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Andrea Ordodi
By Alyssa Davis
Staff writer and decorating specialist with Metal-Wall-Art.com
While it may seem repugnant to consider, most of us choose candles and other scents to make up for overpowering smells in the bathroom.
Small bathrooms often suffer worst, as some scented candles are so overwhelming that not only do they neutralize the bathroom odors, but also peace and tranquility since the candle scent chases everyone out for hours after being lit. Here are some helpful tips that will help you choose candles for your bathroom without overwhelming the space that you have.
Tip 1: Choose light scents
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Although it may seem attractive to go for the most powerful scent possible in the bathroom, the smaller your space, the more it will be overwhelmed in scent. When Manufacturers such as Febreze® or Glade® make wonderful candles to fulfill this purpose, and they are very affordable. They also offer faux candles if you are wary of a flame, regardless of size, and these are much safer if you have children or pets. Faux candles often offer scents that can be replaced or alternated, giving you a wider variety as well. |
Tip 2: Keep it simple
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The old adage that less is more rings true in many instances, and this is definitely Give it some time before you decide whether you need or want more candles. Then, if you decide that additional candles are necessary to combat smells (especially in the more spacious bathrooms), add one at a time, giving time between each addition to judge whether more candles are required. In this manner, you will not overwhelm the bathroom between purchases, and save time and money. |
Tip 3: Candles are great accessories
You may only be considering candles or faux candles for their scent properties, but they also make wonderful sophisticated accessories for the bathroom. Candles
can be used for elegance and grace, giving a sense of style to an often-overlooked room of the house. Choosing candles can allow you to minimize the necessity of other accents and decorations, giving the bathroom a cleaner, more spacious feel.
Candles are useful for much more than smell, and they are one of the cheapest improvements that you can make to the bathroom. Whether you choose faux or real candles, allowing the scents, colors, and flickering light to relax you at the end of each day is just one more reason to use them as decorative accents in your bathroom, or any room of the house.
About the author:
Alyssa Davis is a staff writer and decorating specialist with Metal-Wall-Art.com and offers stylish suggestions for decorating with tropical metal art and butterfly metal wall hangings.
EDITORIAL NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CREDIT MUST APPEAR UNDERNEATH THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE
This article is copyright © 2004-2007 by Natural Sourcing, LLC (www.fromnaturewithlove.com) and is reprinted with permission.
Introduction
With the growing awareness of the hazards that everyday skin care and household products can cause, consumers are becoming more interested in more natural products. With the growing availability of herbal and complimentary ingredients and ready-made natural products, consumers are now able to take more control of the quality and safety of the products that they use on their bodies and in their homes.
The increased awareness in health and wellbeing has created a great demand for natural soaps, lotions, skin care products and natural fragrances. Natural skin care products are often packaged beautifully, and they make wonderful gifts.
Many businesses that produce natural skin care products are operated from home, or originally began as an in-home business. Unlike the claims of “get rich quick” operations, starting an in-home business creating skin care products will not make you rich quickly, but neither will most get rich quick schemes. An advantage to starting a skin care product business is that you become your own boss and can begin slowly with minimal start up costs. Like any business, there are specific legal, marketing and accounting matters that need to be addressed.
This article provides an overview of the basic requirements needed to begin your own skin care business from home.
Learning/Education
If you choose to produce skin care products, you will need to decide what types of skin care products that you’d like to make and educate yourself as much as possible. You will need to plan to experiment with a variety of readily available recipes and learn how to customize recipes and create products that will turn potential customers into buyers. Learning about the ingredients and available preservatives is also a must.
Some individuals focus on just making either soaps, lotions, bath salts, scrubs, fragrances, aromatherapy blends, hair products, or other skin care products. Others, however, choose to create a huge line that includes many of the previously mentioned skin care product types. You will need to decide what types of products you’d like to start making and learn all that you can. Bath salts are probably the easiest to begin making and are very popular with consumers.
