My heart is reeling.
I just found out that another family member passed way a few days ago.
Right now I am trying really hard not to cry. We just had two other family deaths two weeks ago and two months ago. Harley cat also died this spring, and my grandfather last fall. Please keep my family in your prayers.
Earth Alkemie will be closed on friday (the 11th) and will reopen on tuesday (15th). I will try to finish orders before I leave.
Website updates:
I am still updating the website. So over the next few months there will be changes on the website (I will be adding more information and also changing and adding pictures).
Sales, specials, and future products:
I ran out of the Outdoor Oils, so I am no longer shipping them out with orders (I took them off the homepage of the website a couple days ago). For those that tried them, I hope you liked them!
Last year during November I had a cyber monday and black friday sale. This year I think November will be a month of mini-sales. I will also be releasing a couple brand new masks/scrubs soon! So keep checking this blog for more information on future sales, specials, and products! 🙂
Ose Dudu African black soap availability:
I have run out of the grande and xiao sizes of Ose Dudu African black soap, so have taken it off the website. I have several ounces of the current batch left but they are not listed on the website, since they aren’t in bars/squares (the soap comes in a log form, but I had cut it into chunks so I could press them into squares. But I do not have enough to press into the mold to make a full batch of the square bars). If you are interested in purchasing the last several ounces of the previous batch at the current (low) prices (3 oz for $3.95) please email me. Li@earthalkemie.com
Future bars will not be square shaped, they will now be cut directly from the logs.
I am very sorry to do this (I don’t like rising prices) 🙁 but once the new batch of Ose Dudu comes back into stock, there will be a change in price (since the price for the soap has risen since I last time I bought it). I am not sure by how much yet (since I still need to calculate it out) but will post new prices once it arrives.
So now is a good time to stock up on the previous batch, if you love this soap!
New and upcoming products:
A few weeks ago I started to carry some DIY (do it yourself) and raw ingredients, and will be adding more! Currently there is a small assortment of carrier oils, essential oils, herbs, and a few other ingredients (like powdered coconut milk and vegetable glycerine). I also sell a few containers too (in the containers and supplies section). If there are any ingredients or containers you are interested in that aren’t on the website yet, please feel free to contact me and ask about them!
I will also be adding a couple new masks/scrubs this month! There will be a new pumpkin scrub (which is fabulous when used with the current pumpkin mask, Cinderella) and a chocolate banana berry based mask. Yum!
I haven’t posted much here recently. I have been super busy processing orders (recently I’ve been crafting a lot of new batches of products for orders, which has slowed things down a bit, but I have been working to get all caught up). I have also been getting a couple new products ready for launch (I am so excited about my new masks/scrubs, which will be released soon!), and have been crafting and testing some new formulations too!
But I will start posting more again this month. 🙂 I hope that everyone had a wonderful halloween!
Pumpkins have been on my mind for the past several weeks (and not just because it was halloween a couple days ago! 🙂 ). Some of my most favorite ingredients to use during the fall and winter months are pumpkin ingredients. I use a couple different kinds of pumpkin in crafting (pumpkin oil and pumpkin pulp), and they are ingredients in some of my best selling products (Swan Elixir and also Cinderella Mask). It is also in Midnight Elixir (one of my personal favorite elixirs). Another pumpkin product will soon join the line ;P (a mask/scrub) but first I am going to review the properties of pumpkin oil.
A few weeks ago I added pumpkin oil to the D.I.Y./raw ingredient section of the website. I love pumpkin oil: it is an underrated ingredient, but it is probably one of the best ingredients you can use on your skin, if your skin is dehydrated, dry, or both! That is one of the reasons I love using it in Earth Alkemie products. Pumpkin oil is one of my must have ingredients to use during the fall and winter months (though I like using it year round!).
I use a cold pressed, unrefined, virgin pumpkin oil; so it is super rich in antioxidants, vitamins, nutrients, and minerals, including vitamins E, C, A, K, beta carotenoids etc. It is an extremely rich source of natural plant vitamins. The one I use is super dark and rich, much richer and darker than some other pumpkin oils I have tried in the past.
Pumpkin oil is a medium weight to heavier oil but it absorbs well into the skin. Personally I like blending it with other oils for the face (just like I did in Swan and Midnight elixirs!), but I love using it straight on my body too. (Be sure to apply 1 to 5 drops on the facial skin to damp skin, OR apply liberally to damp skin on the body). Basically it banishes dry and dehydrated skin! It is very emollient and helps soften the appearance of fine lines. I also highly recommend it for all types of blemished skin (including scars).
