As stated on here and a few other places, I will be selling at the Patchwork Show in Oakland this Sunday! I will have all of the products featured on my website and my Etsy store. We have six flavors of lip balms, including the Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm featured in Conscious Box this month. Our five floral balms will also be available, along with our foot balm.
We are also launching three new products at this show! These will be available online once the show is over.
New Products:
Pumpkin Seed & Cocoa Body Butter- Limited run for November, this is a decadent body butter that is solid in the tin, but melts easily in your hands. While it is made only from oils and butters, it doesn't leave you feeling greasy.
Hair Oils- We have four scents- Lavender Herbal, Geranium Floral, Soft Woods, and Ylang Ylang & Sandalwood. Containing argan oil, camellia seed oil, and shea oil, these oils nurture you hair without the use of any silicones.
Everywhere Oils- Available in Rose Otto, Lavender, and Ylang Ylang. The oils are lightweight, and can be used on your face, hair, or body. The primary oil used in these is camellia seed, a rejuvenating oil filled with antioxidants.
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Fragrance, beauty, and business.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Conscious Box Giveaway!
Last month I made 5000 Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balms to be distributed in November's Vegan Conscious Box. It was a lot of work, especially since I had only made 50 lip balms at a time in the past. But now the boxes are being mailed out, and we're giving away three boxes, so you can win a box with the Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm along with other eco-friendly samples.
Our Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm is a sophisticated take on orange, and features the same premium oils as our other lip balms. It uses the essential oils of blood orange and juniper berry for its flavor.
Want to buy the lip balm? For November, Ivre de Fleurs is offering the lip for $7.50, 25% off the normal price of $10. We offer this along with our other lip balms in our new shop- checkout the Ivre de Fleurs Website to buy directly from us.
Want to try Conscious Box? For 25% off your first month, go to Conscious Box and order your first box. You can choose between the classic box, vegan box, or gluten free box
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Friday, November 8, 2013
New Products, New Stores
I have two new lip products that will be available for soon- a moisturizing lip gel and a lip butter.
There's very little wax to the lip gel, so it has a soft texture and no waxy feel to it. It comes in a little pot with a silver lid. It uses sunflower wax, meadowfoam seed oil, castor oil, and extracts of evening primrose and orchid. I flavored it with fresh ginger and ylang ylang essential oils, giving it a spicy and exotic flavor.
The lip butter uses rice bran wax and mango butter, but otherwise uses the same extracts and oils as the lip gel. This one is flavored with rose geranium. It's softer than a normal lip balm, but not as soft as the lip gel- basically a nice middle ground between the two. It comes in little pots as well.
Unfortunately, the lip butter pots were overfilled, so all the tops got squished down once the lids were put on them. This brings me to the new stores part- I will be opening a seconds shop on Storenvy this weekend, where I will be selling products with packaging issues at reduced prices. I will be selling the Rose Geranium Lip Butters there. While the lip butters themselves are great, I'm not satisfied with the way the tops look after I put the lids on them.
I will have several Mocha and Lemon Cream Lip Balms for sale on Storenvy, since the original packaging doesn't really work- the labels on the boxes don't stay down, so they don't look that nice. There will be one Rose Otto Lip Balm available, since the box on that one has a small scratch, and one Jasmine Balm where there's a small dent on the lid.
I will also have products for sale on my website soon, as opposed to buying through Etsy. I will still have some products on Etsy, just not as many. Once my new website is up, I will be introducing two new promotions- one product will be sold for a reduced price, and a monthly limited edition product.
For the month of November I will have Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balms on sale for $7.50- it's a new lip balm flavor, a sophisticated orange. The limited edition product will be pumpkin seed body butter. It won't smell like pumpkin, because there is no pumpkin essential oil, but it will have pumpkin seed oil and extracts, providing your skin with a plant based Omega-3 boost.
There's very little wax to the lip gel, so it has a soft texture and no waxy feel to it. It comes in a little pot with a silver lid. It uses sunflower wax, meadowfoam seed oil, castor oil, and extracts of evening primrose and orchid. I flavored it with fresh ginger and ylang ylang essential oils, giving it a spicy and exotic flavor.
The lip butter uses rice bran wax and mango butter, but otherwise uses the same extracts and oils as the lip gel. This one is flavored with rose geranium. It's softer than a normal lip balm, but not as soft as the lip gel- basically a nice middle ground between the two. It comes in little pots as well.
Unfortunately, the lip butter pots were overfilled, so all the tops got squished down once the lids were put on them. This brings me to the new stores part- I will be opening a seconds shop on Storenvy this weekend, where I will be selling products with packaging issues at reduced prices. I will be selling the Rose Geranium Lip Butters there. While the lip butters themselves are great, I'm not satisfied with the way the tops look after I put the lids on them.
