Featured Product - Omega 3 Body Lotion

This post will be the beginning of the series called “Featured Product”. I have to start with one of my favorite items “Omega 3 Body Lotion”. It is a replacement and upgrade from our original Gentle Body Lotions line that some of you have been introduced to before. The first time I have tried this lotion, I fell in love with its texture and the after-feel of it. Cold weather is already upon us and everyone needs an extra nourishing and extra emollient lotion in their arsenal. The texture of this lotion is on a thick side, but it sinks into the skin momentarily, leaving your skin feeling soft, supple and moist. It leaves absolutely no greasy or oily residue and because it has no silicone-by or petroleum-by ingredients it feels like your skin can breathe after application. You know how sometimes, after using a lotion, it feels like you just dipped your hands into a sticky, heavy clay mixture? With Omega 3 Lotions you will feel absolutely none of it! In case of a body/hand lotion, it is important for it to be free of “dirty words” like parabens, phthalates and such because it is a leave-on product and most of the ingredients will be absorbed by skin and transferred into the blood stream. Our Omega 3 Body Lotions are made of pure botanical and plant derived ingredients. We are using Grapeseed, Hemp, Sweet Almond and Sunflower oils that are cold pressed to retain their minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids. Omega 3 is found in Hemp oil. With its healthy essential fatty acid composition of Linoleic and Linolenic acids in the perfect ratio of 3:1, it also contains the relatively rare Gamma-Linolenic fatty acid that the body needs. They are called "essential" because our body is not able to reproduce them, and because they help to nourish and maintain a healthy skin on cellular level. Omega 3 has been found to assist in correcting problematic skin; typically, psoriasis, acne, and eczema. Additional properties from Shea Butter, Japanese Green Tea, Chamomile, Aloe Vera and Vitamin E, makes this a great skin rejuvenator. To guarantee fungus-free and bacteria-free lotions we do have to protect our water in oil emulsions (this is what lotions are) by adding gentle, paraben-free preservative at the ratio of 0.003% of net weight of the product. We offer Essential Oil scented lotions in Tea Tree Blossom and Lavender, and Fragrance Oil scented lotions in Zesty Cranberry, Gingersnap, Sea Foam and Sugar Fig. Our Essential Oil Lotions are a bit more expensive due to usage of pure, therapeutic Essential Oils. Omega 3 Body Lotion can make a thoughtful gift this season for special people in your life.

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
Clean Truth about Antibacterial Soap
10 Foods that are healthier than you think
Healthy Nails Tips
Healthy Hair Tips
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to
Benefits of Green Tea
Beauty Sleep
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6
How to add years to your life

New products are coming your way!

New soaps are finally all dry! I usually wait for 6 weeks before offering them to customers. From the moment of mixing a fresh batch and until 6 weeks have passed you really don't know how the finished bar of soap will look like (and it is one of the most exciting parts of making cold process soap!). When soap is still in a pot it looks totally different than after 48 hours in the mold... and as it dries it keeps changing color due to water evaporation and air exposure. Here is how fresh Gingersnap looks like (here) and compare it to what it looks like now The Gingersnap turned light brown after it came out of the mold and as it was drying it got darker and darker. It is completely naturally inherited color from Goat Milk and Fragrance Oil: in two words, all goat milk soaps are usually brownish and any fragrance that has Vanilla notes in it will turn soap brown. So in this case it turned double brown! But it still smells scrumptious!

I will be uploading new soaps and products to my shop every day. Until then here is a little preview of a few things that are coming up!
Of course all this and more you will be able to see for yourself at the Holiday Gift Show this year!

Stay tuned!



