Category: Vintage Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such

There are many soapmakers and cosmetic manufacturers out there who make all natural bug repellents.  These are products in either spray or solid form that repel bugs, normally made up of an all natural blend of alcohol and essential oils (for the sprays) or a butter/wax/oil blend with essential oils (for the sticks).  They’re generally fabulous products – all natural, DEET free, safe to use on everyone from babies to the elderly.  I know, because I used to make and sell them; now I only make them for our own use.

Honestly, it broke my heart giving up this product.  It was a phenomenal seller and I couldn’t keep it in stock during the Spring and Summer months.  So, if it was such a great product and such a fabulous seller, why did I discontinue it?

I promised myself and my customers that, no matter what, I would run my business legally and ethically, abiding by the matters of my faith and the law of the land.  As a cosmetic and soap manufacturer and small business owner, then I’m bound by the guidelines and laws of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (regulates plain ol’ soap), the Food & Drug Administration (regulates cosmetics), the North Carolina Department of Revenue (for obvious reasons) and the Internal Revenue Service (again, for obvious reasons).  This means that I make my products in the safest way possible, abide by the guidelines for cGMPs (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and adhere to what the FDA says I can and cannot sell, given my level of manufacturing.

The bottom line is, I discontinued Go Away Bugs! because the FDA considers bug repellents to be drugs, and the EPA regulates them as pesticides, even though they repel, not kill.  This means that bug repellents, even all natural ones, have to undergo extensive – and very expensive – testing, both by the FDA as drugs and by the EPA as pesticides.  The EPA tests alone run in the range of $12,000.00, which I simply can’t afford. 

Still, other cottage micromanufacturers continue to make and sell these.  Considering their prices are reasonably low and their exposure is small, it’s a safe bet that they have not had these products tested, leaving the consumer to wonder, Exactly how safe is this product?  Just because it’s all natural does not ensure or guarantee a product’s safety.  Over against the looming monster of the Safe Cosmetics Act and the microscope under which all of us bath and body makers are, such careless, UNLAWFUL practices just underscore the public’s doubt about the safety of all of our products.

For me, it’s not worth $5.00 a tube to damage the rest of my business or to harm this microindustry as a whole.  While my product is safe and effective, as a responsible business owner, it’s up to me to protect not only the integrity of my company, but the integrity of my industry as well.

We, of course, want to use safe cosmetics.  I can agree that we want to avoid certain things:

• Deodorant that makes your arms stick straight out to your sides.
• Luxurious night cream that turns your face green with orange and purple spots.
• Eye cream that makes them look buggy.
• Shampoo for fine, thin hair that ends up making your hair fine and thin.

So why am I so opposed to the Safe Cosmetics Act (SCA), whose very aim is to ensure cosmetics are safe for consumers?  Short answer…  The SCA won’t necessarily make cosmetics safer for consumers and it’d put me out of business.  Longer answer…

• The SCA proposes to ban all ingredients that are in any way carcinogenic, without regard to dosage.  It sort of reminds me of the health warning on saccharine:  “This product has been known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.”  Well, yeah, if you inject 6 packets of the stuff straight into a rat’s blood stream, chances are, the rat will develop some ill effects, but how many people do that to themselves?  No one, of course; that’d just be stupid.  Same with the SCA.  An essential oil may contain one component that makes up 0.5% of that oil, and that component may have carcinogenic effects in 0.03% of the population, so therefore, the SCA would propose to ban that essential oil completely. 
• The SCA is calling for cosmetic manufacturers to list every single component that would be in every single ingredient… well, except for those which can’t be detected.  With the current technology, we can find trace components as small as ppb (parts per billion), virtually leaving nothing undetectable!  I swiped the following example from Essential Wholesale’s blog, at Essential U, listing just the components in water:

Aqua (lead, acrylamine, alachlor, alpha/photon emitters, antimony, asbestos, arsenic, atrazine, barium, benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, beta photon emitters, beryllium, bromated, cadmium, carbofuran, carbon tetrachloride, chloramines, chlordane, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, chlorite, chlorobenzene, chromium, copper, cyanide, 2,4-D, dalapon, o-Dichlorobenzene, p-Dichlorobenzene, 1,1-Dichloroethylene, cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene, trans-1,2-Dichloroethylene, Di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate, dinoseb, diquat, endothall, endrin, ethylbenzene, fluoride, glyphosate, hexachlorocyclopentadiene…mercury….radium….uranium, vinyl chloride, xylenes.)