A vast selection of skin care making books exist. Thoroughly read and explore the recipes included in books for an excellent way to get started. Not all local booksellers, however, provide a good inventory on skin care making books. Although Web sites are not usually able to cover the same amount of information as books, Web sites can provide a lot of helpful information and recipes. One source, From Nature With Love (www.fromnaturewithlove.com) provides an Information Library, Recipe Database and a large selection of books covering skin care product making.
Taking classes with a qualified instructor is an ideal way to obtain hands-on experience, get answers to your specific questions and meet others who have the same interests as you. Contact your city’s continuing education department to see if they offer any courses.
Networking with others who are interested in making skin care products is also a good way to gain valuable knowledge. Search for and join toiletries and skin care eGroups on MSN and Yahoo. Not only will you expand and share your growing knowledge, you will have the opportunity to correspond with a lot of individuals that share your interest.
Marketing
One of the first decisions that you should make is the selection of your business name and logo. Choose a name that is not overly long and that is easy to remember. It should reflect positively on your business and products. From a legal standpoint, it’s important that you don’t use a name that is already in use by another business. A lawyer or your business professional can provide information on how you can ensure that you do not choose an already taken name. If you plan to create a Web site for your business, try to coordinate the name of your business with a domain name that is available, and then buy the domain name so that no other company grabs it up from you.
When you first begin making your products, your first customers will probably be your friends, family and colleagues (if you work outside of the home). Your family and friends can be a wonderful source for providing honest feedback about your products. It is wise to solicit their honest opinions before you begin selling your products. Once you are ready to sell your products, encourage your friends and relatives to tell everyone they know about your business and products. Your promotional efforts can be simple or elaborate. Plan to spend adequate time to promote your business and develop marketing materials. For the greatest opportunity for success, read as much as you can about marketing, especially small business marketing. Below are a few ideas to get you started:
Packaging Your Products
Large corporations know that the outward appearance and packaging of their products can play one of the most crucial roles in the success of their products.
Your packaging needs to play several roles. It needs to protect your product for the entire duration of its shelf life, it needs to clearly identify the contents of the package, it may need to confirm with INCI ingredient labeling requirements (see http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/cos-lab1.html) and it needs to help compel customers to purchase it. Take the time to create attractive packaging that meets all of the above goals. When shopping, pay attention to how other similar products are packaged. Don’t copy another company’s packaging, but use your research as inspiration for creating your own unique packaging concept.
In-Home Business Setup
To create your products, you will need a kitchen equipped with the appliances and kitchenware necessary to manufacture your products. Some products, such as clay facials and bath salts, merely require measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, and spoons for stirring and adding the final product into your choice of packaging. Other products such as lotions, balms and soaps require additional equipment and supplies. Most equipment, however, can be obtaining fairly inexpensively. Keep an eye out at second hand stores and garage sales for the equipment that you need. Often, you can find inexpensive kitchenware that has never been used and would be perfect for using exclusively for production of your skin care products.
Although it is not absolutely necessary, access to a computer for maintaining your business records and creating marketing materials is useful.
Obtaining Bulk Ingredients
It is important to find a supplier that can provide good pricing and excellent quality on the ingredients that you need. When choosing between suppliers, be sure to compare prices. Quality can also differ greatly between suppliers, and quality ingredients is paramount. When comparing prices, be sure to also take any special promotional offers, discounts, preferred customer discounts and shipping and handling fees into consideration. There are several ingredient suppliers on the Web, and they most likely will be able to provide a larger selection of ingredients than you may find locally. One of the largest suppliers on the Web is From Nature With Love (www.fromnaturewithlove.com). From Nature With Love offers over 1,750 ingredients and supplies, and they offer product technical help and basic formulation assistance by telephone and e-mail.
Business Requirements
Even if your business is operated from home, there are several things that need to be addressed.
Choose Your Business Entity: Most in-home businesses begin as a sole-proprietorship, and this is the easiest way to begin. You may also choose to setup your business as a partnership, corporation or LLC. Discuss the pros and cons of each entity with your accountant, lawyer or business professional.