It’s one of my favorites since it makes my skin look vibrant, helps hold in hydration, and (when applied to damp skin) it is an amazing moisturizer. It is a rich oil so if your skin is on the oily side, I recommend mixing it with a lighter oil (such as blueberry oil, which is also available on the the D.I.Y./raw ingredient section of the website. Many other light oils will also be added to the site in the future).
Pumpkin oil’s shelf life is 6 months to 1 year (depending on storage and usage). For best results, refrigeration is recommended.
Note: This post was edited on Feb 21, 2014 to fix some of the links and some minor edits (all of the content is pretty much the same).
My newest eco living article has been posted on anb (all natural beauty) mall! Since it is fall I thought it would be the perfect time to share my recipe for an all natural cranberry toner! This simple toner only has three ingredients (rose hydrosol, glycerine, and cranberry juice!) but it is brilliant in its simplicity. It softens, add hydration, helps the skin hold on to moisture, tones, and mildly exfoliates too. It also provides the skin with antioxidants and nutrients, and helps balance sebum (so this toner is great for both oily or dry skin types). Though it mildly exfoliates, it is safe to use daily (if you use it daily, you may or may not need to cut back on other exfoliants. Most people won’t have to cut back on exfoliation, but a very few people may have to; it depends on how much exfoliation your skin likes or needs).
A couple days ago I added rose hydrosol and glycerine to the DIY (do it yourself) and raw ingredients section of my website. Many other places carry these ingredients (which I briefly mention in the article) but I am now offering some DIY/raw ingredients and containers! The rose hydrosol I carry is organic and from damask roses from Turkey so it is one of the nicest and most fragrant rose hydrosols I’ve used. I have added leucidal to it (an eco cert preservative), so it has a good shelf life. Just want to add, if you use my rose hydrosol, then the shelf life of the cranberry toner will be much longer than what is stated in the article (maybe a few weeks or more).
The glycerine I carry is vegetable based/all natural (some glycerines out there are animal or petro based).
I hope you like my eco living article and the toner! And keep checking this blog and the anb mall website for news on the upcoming anb mall sampler!
Today is the last day for the current samplers (I will take them off after 11:59 pm tonight). I will be having new fall and winter specials, so keep checking this blog for updates!
For the raw ingredients section, I have added rose hydrosol and glyerine to the website (click on the link under their entries for a recipe using these ingredients!). The pictures are not done for those yet (I hope to do them within the next few days) but they will be posted soon.
Edited: to add I just put them on the website
Haven’t been feeling that great recently, and I need to make new batches of a few current products (which I hope to do this weekend, if I feel better). This has slowed down a couple (not all) orders but I hope to catch up soon. After I craft the new batches, I plan to start crafting some not yet released products over the next couple weeks (the formulation is done, I just need to craft the final batch, package it, make labels, label/electric tape/shrink wrap it, take pictures, calculate pricing, work on the website (including text, graphics, banners, etc). I also need to package more raw ingredients (and do the pricing, pictures and website for those). I have a lot of new ingredients that I am itching to try too! 🙂
I have been working on my contribution for the anb mall website’s fall and winter bag (which is due soon). I hope everyone will love Earth Alkemie’s submission (I am making a little sampler!). I think that will be on anb mall’s site by the end of this month, or maybe early next month (I’ll announce here when Sharon, anb mall’s owner, makes it available).
Only a couple more days left for the current samplers (they will be taken off the site on October 7th). I never posted about the Herbal Cleanser Duo Sampler, since the products in this sampler were reviewed in other samplers. But I am posting about this sampler now and the products again, since I adore these two cleansers (they are some of the best cleansers I’ve ever made), and the sampler will be gone in a couple days! Though the sampler will be taken off the website shortly, the products (in the same sizes) are available on the website, sold individually. The Herbal Cleanser Duo Sampler is currently 20% off (so it is an awesome deal and great way to try my herbal cleansers).
The Herbal Cleanser Duo Sampler contains petite (sample) sizes of both of my herbal cleansers: Soothe and Heaven. Soothe and Heaven are plant based cleansers, which do not contain detergents, soaps, or preservatives (they are powdered/dry cleansers, which need to be mixed with water/made fresh before each use). They effectively cleanse the skin without over stripping it. Great for super sensitive skin, and recommended for all skin types, especially sensitive.
The direct link to this sampler is: http://www.earthalkemie.com/giftsets.html
Soothe Herbal Cleanser uses the power of oatmeal and soap nuts to cleanse. Soothe is rich in antioxidants and nutrients, such as natural plant based vitamins C and E (not lab derived but from whole plant ingredients). It also contains many soothing ingredients like oatmeal, lavender, and bananas. This cleanser is a must have for sensitive, dehydrated, and blemished skin types!
