Creating your Bathing Routine

Bathing has been around since the beginning of time.... and believe it or not, bathing was the social networking of ancient times. people would gather, not only to bathe, but to socialize and close business dealings, and to network.... all at the local bath house. the romans and greeks had the right idea.... exercise, massage, bathe, dip into a hot spring water fall or fountain, rinse with a cold spring.... they dedicated time to a relaxing bathing experience. now..... i know some of you are saying 'i don't have time to dedicate to my bath' but, i assure you, if you carved out time, routinely, to spend on your very own bath ritual.... the benefits would far outweigh losing that extra thirty minutes you cut from somewhere else in your schedule. .... i'm not telling y'all to find an old~fashion bath house..... though, if you are close to hot springs or eureka springs, arkansas, they have some fabulous bath houses that are perfect for learning how to take the best bath of your life!

However basic or extensive your current routine, there are several things you can do, to make your bathing experience better! if you are a quickie~shower~in~the~morning type of girl..... the next time you take a shower, think of ways throughout your process that you can elaborate on, without really 'costing' you anything more.
little indulgences that will give you more bang for the bling::
~grab an essential oil and drop a couple drops of oil into a cloth and take into the shower with you. allow the steam to work with the essential oil to give you an aroma~therapeutic shower. if you shower in the morning, pick something like grapefruit, rosemary, peppermint, or ginger for a jump start to your day or lavender, chamomile, rose, or sandalwood for a shower at night.
~find a fluffy bathrobe to use after your shower..... eco~peeps, please don't flog me..... but, in the winter months, i like to warm up my robe in the dryer while i brew the coffee or grab my bowl of cereal. then, i roll it up very tightly, and wrap it in my bath towel to stay warm. when i get out of the shower, i have a nice warm robe to snuggle up in.
~instead of the telly or early morning rush hour news on the radio....tune into some more balancing, natural tunes. something that resonates with you to really start your day off right

and, if you are a bath junkie like me..... you are probably more in~tune with a bathing ritual like mine. I love a good bubble bath. my bath routine starts with that warm robe.... then i find some tunes {sometimes its chill music, sometimes a little sarah mclachlan, other times michael buble}, and tea lights. PLENTY of tea lights. my favorite candle holders for a bubble bath are the ones that hold multiple tea lights. tea lights are perfect because they are affordable, burn just long enough, and with the affordability factor, you can afford to have any size candle glow you like!

~draw the perfect temperature bath..... one too hot can actually get your blood pressure up, which isn't good if you are intending to relax! and one alittle on the cooler side will actually be energizing..... you need one 'just right'....
~if i'm needing a good exfoliation, i grab my favorite body scrub and buff away.

once done, whether shower or bath, now is the best time to moisturize....the skin is ready to accept a moisturizer, and it works with the humidity of the bathroom to sink in. remember, if you are moisturizing during this time, you actually need less lotion or body cream, so start off with a little. it's always easier to grab more, if needed, then trying to massage in too much!

Welcome to the First.....

...of many Make~Up Mondays!

ok. so we have had our new make~up listings up for less than 48 hours and we've already sold 6 pieces! i'm so so so excited to share our mineral make~up with our customer~friends! i am having so much fun shopping for ingredients and then mixing and blending away in our studio with all the fun new colors! LOVE.IT. So, on mondays i will be blogging about our newest listings, doing reviews of brushes i come across {i already have a fabulous brush set to show you all next week!}, and maybe even some surprise guest spots for other handmade make~up reviews. for today's bloggity goodness, i want to tell you about our new lip gloss!

Really, it was just a matter~of~time after playing in the lip tints, for us to go one step further and fine~tune a recipe for equally delish lip glosses! We started out with the same formula as our lip tints, added more shea butter, a bit of jojoba oil, some sweet almond oil, and then castor oil for fabulous shine. The glosses never leave your lips sticky....and when the gloss fades the color stays!



And, true to our nature, we have picked a delicious flavor for each of the colors! there's red hot red with the fabulously spicy flavor of red hots, rich garnet flavored with pomegranate, champagne flavored with frosted raspberries....oh the list goes on! Feel free to stop by the shop and check out all the new things! blessings, ophelia

Merry Christmas!

