Feb 8th Cart and shipping update and also sale extended

I’ve tweaked the shopping cart again. I’ve added shipped weights to the description (which is the product weight plus the container weight). So far the cart has only underestimated shipping for one person (usually it tends to overestimate it). Hope the shipped weights help!

I am not sure if the post office is even open. I didn’t get any mail today and my brother (who also lives in the next county over) says that the roads are really bad. We spent the day digging up my car and the rest of the driveway (been digging a bit here and there since saturday and finally finished today).

Packages from last week are ready to ship, but I am not sure if I can get to the post office tomorrow morning, since the roads are still bad and we are supposed to get a lot more snow on tuesday (please see the Washington Post’s article ) 🙁 This afternoon, the local news was saying 5-10 inches, looks like they just bumped up their estimate to 16 inches.

I am afraid that if I print out labels online and schedule pick up for tuesday (pick ups need to be scheduled by 2 am in the morning), they won’t be picked up or that the post office may be closed again (and then the labels would be paid for but would not be able to use them since they need to be shipped on the date specified on the label). So I am going to wait until tomorrow morning, call the post office then to see if they are open, and if they are I will print out the labels then, and and try to drive there if I can before the new storm hits.

I will refund any discounts and shipping through paypal, once I ship.

I am so sorry but I may be taking up to the seven business days stated in my policies section to ship last week’s orders instead of shipping faster like I had hoped to 🙁 (all products are ready and done, so if it hadn’t snowed I would have gotten all packages out within a day or two. I only got a few out within a day (friday late morning/early afternoon) but I am not even sure they left my post office over the weekend since it was snowing all day friday and saturday, and my post office closed early on friday and were not open on saturday because of the storm). (I state seven days in my policies in case i need to craft new products, and also if my health is flaring up, or for emergencies like the recent snow storms, but if the products are made up, I will ship much faster, within 2-3 days).

Because of the weather (and since I was going to have a valentines day and Chinese New Years sale anyways) I have decided to extend my sale until 11:59 pm February 14th 🙂

Enter code ‘Earth’ (without the quotes) in the coupon code box during checkout to get 15% off of products (shipping is not discounted). Also all orders will also receive free surprises! See first blog post for more details 🙂
Enjoy!

Take care!

Snowmageddon: Snow pictures

We got hit with a lot of snow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much snow before; this is even worse than the storm we had in December (when we got over 16 inches of snow). We got over 26 inches of snow in Fairfax County, VA (it says 26 inches but I think it is a couple inches more than that)!

Posting some pictures below! I think orders from this week will probably ship out tuesday or maybe even wednesday depending on how much melts and how much snow we get next week.

This is a picture of my patio table and chairs covered in snow.

Snow on my patio

This is a picture of my backyard.
Snow in my backyard

And another photo of my backyard; my heater is 3/4 of the way covered with snow.

Backyard and snow on my heater

We are having a major snow storm now; about shipping

Double posted on forum

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to update about shipping. I got a few packages out today and am still packing others. However I won’t be able to ship them out until early next week since it is snowing. We are supposed to get 2 to 3 feet of snow today and tommorrow (it’s already been snowing all day and is supposed to snow until tomorrow night), and then on monday we are supposed to get even more. I talked to my post office and they said they didn’t even know if they would be delivering mail and picking up mail from houses tomorrow, so I can’t do a saturday pick up. I hope to ship all packages I got so far (as of 5 pm, feb 5th) on monday (if the roads are clear and hopefully if monday’s snow doesn’t make the roads bad). If not, hopefully on tuesday.

Thank you all for ordering! I hope you enjoy everything!

Cheers,
Li

More about shipping/shopping cart

Cart has been tweaked for shipping. Still over or underestimates but I’ve adjusted the priority mail prices (since delivery confirmation is free when labels are printed online; and not the $0.29 online price that I had thought I read somewhere on usps’s website. So the priority mail prices are a little cheaper than they were before 🙂 But I think there is still a charge for delivery confirmation for first class (need to go to the PO for that)

Edited to add info on delivery confirmation for first class.

