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The Suds Report Newsletter
January 2002
Hello and Happy New Year!
I know I am officially old now; I am actually relieved that the
holiday season is behind us. I had a wonderful time with family
and friends, but am happy to say goodbye to the frantic pace and
excesses of the past couple months. In the spirit of welcoming a
new year, here are a few of my thoughts about 2001 and 2002:
Noteworthy Bath and Body Trends / Events of 2001
Products with dessert scents appear everywhere.
fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish hits $58 mark; many more
reasonably priced sugar scrubs appear.
More and more "cottage industry" bath and body makers begin
selling online, creating a much more interesting selection for
consumers.
At least a few of the major online beauty retailers really get
their act together, combining speedy service, great selection
and user-friendly online features (the leader, in my opinion,
is
Drugstore.com and its sister site,
Beauty.com.
They have been recognized for their lightning-fast order processing, they have
a great selection and do a good job of keeping items in stock.)
Shea butter takes moisturizing's center stage.
Not Soap Radio becomes an instant sensation with its shower /
bath gel.
Men's products begin to come into their own, with appealing,
effective products at reasonable prices. Two noteworthy
companies:
Anthony Logistics and
Zirh.
My Wish List for 2002 and Beyond
No more glass in the bathtub
Lower shipping charges
Water-resistant labels on all bath products
More soaps / shower gels that are REALLY gentle and
moisturizing
More from Not Soap, Radio
More independent beauty makers selling online
Better descriptions of fragrances for products sold online
Aveda, Bath and Body Works and The Body Shop start selling
online
And the Winner Isn't...
That's right, we still dont have a winner for December's
giveaway: a fabulous gift basket from Chelmsford Herbal
Soap Company. I randomly selected a first and second winner,
but neither has responded. I assume that the holidays have
something to do with this; I'll keep trying until I have a
winner!
On January 15, we'll be awarding one of our best giveaways yet:
a $50 gift certificate from
Sasabee.com.
This Chicago boutique was featured in the current issue of
Allure, which describes it as "a spacious, sun-filled beauty
emporium with row after row of hard-to-find cosmetics and
skin-and body-care lines."
New at SudsReport.com
We've added two new articles this month: Daryn takes us
"To Gel and Back"
with his look at men's shower gels and I offer some ideas for
combating dry winter skin in
"Bye-Bye Dry".
Soap
Rolls: What Fun!
In last month's newsletter, I suggested "Soap Rolls" from
What-Fun.com
as great stocking-stuffers. These are glycerin soaps shaped like
old-fashioned sticks of hard candy. Well, I tried two of them:
Cinnamon and Gingerbread, at a holiday party. The fragrances
were strong and very festive. They were definitely noticed.
Almost everyone who used the powder room came out saying
something like "Are those soaps in there?", which made me wonder
if they had washed their hands...but thats another story.
Makes Scents to Me
A reader recently suggested to me that we rate bath and body
products on the basis of amount of fragrance, saying that
heavily-fragranced products give her headaches. I think she has
an excellent point. I'm sure there are many others like her who
are bothered by heavy fragrance, as well as people who feel
cheated if a product's scent is too light. So, we will make an
effort to mention fragrance intensity in future articles.
By coincidence, I was checking out
MMUCosmetics.com recently, and noticed that they now offer
their bath and body products in a choice of 3 scent intensities.
What a great idea!
A Shikai Postscript
In my recent
article on
ShiKai products, I mentioned Shikai's Borage
Therapy Lotions. After reading the article, a representative
from ShiKai e-mailed me to clarify a couple points about the
line. Here are his comments:
"The Borage oil in the Borage Therapy normally takes 2 to 3
weeks to penetrate below the strata cornea (top layer of skin)
where the oil can help skin cells retain moisture (because that
is what GLA does). Normally when you ingest other fatty acids
like olive oil (linolenic acid), an enzyme in your body called
D6D will then convert the linolenic acid to Gamma linolenic acid
and your skin cells can retain moisture.
People with eczema,
diabetes, atopic dermatitis, smokers, drug and alcohol abusers,
or just people with advanced age will be lacking sufficient D6D
enzymes (very fragile) and thus they can not produce GLA and
intern their skin cells will not retain enough moisture to be
smooth.
The difference between the 50+ (now adult formula) and the
regular (now pediatric formula) are only two ingredients and
there should be no difference in feel. The Pediatric formula
lacks: stabilized vitamin C (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate) and
L-Ergothioneine (basically a transport vehicle for the borage
oil). These were left out because the vitamin C can irritate
young skin and the L-Ergothioneine isnt needed because borage
oil moves very well in young skin."
The bottom line: Because I did not use the Borage Therapy
products consistently for 2 or 3 weeks, I probably did not give
them a fair chance to perform as promised. Also, note that the
new suggested "cut-off" age for using the "Adult Formula" is 25
years, rather than 50 years. For more about this line, visit
Shikai.com.
In the Works
In the next few weeks, we'll welcome a new contributor, Melissa
Miller, who offers a look at
goat milk bath products. Also keep
your eyes open for our article on
chocolate-scented products.
Later, we'll have articles on
honey bath and body products,
Kalianas vibraceutical products and
novelty soaps.
Well, that's about it for now. As always, please e-mail us with
any comments or suggestions.
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