I will have several Mocha and Lemon Cream Lip Balms for sale on Storenvy, since the original packaging doesn't really work- the labels on the boxes don't stay down, so they don't look that nice. There will be one Rose Otto Lip Balm available, since the box on that one has a small scratch, and one Jasmine Balm where there's a small dent on the lid.
I will also have products for sale on my website soon, as opposed to buying through Etsy. I will still have some products on Etsy, just not as many. Once my new website is up, I will be introducing two new promotions- one product will be sold for a reduced price, and a monthly limited edition product.
For the month of November I will have Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balms on sale for $7.50- it's a new lip balm flavor, a sophisticated orange. The limited edition product will be pumpkin seed body butter. It won't smell like pumpkin, because there is no pumpkin essential oil, but it will have pumpkin seed oil and extracts, providing your skin with a plant based Omega-3 boost.
Monday, October 21, 2013
More News- Patchwork Show in Oakland & Shops
In addition to selling at the San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show, Ivre de Fleurs will also be selling at the Patchwork Show in Oakland. I'm very excited to be selling at these two events. I've written a bit about the San Francisco Bazaar in a previous post, so I'll spend a little time on the Patchwork Show.
The Patchwork Show will be on Sunday, November 24 at the Jack London Square Pavilion. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, so it's a great chance to get some holiday shopping in before many people have even started. In addition to the craft show, there will be food trucks, DIY stations, photo booths, and live music.
In other news, I will be updating my website soon to include a shopping cart. I will still have some items available in my Etsy shop, but will have a wider variety available on the Ivre de Fleurs website.
The Patchwork Show will be on Sunday, November 24 at the Jack London Square Pavilion. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, so it's a great chance to get some holiday shopping in before many people have even started. In addition to the craft show, there will be food trucks, DIY stations, photo booths, and live music.
In other news, I will be updating my website soon to include a shopping cart. I will still have some items available in my Etsy shop, but will have a wider variety available on the Ivre de Fleurs website.
Friday, October 4, 2013
San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show
It feels like I haven't written in so long, but there's so much that's been going on! Part of it is a secret for now- I'll write about it in a week or two, once everything is set. For those who know- shhhh.
One of the big things for me is that I got accepted to my first craft show- I will be at San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show, Dec 7-8, at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. I went there last year and bought almost all of my Christmas presents. It's a really great show, and I'm thrilled that my application was accepted.
I plan to have several lip balm flavors available, body balms and butters, and some hair oils (possibly face and body, too), and hopefully some solid perfumes. It's going to be a lot of work for the next few months, but I'm looking forward to it.
One of the big things for me is that I got accepted to my first craft show- I will be at San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show, Dec 7-8, at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. I went there last year and bought almost all of my Christmas presents. It's a really great show, and I'm thrilled that my application was accepted.
I plan to have several lip balm flavors available, body balms and butters, and some hair oils (possibly face and body, too), and hopefully some solid perfumes. It's going to be a lot of work for the next few months, but I'm looking forward to it.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Natural Fragrance
Talking about my products with a few people lately, it seems as if a lot of people are confused about natural scents. I only use naturally derived fragrances (essential oils, absolutes, concretes, waxes, enfleurage, and CO2 extractions) in my products, so if someone recommends a flavor or scent, I sometimes say I can't do it, since they don't exist in a natural form. It doesn't help that some companies advertise their products as natural, but don't mention that their scents come from fragrance oils. I'm not strictly opposed to fragrance oils and synthetic fragrances, but I think many people aren't aware that the products they're using aren't scented naturally.
Many fragrances aren't available in a viable natural form. When talking about lip balm flavors, a lot of friends mention various fruity flavors, but they're not available as essential oils. A "natural" flavor can be made, but you won't necessarily know what it's made from.
Citrus fruits are some of the few that can be turned into essential oils, and there really are many wonderful ones to choose from. I keep several types of orange essential oil on hand- blood, bitter, sweet, wild. The different colors of grapefruits and mandarins produce slightly different scents as well. That's not even going into lemon, lime, and all the other citrus fruits you find out there. Citrus oils are often inexpensive, but the main issue is that they can increase photosensitivity, so you don't want to add a lot to products that will stay on the skin. Bergamot is particularly bad due to the bergaptene in it. There are bergaptene free versions out there, so those are a little less likely to leave you burned.
Some essential oils have a fruity smell, such as Roman Chamomile, red raspberry leaf, black currant bud, osmanthus, and boronia. These range in price from expensive to obscenely expensive, so it's unlikely you'll find them in a beauty product, at least not one that isn't equally expensive. Also, while some of them have a fruity aspect, the other aspects to their fragrances make it so that they won't really come of as a simple fruit smell.