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Save The Date

When I was a kid my favorite time of the year had always being Winter because of the Holidays and Summer because each summer we went to our summer apartment on Black Sea. Waiting for the Holidays and for summer seemed like torture to a little kid. Ahh, what a wonderful time childhood was... And now I don't know where time goes! I don't think I had a chance to enjoy Summer this year. It seemed like: "Okay, one more week of remodeling and we can start enjoying our summer..." days went by, weeks went by... and it's already November! Now my schedule is planned out by hours! It also means that it is time to invite everybody to meet us in person at the Elf Shelf Holiday Gift show in Troy, MI. I have decided to take on only one show this year and test the waters. It is all my family can handle at this time. But we all are extremely excited and everybody has stepped up their game - everybody! Even my 10 month-old, who had to learn to feed himself and it's a big job for the little guy =)
So please come to say Hi! You will be able to enjoy our Holiday Specials, enter to win Holiday Gift Set from Marmalade Hills, and see for yourself all of our delicious natural products!

Location: Troy High School, 4777 Northfield Parkway in Troy, Michigan. Elf Shelf show is a juried show which will include over 100 Artisans! So come on out to support your local artisans and bring your friends and family, I am sure that everyone will find something that their heart desires.

See you there!



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Fight Flu, Wash Hands! Helpful Discount

Cold and Flu Season is in full swing and I am just terrified of my kids getting sick. I know sleepless nights will come, non-stop crying and stuffy noses can happen any day now. I am preparing myself for possibility of juggling holiday shows, ton of holiday orders and being sick myself or having sick kids at the same time. It seems impossible to prevent cold or flu when you share everything with everybody in your household. But there are two things that everybody can do: take vitamins and WASH HANDS! I remember, before I was making my own soap, every winter we all had to use a ton of regular soap as frequent as 20 times per day! And I remember that my hands felt like if I wash them one more time, my skin would peel off of them. Harsh detergents in soap burned, dried and scaled my skin and no lotions, no matter how much or how often I would use, could help. My husband had the worst case of dry hands in winter, it was painfully uncomfortable. After constant washes the skin on his hands would turn white and it felt dry, like paper. He would use a ton of lotions but at the end of the day would always end up with the same problem. For the past few years that I have been making my soaps and using only soaps I make, I can proudly declare that our household is “dry skin-free”! It is truly a miracle. Even in winter months I do not need to saturate my hands in lotion every 10 minutes. My husband’s hands feel great and even sometimes he can forget to use lotion completely.
I wish everybody could experience the power of natural soap and wash hands as frequent as possible to stay healthy and happy this winter season. So I have decided to run a promotional SALE on some of our most soothing and gentle soaps until the end of this year. Just add WASHHANDS09 at check out and get 20% off on the following soaps:
Lemongrass Moisturizing Soap with Shea Butter
Classic Lavender Moisturizing and Nourishing Soap with Shea Butter and Goat Milk

And don't forget to check out our Seasonal Sales, Oatmeal Honey and Forest Sprite would be an excellent choice for Gentle and Moisturizing Hand Soap and they are already discounted!



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Full Steam Ahead

I have been making soaps like madwoman in a last few weeks. What seems like madwoman to me, however may look more like slow moving snail to somebody else :) Juggling kids, every day chores, house keeping and business is NOT an easy task. Unfortunately, most of the times business gets lowest priority. But I know that I just have to keep moving and make continuous small or even micro steps forward, whether making a new product, blogging, researching or making labels - whatever I have time for. And I have made some progress, one small task at a time. I have added a new soap book to my soap-making book collection and it is by Soapylove It is so inspirational, fun and quite unique. Melt and Pour soaps are not exactly up my alley but I love all the techniques, designs, clever ideas that Debbie has to offer. I had a little time to experiment with some of her ideas and the first one was Soap Balls! Before I have been rebatching my old soap by Hot Processing it and then together with my 5 year old rolled soap balls for embedding…it could have taken up to two month to make those soap balls. Now I have successfully made batch of 28 red and yellow Cold Process soap balls using ice cube mold recommended by Debbie, and all it took is 24 hrs. I’ll let them sit on my drying rack for few more days and they’ll be ready to go into my Zesty-Cranberry soap. Yippee!
I just have to brag about my new Gingersnap Milk and Honey soap! I made it yesterday night! It smells delicious and looks even better! Pardon my lighting, it was late night outside. It is made of fresh, creamy goat milk, local honey, oats and the most amazing smelling Gingersnap fragrance! The scent will make you want to sink your teeth into it. I bet it will be a crowd pleaser at the Holiday Gift Show this year!



