Featured Product - Lip Balm

Marmalade Hills' Lip Balm is a beautiful child of thorough research and precise formulation. I have come a long way to get to this perfectly smooth, not too soft and not too hard, nutrient rich and vitamin packed lip balm. It is made of creamy beeswax, exotic butters, nutritious oils, soothing aloe vera juice and Vitamin E. Combined together in perfect amounts they protect, moisturize and nurture gentle skin of your lips. Our lip balms are great to wear under your favorite lipstick, I find it especially useful to wear under mineral base lipsticks as they are loaded with powdery pigments that can make your lips feel extremely dry. We also have an optional hook attachments that allow you conveniently wear our lip balms on your key chain or hook it on to your kids back pack. One thing I am sure of is that you can never have enough lip balms! So check out our lip balm sets and remember that each individually purchased lip balm will be shipped for free as a secondary purchased item.

* Creamy Bees Wax is a natural emulsifier and it serves as protective coating that locks in moisture and nutrients on your skin.
* African Shea Butter has been praised for centuries in Africa and is very well respected now for its ability to moisturize and nourish dry, damaged skin. It has been clinically shown to provide benefits from just dry skin to many minor dermatological diseases (if you have a serious skin condition, you should see a doctor).
* Coconut Oil is the source of two of the most powerful anti-microbial agents found in any food substances. These are Capric Acid and Lauric Acid. They are the same acids that are found in mother’s milk and keep the baby protected from infections. When these are applied on skin, some microbes (good ones) present on skin convert these acids into Monocaprin and Monolaurin respectively, thereby replacing the protective acid layer on the skin. Finally, Coconut Oil is soothing on skin and highly penetrating.
* Palm Oil is high in fatty acids and leaving virtually no residue on the skin. An incredibly rich and intoxicating oil which gracefully shares it benefits in numerous food and cosmetic applications throughout the world.
* Almond Oil is one of the most useful, practical, and comonly used oils. It is great for all skin types as an acting emollient and is best known for its ability to soften, soothe, and re-condition the skin. Natural expeller pressed oil from raw almond kernels and exceptionally rich in fatty acids.
* Rose Hip Oil is one of my favorite ingredients. It is truly a miracle oil and it is extremely rich with essential fatty acids (omega-6 and omega-3) which help nourish skin and keep it plump and youthful, helping to reduce wrinkles, tone and smooth roughness. Essential fatty acids are called "essential" because our body is not able to produce them, they must be obtained through the diet or through supplementation. Rose Hip Oil is recommended for scarred tissue and this makes our balms a perfect solution for chapped lips.
* The structure of Jojoba Oil closely resembles that of your own skin sebum and is readily absorbed without making the skin feel greasy or tacky nor does it clog the pores.
* Most people know first-hand the soothing relief of aloe vera on minor burns, cuts and bruises. These superb qualities also add desirable effect of our lip balms on chapped lips.
* And the last but not least ingredient is a Vitamin E oil. The benefits of Vitamin E for the overall good health of individuals are substantial. In particular, Vitamin E is very important antioxidant, regulator of Vitamin A and an excellent anti-aging agent that makes skin look younger by reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

They come in the variety of flavors. Lime, Mint, Tea Tree, Grapefruit are made with pure Essential Oils. Cherry Frost, Tender Plum, Blueberry Muffin, Dulce De Leche, Juicy Pear, Coconut Creme are made with lip safe, food grade natural flavors.

Healthy Hair Tip

Hair is the ultimate accessory; it can add to (or detract from) your overall look instantly. Keeping it in healthy condition is the most important thing you can do to help it look and feel fabulous. And, while it seems easy, this isn't as simple as minimizing chemical treatments or slathering on a weekly deep conditioner. While these can make your strands softer and less split-end-prone, what really matters is the daily handling; this is what creates the most stress--and potential damage--to your tresses.