Floral scents are pretty tricky. Lots of them are available as essential oils or absolutes, but floral oils are usually pricy. Some are incredibly rare- there's only a small amount of gardenia absolute produced, and it costs a small fortune. Gardenia enfleurage is another option, but again it's too much money for anyone to want to throw it into a soap. I use an absolute and maceration of gardenia in my Monoi Hair & Body Oil (coming soon!), but most gardenia scents out there come from a fragrance oil.
Enfleurage, maceration, and CO2 extractions are options for getting a fragrance out of some flowers that don't otherwise give up their scents. These are expensive and hard to find, so scents like lilac most likely from a fragrance oil.
There are also some flowers that don't have a scent that can be captured. We might long for a natural scent from them, but they either have little to no fragrance of their own, or the fragrance is too delicate to survive extraction.
I don't think people should necessarily avoid all fragrance oils and synthetic scents. They're an easy and inexpensive way to give a product a nice scent. There many high quality fragrance oils out there, some that even use essential oils and absolutes. Without them, we wouldn't have coconut scented soap or strawberry lotion. Scents like rose and jasmine would be available, but many people wouldn't be able to afford them.
Many fragrances aren't available in a viable natural form. When talking about lip balm flavors, a lot of friends mention various fruity flavors, but they're not available as essential oils. A "natural" flavor can be made, but you won't necessarily know what it's made from.
Citrus fruits are some of the few that can be turned into essential oils, and there really are many wonderful ones to choose from. I keep several types of orange essential oil on hand- blood, bitter, sweet, wild. The different colors of grapefruits and mandarins produce slightly different scents as well. That's not even going into lemon, lime, and all the other citrus fruits you find out there. Citrus oils are often inexpensive, but the main issue is that they can increase photosensitivity, so you don't want to add a lot to products that will stay on the skin. Bergamot is particularly bad due to the bergaptene in it. There are bergaptene free versions out there, so those are a little less likely to leave you burned.
Some essential oils have a fruity smell, such as Roman Chamomile, red raspberry leaf, black currant bud, osmanthus, and boronia. These range in price from expensive to obscenely expensive, so it's unlikely you'll find them in a beauty product, at least not one that isn't equally expensive. Also, while some of them have a fruity aspect, the other aspects to their fragrances make it so that they won't really come of as a simple fruit smell.
Floral scents are pretty tricky. Lots of them are available as essential oils or absolutes, but floral oils are usually pricy. Some are incredibly rare- there's only a small amount of gardenia absolute produced, and it costs a small fortune. Gardenia enfleurage is another option, but again it's too much money for anyone to want to throw it into a soap. I use an absolute and maceration of gardenia in my Monoi Hair & Body Oil (coming soon!), but most gardenia scents out there come from a fragrance oil.
Enfleurage, maceration, and CO2 extractions are options for getting a fragrance out of some flowers that don't otherwise give up their scents. These are expensive and hard to find, so scents like lilac most likely from a fragrance oil.
There are also some flowers that don't have a scent that can be captured. We might long for a natural scent from them, but they either have little to no fragrance of their own, or the fragrance is too delicate to survive extraction.
I don't think people should necessarily avoid all fragrance oils and synthetic scents. They're an easy and inexpensive way to give a product a nice scent. There many high quality fragrance oils out there, some that even use essential oils and absolutes. Without them, we wouldn't have coconut scented soap or strawberry lotion. Scents like rose and jasmine would be available, but many people wouldn't be able to afford them.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Favorite Essential Oils
While I love buying a wide variety of crazy essential oils, there are some I really love, and wish to add to everything. Below are a few of the ones I turn to the most.
Top Notes:
Yellow Mandarin: This is a softer, slightly floral citrus. It blends beautifully with many other essential oils. A lot of citrus oils have scents that are kind of obvious- orange, lemon, and lime, for example. There are many varieties of orange, and I love playing with those, too. But yellow mandarin is my go to for a citrus top note.
Cinnamon CO2: I keep wanting to add this to a lip balm. It smells so fresh and sweet- exactly the kind of cinnamon I want. A lot of cinnamon essential oils don't smell that great to me, but this one I could sniff all day. Unfortunately, it's very strong, so adding even a little to lip balms might result in stinging lips. I'm still experimenting though, and hoping to find a level that will give a nice cinnamon scent without the ouch factor.
Cardamom CO2: I added a little of this to my Wild Orange & Lavender Lip Balm, which adds a subtle twist to the flavor. I love cardamom, and it's one of my favorite spices for cooking and baking. I also have some rare cardamom absolute, but that's a little pricy to be throwing around everywhere. Cardamom essential oil is nice as well, but the CO2 has a cleaner scent.
