We have a winner!

We used random.org to pick the winner of our very first blog giveaway and it is...

drumroll...

Megan of Mommy Minded, who said:

Congrats to Megan!  She's being emailed imminently and will have 48 hours in which to respond and claim her prize, the "For Your Face" gift pack!

Our First Blog Giveaway!

This contest is closed.

We're feeling like a giveaway to celebrate the release of our new product:

Almond Pastry Facial Scrub

It smells great, is easy to use, and makes skin glow!

What you get out of this is a For Your Face Gift Pack, containing one full size shaker container of this awesome new scrub, one bar of our Purity soap, and one bar of our Oatmeal Honey soap, all great for your face!

You have SIX chances to win!  For each entry, leave a separate comment on this post to let us know, one comment per entry task completed.

Rules:
1.  This giveaway is open to everyone in the U.S. and Canada.
2.  There will be one winner chosen.
3.  The winner will be notified by email, and will have 48 hours in which to respond.  If the winner does not respond, a new winner will be chosen.

**Please make sure you provide a valid email address when entering this giveaway.**

Mandatory Entry:
Please become a follower of this blog, then visit Reef Botanicals and leave a comment on this post telling us what you would love to have from the shop.

Additional Entries:
1.  "Like" Reef Botanicals on Facebook and leave a comment letting us know with your Facebook name.
2.  Follow Reef Botanicals on Twitter and tweet this contest.  You can do this once a day for additional entries.  Just leave a comment for each daily tweet and leave a link to your tweet.  Use this tweet:

Win a "For Your Face" Gift Pack from reefbotanicals.com @ReefBotanicals #giveaway at http://dld.bz/zAUW!!

3.  Post about this contest on your Facebook wall and post the link here in a comment.
4.  Add our badge (from the left sidebar) to your blog or website and leave the link in a comment.
5.  Blog about this giveaway and leave a link to your post here in a comment.

GIVEAWAY ENDS ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, AT 5 P.M. EST.

Glen Rock Street Fair

We're stocking up like crazy (Purity & Healing Tea tonight, plus prepping Smooth Operator for tomorrow), 'cause we're vending at the Glen Rock Street Fair on Sunday!  We plan to make at least two batches of soap tomorrow night, more Friday night, and tons all day Saturday... not to mention scrubs!

I'll be face painting in our booth as well, and our friend Kerry will be there helping us.

We'll be there all day, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., so come find us and meet us, and mostly... come shop!

See you there!

The Words of Others

I decided today that I'd share some of the emails and private messages that we've gotten regarding our products.  I won't bother repeating here the messages you can see on the Reef Botanicals Facebook page, since you can just go there to read them, so these are just private messages we've received.

So... here goes...

"The shaving soap is the BOMB.  Been using crappy razors ... and using them way past when they should've been tossed ... and NOT ONE NICK since I started out using that stuff.  Still have to use conditioner even with your shampoo, but my hair is ridiculously thick and coarse.  BUT ... I got my hair colored right before you sent my package.  I only shampoo about once a week because ... it fades my color like CRAZY and I want to keep the red as long as possible.  So I've used your shampoo about 4x now.  I'm used to seeing the water turn a pinky color when I rinse shampoo out ... and with your shampoo?  NO PINK.  NONE.  Not even on the VERY FIRST WASH after the color.  I am AMAZED.  I'm a hairdresser's kid ... I've used only the very 'best stuff' on the market my entire life.  I've been coloring my hair since I was 14 years old.  And that's NEVER EVER happened."

~Lacey, Oklahoma

"I've been using [Reef Botanicals] shampoo since March.  Still use conditioner and I think that's because it's colored 'cause my hair is fine and short, but I just love it.  Will never go back to anything else and I'm an ex-hairdresser.

On another note I just started using Purity for cleaning [face painting] sponges and man does it rock.  If you aren't using it on your sponges you are surely missing out.  It's great."

~Nora, Texas

"I really do like the Purity.  The dry skin I was having issues with on my hands and the other spots like elbows and feet, has completely eased off.  It works great on our hair too - no tangles!"

