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The Suds Report Newsletter
July 2002
Hello All:
Well, it's officially summer here in North Carolina, spelled
H-O-T. One good thing about summer though: I don't
battle with dry skin like I do in the winter. As always,
I've got lots of bath and body news to report, so I'll get on
with it.
Have a safe and happy 4th!
New at
SudsReport.com
We've added two new articles this month: For all you
fans of food-scented products, we have "Your
Just Desserts", where kindred spirit Lisa Link Phillips
tries out a variety of products that will make your mouth
water.
We also have the second in our series profiling
smaller online beauty merchants:
"The
Postman Always Rings Twice."
And the
Winner Is
Congratulations to our June giveaway winner: Stacie S.
of Detroit, Michigan. Stacie won a travel set from
Circle-of-Friends.com, a fun line of bath and hair care
products for children. She tells me that her kids are
really enjoying the scents.
Later this month, we'll be giving away a fabulous lavender
basket from
Kiss My
Face.
A Note
about Sunscreen
I've recently turned into the Sunscreen Queen. I'm
scrupulous about putting it on myself (especially on my face) and
am bordering on fanatical about protecting my daughters from the
sun. (They are just 3 and 5, so I figure I have a few
years of protecting them before they decide that sun tanning is
cool.)
As
with so many other skin care products, reading the ingredient
list is key. According to Paula Begoun, the
self-described
Cosmetics
Cop:
"SPF is crucial, but it is only a measurement regarding
sunburn (UVB) rays. There are no numbers to tell you about
protection from UVA radiation. For that protection you have to
check the active ingredient list to see if either zinc oxide,
titanium dioxide, avobenzone (which may also be listed as
Parsol 1789 or butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane), or Mexoryl SX
outside of the US. If one of those isn't part of [the] active
ingredient listing (it doesn't count if it is just part of the
regular ingredients) you will not be getting adequate UVA
protection.
Oxybenzone and benzophenone are sunscreen ingredients that
sound similar to avobenzone, but they are not the same. There
are several sunscreen ingredients approved for use in the
United States for sunburn protection, with a wide variety of
technical names. While benzophone and oxybenzone do have some
UVA protection, they are not as effective as titanium dioxide,
zinc oxide, avobenzone (also called parsol 1789), or Mexoryl."
A
Minimalist's Salt Scrub
Anastasia Crabtree of
Anastasia's Ideas is a creative and knowledgeable maker of
soaps and other handmade beauty products. She is also
not shy about expressing her opinions. In a recent
newsletter, she offered these thoughts about salt scrubs:
"I hate salt glows! They are messy, slippery and then greasy
in the end. Here is something nice for your skin that won’t make
you fall and break a hip. Get some good, moist sea salt or
desert salt.
Start at your feet and rub in circles all the way
up to your face. You can use a little warm water to moisten the
salt but not much. Let it be as dry as you can and simply scrub!
It is best to do this in the bathtub of course and when you are
done soak in your bath full of salt! Your skin will be so smooth
and soft! All the dead skin gone!"
You can buy sun evaporated
Hawaiian Sea Salt from
Coconut Coast Natural Products
(20lbs. for $47.50 including shipping).
They also have (red) Hawaiian Salt with Alaea (baked Hawaiian
clay).
Kathleen
Lewis Now Online
 Awhile ago, we featured Kathleen Lewis' honey line, including
her Honey Dream Cream, in our article
Honey, Honey.
At
that time, Kathleen Lewis' products were not
available online. Well, we have good news: her
products are now available online at
Rubber-Ducky.com. Check it out!
They put
the "Custom" in Customer
"Custom" is a term frequently used these days by bath and body
merchants. Often, it means that products are scented
with the fragrance of your choice after you place an order.
If you're looking for products that are strictly created for
you, though, it's hard to top the services offered by
BotanicalEarth.com, especially if you're looking for all
natural and/or vegan products.
"We craft for certain
individuals to the degree that we grow the necessary plants
(designated only for them), harvest at the optimum time, prepare
the product, package it in the containers of their choosing, and
express the same day the item is finished."
Their online store offers for sale some of the items they have
been making regularly for custom clients. Personally, I
enjoyed their good-enough-to-eat Oatmeal and Honey Soap.
Sites to
See
There are lots of beauty-related sites out there in
Cyberspace, but, let's face it, some are better than others (I can tell you one reason:
it's a lot of work).
Here are a couple of our favorites:
Heather Kleinman's Cosmetic Connection: Heather is
something of an online beauty pioneer. Her site features
cosmetic reviews written by a diverse panel of contributors.
Before you plunk down your money for makeup or skin care
products, take a look at what this site has to say at
CosmeticConnection.com.
Another fun site is
CybeleSays.com. Visiting this visually-appealing
site is like flipping through a beauty magazine (although not
as obvious, in case you're at work). It's guaranteed to
give you ideas for new products to try.
In the
Works
Coming up soon: an article reviewing
foot care products that
may help you save some money on pedicures this season, and an
article on
tea-scented
bath products (green and otherwise).
Also in the works:
handmade soaps,
natural bath and body products for pregnant women
and the
Elizabeth W line.
Well, that’s about it for now. As always, please e-mail us with
any comments or suggestions.
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