Revised Sample suggestions.....the LONG version

About 10 months ago, I posted my suggestions on what to do (and NOT do) when submitting samples to sampler boxes, and the value of tossing free samples in with a purchase. Recently, this came up again on places like facebook, so I decided to revise my original list to account for some things that have come up over the past year, and post again. Please indulge my vanity in thinking I  know these things.

 

First, some background.  I buy 2-4 sampler boxes a month. Every month, I try to make at least one purchase from someone who has sent something in a sampler, though it is not always that month's sampler.  I am a huge bath and body person, so there is a definite slant to my purchasing.

 

Sampler packs are the best way for handmade afficionados like me to find you.  In the last year, I have bought from over 20 sellers I found through samplers, some orders were huge (We're talking over $500 huge), some were a single bar of soap or lip balm.  My family is NOT wealthy, and money is tight, but I try to put aside some money every month to make these purchases. Almost ALL of the money I make on etsy ends up going directly out of my bank account to other sellers. I like supporting handmade, and I only buy things that I love. I am also a repeat buyer if you are a great seller.

 

I am also one of those buyers who keeps a list. I have a whole file of business names from companies I have gotten great products, service and/or samples from, what I got that I loved, any other thing special about them, and what type of products they have. I keep this list because I have a surplus of some things, and the list helps me remember sellers I have loved in the past for future purchasing, especially around gift giving holidays and events. I also have a list of people who I will not buy from for various reasons. 

 

As you may know from this blog, I also write reviews of sellers who really impress me. Often, these reviews are based off of a sample I have used and gotten from a sampler.  Whether this leads to sales, I do not know, but any publicity is good. Also, though I may not always buy from you, but at least I know who you are, and can tell someone else about you.

 

So, without further ado, these are my top 10 suggestions to consider when putting together samples:

 

1.  Ingredients are vitally important in anything going onto or into a body. "Flavor oils" is usually not detailed enough as an ingredient.  I am allergic to artificial sweeteners, for example, so I need to know if your items contain them, even the lip balm. Frequently the flavor oils include things like this, though not always, so it would be a good thing to know.
2.  First impressions are KEY. Packaging and presentation are hugely important. If your promotional sample looks a mess, what will your product look like? And why would I send you money for something like this, if you obviously don't care? Along the same lines, make sure your site matches with your samples. There is nothing more disappointing than getting an awesome sample, running to a website, and seeing stuff that is nothing like what you just got in a box.
3.  CLEARLY label your product, what it is, and where it came from. Make it easy for us to find you later. Clearly label where your items come from with a business name and website address, even when including a free sample in with a purchase. I had an experience this morning where I tried to use a wax tart as soap. There was no label anywhere on the product telling me WHAT it was, just what scent it was, so I guessed, and guessed WRONG. You may think it is obvious what you are selling, but it isn't always. From now on, if I can't figure out what it is, it gets trashed.
4.  Whenever possible, include instructions. Not everyone is familiar with sugar scrubs, wickless candles, melting body butter, paraffin hand treatments, that special kind of tea blend you just sent, or whatever. If I can't figure out how to use it, I am not going to.  That is a potential lost sale for you. If you are the one who tells me how to use something I am unfamiliar with, and I love it, I am going to buy from YOU. Instructions  also put you HIGH on the "repeat buyer" list.
5.  The best things to include in samplers are things that need to be purchased relatively regularly. Give us just enough to be addicted (for me it takes about a week). When we run out, we will run to your store and buy. The next best thing to include in samplers is things that make great gifts. When Aunt Sally has her retirement party, I will know who to go for for that uniquely perfect thingamabob.
6.  Food scented home, bath, and body products make a lot of people nervous. Especially chocolate and/or sugary treat products. Also, food SHAPED non-edible products are not always the best thing to send in a sampler.  I have had to stop my kids from eating more than my fair share of wax tarts.
7.  Propaganda of any type is evil. No matter how strongly you feel about something, it is not professional to include it in your packaging.  If I don't agree with you, I will be turned off. If I agree with you, I will still be turned off by your need to preach.
8.  If you send something scented, please wrap it up, at least in a Ziploc bag so the scent doesn't get everywhere. I will get sick of the scent before I use the item, and I may decide to throw it out if I worry the scent will contaminate other things, or is overwhelming in the small box or drawer I have it stored in.
9.  Please give more than a month on coupons, if you are going to include them. I don't always get to the sample right away, and it i discouraging to see that I could have saved money on someting I want to buy because I didn't use it right away.  I can't use everything all at once, so please give me some wiggle room. Also, please pack the coupon separately from the packaging of your item.  If I want to give those earrings to my sister as a stocking stuffer, I don't want her seeing I got them in May with a coupon that expired May 21 on the card they are attached to.
10.  Free samples (especially coordinating ones) tossed in a box with a purchase are awesomeness. They can be given to a friend to show them how great your stuff is, and it always eaves a good taste in the receiver's mouth.