1) Steer clear of plastic-bristle brushes.
2) Brush before shampooing. A few gentle strokes on dry hair will help remove product buildup and scalp flakes, as well as stimulate the scalp and promote blood flow.
3) Know your water. If your hair looks dull or is hard to style, the problem could be your tap water.
4) Mist your ends with water before home coloring. The ends of your hair are more porous and, as a result, absorb more pigment.
5) Trim your troubles. As the ends of your hair get older and damaged by rough handling, they become prone to splitting
6) Use color-protective products. Chemical treatments like color can damage hair because the chemicals have to penetrate the outer layer of the hair (or cuticle) to allow the hue to be absorbed. Color-protective products are specially designed to minimize dryness, keep color true and prevent damage
7) Give wet hair extra TLC. It stretches and snaps more easily than dry hair does, so be extra-gentle with it.
8) Deep condition once every two weeks.
9) Try an ionic dryer. Ions are atoms with a positive or negative charge. These particular hair-dryers bathe your hair in negative ions, which help break up water molecules faster and cancel out hair-damaging positive ions.
10) Just use your dryer's nozzle. It's the best way to help prevent frizz because it concentrates the airflow on sections.
11) Give textured or relaxed hair a break.
12) Use the right accessories.

This post was altered from original article that can be found here.

When I was less busy and had no kids (excuses, excuses, excuses) I used to have a "before bed-time" routine of brushing my hair 50 strokes forward, 50 strokes backward, and 100 strokes from side to side (in one direction and then in another). It is a very easy routine and it improves blood circulation and promotes even distribution of nutrients to the hair follicles. After this short routine my scalp was burning, but it was a good feeling, like the one you get after an hour of deep tissue massage!

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

Perfect Valentine's Day Gift.

Valentine's Day is just three busy weeks away. And it will be knocking on your door before you know it. How are you going to show your affection and love to your special person? How about a romantic evening in candle light and warm bath, complemented by scrumptious dark chocolate and berries? There’s just something special about the flicker of a real candle that warms the very soul and magically transforms an ordinary space... Slip into soothing whirls of softening and moisturizing ingredients while sinfully rich fragrance indulges your senses! Our Valentine's Gift Set includes four (4) essential items to make your next Valentine's Day a special, relaxing and totally guilt free experience for you and a special person in your life! You do not even need to pick up a greeting card! We will include one for you at no cost. You may want to pick up a bottle of champagne though :)

These sets are in very limited quantities, do not put off shopping for a perfect Valentine's gift for too long!

Thrifty yet healthy tip

There are quite a few solid reasons to buy organic food. One of the fundamental reasons is that organic food doesn’t contain toxins like pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, or ionizing radiation (see to www.organic.org). Do you want that stuff to be inside of the "precious" you? No way! But of course it can get a bit pricey to consume only organic food. As a caring parent and CFO of my family I do try to get the best deals around for good and healthy things. So I would like to share this simple guide that I have always been carrying around in my purse. It tells you which produce to buy organic and which conventionally-grown fruits and veggies are ok to buy when you shop on a budget or organic variations is not available. It is very easy to follow and after a few months you will have it imprinted in your brain. I have printed copies for all of the adults in my family and laminated them. If you don't feel like running to Kinkos to use their laminating services, just try using packaging clear tape and run few strips on top and on the bottom of the cut out guide. Feel safe to download this guide from here: http://www.foodnews.org/

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

Monthly Newsletter

Our first ever monthly newsletter is here! In it I was trying to summarize most important things that had happened in 2009 and what you can expect from Marmalade Hills in 2010! Our newsletter is a great way to keep in touch if you don't use your Facebook too often, or if you are not familiar with the blogging community. Sign up for our newsletter and never miss a beat! Latest news, special offers, healthy living and beauty tips will be delivered straight to your mailbox! To subscribe just follow this link or check out the link on the left of this post. Hoping to see you on the list!

