Brief hiatus

Just a quick announcement; Sailor Mouth Soaps will be on a temporary and brief hiatus from today while I begin work on bringing new, exciting products and lines to my collection.

While working a demanding full time day job and another virtually full time job running my own business at the same time is a challenging but do-able joy (seriously, not being sarcastic at all) it doesn't leave much time for product development and I spend almost all of my "spare time" filling orders.

Don't get me wrong, I love what I do but looking over my notes and goals from the last year, I haven't achieved any of the things I set out to do and I have so many projects half done and new products half developed, the only way to move forward is to do more work behind the scenes and focus on growth.

In doing that, I can have a tonne of new goodies available for GreazeFest and moving forward into Christmas. YAY!

Thanks for your understanding, please don't hesitate to contact me if you need to.

Ps - all current orders have been filled and shipped :)

How to make a soothing oatmeal bag

I was brought up in a very DIY and eco friendly home. When I was younger, if there was anything we could do with our hands, we'd do it. Store bought orange juice? Are you mad? Let's juice the oranges from the tree. Pay for Shallots? Nuh uh, there's some in the garden. Need strawberries for a Strawberry Shortcake? We would just grab a basket and "go shopping", in the garden!

Growing up like this gave me a deep appreciation for how generous nature is, and how little she asks for in return. Just a bit of water, mulch and not much else and you've got yourself a meal! Looking back, this is probably where my interest in natural skin care developed. I became obsessed with rare herbs (not the ones you're thinking about :P) and their benefit on the skin as well as the properties of fairly everyday fruits and vegetables. To me it was incredible to learn how many "modern" skincare ingredients were based on old-world remedies and how people instintively knew what aleviated a certain ailment.

My favorite book, or "bible" was Natural Beauty by Lorna Horrocks. A quick google search tells me it's out of print, which makes me sad but love my copy all the more.

Last year I wrote a blog post about the book My Favorite Skin Care Recipes  (yes, I'm obsessed) but I also wanted to share with you how to make a simple oatmeal bag.


1. Cut a square of fine cheesecloth or muslin (from the fabric store) to around 6x6 inches
2. Add a tablespoon of ground oats into the middle of the square (freshly ground oats are best)
3. Gather up the edges and secure with a piece of twine or raffia.


Ta dah!

Some people sew them but I find it easier to tie them because once its been used, you can put the oats in the compost, wash out the cheesecloth, dry and re-use again. How easy was that?

You can use this in the shower or bath to help soothe and soften your skin. Oats are particually helpful with sensitive, red and sore skin and feature heavily in many high-end skin care products. If your skin is really dry you could even add a dash of Grapeseed or Olive Oil to the bath water but take care stepping out, the tub might be a little slippery.

If you try it, let me know <3

*I just came across this post in my drafts. I wrote it last September. Face palm.*

Making the move to Palm Oil Free

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to give you an update on the Palm Oil situation. As you might remember reading in my last post, I had finally (after literally years of searching) found a Palm Oil free soap base I can use for my products. The good news is, it's passed my tests, meets my cruelty free and vegan criteria and I'm bringing it into production. Can I get a hurrah? Hurrah!

I've already begun integrating it into my soaps but please allow me some time to update labels and go through what stock I already have. If you want to have your order made with the new Palm Oil Free base especially before it is all that is available, just let me know and I can accommodate you :)

I have future plans for another line of products that will most likely include RSPO Certified Palm Oil. So why would I add Palm Oil back into the range after taking it out? Well with me being the ingredient nerd that I am, I've done a lot of research (surprise, surprise!) and I feel that the best way to encourage positive change and utilise an ingredient, is to support the people doing it right. By that I mean using a sustainable product that has no negative impact on already fragile ecosystems and by helping support third world farmers. Palm Oil has been made to look like the devil but it in itself is no more evil than say, soy or carrots. If the market demand for soy or carrots (as an example) grew to such a huge amount that big capitalist corporations moved in, buying up farms and cultural land that had been sustainably worked for years only to burn it to the ground, destroying habitats, displacing and potentially wiping out entire species and planting thousands of hectares of soy or carrots, those plants would seem pretty bad too huh. It's not the ingredient, it's the frothing at the mouth, money hungry, environment exploiting so and so's that are to blame. If we use the right suppliers, we CAN make a change in the world.

As far as my soap base goes, I can't find anyone in the world, let alone Australia that uses RSPO Palm Oil in their bases so I have to phase that out. But when I start making other products, I can vote with my dollar and help support farmers and our precious animals and environment. My customers will always have a choice as far as their own usage of Palm Oil goes. There will always be the option of Palm Oil free or RSPO Palm Oil in my products.

Remember - some of my products have never and will never have Palm Oil in them. Such as the lip balms, soy wax melts and solid perfumes. Palm Oil is primarily used in soap making so it has no place in those products.

Well, how's that for a Wednesday morning ramble?

Have a great day,

Aliya

Updated to add:

Because you don't have scratch very hard to uncover the giant "hippy" I am.

It's time to celebrate our Facebook Fans!

Competition is now closed. Congratulations to lucky number 4 - Maddy Mohawak!