 

I hope that this is helpful.  I LOVE samples and LOVE samplers. Some of my favorite sellers who I buy from all the time I found through samplers.  I love handmade, and want you to be successful at your craft!  Thank you so much to all of the handmade artisans out there, and keep up the good work.

 

Also, readers, any other suggestions I may have missed?

Quick Review - Treasure Gardens

My old soap is finally finished, so I have to again give props to Lana at Unicorns Pride for her awesome Lemon lime soap which lasted me two and a half months of daily shower usage.

So, I broke into my bin of samples from my wonderful samplers, and reached in willy nilly (yes, I still use that term, and yes, that is how I choose my soap).  What I came out with was a lovely wrapped soap that came in my Sampler Village box recently: a FULL SIZED sample of Heavenly Honeysuckle soap from Treasure Gardens.  FULL SIZED!!

This soap gives of such a robust scent, it has scented my whole bathroom like honeysuckle, which I love.  The soap lathers wonderfully in the shower and leaves my skin feeling soft and clean.  the shape of this soap is perfect to fit in my hand, so I find myself not even using my scrubby much.

Another thing I love about this soap is that, though it smells wonderful and strong, it does not leave a strong scent clinging to my skin.  As a teacher, I need to be careful about the scents I wear (if any), and soap is usually the only thing I use as a scent before leaving the house.  This soap leaves jus tthe right amount of scent, as there's just enough that the hubby can smell it when he hugs me, but it does not come off of me in waves.  Perfect. In the past I have felt like I needed to stick with a very clean scent to avoid this, but again, my eyes have been opened to the soapy possibilities.

Treasure Gardens has a great little shop with gorgeous looking soaps and a few adorable shaped soaps that may end up in a Christmas stocking here. I encourage you to check them out.


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On a side note, I think I will do my reviews like this more often.  I felt like I was avoiding full sized samples because they take so long to get through, and I wanted to keep up my reviews, but it was taking a lot of the fun out of the reviewing.  Now, I will just write a review as I open up and use something.  Sound good?  Good.

This Week's Reviews 3/2/10

Woo!  I had a bit of a panic this morning!  Turns out my husband, trying to be neat and tidy, threw out all of my assorted wrappers and business cards from this week's samples.  Fortunately, I found and rescued them, and, after a bit of the world's most stupid sounding argument....

("you threw away my wrappers!" "Of course I did! They're empty and cluttering up the counter!" "I need them for my blog, dangit!" "Then why were they in a pile in the bathoom?" "who cares where they were?  I needed them! Stop throwing out my important stuff!" "How am I supposed to know that empty wrappers sitting in a pile on the counter in the bathroom are important?"......etc)

...and a quick trip to Michael's for an "important blog wrappers" basket (and some candlemaking supplies...but that's a different story for another blog), I got everything together and recorded in my special "good samples" book, and ready for this week's blog.  Don't you feel special now that you have had your own glimpse into my private, everyday life? Yeah, didn't think so.

This week's reviews are a bit different.  Along with this week being my "the Samplers are coming!" week, which always leads to lots of trying out of stuff, I also bought a bunch of new wickless candles from sellers on eBay this week. Of course, I had to try out one of EVERYTHING, so I have a LOT of candle sellers to review.  Way more than usual.  I am also going to review a new tea supplier whose tea I finally tried out this week.  Add to that, my normal weekly soap review and a lotion review, and we are talking a lot of sellers to review this week!!

So, let's get to it!

This week's soap was "Think Pink" by A Slice of Delight. This soap is an awesome looking and smelling layered soap of glycerine and oil based soaps.  It really looks like a piece of candy or jewelry! The colors are very vibrant and rich. I love it.

Now, I am one of those people whose skin always gets a little tight and dry from using glycerine soap, but it seems a lot less due to the layering of this soap with the oil based soap added into the layers. I also love how HUGE the sample I got in my Sampler from Sampler Village is. It's got to be about a 2oz sample! I feel like I am using a full sized bar of soap, not just a little sample!  Very cool. 

All of A Slice of Delight's soaps are so artistic and fun to look at, even though they are currently out of stock of the "Think Pink", I'm sure you'll find a soap to love. Also from now through Friday, 3/5/10 at midnight, if you mention "Marbled Nails" in your checkout, you will get a $.50 refund off of one regularly priced bar of soap!  A Slice of Delight's prices are already great, but, heck, anything helps, right! Thank you so much to A Slice of Delight for that generous offer!!