Healthy Tip - Green Tea

Our Healthy Tip Fridays have moved from notes area of our fan page to our blog. For our blog followers, who are not fans of Marmalade Hills' on Facebook, I have posted a few Healthy Tip Fridays already. You can find them here.
Tea is the agricaltural product of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia Sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods. After water, tea is the most widely-consumed beverage in the world, according to The Empire Of Tea by Alan Macfarlane.
I myself love to drink tea. In winter it is especially popular in our house, we can go through a box of tea in 4 or 5 days. I am sure everybody heard about many benefits of tea and especially green tea and probably I will not tell you anything new today, but I would like to bring to your attention the benefits of green tea once again. I think today's tip can be classified as "lazy healthy tip", right next to the fish oil :)

"More than a decade's worth of research about green tea's health benefits - particularly its potential to fight cancer and heart disease - has been more than intriguing, as have limited studies about green tea's role in lowering cholesterol, burning fat, preventing diabetes and stroke, and staving off dementia.

*Green tea's antioxidants, called catechins, scavenge for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis. Grapes and berries, red wine, and dark chocolate also have potent antioxidants. Because of green tea's minimal processing - its leaves are withered and steamed, not fermented like black and oolong teas - green tea's unique catechins, especially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), are more concentrated.

*Green Tea vs. Cancer. The American Cancer Society's strategic director of nutritional epidemiology, says human studies haven't yet proven what researchers like Chan have discovered in the lab: green tea's EGCG regulates and inhibits cancer growth and kills cells that are growing inappropriately. Still, it's difficult not to be intrigued by a few human studies that have shown that drinking at least two cups of green tea daily inhibits cancer growth. One of them, a study conducted in Japan that involved nearly 500 Japanese women with Stage I and Stage II breast cancer, found that increased green tea consumption before and after surgery was associated with lower recurrence of the cancers.

*Green Tea good for your heart? It seems to be, but there are conflicting results of a few epidemiological studies conducted in the East and West.
In a study that involved 500 Japanese men and women, researchers found that drinking at least four cups of green tea every day may be related to the reduced severity of coronary heart disease among the male participants. A Dutch study of more than 3,000 men and women found that the more tea consumed, the less severe the clogging of the heart's blood vessels, especially in women. As Goldberg suggests, lifestyle and overall diet are critical to the outcomes of these studies. But green tea's antioxidants are dilators, she says, because they improve the flexibility of blood vessels and make them less vulnerable to clogging - and antioxidant-rich blueberries and pomegranates do the same.

*Green Tea and Weight. Green tea and its extract have been shown to fight obesity and lower "bad" cholesterol - two risk factors for heart disease and diabetes - but in very limited studies.

*Green tea Straight Up. Taking weight loss supplements that contain green tea extract probably won't hurt, unless you have liver problems. But the best way to get the most out of green tea - even if your main goal is losing weight - is to drink it."

For complete article please follow this link: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/health-benefits-of-green-tea

If you can not get enough of green tea in your cup try these products from Marmalade Hills' that are made with miracle green tea extract:
All Natural Facial Toners; Moisturizing Bath Bombs; Omega 3 Body Lotions.

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

What is soap?

