I just posted another new post below, but I just finished all orders from my grande opening sale with specials. The sale has been over for a while, but I have decided that all orders (including ones that were placed after the sale and before this blog post) placed by Feb 28th 11:59 pm EST will receive a free surprise gift with every order. The gifts will range from current to new upcoming products and will vary with each order.

Edited to add more information on the special: Smaller orders will receive at least one petite (sample) size or a xiao (small sized) product. Orders over $40 (not including shipping costs and tax) will receive a free grande (full sized) product.

I have also decided to extend my current drawing (see a couple posts down on the drawing for one FREE GRANDE size elixir for two lucky customers) until the end of the month. It also ends Feb 28th 11:59 pm EST.

Take care!

Cheers,
Li

Hi everyone

I am going to switch the bottles for the xiao sized Balance Toner. I had a couple reports that they leaked (thankfully the rest arrived okay. If they didn’t, then PLEASE let me know!). I tried using electric tape in addition to the shrink wrap but that didn’t work either 🙁
I am so sorry for the two people who received leaky bottles 🙁 I was planning on switching the bottles anyways later on (as they are from a different vendor than the one I prefer) but after this second report (which happened after I used electric tape plus shrink wrap) I am switching bottles immediately, I just don’t want to take the chance that other bottles leak, even though most have not leaked. Please note that any order that has Balance xiao sized will ship after I get my new bottles; I should get the bottles sometime next week (I am ordering new bottles tonight, and need to make a new batch and then also test them). A couple people’s orders that were placed before this announcement, I will contact you so we can figure out what to do. I think I may end up shipping future toners in plastic and include a glass mister bottle, or just switch to plastic misters (still need to figure it out). (I usually use glass because some ingredients can eat through plastic and since glass is recyclable, and glass misters are just nice 😉 but hydrosols are packaged and sent to me by my vendors in plastic, so plastic will not affect hydrosols). Sadly I still have a lot of the current spray bottles left, which I will just use for my own use.

I am also sorry but I have shut off the comments on this blog. I have not received any customer comments, but have received about a few dozen spam posts. If there is one thing I hate, it is spam (I do not know how they are finding my business blog, but one spammer (in addition to posting all of his/her links and ads) even said that my posts were popping up a lot; no idea where). I originally left the comments on, so customers could post, but since no customers have been using the comments, and have only been emailing me or posting on the forum, and I am just getting too much spam in the comments, I am shutting off the comments. Customers may always reach me by email or through the forum. Thanks for understanding!

Edited for clarity.

Cheers,
Li

I was recently part of a certified organic product swap. I made two lovely elixirs for that swap, however, a couple people’s boxes were lost in the mail so I got a few of my products back. That was a really wonderful swap and I am still enjoying all the organic products I received.

These are really nice elixirs. The goal of that swap was to craft products that were at least 80% certified organic products. My products were a little over 80% organic, since in addition to using 80% certified organic ingredients, I also used a few organic (non-certified organics) and ethically wild harvested ingredients, in addition to a couple rarer exotic conventional carrier oils and essential oils (that I have not been able to find an organic version yet).

I decided to offer some of the elixirs in a drawing, since I wanted to share them with more people, so made it is part of several surprises, drawings, and contests that I will have over the next few weeks to celebrate my grande opening! These elixirs will probably never be part of the regular Earth Alkemie line since I have many other lovely elixirs in mind 😉 (though maybe one day as a limited edition, but I have so many other products I want to offer as limited edition first so it won’t be for a while!)

The elixirs are in a 1 ounce amber glass bottle with orifice reducer (so not the regular dropper bottles my current Solaris and Luna grande elixirs come in. They are the same bottles that the Hope body oil for Haiti comes in). I have not worked out exactly how much I would price it for, but if I were to price it for sale, it would be somewhere between the price for the Solaris and Luna Elixirs, so I estimate it would probably be in the range of $33-40 per ounce (this is only an estimate, and is much less than what I’ve seen other companies charge for a mostly organic elixir/oil based serum with several really nice, rarer and exotic ingredients).

The first one was an elixir that is geared more for normal to dry skins (however many people with oiler skin will love it too, though not suitable for some people with active acne, though other people with acne may like it). It contains a lot of lush, skin loving ingredients including certified organic sesame oil (which is an oil used a lot in ayurveda), rosehip seed oil (an oil rich in vitamin A and is wonderful for scars and skin clarity), rare abyssinian oil (a lovely oil that I found several months ago that is rich in nutrients and is super light), and other vitamin and antioxidant rich carrier oils. It is scented with many essential oils including rose geranium and rosemary (so is floral, green, and herbaceous; the scent is heavenly!).

I have two of them! So everyone that orders from today Friday Feb. 19, 2010 until Feb 28, 2010 11:59 pm EST will be entered to win one of these elixirs (so there will be two prizes!). I will randomly pick two winners. Winners will be announced on this blog and also my forum, and will be notified through email.