Now, that’s just all that’s in water, nevermind the 5-50 other ingredients (with all their components) that might also be in the product.  Determining these trace components will be time-consuming and expensive for the small manufacturer.

• The SCA is calling for the testing of all product formulas.  In the course of the past 8 years I have been in business, I’ve created seven different lotion formulas alone (not including the total of dozens of variations on my other products’ formulas).  At around $35.00 each to test, that gets to be very expensive, plus it’s time consuming, with an average of two weeks’ wait to get results.
• The SCA calls for additional testing to determine if there is any reaction between the product and anything with which it may have come into contact.  If my wholesaler has a lotion base that they’ve developed and had tested, then they store that lotion base in 1-gallon plastic jugs, they would then need to have that lotion retested to see if it in any way reacted with the plastic in which it’s stored.  This, of course, costs my supplier money, costs that they then have to pass on to me, which I then have to pass on to my customers.  My customers don’t like paying the higher prices (no worries, as I don’t use bases, anyway), so they stop buying my products.  Therefore, I have to close up shop.
• The passing of the SCA will put thousands of small business cosmetic manufacturers out of business.  Those higher prices that suppliers have to pay trickle down, all the way to the consumer.  Small businesses will close, putting people in every community out of work, making it that much more difficult for us to take care of our families.  During this recession when unemployment is so high and people are dying to work, it makes no sense to eliminate so many jobs needlessly.

The majority of cosmetic micro-industrialists practice current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) as determined by the FDA.  We have our water-based products tested for safely and preservative efficacy, and we started making these superior products because we wanted to provide consumers with more natural, greener, American-made products, because we’ve used them and love them!  Probably all of us only test on two-legged animals (that’s what friends and family are for), so we don’t harm animals in our manufacturing, either.

What can you do to help us?  You can start by signing the petition we have going on to oppose the Safe Cosmetics Act.  We’ve gotten over 2,000 signatures in 48 hours!  How’s that for positive reactions from people who want to preserve small business and maintain their right to buy artisan soaps and cosmetics?  Second, please go to Open Congress and register your opposition to the bill.  There’s even a handy link there you can use to contact your representative to tell him or her that you oppose H.R. 5786, the Safe Cosmetics Act.  Third, spread the word.  If you’re posting about this on Twitter, please use the hashtag #OpposeSCA.

For more information, go to http://www.opposesca.com/.  Thank you so much! 🙂

I am normally very intentional about not tying any of my political views to my business, but us small business owners who make cosmetics could be in serious trouble, so I want to get the word out for you to support us and am going to try doing so in the most nonpartisan way possible.

What’s the deal?  Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc. introduced to the House the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 this afternoon.  Concordantly, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CFSC), which is backed by some large tax-exempt organizations and some Hollywood celebrities (particularly those with their own cosmetic lines) has released a video today filled with misinformation, untruths and generalities in order to convince the trusting public that cosmetic manufacturers are filling cosmetics with cancer-causing ingredients.  This is simply not true.

A little history…  In 2008, the FDA Globalization Act 2008 was bandied before a congressional subcommittee.  This act, which addressed primarily food and drugs, arose after a spate of salmonella-tainted peanut butter issues and after lead was found in toys imported from overseas, namely China.  (The CPSC – Consumer Product Safety Commission – dealt with the toys issue in a way that put hundreds of artisan toymakers out of business.)  There was a small section – very small – in the Act that required cosmetic manufacturers to register with the FDA (for a fee) and further, required them to file every formula with the FDA.  The registration fees were as high as $12,000.00 annually, and having to file formulas would have resulted in more time dealing with paperwork than in actually driving a business.  (Even changing an oil for another oil would have necessitated filing the new formula documentation.)  When the draft of this Act was before this subcommittee, they had NO idea that there was this cottage cosmetic micro-industry that the passing of the FDAGA2008 would decimate.  Thanks to the tireless efforts of many in our industry, the draft was changed in 2009 and passed so as not to affect us.

In March of this year, Colorado representative Dianne Primavera led a move backed by Skin Deep to ban all ingredients with any toxicity at all from cosmetics, with no regard to dosing.  Olive oil, cocoa, and some essential oils all contain trace amounts of toxins.  What this proposed law would do was prohibit all cosmetic manufacturers in Colorado and all those shipping to Colorado from using any of these “toxic” ingredients.  Yet, the amounts of olive oil and cocoa that the citizens consume in food are far greater than what would be in your average cosmetic.