I wanted to talk about natural and cold process soaps in particular, since I started this blog. But because it seemed like such a massive subject I have been putting it off and putting it off untill today. So get yourself a hot cup of cocoa and read on...
According to various legends, modern soap has its origins at mount Sapo where sacrifices were often cremated and hardwood ashes would accumulate (an early source of alkali). These ashes mixed with the tallow of the sacrificed animals. It is said that after a heavy rain a yellow runoff from the fire pit made its way downhill from the temple. The local women washing their clothes in the river noticed that their clothes were cleaner when the river ran yellow. Over time it was learned that adding salt water to the mixture would precipitate the removal of glycerin and excess water, thus making the soap harder, and not subject to the month long curing process required of true handmade soap. This old-fashioned "yellow soap" was used for laundry, dishes, and the occasional bath. But don't forget, it is just a legend. I am not sure whether anybody really knows the true story.
Well then, what is soap? Soap is a result of chemical reaction between oils and alkiline solution (the base, popularly referred to as lye) this process is also known as saponification. Soap cannot be made without lye. But be sure that because of our precise formulation and a curing period of six weeks, there is absolutely no trace of lye left in Marmalade Hills' natural soap. So how does soap work? Soap molecules can dissolve in water and at the same time they can dissolve grease molecules. While normally oil and water do not mix, the addition of soap allows oils to dissolve in water, allowing them to be rinsed away easily as water strings down your body and into the drain. Brilliantly simple! Nature has her ways of taking care of everything, doesn't she?
What is so special about handcrafted, cold process soap? All soaps are not created equaly. Today's soaps are often made from cleaning agents, such as synthetic detergents and are designed to look like a "beauty bar" or "body bar". The truth is that they are made with the same chemicals you use to wash your dishes or your car. Marmalade Hills' natural cold process soaps are completely different from mass produced soap or even glycerin soaps (these are sold as melt and pour bases). Our handcrafted soaps are made from skin loving, vegetable ingredients and other nature derrived ingredients like earth pigments, clays, herbs and essential oils. Our soaps will not over-dry your skin, as many tend to believe. The cold process soap is the best thing for your skin! In fact I recommend it even over our natural shower gels - those are not as gentle, because even though they are both technically natural, they are not made the same way...but that's another story. All our cold process soaps are made with high-quality, natural ingredients carefully chosen for their healing and beneficial abilities. Food grade Olive Oil is used as a base oil (about 50% of all oils), we also add coconut oil and palm oil for hardness. No vegetable shortenings or canola oil here. In addition I love to play with herbal infusions, prescious oils and butters by adding them at the end of the saponification process. It is called superfatting. This way additional oils do not go through full saponification process, they retain their nutrients and hang around to make our soaps extra moisturizing and gentle. All Marmalade Hills' soaps are made from scratch, using time tested "cold process" method. We mix warm oils, lye and water together. We pour raw soap in small 10 lb molds, let it sit wrapped in blankets for 48 hours. We unmold, cut, weigh and package soaps by hand. So you are getting the most unique yet very functional treat you can get!
Finally, how to take care of your cold process soap? Cold process soap will last you for a very long time if stored properly. Do not leave your soap under a running water, store it away in a dry spot of your shower on a soap dish with drainage holes on the bottom. You can use a regular soap dish, but you must use simple soap saver in this case.

Got SOAP?!

Holiday SALE

Our Spring line of products has been finalized and it means that it is time to make some room for our new, deliciously smelling inventory! Enjoy the remaining stock of our popular seasonal products at 50% off! We had a great run this Holiday season and have only limited quantities of each product left. Remember, when these are gone they are gone until next Winter!

Spring/Summer Collection Reveal

Even though you may still be shivering from mid winter freeze, at Marmalade Hills it is already Spring if not Summer! My studio smells like juicy apples, apricots, emerald ferns and sweet florals. Many of your favorite products will be updated with new sophisticated fragrances and coordinating designs. I also have formulated a few brand new products that will join a family of "all-time favorite" products. Here is a quick peek at our new fragrances: Applecot Tini, Woodland Ferns, Thai Coconut and Sweet Pea. Our artisan soaps, body lotions, body washes, soy products, bath bombs and linen mists will be available in these yummy new scents. Inspired by new and exciting ingredients I have decided to expand our collection of facial masks, whipped body polishes and facial toners. In a few months we will be introducing Applecot Puree Body Polish formulated with real apple extract and apricot shells for extra scrubby ability; Applecot Firming Facial Mask with naturally derived alpha-hydroxy acids; Apple Twist Facial Fusion which is nothing more than pure Apple Fruit Water and plant extracts. This all is coming up in Spring of 2010, but for now I hope you are enjoying your winter wonderland!