Last month in my samplers from Sampler Village, and again this week in my Little Black Box, I got some AWESOME looking samples from a company called Farm Hussy.  Well, their complete irreverence cracked me up, so I hd to try some of their samples.  I ended up trying their "Udderly Tickled Hand and Body Lotion" in "Love is a Heart Fertilizer" scent.  The husband has also been using their "cock-a-doodle-Don't Lip Balm" and he loves it.  Farm Hussy has all kinds of products and scents on their site, which is just adorable and makes me chuckle.



The Udderly Tickled lotion goes on smooth and is just scented enough to smell nice, but not so much that you end up being the only thing people can smell in an elevator. It leave skin feeling refreshed and moisturized, but not oily, which is VERY important to me.  I have naturally very oily skin, so I am not one of those people whose skin eventually absorbs the oils from most lotions, I just glisten and repel water until my next shower.

The reason the husband is using the Lip Balm is because it contains artificial sweeteners.  He loves it and has already asked me to buy him more after this tube runs out. I told him I will, but I am getting it made ithout the sweeteners in it. Farm Hussy was VERY quick, polite, and professional about replying to my inquiries regarding whether or not their flavor oils contained artificial sweeteners. As they add their own sweetener, Farm Hussy CAN make many of their lip balms without sweeteners, which is awesome and good to know.

This week, I have been fighting some sort of upper resp infection. In fact, I was sick for the entire month of February with something or another. Hmm...Well, at least it led to my drinking even more tea than usual.  THis is a good thing, since I went a little crazy over the holidays, and bought more tea that anyone could reasonably drink in a year....in my defense, a lot of it came free with the teapots....uh.....teaPOT! teaPOT!  Ok, teapots.  I bought myself 2 teapots for Christmas (one handmade and one BIG one from Pfalzgraff), my mother bought me a great glass teapot for blooming teas, my sister got me a special single serving brewing tea mug, and my son got me a froggie teapot.  I have a lot of teapots now.

One of the sellers whose tea I finally got around to trying the week is Bhak Tea. MAN, did I miss out by not trying them sooner!!  Their teas are fabulous.  I am especially hooked on their Vanilla Sunset Rooibos tea.  VERY yum.  I got myself one of their EXTREMELY reasonably priced tea samplers which came with a very cute bamboo tea strainer.  Working with them was very easy, and they really went out of their way to send me good quality tea on time for the holiday.

Like I mentioned earlier, this has been the week of candles. I got a bunch of new candles, both wickless and traditional to try out this week, and I went a little crazy on eBay after I found some sellers that were on eBay along with Etsy.  I am going to touch on all of them, so get ready.

The first seller is Delightful Scents. I had heard of Delightful scents before, but for some reason I had never bought from them or tried them out.  Then I got a little tart sample in my sampler from Sampler Village.  Well, let me tell you, this little tiny tart perfumed my ENTIRE house!  I was super impressed. The tarts I got from Delightful scents were of top excellent quality, and held their scent for a long time.  Delightful scents also carries traditional candles, incense, perfumes, tart burners and so much more.  They are really worth checking out, and are on my list of people to buy from as soon as my husband OKs any candles coming into my house again.....

Another wickless candle sample I got from Sampler Village was from Primitive Kountry.  Their "melties" are a good large size, and the scent lasted through three tea lights' worth of burn time.  Again, they have a lot of other products on their website.

The first seller I bought wickless candles from on eBay is RoseGirls Candles.  They have these lovely Chunk Tarts.  They are just hunks of highly scented wax that you can put on your tart burner. RoseGirls Candles has their own website where their prces are already really good and reasonable. Their tarts burn clean and put off an awesome sent.  HOWEVER, I admit, I found them on eBay. The price I paid on eBay was slightly better than their website, and I had to buy a whole flat rate box of tarts, but they are wonderful, and I am glad that I did.

Another seller who has plenty of products off of eBay, but who I found there, again, is Pamela's Palm Tarts and More. Pamela has some really nice tarts, and ships super fast.  She has hundreds of scents to choose from, and you can choose how many tarts you buy.  Although I put in a link to her Etsy shop, most of Pamela's selling right now seems to be on eBay (user name: "spfield01").  Her tarts are of good quality and are an excellent price. She also has glycerine soaps and tart burners in her store.

Amazingly, I also managed to buy some tarts from Pamela's SISTER, Pat.  Pat's eBay ID is "youareold", and I can't help but think that she is the younger of the sisters.  Pat also has some great, good quality wickless candles and tart burners in her eBay shop, and she ships just as fast as her sister.  I was seriously shocked at how quickly I got my huge orders in the mail from those two women..  The two sisters are in completely different parts of the country, but their commitment to quality and customer service is similar....as is their packaging. :)  Both women were really easy and fun to work with, and I recommend their products.