"Both mom and I are using Purity soap for our hair.  I don't need to use conditioner either, if I use shampoo I HAVE to use conditioner to get a comb through my short hair!  Works great for us."

~Shannon, Canada

"I got a grease stain on the front of a favorite t-shirt months ago.  Washed it and washed it, pre-soaked it, tried a couple different cleaning sprays, nothing worked.  So I relegated it to wearing around the house.  When I got home from my last gig, the Purity did such a good job on my sponges and brushes that I got to thinking.  What about my t-shirt?  I pulled it out of the laundry basket, wet the bar of soap, and gave the stain a good rubbing.  I let it sit overnight and then washed it in hot water with my regular detergent the next day.  Ta da!  Stain's gone and I get to wear my shirt in public again.

All hail Larissa, Goddess of Clean!"

~Nancy, Virginia

"My order of soaps arrived yesterday.  Thank you for such great service.

As I told you, I was hesitant to try any kind of soap on my face because my skin is so dry and the climate here only adds to it.  Well, I tried the oatmeal honey soap on my face last night and WOW, it was fantastic.  My skin was actually softer afterwards and not dry at all!  I am delighted.  Why don't all soap manufacturers leave out the drying crap?  This is wonderful and I am sold."

~Joan, Arizona

"So, since I spent the whole day decluttering stuff ... I decided to reward myself with a nice, long warm bath scented with  my favorite oils, and finished with [Reef Botanical]'s sham-soap and lemon-sugar scrub.  I SMELL SO GOOD, and I FEEL SO GOOD!  My skin is like velvet.  :)"

~Cindy, Minnesota

"Just wanted to let you know I received my soap and I love it.

The packaging was very nice.  The Cool as a Cuke is my favorite.  Very nice lather, almost no fragrance, and it leaves my hands really soft.  Cleans up the face paint REALLY well on my fingers.  The lavender is nice too, but doesn't seem to lather as well. ... still, very nice and perfect for my guest bath.

I'm sure myself and my family will purchase more.  We love homemade products that are part of the solution for this Earth AND are made by small Mom and Pop businesses here in the USA.  You and Eric have done well.

~Laurie, California

"Today was my husband's birthday and I gave him the shaving products I bought from you.  He loves them, especially the soap!  He says it's the best lathering soap he's ever had, and he's had some expensive stuff before.  Just wanted to let you know.  I'm sure I'll be ordering again!"

~Teresa, North Carolina

My Face

This is me.

Pretty cute, right?  Sorry, had to throw that in there.  Hehe.

As a kid, I had pretty decent skin, even through my teen years. I got lucky.  Sure, once a month or so, I was likely to break out a bit, but for me, "breaking out" meant a bit of an issue on my chin or nose.  Once I hit my 30s, though, my skin changed, much to my dismay.  I'm more prone to a mild rosacea, especially when I'm stressed.  And I'm more prone to dry patches here and there and the occasional breakout.  Still in limited areas, still not a huge deal, but annoying to me.  Like a lot of women, after all, I'm my own worst critic and have a tendency to sometimes examine every millimeter of my face in my light-up magnifying makeup mirror.

Yeah, I'm nuts like that.  You know you are too.  Admit it.

Well, the other day, Eric looked at me and said, "Your face looks better."  And it does.  I noticed it too.  Me, the critic.

What's the difference?

I've been alternating, depending on my whim, between using Purity and Oatmeal Honey as a facial soap, rather than my old fancy facial cleanser (the one that is $32 for 8.3 oz and contains both sulfates and parabens, harsh and potentially harmful chemicals I definitely neither want nor need).  Hm...

Oh, and when I'm not using Purity or Oatmeal Honey, I'm saving time by washing my face in the shower... with my favorite Mock Turtle shampoo bar!  Reef Botanicals shampoo, you see, is just as healthy and harmless as the soap; it's just formulated to be more lathery and have extra hair-healthy ingredients.  That way, it's just as good as any of the other soap for skin, but even more healthy for hair.

With cocoa butter, chamomile, tea tree oil, eucalyptus, sea kelp, and honey, it's bound to be great for both hair and skin.

In fact, we have some customers who save time in the shower by just using their favorite Reef Botanicals shampoo from head to toe!