Business License: Depending on your locale, your city and/or county may require that you obtain a license to conduct business out of your home. Annual licensing fees can be very low for in-home businesses that do not receive customers to their door. Contact your City Clerk to inquire about the licensing that is required to begin your business. You should also find out if your county or state requires licensing.
Property Insurance: Consult with your homeowners insurance agent to see if your homeowners insurance will cover your business. Typically, it will not. Once you begin using your kitchen or home office for business purposes, you may risk being able to make a claim on these areas should a disaster occur. As you begin acquiring inventory and supplies, you may also want to insure these items against loss in a possible disaster.
Liability Insurance: In addition to protecting your assets, it’s wise to consider protecting yourself from liability should a customer claim harm or damage caused by use of one of your products. Ask your insurance agent about the availability of liability insurance. Join one of the toiletry making or soap making eGroups to ask other business owners for recommendations on the agents or insurance companies that they use.
Accounting, Taxation and Inventory: In order to maintain proper records of your sales, expenditures, profits and inventory, it’s important to keep proper records. It is also necessary so that you can properly report and file your taxes. A selection of small business accounting books abound on the subject, or you may wish to obtain an accountant who can advise you on the proper method for bookkeeping. Your accountant can also advise you on how to properly maintain a record of your inventory and the cost of goods sold. Contact your state government to learn what you are required to do to collect and submit sales tax for sales made to residents of your state.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article provides insight into what is needed to begin a successful in-home skin care product business. As mentioned earlier, such a business will not lead to quick riches. It, however, is worth serious consideration by those that are seeking a legitimate in home business, are interested in making skin care products and are willing to put time and ambition into the endeavor.
EDITORIAL NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CREDIT MUST APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE
FromNatureWithLove.com offers the cosmetic clays, herbs, nutritives, and packaging supplies described within this article. For more information, please visit www.fromnaturewithlove.com.
This article is copyright © 2004-2007 by Natural Sourcing, LLC and is reprinted with permission. This article may be reprinted provided that all credit information remains intact.
EDITORIAL NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CREDIT MUST APPEAR UNDERNEATH THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE
This article is copyright © 2004-2008 by Kibby Mitra and Natural Sourcing, LLC (www.fromnaturewithlove.com). Reprinted with permission.
Caring for your newborn’s skin will be an important part of your new daily routine. It can also be the most pleasurable time spent getting to know your baby. At first, it may seem a little overwhelming, but you will both soon settle into a comfortable routine. The hardest part will be deciding what to use to keep your baby’s skin clean and soft.
Those irresistibly soft, delicate folds of baby skin don’t need perfumed, chemical products to stay clean and nourished. Nature has provided all that you need for baby’s skin care without a lot of fuss. The best way to care for your baby’s skin is to keep it clean and protected from the elements, using the least number of products. Remember that your baby’s system has to work hard to remove toxins from the bloodstream, so the less you use on your baby’s skin, the better.
A few good-to-have natural ingredients for baby skin care include:
All of these natural skin care ingredients are readily available from online vendors. Always look for high quality, pure products.
Washing Your Baby
Newborns don’t really need soap for bathing – after all, how dirty do they really get? Soap can strip the layer of protective oils from your baby’s skin which can lead to skin irritation. A sponge bath with warm water and a splash of lavender hydrosol will suffice if your doctor has asked you to hold off on bathing until the baby’s cord falls off. A mild solution of tea tree oil in water (1 drop of oil in 1 cup of water) can be used to gently clean around the cord. After that, gentle tub baths with plain water and lavender hydrosol is sufficient for your baby’s first few weeks. You can add a teaspoon of a cold pressed vegetable oil, such as apricot kernel, grapeseed or watermelon seed oil, or jojoba to the water if desired. These natural vegetables oils not only protect your baby’s skin from drying, but they also nourish the skin with important vitamins and essential fatty acids.