And now it’s looking like we have still more legislation before us with its roots in fear-mongering and ignorance.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t one of the campaign “hot buttons” the last election “small business” with tax breaks for us small business owners and “promises” from Washington to help drive small business, recognizing our sizable contribution to promoting local business, promoting American made products and stimulating the local – and ultimately the national – economy?  And now, with the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, the very body which swore to protect us could conceivably bury us small business owners in astronomical fees and mountains of paperwork.

Additionally, the demolition of small cosmetic businesses will eliminate that option from peoples’ buying choices, making it nearly impossible for them to buy high quality artisan cosmetics.  The ruination of small local cosmetic businesses also eliminates them from the economic landscape, forcing people at the local level out of jobs, which in turn adversely affects their buying power (no income means much less money to spend locally) and increasing unemployment.  Small business owners of all breeds (not just us cosmetic manufacturers) work so that we can support our families and our communities, which we feel is far better than being unproductive leeches of an already overburdened welfare system.

Please support us and help us keep our own businesses intact, as well as helping us as we support our families, communities and local economies.  I reiterate Donna Maria Cole Johnson’s question on her blog:  What are you willing to do to make sure your representatives live up to their promises to support small business owners?

The Sunday after Mother’s Day, our six-year-old daughter told us on the way to church that she was ready to say the sinner’s prayer and invite Jesus into her heart.  She’d been grappling with this decision for a few months by this point.  At the end of the service, her daddy and I knelt with her at the altar by the wooden cross that stands over our church’s Open Door service while she said the sinner’s prayer and asked Jesus into her heart.  She wrote this soon after.

And as you grow, you will reseve [receive] that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.  I aready [already] said the Lords [sinner’s] prayer.  I aready [already] beleve [believe] he saved us from our sin.  You also get batized [baptized].  When I am nine I will get batized [baptized].

Last Wednesday my baby and I drove down to Southport to meet with a potential wholesale customer and to deliver some soap samples to her. While we were there, we took the time to walk around and visit some of the other shoppes at Olde Southport Village, a charming collection of cottage shoppes. I noticed a tea shoppe and tea room there, and thinking of a good source for Christmas presents for my tea-loving aunts, as well as a nice afternoon trip for my older daughter and me, I popped in. A few minutes with the shoppe owner, Jan, and we were talking private label tea soaps. I assured her it could be done, but it wasn’t likely that the scent or color of the tea would remain in the soap, though any beneficial properties of the teas would. She gave me three teabags – green, chai and Earl Grey – to try and soap.

I went back home and immediately hopped online to see if I could find these scents and got lucky. I dared to try another supplier for some of these scents (always a little nerve-wracking), and they came today. I’d brewed the teas and chilled them, so when my fragrances came, I was ready to go. This afternoon, I whipped up four 6-ounce bars of soap, three using each of the different teas and one with water, and all four with different fragrances – green tea, chai tea, Earl Grey and white tea (the one with water). What a thrill to do a soapmaking blitz like this, and how exciting it was soaping with both a new medium (tea) and new, fantastic smelling fragrances!

These are the soaps freshly poured.

Being the oh, so typical soapmaker, I had to peek a few times during the process.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that the soap was gelling and looked like this!

Look at how dark that White Tea soap is in nearly full gel!  Unreal!  I peeked about two hours later, and the Chai Tea soap was also pretty dark.  I predict that at least three of these soaps will be cream, and one might be tan, depending on how much vanilla is in it.
 
So, that’s my excitement for the day.
 
What’s excited you recently?

A couple of weeks ago, a local media outlet aired a “gotcha” story against Yahweh Center, a non-profit Christian organization that serves children, including some with learning, emotional and behavioral disorders.  It seems like a disgruntled former employee wanted her 15 minutes of fame.  Yet, I’m concerned what this bad media exposure would do for this center at a time when they’re already struggling due to a decline in charitable giving with the current economic situation.  So, I came up with a way that all of us can help.

The first is a lip balm filling tray.  You can get these at any of several online retailers and wholesalers; I happened to get mine from Bramble Berry when I was ordering a fragrance oil my daughter wanted.  It’s a simple concept.  You stick up to 50 lip balm tubes in from the bottom, pour your melted lip balm into the tubes, and any mess you make – any spills at all – collect on the top where you can scrape them off, remelt them and repour.  The result is the ability to make many lip balms at once with perfect tops and no messy drips down the side.  This is a HUGE improvement over pouring 4 at a time, by hand, and having to clean lip balm off the sides of tubes before I could even think about labeling them.