As for me, I'm curious to see the progress on my own face.  I'll keep you posted.

We've Gone International!

We've had our first two international orders, both from Canada.  It's really kind of exciting.

Both are face painters.  The first, award-winner Shannon Fennell, blogged her experience with our Purity, of which she purchased four bars, sight unseen.  That's commitment!  And then she blogged her thoughts here.

Of course, Shannon had to try Purity on her face painting sponges.  She photographed the results, and I think they're pretty amazing:

That's really something, isn't it?  Its effectiveness doesn't mean it's harsh, though.  Shannon and her mom both have allergies and sensitivities, and neither is experiencing difficulty with the soap.  It's just three ingredients, and we've superfatted it just a bit to ensure that it's not terribly drying.  It's gentle enough that I use it on my face ever day, and I've seen it recommended for washing babies.

Just keep it away from the eyes, of course.  This is old-fashioned soap, and old-fashioned all natural soap with no chemicals will hurt if it gets in your eyes.

At any rate, Shannon's post spurred a second order over the weekend, a face painter in Toronto.  We're officially international!

Many Uses!

Castile soap... I must admit that before I became a soaper, I had no idea what Castile soap was.  Really truly, I was uninformed.  And I was missing out!

I liked my previous facial cleanser.  I really did.  But I didn't read ingredients.  I have read them, just now before writing this post.  It's got sulfates and parabens, both of which have come under scrutiny and both of which are now being avoided by informed skin care consumers.  Plus, it was $32.00 for 8.3 oz!  Yikes!

Now, I use Purity.  And if you read this blog, you know that's the "in" thing to do!  Besides, even if I was buying it instead of making it, at $5/bar and considering how incredibly long a true Castile lasts, it'd be so much more cost effective in addition to being healthier.

But now there's even more to this magic soap!  (No, we don't actually claim the soap does any tricks.  It won't pull bunnies out of hats or disappear in a puff of smoke.  But man, it works really well!)

I've mentioned that I'm also a face painter.  As a result, I have a lot of face painter friends, one of which not long ago espoused the virtues of cleaning his sponges and brushes in a pure Castile soap.  He bought some Purity and raved about its success.  Since then, other face painters have followed suit.

This is what Ashley Pickin had to say about it:

OMG it cleaned my brushes and sponges SO WELL!  Brushes that had been black with Wolfe black for like months came back to a light shade of gray... I couldn't believe it.  I had used all kinds of other stuff on them and they never came that clean!  My golden taklon ones turned back to their golden color!  Amazing!  ... STRONGLY recommend trying that stuff.  It's awesome!

And today, I heard from my friend Cindy, who tested Purity on her face painting sponges last night (and bought a new camera):

First, she hand-washed face painting sponges in a lingerie bag in an unscented liquid hand soap, and got these results:

She pointed out the overall pink tinges of the lighter-colored sponges, which were originally a very light peach, and the pink stains on the formerly white lingerie bag.  She'd spent "a good five minutes squishing, squeezing, resoaping, rinsing and rerinsing these sponges."  They were washed until the water ran clear with the last application of soap, which meant three rounds of soap.


Then, she tested dishwashing liquid, and got this:

They're better and brighter, but the bag is still stained and there's still a good amount of face paint staining the sponges.  She again washed and rinsed until the water ran clear, which took two applications of the dishwashing liquid.

And then she tried again, with Purity Castile soap, and got this:

It took two rounds of soap and they're still a bit stained, but the sponges themselves have returned to their original pale peach color!  They are bright and not nearly so embarrassing for a face painter to pull out of her kit.  And did you notice...?  No stains on the lingerie bag!

Even better, since you know that Purity is safe for use on the face, if there's any residue on the sponges or brushes, it won't hurt anyone if transferred to a face during face painting.  There are no allergens here, since it's completely color-, fragrance-, and additive-free!

This would work for any cleanup, though.  Even though face paint is really makeup and not paint, this would work just as well for oils, acrylics, watercolors... after all, in my many years of art classes I was taught to wash my oil paint brushes with a bar of Ivory.  What could be better than that?  Purity!

We're hip!

We're happening!