Heaven Herbal Cleanser combines plants and clay to make one deep cleansing cleanser! It is rich in many emollient coconut ingredients: like coconut (meat), coconut juice, coconut milk, and coconut sugar! It contains many nutrient rich ingredients like brown rice and brown rice protein; it is super rich in the B vitamins. The kaolin and rice helps deep cleanse the pores, while the coconut ingredients soften and hydrate the skin. Best of all, this cleanser smells heavenly like coconut and vanilla! And the scent is 100% natural–no synthetic scents in Heaven or any Earth Alkemie product!
I have previously written about Soothe and Heaven in their own entry, and also as part of the deep cleansing sampler sets: Heaven deep cleansing sampler (which has a sample of its namestake, Heaven), and also New Day deep cleansing sampler (which contains Soothe). Those two samplers will also be removed from the site in a couple days! They are also currently onsale too.
The Nirvana sampler has been quite popular! I never wrote a blog post on it, but since it is only going to be on the website until October 7th, I decided I had better post about it! 🙂 Though the sampler will only be available for a few more days, all of the products are available on the website in the same sizes as what’s in the sampler (with the exception of the petite/sample vial of Swan Luna Elixir) so I hope that this post will be informative after the sampler is gone. Nirvana sampler is 10% off of regular prices and comes with a FREE petite (sample) vial of Swan Luna Elixir.
I love this sampler. This great little sampler contains a combination of older products and newer products: a xiao (small, 0.6 oz size) of Nirvana Facial Creme, a petite (sample) vial of Tuzi Chinese Astrology Year of the Rabbit perfume, a petite (sample, 7.5 ml) size of Warrior Aromatherapy Liquid Cleanser, and a FREE bonus petite (sample, 1.7 ml) size of Swan Luna Elixir.
Nirvana facial creme is a relatively new product. I created a facial creme (aka ‘waterless’ facial balm) for myself many years ago. My skin is usually balanced, but at the time my skin was going through a period of dehydration. Back then, my skin didn’t love using oils or elixirs daily like it does now, and it loved water rich creams (since the creams provided a bit more of an effective barrier against moisture loss because of the waxes, and also provided moisture and oils too). But I wanted to create a waterless product, one with a pretty long shelf life (at that time, eco cert preservatives like leucidal and geogard weren’t available and I didn’t want to use alcohol or a synthetic preservative), so I thought it would be great to make a balm for the facial area. My skin was very picky at the time since it did not tolerate heavy formulations and heavy oils back then. It needed the right amount of wax to provide an effective barrier for the skin, but not too much, and it could not be too thick or heavy (since that would clog my pores; my skin used to reject heavy formulations). I tried to make some facial cremes/balms with beeswax but those formulations came out too heavy. So I created a vegan plant wax based facial waterless creme/balm for the skin that was light, very fast absorbing, did not clog pores, left the skin soft and emollient, and when applied to damp skin it was an effective moisturizer. The recipe was also one of my first forays with using floral waxes too. Nirvana facial creme is based upon that recipe. I originally designed Nirvana as a natural ‘anti-aging’ facial creme for dehydrated skin, but I love using it all over my body (I like using it on my hands, knees, elbows, and feet, and some customers like using it on their necks too).
Nirvana has gotten a lot of great feedback! I crafted it with oils and butters that are good for very dehydrated skin (like meadowfoam oil) but many people have said it is great on blemished skin too (I think it works more by balancing the skin, which indirectly helps blemishes. Or maybe by its vitamin/antioxidant content). It has many ‘anti-aging’ ingredients like marula and blueberry seed oils. It has a very light but gorgeous scent from the three floral waxes I used: jasmine, tuberose, and ethically wild harvested champaca. Some of the carrier oils also contribute to its scent too. For more information on this delectable creme, please read my previous blog entry on Nirvana.
Tuzi perfume is my perfume based on Chinese Astrology, the Year of the Rabbit (this year). When I was crafting this perfume, I wanted to create something that I thought truly captured the essence of a Rabbit’s personality. Those born in the Year of the Rabbit are strong, intelligent, and ambitious, but they are gentle, sensitive, and anxious too. I wanted to create something calming for those born under this sign, but also wanted to create something that everyone (no matter their astrology sign) would like too 🙂 Just like Hu (my Year of the Tiger perfume) I only used plants associated with the Year of the Rabbit or its associated Chinese elements, so every ingredient (except the base/carrier oil) comes from a plant that is link to the Rabbit or the elements of metal and wood (wood is the Rabbit’s fixed element, while those born this year are metal Rabbits). Tuzi is a lovely perfume that has heart notes of roman chamomile and lavender (very calming), a bit of spice, green forest and balsam/vanilla like notes, and just enough organic damask rose to add a touch of extra sweetness. And like all of my products, it is 100% natural–no synthetic fragrances added! 🙂 I also wrote a prior blog entry on Tuzi and perfume crafting.