In all, it has been a great week for samples and purchases.  I hope you guys go check out these sellers, as I like all of their products, and I want them to be successful, if for no other reason thn the selfish one of wanting them to be there when I want to buy from them.  One of my favorite bath and body sellers and a company that I reviewed early on in my reviews, Capella's Garden has closed its doors for good, and I am bummed.  Yes, there are other great sellers I can buy from, and will, but it is always sad when a seller decides that they are done.  So, BUY from these sellers if you can, and keep them in business.  It will do us all a favor. You'll get some great products, they'll be able to make money and stay in business, and I will have sellers I know I can count on to buy from again.  WIN-WIN-WIN.

ETA: I got an email from Pamela and she informs me that she and Pat are IDENTICAL TWINS, and Pamela is 3 minutes older. Extra cool, as I have a weakness for twins, and especially identical twins, having married one, myself. :) Even cooler that they are both doing such similar things with the tarts.

Two Weeks' Reviews 2/2-13

So, I missed posting my reviews earlier this week. I take full responsibility for this, as I was on an internship week, and was just too tired to post my reviews.  Also, as of last week, I only had one item to review, due to some disappointments, so it's probably a good thing that I waited.

Speaking of disappointments, since I am uncomfortable saying negative things about sellers on this blog, if I have a bad experience with a seller or sample, they will just not be mentioned by name here (though a general statement about "don'ts" may be based on something I have dealt with from them).  If I review a seller or product here, it will be because the positived outweigh any negatives that I have encountered with the seller, and I feel confident in recommending their products. This may mean that I don't review one of my typical products in a week due to my disappointment.

And now.....On to the reviews!

This week's soap is actually a foaming sugar scrub.  I have had a few foaming sugar scrub samples from The Soap Diva in my soap drawer for a while.  I got them from the Little Black Boxes, and due to my discomfort with using sugar scrubs in general, I haven't used them.  Well, last week's soap from Vintage Soap Shoppe lasted all of last week and most of this week.  Since I like to start new soap samples on the weekend for purposes of my reviews, I had a few days before I broke into the new sample.  For some reason, instead of just pulling out one of my "go-to" soaps, I decided to be daring and pull out one of the sugar scrub samples instead.  Let me tell you, I am glad that I did.

One of the things that had been turning me off of thiese samples was the fact that they were in plastic condiment to-go containers. This makes for a relatively small sample that, to me, looks a little...well.....cheap.  That the Soap Diva had taken the time to print a lovely professional looking clear label on their containers countered much of this impression, and led me to keep these samples.  I understand that money is tight and that sellers don't want to spend too much on samples, however I have just had too many of these containers explode in my samplers, their contents getting on everything for me to feel anything better than ambivalent about their use.  What makes the Soap Diva special is, their choice of sample container is the ONLY negative that I could find with this sugar scrub....oh, and I looked on the website, and their regular scrubs come in a lovely jar.

Here in Houston, we have been having quite the cold snap.  Temperatures have been in in the lower forties for days. This has led to my typical winter nemesis: dry skin on my limbs and a grease slick on my face.  I normally have extremely oily skin all over, but when I am in long sleeves and long pants every day and going in and out of temperature controlled buildings, the skin on my arms and legs gets all dry and scaly.  Inevitably, my face is all broken out and I am slathering on the lotion everywhere else.  After a few days of using this scrub, though, I noticed that my arms and legs were not sucking up as much lotion as normal, and I was getting less itchy over the course of the day.  I give a large amount of the credit to the Soap Diva and their sugar scrub. 

The Soap Diva offers soaps, body butters and lotions, regualr sugar scrubs, candles, and wax tarts all in a huge variety of scents on their website.  Their prices are extremely good, and I look forward to the day that the come up on my "buy today" list.

Since it has been so chilly, I have also been shooting through the lip balm.  I have taken to carrying a pot or stick in my coat pocket, my purse, and my car.  Fortunately, even with my AS allergies, I have had plenty of lip balm, due to a few wonderful sellers.  One of the sellers, I was introduced to through Sampler Village. In last month's Sampler Village box, Luster Canyon sent out a lovely little set of a wonderful lotion and a little mini lip balm tube. WELL!  Every morning, I rub the lotion on my scaly legs, and every day after lunch, I pull that little mini tube out of my pocket and rub on some of the lip balm.

