Holiday Packages

I remember the days when I was a young girl window shopping in New York City during the Christmas season. I was in absolute awe. Every window was perfectly designed to create the ideal scenario of goodies and happiness. I remember walking through the enormous department stores bombarded with visions of presents, glitter, fairy dust, and smells of starch, plastic and perfume. Good memories. Weird.

So here I am trying to understand the holidays as a parent but also as a manufacturer. As a mother I set up the house with cranberries and garland, lights and simmer cinnamon soup on the burner, but as a person making body products, do I make warm mulled cider for the skin so someone can feel holiday-ie all day? I ask myself. Do I want to smell like that all day? When I first smelled that particular scent, I went nuts! It smelled just like New York in the deep Fall after going to the orchard and picking apples. My husband really flipped! He misses New York terribly and living in south Florida provides little memory jogging. There is nothing remotely like New York down here except New Yorkers who Winter down here. That is the worst of it because you get the wealthy retirees but without the culture or style. Now what is that good for?!

So back to Holiday packages. This year my products will be gifts, so if you are in my family or one of my friends, there is no surprising you with my gift selections. But as far as offerings to the general public, we have decided to put together what I would want for Christmas if I didn't make it myself. This comes back to the same way of thinking when I formulate our products. I always work towards want I want to rub on my skin, how I want to feel, what I like smelling on my skin.

Mmmmmm. Happy holidays!

How I got a Crush On You

People ask me how I come up with different formulations of some of my body products. It differs depending on the product, but the basic process is to think about what I am trying to achieve, run through ingredients that address those goals while nourishing the skin, do about a million batches of balm, scrub, lotion or what-have-you and hope for that magic "poof" in which a product is born. But Crush On You was a bit different.

I suffer from occasional migraines, which aside from being fairly unpleasant, generally infringe on my ability to get any work done for a while. It was during one of these interludes that Crush On You was born. As anyone that suffers from migraines can tell you, all you want when one hits is a dark room, some quiet, and for the pain to go away. And as I lay in my bedroom one evening indulging in the former two and waiting for the latter, my mind started to wander to my formulary and my favorite products, Butter Scrub, Shea Butter and Wash. Then the peanut butter and chocolate moment - what if.......

As soon as the fog lifted and the pain subsided, it was off to the lab and onto batch after batch of test formulations: shea, wash, macadamia nut oil, olive butter, almond oil, sugar, salt....I tried it all. And then, POOF - I had it. It was exactly what I had thought of, and it was in my greedy little hands. Crush On You had been born.

I haven't had a bad migraine in a long while, thankfully. I do hold out hope though that should I be hit with one as bad as the one that day, I'll come up with another idea that I like as much as I do Crush On You.