites out there for handmade crafters and artisans to sell their creations, ArtFire is relatively new. However, having just sold of the last of their first 5,000 available verified shops on March 29th they are shooting up in popularity. ArtFire shops, called sudios, have a very user-friendly layout and probably one of the best ideas in a handmade selling site yet: account-free checkout! See below an example of their rapid cart system:

blushie

Buy Handmade

I believe ArtFire is really growing into a wonderfully creative, and innovative community and am proud to have opened a Blushie shop as one of their charter members.