(P.S. People with normal to oily skin, keep checking this blog; hint hint!)

Edited to extend the drawing time and to add a little more information.

All orders made through Feb 13th have been shipped. I am still working on a couple refunds. Thank you for ordering! 🙂

Cheers,
Li

Just a quick post to mention there are only a few left! Thanks to all that donated so far!

Cheers,
Li

Thank you to everyone who made my grand opening sale a success! I am still processing orders from it but will be done with them soon!

My next sale probably won’t be until the spring but I will be having contests and also a few one day specials occasionally between now and the next major sale, so keep checking this blog and my forum! 😉

Please note that any comment in this blog with links in them will be regarded as spam and deleted. Thank you for understanding!

Cheers,
Li

I am having a wonderful New Years and hope you are too! 🙂

Just wanted to mention that my grand opening sale and specials end tonight, Feb 14th, at 11:59 pm EST.

Thank you to everyone that has ordered so far! 🙂

Gong xi fa cai!

Cheers,
Li

Xinnian kuai le! Happy Chinese New Years! Also Happy Valentine’s Day!

This year Chinese New Years falls on Valentines Day! This year is the Year of the metal Tiger.

My ingredients for my Year of the Tiger perfume just arrived the other day (they arrived late) so I will get busy crafting it!

For those interested in Chinese astrology I just posted an entry about it on my personal blog (mostly has links to chinese astrology sites and also some books).

Take care, and hope this year is filled with much happiness, joy, and success to all!

Cheers,
Li

We got about another 8 inches or a couple inches more (so on top of the 24-26? or more inches we already had, that is a lot of snow!).

The post office was closed today (see this article in the washington post ). I am glad that I didn’t print out labels for the packages (which need to be delivered on the date that is on the package. I am not sure what would happen if I tried to deliver it on a different date, I don’t know if they would accept it or not). I have no idea if the post office is going to be open tomorrow. Apparently, according to some people who posted comments in the washington post article, some people in my region haven’t had service in many days. (My local post office has been open on and off, so I was able to mail some packages, but after the incidences yesterday I won’t try driving through it again until the roads are clear, so I will only be shipping through pickups. So some post offices have been open, and some closed over the last few days, though all of them in Northern VA/D.C./some parts of MD were closed today).

I have tried to call 1 (800) ASK-USPS to see if my local post office will be open but all I got was an automated voice message, and when it directed to info about my post office, it said to call my post office 🙁 I’ve already asked when I was at the post office if pick up was guaranteed in this weather, and they told me that no it wasn’t. So I have no idea if they will be open or not.

Hopefully by friday they will pick up. Though I am not 100% sure, I don’t think they will pick up tomorrow (thursday) since it has been snowing all day and I heard on the news the roads are still really bad. In some places in this region, it was so bad they pulled the plow trucks off the road for a while (one major problem, aside from the icy roads, is that there is no place to put all the snow that fell, because of the previous snow).

I will get out the packages as soon as I can. I am very sorry for any delays; thank you for understanding!

Yesterday I shipped a lot of boxes out (most of them from last week except for a couple), and I will be doing the refunds (discounts and some for shipping) for those today.

The roads were pretty bad, especially around the neighborhoods (since many of the neighborhoods were only plowed once early on so have a lot of icy snow on them). Though it was kind of scary driving in the neighborhoods, for the most part I had no major trouble driving until I got home: as I was making the turn to get into my neighborhood, my car slipped a little bit 🙁 but luckily the breaks worked. Also I got stuck trying to drive up my driveway. The snow started late in the day: at first it was mixed with rain so I was hoping that the forecasters were wrong but then it began to snow heavily as I drove home from the post office. Though it started late, the forecasters are still calling for a lot of snow: 12 inches. I just looked out the window, there are several inches of new snow on the ground.

I will not be shipping today (since I am afraid to drive in this snow again and didn’t schedule a pick up last night since I wasn’t sure if the post office would be delivering or picking up because of the snow) but I will try shipping tomorrow (I will call the post office today to see if they are open and will be picking up tomorrow). If not I will definitely ship on friday.

I will work on packing the orders I got over the weekend today, and will also try to craft some new products today 🙂 which will be released soon (formulation/testing for those products are totally done, just need to craft them, package it, create the labels, edit the product info on the website for that–the ingredients, directions, faq sections, etc). Many products I need to add to the website, and also some limited edition ones too (such as elixirs, toners, perfumes, dreams, soaps, cleansers, and mineral makeup multipurpose powders). I will be adding them over the coming weeks.

I am sad 🙁 because the absolutes for a special limited edition perfume I was going to offer for the start of Chinese New Years (which this year starts on Valentines’ Day; it will be the start of the Year of the Tiger) have not arrived yet, and since essential oils/absolutes have to age/merge/blend together for a while, I won’t be able to release it by then. It is a lovely blend made with violet leaf absolute (violets are one of the flowers associated with the Year of the Tiger 🙂 ). I will release it this month though.