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Back to work!

I had a few minutes today for myself before my older one returns from school and while my youngest enjoyed his jumper. So I finally was able to return to blogging. It was a long and busy summer but it was planned to be this way. I am glad to be back to work! An opportunity to get back to business kept me on my toes all summer long! I just couldn’t wait to get back to my studio, make new products and search for new scents and ingredients! However, I am very happy with our summer and the progress we made. We have finished remodeling 1/3 of our house, what at one time used to be Marmalade Hills studio is now a home office and a family room. My husband had supervised his first project at work, and even though it took him out of the country for three weeks, it was an important step in his career. And finally we had a fun family trip to Chicago. The most memorable part of the trip for me was Cloud Gate sculpture in downtown Chicago or The Bean. It is so simple, yet unique, modern, engaging, fun and absolutely breathtaking! Check out for yourself…

Unfortunately it was too crowded to capture true beauty of it, but found many gorgeous pictures of Cloud Gate here.

Here are some night pictures of Chicago

Now the summer is officially over (today we had first frost overnight!); schedule for Fall/Winter season is set; new products and scents are finalized; and I am back to work at my studio! Because all of Marmalade Hills’ soaps have to cure for 6 weeks I am whipping new batches of soap every other day to make sure that I have enough fresh and yummy smelling soaps this holiday season! As far as new products go, you will be able to try new Bath Truffles and completely new Lotion formula, which is divine in texture and extremely beneficial for skin. I am so excited about new products that I will have to blog about each one of them individually!



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Product Party Report

My Friday was very intense. I totally missed the whole day, it seems like I went from Thursday straight to Saturday. I was preparing all day and had time only for breakfast. I was running on my adrenalin and excitement. We got up early Friday morning, took my daughter to preschool, my little one to my mom’s and went straight to my studio. I don’t know what I would’ve done without my mom and my in-laws! They took over the kids for the day and I was able to work, work, work, as fast as I can. I thought I was very well prepared as far as the product stock, but I had to label everything, shrink wrap, make signs, set up the picture show, print out the price lists and get it all boxed up and loaded into my car….of course I was running late and my exit from the freeway was closed! Where was my GPS when I needed it! When I finally got to the house my friend, was already rallying for me, so people were ready and excited to see my amazing lotions and potions. The hostess, Nicole, is a friend of my friend (and now my friend too) and her house is beautiful and very eclectic! She put a lot of love and her own personality into her home. I was just blown away by her kitchen backsplash. It’s a huge copper backsplash that she designed and welded by herself! And it’s at least 4’ x 6’ humongous piece of metal! It looks totally cool and artsy. I wish I had a picture of it to show you! Actually I don’t have many pictures from the party. I was hopping to get lots of pictures, but I was so busy setting everything up and then talking to people that I just forgot about my camera. I set my table up as fast as I could and it turned out great and I didn’t forget anything… oh no, I did: I forgot my business cards! D'oh! I was so mad at myself. Thank god I had a bunch of price lists that I gave away with every purchase…. Anyways, where was I? I was lucky to have a huge dining room table right next to the front door, so nobody could miss me! I had my bath bombs set up on a cute pastry tower; had my digital picture frame with product slideshow; sign with specials, bowls with cashews and dark chocolates for guests, and the rest of the products basically setup on the table displaying themselves.
The bottom line is: the party turned out great, I was very excited to introduce people to my natural skin care and I really enjoyed talking about it. I made quite a few sales and most important a lot of new friends!!! I loved doing parties and my friend who is my biggest fan will have a huge party in August where Marmalade Hills is already invited! Yippee! Can’t wait!


P.S. if you are interested in having Marmalade Hills at your party send me an email!



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