Luster Canyon's Lip Balms are unsweetened.  They do use flavor, but there is no sweetener, so the flavor is very light, though the scent is wonderful and strong.  There is only enough flavor tomake the lip balm not taste like "lip balm".  It's enough.  I also love the tiny little tubes.  They fit perfectly into my jeans.  I might have to go try to bug them to make me a little sampler set of their other flavors in those little tubes.  I have a bad habit of losing lip balms for a few months at a time when they're about half done, because I put them "somewhere special" and start a new flavor, then forget where I put them when I am ready to get back to them. These little sizes are perfect for that!

Luster Canyon's lotion is not oily at all, yet very moisturizing.  It lets off a nice scent that dissipates pretty quickly, which I like, since I don't always want to smell my lotion all day.  I don't feel like I have to slather it on, and it works all day. Luster canyon also makes soaps, and you can get their soaps in coordinating scents with your lotion, which is always nice, since you don't have to worry about clashing scents.

On a customer service note, I wrote an email to Luster Canyon asking them about whether or not their flavors had artificial sweeteners in them.  They got back to me extremely quickly, and were friendly and professional.  You can't ask for anything more than that!

Another lip balm I have been using this week is from Babynme.  I found this seler on Etsy this past Christmas when I was looking for AS free lip balms.  Babynme were very quick getting back to me and were nice and professional.  I ordered their Cinnamon lip balm, and it has a gret flavor and good coverage. They have a good sized pot of lip balm, and a great price.  They shipped quickly and were just wonderful to work with. Babynme offers other bath and pody products on their etsy site, and they have a few other affiliated sites.  Check them out!

Since I don't like putting sweet or strong scented lotions on my face, I usually use unscented Lubriderm after washing my face at night. Well, this week, I ran out and never got tot he store to buy more.  As luck would have it, in this past month's Little Black Box, I got some lovely body butter samples from Main Element Love in a scent called "rise and shine". This lovely citrusy scent is light and airy, so I decided to give it a try as a face lotion.  I think the only people not happy about that decision are the ones at Lubriderm. The body butter perfectly moisturizes my skin without making me break out or become a giant oil slick. The butter is a good consistency, not to firm, yet not too gooey, and perfect for the little pot that it is in.  As an added bonus, one of the things I find most exciting about this lotion find is that Main Element Love is IN HOUSTON!  yes, that's right, they are close by, so I should be able to get their body butter, soaps, shampoos, scrubs, hair care, or bath bombs whenever I want!  Sweet!

Speaking of bath bombs, I tried a new one this week.  Mainely Naturals sent these adorable race car bath fizzies in to The Little Black Boxes, and I used mine in my bath last night.  It was super fizzie, and gave off a perfect amount of scent.  I ahve discovered that, event hough I have a huge tub, I don't like how much oil I get from the huge bath bombs, so this one was just perfect for me. Mainely Naturals scents their race car fizzies with orange oil, which is a nice clean scent. They have all kinds of other lovely scented products in their etsy store, also.  I actually have another fizzie from an additional LBB that I bought, and I think I need to hide it from my kids before they fight over who gets it in his or her bath.

One of the things that I love about Valentine's Day is the CANDY.  The Sampler Village had a bunch of fabulous candies and goodies in it, and I just want to mention them.  There was some fabulous rock candy from Tracy's Home Canned goods, an awesome fondant bear that my daughter gobbled up from CRLCreations, and a lovely heart fondant cake topper from Two Sugar Babies.

Also, as a new feature on my blog, tomorrow, I am going to discuss a few good sellers I have bought from. Some will be repeats of sellers I have reviewed, and some will be sellers I have never mentioned here before. I wan tot bring up sellers of items that I have bought over the years that I have had a good experience with, adn some of those sellers are sellers of the type of thing I might not otherwise review.  I am not sticking with only the sellers I bought from recently because I am on a very tight budget, so I have not had a lot of buying money recently,and I want to be able to mentiona  few sellers every week. I do not make a purchase every week, so I am mentioning older sellers, too.

Late Reviews! 2/2/10

Ok, I am late with my reviews this week. I was waiting for a few people to get back to me.  Some did, some did not.  Also, I had to cram for a practice test last weekend, so I was not as organized as I would have liked to have been coming into Monday.  I know. NO MORE EXCUSES! Give us reviews!!