The second wondrous addition to my business life are these lip balm labels from Online Labels.  I’d heard about them from friends who’d tried them, but I figured, business was in its slow period, so I’d wait.  I wish I’d had these five years ago (they weren’t around then)!  I bought the clear ones, which look awesome against my white tubes.  And ohhhh…  They’re large enough to go all the way around the tube with a bit of overlap, meaning they help themselves stay on, plus I don’t have to finangle my font sizes just to get all the FDA-required information on a smaller label.  I absolutely love these!  I love the ease of use, the way they print and the great way they make my lip balms look.  I save myself a ton of work with these and get consistently fabulous results.  The old way?  I’d print the label on a smaller white label, then seal it with clear tape.  It was a lot of work and a lot of frustration.  Check out the picture!

Question:  What tools make your life easier, especially when it comes to your business or work?

He’s a quiet man, unassuming, passionate in his love for God and God’s people.  His name is Mike Cogdill, and I’ve had the pleasure and honor of knowing Dr. Cogdill since I was a smart-mouthed sophmore in college.  Even with that less-than-stellar beginning, he still gave me his blessing as I prepared to enter Divinity School at Campbell University Divinity School, of which he was dean.

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary.  This past year has certainly been a wild one, what with moving into our first house, making our “big move” at the same time to a completely new part of the state, and having a new baby.  Our day began with brunch at Chris’s Cosmic Kitchen in Wilmington, traversed down to Kure Beach for a bit of water therapy and a walk on the beach, ultimately ending back in Wilmington with a fondue dinner at The Little Dipper.  Our server at dinner asked us, “What’s the secret to staying married that long?”

My first answer was “Forgiveness,” and Peter followed this up with, “Don’t go to bed angry.”  In all our years of marriage, as long as we’ve been under the same roof, we’ve slept in the same bed, with maybe the rare occasion of sickness.  (I had bad heartburn for a few days with my first pregnancy and slept sitting up on the sofa one night.)  We might sometimes sleep with a foot of space between us, yet at some point during the night, our bodies forget about the irritation and we end up in our usual yin-yang-esque position.  I’ve screwed up.  He’s screwed up.  We will both likely screw up again, but we can’t let that become a wedge between us.

I thought later, and the other thing that keeps us united and strong is laughter.  In any situation, we have a choice of how we’ll react.  Last night is a great example.  On the way to dinner, traveling down the interstate, I blew a tire on my car.  A little freaky, and somehow rather funny, given that I’d just asked him if the tire would survive my road trip today.  He’s changing the tire, and we’re exploring the levity of the situation.  One thing we try to do each anniversary is use the “traditional anniversary gift guide” for presents.  This actually makes us be creative in our gift-giving.  The 11th anniversary gift is steel.  Can ya see where I’m going with this?  After he got done changing my tire, Peter said, “Well, you’ll get a steel-belted radial for your anniversary gift.  I’m getting you steel after all!”  I laughed (really, a tire’s OK this year), and we hobbled on to dinner on the spare, getting smiles and waves when people read our back window.

What are your secrets to a long and happy marriage?

It happened twice this week, rather out of the blue.  The first time was Tuesday when a friend saw something I posted on Facebook.  I was venting about my older daughter’s teacher and used a description that she was afraid her daughter would see.  It caught me off-guard, but what she said was, “She looks up to you, and seeing that would crush her.”  Wow.  I absolutely adore this young lady.  She’s lovely, funny and bright, but she doesn’t see herself like her parents and I do.  I think of her as the niece I’ll never have (but have always wanted), and I later messaged my friend and said I’d never want to do anything to hurt her or make her stumble.

Then came Wednesday.  I was moderating and catching up on the WSP forums and saw a discussion thread on SoapMaker, the lye calculator I use.  One member said to me, “You’re my mentor.”  Again, a humble wow.  This lady is very sweet, we get along great and I think of her as a friend, but I had no idea she sees me as her mentor, someone from whom she can seek guidance and encouragement.

Both of these comments humbled me.  There’s something about knowing others are looking at what I do, what I say and what I think and have decided for themselves that it’s good.  Or not.  If Jesus himself refuses the title of “Good teacher,” when he alone is good, then certainly I should just hold the humble honor that’s in the title of “teacher,” “mentor” and “friend.”

Who’s your mentor?  What about that person makes them that for you?