Pink Peppercorn: My favorite pepper. I also have white and black pepper, but use them less. The white pepper isn't exciting enough, and the black pepper can be a little harsh. It adds a little excitement to blends without overwhelming them.
Middle Notes:
Orange Blossom Organic Extract: Different than orange blossom absolute, which can be heavy and sometimes a little too dirty. It's not the same as neroli either, though probably closer to a neroli scent than an orange blossom absolute scent. The scent is light but not weak, and is a great addition to any orange blossom collection.
Moroccan Rose Absolute: There are so many roses, and so many extractions for them. While I don't have the money to try them all, Moroccan rose is so far my favorite absolute. I use a Turkish rose otto for lip balms and skin care. It has a nice odor profile, and while still expensive, it is cheaper than Bulgarian rose otto. I have also tried a rose otto from Moldova.While significantly cheaper than even the Turkish otto, I was not impressed with that one.
Jasmine Sambac Absolute: I prefer this to jasmine grandiflorum, though I use both. While jasmine isn't necessarily a filler, it blends in nicely with a wide variety of fragrances. I need to be careful though, since I tend to use it with too many other white flowers, ending up with an overly indolic fragrance.
Ylang Ylang: A sweet floral scent, and it's cheaper than many other floral essential oils. I like "complete" and "extra" best, though the other grades might work well for soaping.
Base Notes:
Vetiver: I didn't like it much at first, but I love it now. While it doesn't work with everything, it's become one of my go to base notes.
Sandalwood Absolute, New Caledonia: I love Mysore and East Indian sandalwood, but it's becoming rare and I worry about the ecological impacts of buying them. I've tried a few other sandalwoods, but the absolute is my favorite.
Opoponax: I love the absolute, but I do like the essential oil as well. The absolute is a nice sweet base note, with an interesting warm balsamic fragrance.
Top Notes:
Yellow Mandarin: This is a softer, slightly floral citrus. It blends beautifully with many other essential oils. A lot of citrus oils have scents that are kind of obvious- orange, lemon, and lime, for example. There are many varieties of orange, and I love playing with those, too. But yellow mandarin is my go to for a citrus top note.
Cinnamon CO2: I keep wanting to add this to a lip balm. It smells so fresh and sweet- exactly the kind of cinnamon I want. A lot of cinnamon essential oils don't smell that great to me, but this one I could sniff all day. Unfortunately, it's very strong, so adding even a little to lip balms might result in stinging lips. I'm still experimenting though, and hoping to find a level that will give a nice cinnamon scent without the ouch factor.
Cardamom CO2: I added a little of this to my Wild Orange & Lavender Lip Balm, which adds a subtle twist to the flavor. I love cardamom, and it's one of my favorite spices for cooking and baking. I also have some rare cardamom absolute, but that's a little pricy to be throwing around everywhere. Cardamom essential oil is nice as well, but the CO2 has a cleaner scent.
Pink Peppercorn: My favorite pepper. I also have white and black pepper, but use them less. The white pepper isn't exciting enough, and the black pepper can be a little harsh. It adds a little excitement to blends without overwhelming them.
Middle Notes:
Orange Blossom Organic Extract: Different than orange blossom absolute, which can be heavy and sometimes a little too dirty. It's not the same as neroli either, though probably closer to a neroli scent than an orange blossom absolute scent. The scent is light but not weak, and is a great addition to any orange blossom collection.
Moroccan Rose Absolute: There are so many roses, and so many extractions for them. While I don't have the money to try them all, Moroccan rose is so far my favorite absolute. I use a Turkish rose otto for lip balms and skin care. It has a nice odor profile, and while still expensive, it is cheaper than Bulgarian rose otto. I have also tried a rose otto from Moldova.While significantly cheaper than even the Turkish otto, I was not impressed with that one.
Jasmine Sambac Absolute: I prefer this to jasmine grandiflorum, though I use both. While jasmine isn't necessarily a filler, it blends in nicely with a wide variety of fragrances. I need to be careful though, since I tend to use it with too many other white flowers, ending up with an overly indolic fragrance.
Ylang Ylang: A sweet floral scent, and it's cheaper than many other floral essential oils. I like "complete" and "extra" best, though the other grades might work well for soaping.
Base Notes:
Vetiver: I didn't like it much at first, but I love it now. While it doesn't work with everything, it's become one of my go to base notes.
Sandalwood Absolute, New Caledonia: I love Mysore and East Indian sandalwood, but it's becoming rare and I worry about the ecological impacts of buying them. I've tried a few other sandalwoods, but the absolute is my favorite.
Opoponax: I love the absolute, but I do like the essential oil as well. The absolute is a nice sweet base note, with an interesting warm balsamic fragrance.
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