We've hit 4500 Facebook Fans! Hurrah :D

It was a tough nut to crack & much love goes out to my loyal fans & fellow business owners that helped share my page around. To celebrate this milestone, I'm giving away a $30 gift voucher for one lucky fan to use in my Big Cartel web-store.

You might be wondering why I'm running a Facebook giveaway on my blog? Well, you see Facebook has a lot of rules about running giveaways so it is easier for everyone if I do it here :)

It's super simple to enter. All you need to do is:

1. Visit my Big Cartel, Etsy, Madeit or Hand-Made sites (yes, I have a lot!) and pick out your three favourite products
2. Leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favourite three (no anonymous votes, I need to be able to contact the winner!)

The giveaway will run from the time of posting to 7:30pm EST Sunday 13th May 2012 where a random winner will be selected via www.random.org

And now, the fine print.
This competition is open to both domestic & international fans. The winner will be announced on Facebook, on this blog post and contacted directly. The "voucher" is actually a discount code that is entered at checkout for credit to apply, the winner will not receive a physical voucher but for ease of reference, I am referring to it as a voucher. The winner must  redeem the voucher within 6 months or it will expire. Voucher is not transferable or redeemable for cash. Voucher is only valid at my Big Cartel store

GOOD LUCK!

x

Change is afoot

If you follow me on Facebook you might have seen the little post asking whether you would be prepared to pay a little bit more for Palm Oil Free & Organic products. I should probably explain.

I would consider myself to be a very ethical person. I have been living (and loving) the hell out of my Vegan and totally cruelty free lifestyle for many years now. When I say that my products are "Vegan & Cruelty Free", you can bet your bottom dollar that it's not just an incidental fact or marketing hype, my business has been built from the ground up with those principals in mind. Being certified with Choose Cruelty Free and PETA is proof that I not only stand by these convictions but am willing to sign legal documents to state how my business sources the ingredients and have accountability for my purchases. It's worth pointing out that running a business with so many considerations is not without its complications. Many, many times I have come across a Palm Oil Free or Organic component and I've thought "eureka!" only to find out that it's not Vegan or the supplier can't guarantee Cruelty Free status. Back to the drawing board we go. Rinse and repeat.

I guess the reason I wanted to talk about these issues today is because many of my customers/fans/followers etc want my finished products to meet my (and their) ethical standards but as a consumer, it's hard to fully understand the complexity of the situation from an ethical and manufacturing standpoint and why it takes so damn long to bring these products to market. So today I wanted to give you my absolute personal guarantee that I spend a massive amount of time behind the scenes searching for and researching about the perfect ingredients to add to my products. This takes a lot of time but I never give up. I am about to start the testing phase of some new soap bases that tick all of the boxes, now I just need to see how they perform! Adding these new bases might see a slight price increase but by slight, I mean slight. I won't be able to confirm anything until I've finished my trials but I'll keep you posted.

Long term goal-wise, I have a tonne of new product lines I want to release. I wish I could bring them all out at once but I have a pretty full on day job so Sailor Mouth Soaps will have to grow slowly for now because I've got to pay the bills just like everyone else :D

Best time to shop in my Hand-Made shop

After an awful night's sleep, sick as a dog (I thought I had appendicitis but since my abdomen didn't explode, I'm guessing I'm ok :P) I woke up to this email from https://www.hand-made.com.au/ and I'm pretty excited about it. Who doesn't want to win an iPad?

Welcome to our latest giveaway!
We wanted to enable one lucky hand-made buyer to shop hand-made anywhere, anytime. What better way to do that than with and ipad3?

To score yourself a brand spanking new ipad3

Buy hand-made. 

Purchase anything from hand-made.com.au between 3pm on the 6th April 2012 and Midnight, 29th June 2012.



The Prize

 
Everyone who purchases from hand-made.com.au will go into the draw to win an ipad3 16GB with WiFi valued at $498 - every purchase begets an entry ie 8 purchases will get you 8 entries in the draw.


Entries will be drawn Sunday 1st July 2012 via random.org.









*All times are in Australia Eastern Standard Times
**Must be resident of Australia
***Winners will be drawn via random.org
****Decisions made by hand-made.com.au remain final
*****Prizes not redeemable for cash
******Hand-Made.com.au reserves the right to change the conditions to this giveaway at any time.




You will find my shop at https://www.hand-made.com.au/sailormouthsoaps and remember each item purchased counts as an entry - good luck!

Birthday month

Phew! What a month. It's been my intention to write a blog post for hrrrm, lets see...the last 26 days and this is the first (all be it brief) chance I've had. Needless to say, my lovely customers have been taking advantage of the 2nd Birthday Celebrations sale I've been running. Thanks for keeping me so busy!

There's only a few days left of the sale. This week's offer is free Australian shipping for any order over $40. It runs from today to the 31st March 2012 at 11:59pm EST. Simply enter code BIRTHDAYSALEAUSSIE when you check out your order in the shopping cart at http://sailormouthsoaps.bigcartel.com/

Be sure to enter your code as the system is automated and I can't fix up any code errors if you forget to enter it.

You might be asking - "Sale? What sale?" If so, then be sure to sign up for my newsletter here so you don't miss out in the future! Newsletters go out every two months or so (due to my slackness) and I'll never sell or share your details so don't worry, there will be no spam because of me <3