Now that I am done pointing fingers around and making excuses, this week's soap is "Lavender and Cream Soap Blondie" from Vintage Soap Shoppe. I got this soap in one of the NEW SAMPLERS I tried out this month, Sampler Village. I am really liking Sampler Village, but I'll talk about samplers later.  There are some things I really like about this soap.  I love love love love love how they cut their sample.  Most soap samples are about 1oz. The seller will take a 4 oz. bar of soap, cut it in half, and then cut that half in half again making a thin cross section of the finished soap from top to bottom. (note: I am totally guessing on how sellers make their soap samples).  Often this is done (I assume) because the soap is made with some really neat layers, and the sample can show off the cool look of the soap as well as its body cleansing prowess.  The sample I got from Vintage Soap shoppe was not cut that way.  It was a square chunk cut out of a four oz bar like you would take 1/4 of a peanut and butter sandwich.  The sample has been very easy to hold onto, and I haven't had to fold it over and re-squish it together from getting too thin.

Also, this soap has some sort of granules in it which work just like a built in loofah to exfoliate while you wash.  Especially in the winter, when we are all so susceptible to dry skin, a little bit of help with the exfoliation is appreciated.  The soap is very moisturizing, too!  Vintage Soap Shoppe uses all natural ingredients, and makes candles, body polish, soap, lip balm, and other bath and beauty products. I have put a bunch of their items on my favorites list.

Speaking of Etsy's favorites list....I use mine as a wish list more than a favorites list.  I don't think this is unique.  I catch flack all the time for having a HUGE favorites list, but honestly, if the husband wants to pick me up a surprise every once in a while, he has told me how much he appreciates my (not so) little list.

Since this week I also started pounding the pavement, I used some of my lovely perfume samples!  Now, I have an unhealthy obsession with perfume, and have more of it than a family of 10 women could use in a lifetime, but that doesn't stop me. This month, I got nother wonderful sample from Lemon Lollipop.  This month's sample is actually a scent called "Lemon Lollipop" which, I have to admit, confused my poor little brain, asI was sure lemon Lollipop had forgotten to list the scent on the sample.  Silly me!  I actually lucked out, and Lemon Lollipop is one of a small number of sellers who overlapped in my samplers, and I got TWO samples this month! Go me!  The little samples will last you about 10 wearings, which is just the perfect amount of time for you to decide whether or not you really love the scent or whether it smells nice int eh beginning, but gets old fast.  Lemon Lollipop has a number of affiliated shops, and if you love a bunch of their scents across shops, they will put together a single custom order for you with the simplest email request or convo on etsy.  I really like all of the unique scents that they have. It is not all the same scents that everyone else is offering (though you can get a few of the mre popular ones, too).  They also offer solid perfumes, candles, and all kinds of other bath and body products. 

A thought: I have been getting Lemon Lollipop samples for MONTHS in my LBBs, and I had never ordered from them.  I finally pulled together a little money and am taking the plunge, since I ran out of samples of the scent "Sultry Summer" that I was wearing a lot and ran out of.  When I reached for it again yesterday and realised I was out, I knew it was time to bite the bullet.

I jsut realized that I am right this very minute burning a new brand of wickless candle.  I got a "Spring Rain" scented wax melt in my Little Black Box last month from Silver City Scentsations.  I was in the mood for a non floral, non-food, non-spicy scent, and this one just jumped out at me.  it is a lovely light scent, and the wax melts cleanly and without any smoking. The tart is just the right size for my burner, too. No overflow is always a good thing. Because this is a lighter scent, it is less noticeable in the house, but it does a nice job, and it is exactly what I was looking for.  I'm sure Silver City Scentsations other scents are much stronger seeming because they are stronger scents, I just do not yet have the experience with them.

I burn some sort of candle almost every day.  Even the hubby likes my candles, and he helps me pick out the scent of the day.  I have a LOT of votives, jar candles, and wickless candles.  At one time the hubby thought I had more than anyone could ever use, but now he realises I have less than a year's supply.  Now, if I could just convince him I don't have too much tea....(OK, I do have too much tea)

Last, but certainly not least in this week's reviews is the lovely Pink Sugar Cupcake mini bath bomb from Bath Talk that I got in my sampler from Sampler Village.  This bath bomb is 2 oz, which actually worked out well for me.  When we bought this house, I inherited a HUGE tub. I usually use the big bath bombs, then spend quite some time after my bath scrubbing up the leftover slick.  These little cupcakes let off a decent amount of scent for their size, but due tot he enormity of my tub it was a lot lighter than I was used to, though there was some scent and it did help set the mood.  HOWEVER, the clean up afterwards was so much easier.

I love how cute these cupcakes look, though I was thrown off by putting a "cupcake" intot he bath tub.  I admit, I prefer the regular shapes of the bath bombs, but the cupcake shape did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying this bath and wishing I had more of these cupcake bath bombs. Bath Talk has full 6 oz cupcakes in their etsy shop along with some lovely looking scrubs, soaps, and lotions, so eventually I will stop wanting and start having....Again, as you have heard me say so many times...."SOON....SOON!!!"