Warrior Aromatherapy Liquid Cleanser is one tough but gentle cleanser! When I started formulating it last year, I wanted to create a cleanser for blemished, oily skin, that did not over strip or irritate the skin. In this cleanser I combined my knowledge of herbalism and aromatherapy to create a super gentle cleanser for sensitive skin, yet effective for blemished skin. Warrior contains many herbs that are some of my favorite herbs for use on blemished skin, such as certified organic aloe, milk thistle, and dandelion, which help balance the skin and improve skin clarity. It is scented with a delicious smelling blend of essential oils that are also great for blemished skin, such as citrusy litsea, crisp bergamot, fresh rosemary, floral lavender, exotic ylang ylang, and spicy gingergrass. I like using this cleanser during my moon days to keep my skin looking healthy and clear.
Swan Luna Elixir is my newest elixir (it is now available in the xiao/small and grande/full sizes on the website). Nirvana sampler comes with a FREE vial of a special petite (sample) size of Swan Luna Elixir (about 1.7 ml, which is just the right amount to try it for a few days). I will be writing a longer entry on Swan in a few days, but just wanted to briefly mention that Swan is the elixir that I created for a customer, Hamsa (who won a drawing for a free custom product a while back). I designed Swan for her skin which was very dehydrated, rosacea, sensitive, mature skin with clogged pores and fine lines. Swan has also gotten a lot of great feedback–I think it would be great for all skin types especially dehydrated, clogged skin (several people with oily/dehydrated skin tried it too and love it!). Swan is loaded with many skin loving ingredients including some of Hamsa’s favorite ingredients like neroli essential oil and cranberry oil, as well as ingredients great for her skin issues, like passionfruit oil (this is an oil I have really been loving the last several months!). I hope my other customers love Swan as much as Hamsa and I do! 🙂
Hi everyone
I finally finished updating the website, yay! I’d like to thank my customers for their patience (I have been working on the website for weeks!)
There are two new sections on the website: DIY and raw ingredients, and also a section called containers and supplies. In the DIY and raw ingredients section there is a small selection of raw ingredients for your DIY (Do It Yourself) and crafting needs. In the containers and supplies section there are a few bottles and jars. Supplies are limited and more raw ingredients and containers will be added in the coming weeks, so please check back later! 🙂 I will be blogging about the current offerings over the next few weeks.
The xiao (small) and grande (full) sizes of Swan Luna Elixir are now on the site! Swan is the elixir I created for Hamsa. A special petite (sample) size is still available in one of the current samplers too.
The samplers will be available on the website until October 7th. I was going to take the samplers off the website weeks ago but since many customers asked me to keep them on, I kept them on the website. Since I was closed for a week in September and took a while to update the website, I am keeping them up until October 7th, 11:59 pm EST. They will no longer be available after that date (since I will be having other/different specials during the fall and winter months). There are five samplers, and they are all 10-36% off their regular prices. You can read about them all in previous blog entries (the blog entry for the last sampler, Nirvana sampler, will be posted this week).
I am still sending out FREE 1 oz sizes of Outdoor Oils with orders over $15 (which does not include shipping fees and taxes). They will continue to be sent out until they run out. I only have a few Picnic and Lemongrass Forest left (I ran out of Woodlands).
Balance toner is also back in stock. This wonderful toner is an ephemeral (limited edition) product.
I put Warrior Aromatherapy liquid cleanser back in stock during the summer.
Next on the agenda over the next several weeks, more raw ingredients and containers, and a couple other goodies… 🙂
If you’ve tried any unreleased products (that I either sent out with orders, or any of the unreleased perfumes) I’d love to hear more feedback on those products. (Would you like them to become Earth Alkemie products? What did you like about those products? What didn’t you like? What did you think about the texture, glide, scent? What effects did it have on your skin?)
I will also be participating on anb (all natural) beauty mall’s fall and winter sampler this year. (I believe this will be available on anb mall in either late October or maybe early November, so keep check anb mall for the sampler, and to read my eco living articles too!).
Bananas are some of the most useful and underrated ingredients in skin care. Here is my newest eco living article on a recipe for a simple banana mask! This leaves the skin feeling super soft and is really easy to make!
And if you don’t like to diy or want to use a mask with a longer shelf life, then just wait a few weeks: Chocolate Banana Berry Mask…need I say more? 😛
This past week has been a week of remembrance, love, sadness, regret, and also some bright moments too.
Thank you to all my customers for their thoughts and prayers for my family; many of your posts, emails, and cards touched my heart. L.P. I know you are in Heaven looking down upon us. I will always remember you.
Remembering all those that passed a decade ago on 9-11. Gone but not forgotten.
Happy birthday W, and congrats again on your graduation E.