If your baby has flaky or crusty skin on the scalp, gently massage a small amount of jojoba into the scalp to help loosen the flaky skin. Comb it out gently using a thin baby comb. If you feel the need to wash your baby’s hair, use just a drop or two of liquid castile soap on your finger tips and massage it into wet hair. Rinse it out well being careful not to get the soap in your baby’s eyes.
Use a mild solution of lavender oil (1 drop in 1 cup water) or lavender hydrosol in water during diaper changes to thoroughly clean the creases of skin. To protect baby’s delicate skin around the diaper area, apply a thin layer of pure shea butter to the skin before diapering. Shea butter will act as a barrier, protecting your baby’s skin from wetness.
If you feel you need to use a baby powder, make your own by mixing equal parts oat starch and cornstarch. You can add a few drops of lavender essential oil to the powder if you wish making sure to blend the oil in well. Sift the powder a few times before transferring it to a powder sifter. Be careful during application, not to form clouds of powder in the air. Fine powder should never be inhaled by you or your baby. Shake the powder gently into your palm and then apply to your baby’s skin.
If your baby’s skin begins to flake and peel, you can use a soft muslin bag filled with colloidal oatmeal and milk powder in the bath to gently scrub away flaking skin. Follow with an application of shea butter, jojoba or a gentle vegetable oil to keep the skin moisturized.
Use a cotton swab dipped in apricot kernel oil or jojoba to clean in and behind the outer ear. Never try to clean the inner ear.
Once your baby is old enough to need some soap, diluted liquid castille soap will do. Mix 1 part soap with 4 parts water or lavender hydrosol and use this with a soft washcloth, being careful not to get soap near your baby’s eyes. Rinse off well and follow with an application of shea butter, shea oil or any other favorite vegetable oil that is recommended for baby skin.
Beyond the First Year
As your baby grows, so should your commitment to “pure and simple skin care”. Mild castille soap or handcrafted soaps are always best, and all that’s really necessary to clean your child’s skin. Avoid the temptation to buy overly fragranced, colored, commercial products, made with mineral oil and other synthetic ingredients. Let your child enjoy natural bath salt soaks and home made bath bombs instead of skin-irritating bubble baths. Experiment with using natural vegetable oils and ingredients from the kitchen to take care of your child’s skin. Oatmeal, honey, milk, yogurt, fruits, salt and sugar are all great skin care agents for exfoliation and moisturization. Detoxifying clays, antibacterial essential oils and cleansing hydrosols can be lifesavers during teenage years, when acne and oily skin strike. And of course, a healthy, balanced diet should help take care of the rest.
So Is it Worth the Effort?
It most certainly is! Just think – your baby’s skin is his or her largest organ. It is capable of absorbing into the bloodstream, anything you put on it. Unfortunately, your baby’s immature system is not as capable of eliminating these substances from the body. A buildup of synthetic chemicals in the body can lead to a depressed immune system and increase the chances of developing allergies. Using all natural, and in most cases, edible, alternatives will be less taxing on your baby’s organs. In the long run, a lifelong commitment to natural skin care will significantly reduce your child’s exposure to chemicals and potential carcinogens, reducing the likelihood of many types of cancers, skin diseases and autoimmune diseases.
EDITORIAL NOTE: THE FOLLOWING CREDIT MUST APPEAR AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE
FromNatureWithLove.com offers the natural baby care ingredients and packaging supplies described within this article. For more information, please visit www.fromnaturewithlove.com.
This article is copyright © 2004-2008 by Kibby Mitra and Natural Sourcing, LLC. Reprinted with permission. This article may be reprinted provided that all credit information remains intact.
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you light a candle, you want the smell to be neutralized, but you also want the room to feel inviting and relaxing to the next occupant. Choosing a light scent, such as a linen or rain smell, will allow you to retain the odor neutralization qualities without causing a headache for anyone using the bathroom.
another of those cases. You may think that having multiple candles to light for stronger smells makes sense, but in fact the more scent you have in a small space, the more overpowering it will become. Choose a smell that is right for the space, and keep it simple with no more than one or two candles of the same scent at most.