Ok, I am off to make a cup of tea, work with the kiddos on some homework, and tweak some cover letters.  As a few coming attractions, I will let you know what I plan on blogging about soon.  I will be discussing a few of the samplers I have gotten over the months and why I plan on continuing to order from some and not from others, and I plan yet another discussion on samples, some of my pet peeves, and some things that make them stand out.

Have a great week!!

This Week in Reviews! 1/14-1/21

THis week's blog is, in some ways, a testament to my laziness.  This morning when I finally got around to unpaking my travel case of toiletries and cosmetics from the trip I took IN DECEMBER, I found a few items I had used on the trip that needed to be blogged about.  Yes, that's right. the only thing I had unpacked from my toiletries from a trip from 12/25-1/1 was the little bar of soap I had remembered was still wet, and that I had packed separately.

Oops....

So, anyway, now that I have admitted to the world of laziness that I live in, I feel the need to post about some items I used on that trip along with this week's items.

Here we go!

I am going to start off with something I have whined about before.  In an earlier blog, if you recall, I whined about my allergy to artificial sweeteners advancing to the point that artificially sweetened lip balm works like a lip (and tongue!) plumper on me. I had bemoaned the fact that I just could not find flavored artificial sweetener free lip balm.  WELL!  I got a few emails, and did some more searching, and I found a few sellers making unsweetened lip balm!  I am hoarding them and waiting to open a new one until I use the old one, so I currently only have one review, though I found three balms.

The first lip balm I opened was Maple Hill Farm's "Lemon" natural lip balm. Though it can feel a little grainy in the stick container, this lip balm goes on smoothly, with none of that grainy-ness transferring to your lips.  If anything, the grainy helps open up the wrinkles in your lips to get a better coverage with less balm.  I don't feel like I have to reapply or slather on this balm to get the benefits from using it. The lemon flavor/scent is light and not over powering. There's just enough to cover up the normnal "lip balm" smell and taste.  I REALLY like this lip balm. Right now, it is living in my purse. When I found the trip items, I remembered this balm in my purse.  I am going to buy another one after I finish the ones I already have.  The price was good, too.  Maple Hill Farm also sells soaps, body butter, and laundry soap.  I bought a few soaps when I bought the lip balm, which I will review after I use them, though they look lovely.  Buying a few soaps also offsets any shipping, and makes the price even better.

One of the things I bought for this trip was Citronella Skin Balm from Sandy Creek Soap. Every time we go away, I end up getting eaten alive.  A lot of bug sprays make me break out, and I hate the stink.  This skin balm is all natural and goes on like lotion.  it smells nice, and best of all, it WORKS!! I would put a light coat of balm on my skin before I get dressed in the morning, and reapply after going swimming. This was the first trip I didn't spend half the night every night up scratching my bug bites.  I even felt safe putting it on my kids!  I am never going away without this balm again!  It lasts forever, too! They have other scents of body balm, too, which would be great to use as a solid perfume or lightly scented lotion.  Sandy Creek soaps sells a lot of other products, too.  In fact, they will be appearing again in the next few months, because I got a handful of their soap samples, too.   

Because I am obsessed with candles and smelling good (and we were going to be in a timeshare for a week), I brough a couple of travel candles from Mrs Tattooed Geek.  I had gotten these candles in some Little Black Boxes and never gotten around to burning them before.  What a mistake!  They burned cleanly and well, lasted a good amount of time, and really threw some good scent!  Next time I go away for any length of time, I am picking up a few more travel candles!  They are in a little tin, so the candle is contained, but not in breakable glass. I just pack a silicone heat pad to protect the surface, buy (or get) matches at my destination, set everythign up, and burn some sweet smelling candles wherever I am!  The scent that I had that I liked best was Sugar Skulls, but I love some of the scents she has listed in her shop.  I can NOT wait to have money again so I can go on a candle binge!!  Mrs. Tattooed Geek is at the top of my list.

This week's soap is Sun Ripened Raspberry by S.V.Soaps. I am using a sample I got in my Little Black Box.  I like this soap.  It has some nice color layers with lovely rosepetals and dried raspberries in the soap.    Although I put in a link to this seller's stand alone website, they are also on Etsy.  S.V. Soaps also sells body butter, bath bombs, items for men, lip balm, and so many other things.  Having used their sample of soap, I would love to try some of their other items.

I also figured I would let you all know that I am STILL using the shampoo and conditioner from Heaven and Earth Essentials.  I LOVE IT, and it lasts forever. I am rotating 5 scents, each in 2 oz containers, and after 3 months, I am only about half way through all 5 scents.  I know I have mentioned them before, but seriously, the more I use their products, the more I love them.