Cheers,
Li

Coupon box is now working, and about shipping

Double posted on my forum

Hi everyone

I am so sorry! For some reason the coupon box was not showing in my cart, even though I enabled it! But I just enabled it again and it seems to be working! I will manually refund everyone 15% through paypal that placed an order that didn’t use the code (and also refund any excess shipping. A couple orders shipping looked fine but for one of them I need to adjust that too!) Please let me know if there are any other problems with the cart!

Thank you for ordering! 🙂

Cheers,
Li

Hello! Current sale and special news

Welcome to Earth Alkemie’s blog!

It is with great pleasure that I announce the online opening of my all natural vegetarian cosmetic company: Earth Alkemie. As an environmentalist, biologist, aromatherapy and herbal researcher, and long time crafter, formulating and using all natural plant based eco-friendly cosmetics are passions of mine. I hope you enjoy my botanical based products and mineral makeup as much as I enjoyed making them!

A few quick eco-tips that you can do:

Using plastic shopping bags creates unnecessary waste (choking our landfills) and also hurts wildlife (they often get caught and injured on plastic debris). Be sure to use reusable totes or bags when shopping (check out my personal blog for more information on reusable shopping totes!)

Use energy efficient light bulbs, educate others on ecological issues, eat organic, and of course, use all natural cosmetics (see my personal blog on the eco benefits of all natural cosmetics!) 🙂

Specials: Sale and surprises!

To celebrate the opening of Earth Alkemie, I am having a sale! 🙂

All products are 15% off (discount is off of products; shipping is not discounted). Enter code ‘Earth’ (without the quotes) in the coupon code box during checkout.

Edited to change end date! The sale will end at 11:59 pm EST on Feb 14, 2010.

All orders will also receive free surprises! Small orders will get at least one petite sized products (sample); larger orders will receive either a couple petite products or at least one xiao sized product (small). Orders over $75 will receive at least one grande product (full size). I will choose the surprises for you, catered to your order (some of them are products not yet on the site!). The larger your order, the more or larger sized surprises you will receive. 🙂

Please support the Haitian people with the purchase of our Hope Body Oil. 100% of the proceeds for this limited edition body oil will go to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund.

Please note: I am sorry but I currently only ship within the U.S. at this time.

About shipping: Shipping calculated by the shopping cart is only an estimate (since the products are different sizes and the shopping cart I am currently using is limited in how it calculates shipping.  It tends to overestimate shipping for some of the skin care). I only charge for actual shipping charges and delivery confirmation, and I do not charge a separate handling or processing fee. Items are shipped in boxes using either first class or priority mail. I will either refund excess funds or contact you for more funds if needed.

Please read our policies section for order processing times and for more shipping information, including information on the differences between first class and priority mail shipping.

Cheers,

Li Wong

Earth Alkemie owner and formulator

Current list of Earth Alkemie products:

Cleansers:
Sunset cleansing oil
-Three kinds of African black soap (Alata Samina, Karite, and Ose Dudu: which are traditional cosmetics and part of our Legends collection).

Toners:
Balance Toner (for all skin types)

Elixirs:
Solaris Elixirs for basic care and daily use: Bliss Elixir and Pangaea Elixir

Luna Elixirs, which are special intense treatments that are rich in antioxidants and plant vitamins: Eden Elixir

Dreams (dreamy, creamy oils and/or butters):
Tropical Dreams (which is Li’s version of macassar oil, a traditional cosmetic and also part of our Legends collection)

Perfume:
Paradise Eau de perfume (citrus, green, floral, spice)

Mineral Makeup: eight multipurpose colors.
Northernlights collection:  Ariel, Cocoa mint, Earth Mage, and Treasure island
Sunlights collection: Blueberry, Charcoal, Empress, and Lilac mist

Limited edition Hope body oil, only available until it is sold out (all proceeds from the sale of Hope body oil will go to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund).

More products will be added very soon!!