If you saw page 24 of the New York Times Magazine on April 5, 2010, you know what I mean.  According to this article, soap, real, honest-to-goodness soap, rather than "cleansers" and other such modern facsimiles made with various detergents, is the way to go.

Seriously!

And the Samurai Shopper is talking about washing faces, not just bodies.  I speak truth!  Observe:

She might as well be talking about Reef Botanicals soaps!  They're olive-oil-based and primarily animal-fat-free. They've got no preservatives, which are unnecessary in olive oil soaps, and use no synthetic fragrance oils.  The Coffee, Cool as a Cuke, Fudge Chunk, Honey Chocolate, Oatmeal Honey, Purity, and Root of the Matter are actually free of all fragrance, even those from essential oils.

I use Purity on my face every day.  That's our pure Castile made from the original Spanish plan:  just olive oil, lye, and deionized water, superfatted just a bit to prevent drying.

The Samurai Shopper also notes the convenience of bar soap in travel.  No more fussing and funneling allowable portions of liquid cleansers into those tiny bottles before dealing with TSA, just throw a bar of soap into a container, and you're off.  The same benefit holds for solid bar shampoos, of course.  If you travel a lot, solid shampoos are the way to go!

New Things

Lots, in fact! New photos of our already-in-circulation products, a change to a current product, and a new product...

First, the photos.  You remember the Cool as a Cuke soap, yes?

How about the Honey Chocolate?  Also, this is a new batch, so the bars are now the same size as our other soaps, rather than being smaller and fatter.

And you can see the Peppermint Pumice Foot Rounds much more clearly now, in their new setting of actual peppermint and the very pumice that's in them.

Last, but definitely not least, Purity has never looked so pure as it does against stark black, showing the Reef Botanicals logo stamp to its greatest advantage.

As for the change in a product we already had, that's the Lavender Soap.  I know, I know, how could we make such a perfect soap any better?  By taking the suggestion of a friend.  I was asked by a friend who knows what he's talking about whether we had any soaps with chamomile or would be making any.  Great idea, I thought, why not make a line of products that include chamomile?  Why not, indeed.

So... our lavender soap now uses chamomile tea as the liquid part of the base (remember, basic soap is oil, liquid, and lye) rather than deionized water.  The tea, of course, is still brewed using deionized water, but it includes all the benefits of chamomile.

The new product?  No photos yet, but as requested, we've now got a feminine/unisex shaving and bath soap!  This soap is based on the same exact recipe as our Clean Cut Shaving and Bath Soap, but the scent is pure lavender essential oil.  As soon as we're able to cut it, I'll show you what our new Smooth Operator Shaving and Bath Soap looks like!

I'm planning to have more news for you tomorrow.  We shall see...

Purity

Why "Purity"?

After all of our experimentation and fanciness, we've gone back to basics.  Our newest soap is a genuine Castile, containing only three ingredients:  olive oil, deionized water, and sodium hydroxide.

This is, therefore, the purest soap there is.  It's the original unadulterated Castile soap.  In fact, because we make our soaps via the hot process method, this is truly the original soap and method.

Granted, it is unlikely that the original makers of soap used crock pots... what with the lack of electricity and all.  It's much more likely that they used a big cauldron over a fire, in fact.  I'll be honest, we're not going to go that way.  We're all for tradition and authenticity, but we've only got twenty-four hours in a day.  Back in the days when the method included cauldron and fire, I'd bet people were pretty much making their own soap for their own families, rather than running businesses like ours.  I'd also bet that the ones who were in business weren't running it over the Internet, so their market was a tad more limited.  Add to that our rather excitable dog and three very curious cats, and an open fire is just not a good idea.

Aside from that, though, and back on-topic, this is the original basic soap.  No scent, no color, no additives at all.  This also makes it vegan, as you can imagine.

This, of course, makes Purity the best soap possible for those with any skin sensitivities or allergies.  Well, if you're allergic to olives, I imagine it's not the best idea.

What's it look like, then?  Well, rather like this:

Pure, creamy white.  Nothing else.  We love it.

It's already available on the Reef Botanicals site, but we will debut its in-person sales on Tuesday evening, at the Clockwork event.  Come visit us!