Month: May 2010

I just updated the shopping cart for first class shipping for skin care. Since I added the new products last month, the cart has been underestimating shipping for a lot of orders (the weight of the glass jars, especially the grande size glass jars is really throwing the cart off. My cart does shipping by number of products, and I have to manually input (and guess) how many products=cost of shipping, so it is very limited in how it calculates shipping. So it is not very accurate since products weigh different things). I actually covered the extra cost for several people (I decided to cover the costs for the last few weeks but for future orders will not be able to do that, so hopefully the tweak will reduce the underestimating, but if it still underestimates, I will begin requesting excess funds if needed). So I have tweaked the cart. The cost of shipping has not changed (it may look like it has gone up, but I am still giving refunds for excess shipping, but hopefully the tweak will cut down on underestimating).

I still need to give refunds for several people it is overestimated shipping for (I still have to go through and manually calculate what I owe for all the ones from the last few weeks, and I was just looking at my records and realized I missed giving refunds to several people from further back too so need to go back and give refunds. I am very sorry it is taking me a while. I will hopefully give all the refunds within the next few days. I am changing how I process orders so I will be more efficient in the future).

Congrats to Hamsa for winning the Earth Day drawing for a free custom elixir! 🙂 I will design an elixir just for her skin conditions (made with plenty of organic and ethically wild harvested ingredients, of course! 🙂 ). The cost of her order (minus shipping) will be donated to the Climate Project. As soon as I design an elixir for her, it will later be made available on my site too (sometime next month).

New products:

I didn’t get to release a (one) new product last week as mentioned on the forum. Since I decided to release TWO new products instead 🙂 so it took me a little while longer (to make, package, make the labels, and then update the website, etc). They are both Terra Elixirs.

The first one is my version of rosehip oil-helichrysum esssential oil. I plug this combination a lot; it is an aromatherapy classic. I wrote about it in this old blog entry on my eco blog. Everlast Elixir is my version of this classic ;P I added several other wonderful oils like kukui and certified organic pomegranate, and also a couple co2 extracts including rosehip co2 (so this elixir contains a double dose of rosehip; two different Chilean rosehip species!). This elixir is great for drier/normal skin types (though some people with oily skin may like it too, especially if the oiliness is due to dehydration). However, I do not recommend using Everlast Elixir on active acne (since in some–not all–people, it can make acne flare up more; it depends on the person. Some people with acne can use it, but most can not) but I highly recommend it to help improve the appearance of acne scars. Rosehip is one of my favorite ingredients to use around the eye area, same with pomegranate and kukui and everlast and all the other wonderful in this elixir (in my opinion, the ingredients in Everlast are some of the best ingredients you can use around the eye area).

Scientific studies have been conducted on Chilean rosehip seed oil on scars and also on aging skin (I only use cold pressed, unrefined, organic, which has the highest concentration of vitamins. I also used Chilean rosehip, which is what the studies tested, and which is different from rosehip oils from other areas). Rosehip is naturally high in vitamin A (a natural plant source of trans-retinoic acid) and also contains vitamin C. Helichrysum is a known anti-inflammatory, and has many other uses in aromatherapy.

I named this elixir ‘Everlast’ because Everlast is another common name for helichrysum, and also because of how this elixir makes the skin look! 🙂

Everlast is only scented with helichrysum, so smells very spicy and honey-like (one of my other elixirs, Butterfly, also has a little helichrysum in it, but it is mixed with many other essential oils and absolutes so the scent of Butterfly is not overly helichrysum). Another common name for Everlast is curry plant. (I love the scent of helichrysum but some people do not, so just wanted to mention about the spiciness of the scent).

The second elixir, Serenity, is one I designed for sensitive skin. It contains no essential oils, only carrier oils and also a co2 extract. I only used carrier oils that are usually well tolerated by sensitive skin (though people are sensitive to different things, so if your skin is super reactive, please do a patch test before use). I added oat co2 extract which is soothing to the skin. This blend is rich in natural vitamins and contains many antioxidant rich oils like certified organic camellia and pomegranate oils. I have called it ‘Serenity’ because it was designed for sensitive skin in mind. Highly recommended for people who want to avoid essential oils and most herbs.

Both Everlast and Serenity contain certified organic pomegranate oil (none of my other elixirs contain the carrier oil; Eden contains pomegranate co2 extract which is a little different).

I have also edited or added more information to the following webpages:

Directions
Eye care
Ingredients
Legends
Perfumes
Skin Care Routines
Terra Elixirs

I still need to retake a lot of pictures.

Lastly, the xiao sized elixirs are now being shipped in blue glass 5 ml bottles. They are a little shorter and thicker than the old green glass, but still hold 5 ml and still have orifice reducers (the little plastic dropper).

Hope you enjoy the new products and like the new bottles!