My last review is of a non-consumable.  It is a mug that my sister got me for Christmas from Larry Spears Pottery.  I have been using it all week to drink my tea out of.  It is a great size (I like my mugs BIG), and the handle is very comfortable.  It was shipped well packed and in a timely manner.  I got a lot of compliments on my mug, and the husband uses it behind my back a lot.  All positive things to recommend Larry Spears.  What I REALLY want from him is his Soup Tureen. I covet that thing.  I have a couple of soups that are my specialty, and I LOVE the concept behind the tureen.  I just don't have the money right now.  Oh, but SOON.  Soon, I hope, I will be able to splurge on it. It is fabulous looking,a dn if it is made with the same craftsmanship as the mug I got, it will end up being a display piece as WELL as a highly used functional item.  I will leave you with a picture, so you too can revel in its magnificence.

Talk at ya later!

Maylee's Garden...the Shop that Started it All...

I was talking to someone the other day about handmade bath and body products, and she asked me how I got into using them.  She was telling em that she has always felt skeptical of handmade body care products and whether or not they are actually as effective as store bought products.  This woman had noticed that I don't seem to be a very "crunchy" person, so to find out that I use almost exclusively handmade bath and body products surprised her.

It got me thinking. How DID it all start?

The answer is actually pretty simple.

As you may well know, I have been sewing for myself and my kids for a long time.  For a long time I was a member of a "hippie sewing" group.  I know, I know. ME a Hippie??  Well, yes.  I have gotten away from much fo the patchwork loveliness in my everyday wear, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have a number of years where that was pretty much all that I wore.  I also tend to be relatively politically radical, and have always been a proponent of conservation and recycling.

On that board, I met some wonderful women who made their own bath and body products.  But I never tried them. For YEARS.

Then I started my Jewelry Business (Now Known As AngelTree Gems).  One of these wonderful ladies on the board saw and loved a few of my jewelry pieces, but she was not in a position to purchase them, so we worked out a barter.  She would send me a few bars of soap, adn I would send her some jewelry.  My thinking was, "I'll just have them around if I needed some hand soap).

Well, the soap arrived, and one bar smelled SOOOOOO good, I just had to try it.  Soon I noticed how soft, yet not greasy my hands felt after using the soap, so I brought it into the shower with me to use all over.  My skin came out of that shower softer and better feeling than it had ever felt even using fancy bath gels and creamy clenasers.

The rest, as they say, is history.  I may never go back to commercial soaps (well, after I finish my BB&B stash in my closet).

Who was that wonderful woman?  The one who got me hooked on handmade soap?  Libby of Maylee's Garden.  She hasn't popped up in my reviews, because her soaps are my go-to soaps.  I have bars stashed all around the house.  And her bars last FOREVER!  I just get sick of using the same scent for a month, so I switch them out a lot.

Another great thing about Libby, is all of her products are Vegan.  I, personally, am not a vegan, but I know many people are.  She caters to this group without them having to sacrifice quality, scent, or beauty.   

Libby also makes laundry soap (I am still scared to use this in my high efficiency washer), perfume oil, dreadlock shampoo, body butter, and some of the most awesome smelling bath salts EVER.

Check her out, You will not regret it. I highly recommend her soaps, they are rich smelling and gorgeous.  Maybe we can even convince her to make one of her fancy swirled circle soaps that are so gorgeous.

The Week's Products in Review - 12/13-20

This past week was a weird one.  I have been sick as a dog, so I have not been burning any candles or incense as I try to get my sinuses back into working order.  Also, the hubby has been making me take ALL of my new items and put them under the tree, so I haven't had a chance to use any of the awesome looking things that have been arriving.  He has taken to beating me to the mail and wrapping the boxes as they arrive fromt he post office, so I can't even see what is inside. 

So, the only new bath stuff I have used this week was another bar of really cool soap.  Now, I admit, I was somewhat biased against this soap going in.  It was cut with that corrugation edge which, for some reason, in my mind has always turned me off of the soap. It also came unwrapped in any plastic or wax paper, so the soap was just exposed in my LBB, which is somethign I typically don't like.  Having mentioned my neuroses and the negative of this soap, I have to say, I LOVE this soap!  The soap in question is by Inseine Creations and is the Brown Sugar and Fig scent.  It is such a nice scent and the soap is such a smoothing and lovely soap.  It leaves my skin so soft and comfortable feeling, and though there is a hint of scent left, it is not overpowering or strong, which is a good thing, since I am a perfume lover, and do not necessarily want to wear my soap's scent all day.

So that's it for my light week.  I will not be posting my reviews next week, so plan on a HUGE review for the new year!

Have a great end of the year, all!