......and happy holidays! we had originally planned to go to visit family today....but, with the icy road conditions, and a car that is still acting wonky, we decided it best to stay home. while i am sad about not seeing the family, i'm happy to be spending it at home with the fur~babies and taking a break from the studio! We are enjoying reflecting back over the last year, and thinking about all the 'presents' we were given and are thankful for. We are pretty content with all we have been given this year..... we had over 4000 sales this year on etsy, a candle feature in an international home decor magazine/ezine, lots of wholesale accounts, many customers turned friends, a fun trip to LA to see one of the brick and mortars that carry ophelia's and getting to meet dear online friends, getting an early christmas present wii to have a bit of fun and friendly competition with each other after long days at the studio, new friends, and moving the business from our home and getting our house BACK! oh, i did forget one MAJOR thing, our health and happiness! we are so so thankful for everything this year has given us and so happy to get to continue doing what we love! Thank you to all of you who believe in us, support us, love us, and to those who make us laugh and smile.....you all rock! Hope your holidays are bright and beautiful.....love, ophelia

We Made It!

wow.....our first real christmas on etsy......whew! let me be the first to tell you, it was crazy! leading into the holiday rush, we were fortunate enough to have several big features. this started the craziness the first couple of weeks of november....and it didn't let up until just this last monday! so, with our extra time on our hands this week, we have been resting, and spending quality time with the fur~babies. We also had our first home~cooked meal since before my trip to LA in October! We are so very thankful to all our holiday shoppers and customers who have made this last year wonderful! This downtime has lead us into thinking about what our goals are for the next year.....and of course, we want it to be even more fabulous than this last year! ......so, it's time to put some goals into place!

and these are in no specific order, just things i have on my mind going into the new year!

~get organized. the seasonal frenzy around the christmas holiday was only exacerbated by the fact that we moved into our new production studio and business office the very first week of november. we NEVER would have survived this holiday if we had not moved. but, with that timing came obstacles of having no time to get things exactly how we wanted them in the new space. so, we are going to be spending some time getting everything just right to be more productive in the new year. One of our biggest organizational projects is getting the labels back under control! i know that many people don't think about the time it takes and the organizational task our labels require, but, it's a monster that could easily be a full~time job for someone! we have thousands of labels to design, cut out, and organize on a regular basis, and i plan on utilizing some of the quieter times to tackle this big mess we call 'the labels' we have cabinets like the one shown here, but, as our product line grows with the addition of mineral make~up, we will likely be adding more. you can find this wonderful cabinet at UnexpectedParTie on etsy!

~mineral make~up expansion! ok, funny story. i've been playing around in mineral make~up for awhile. and, really, just hesitating about making the leap. not out of fear of it not being successful, but more out of not wanting to commit to it yet, when we were trying to also focus on getting existing orders fulfilled, managing the move to the studio, and trying to get our turnaround times looking better....which THAT is a whole other goal we will talk about later! recently, though, we went to the ONE and only holiday function i could commit myself to, in this crazy season, and because i didn't have my 'color' of foundation on hand, i grabbed a foundation from a local drugstore. fifteen minutes into the function, my partner says 'your face is green! why is your jaw green?!?!' well, most of you know that i'm on a million medications, and one of them can cause major jaw problems resulting in serious infections. so, within 20 minutes time, as my jaw is turning more green by the minute, a gathering of about 6 people have all determined that i simply MUST get to my doctor's office straight away. all of this stress caused perspiration, to which i dabbed at with a paper towel. my green face was now coming off on the towel. yep. my chemistry, which is so delicate to body care and make~up, was now reacting with the so~called all~natural mineral makeup from physicians formula that i picked up so conveniently at CVS. moral of this story, only use OUR tried and true stuff, then my face won't turn green! We've already started listing our new hand~blended minerals in the shop, with many more colors coming soon!

and finally, but certainly not the last goal for the new year, but probably our most important and urgent goal, is focusing on turn~around time. this last season, we were behind most of the time, and we are so thankful to all of you who patiently waited! we are going to focus on fine~tuning our processes so that we can deliver the same fabulous quality, in less time! {you can find this fabulous clock at LucyandEllen on etsy}


add to these goals, two additional 'little' tasks....phbbbblt {insert raspberry here}, i am promising to TRY to keep up the blog better, and updates via our mailing~list.....i know. this is always part of my new year's resolutions, and, since we all know resolutions are made to be broken, i'm NOT putting them on the resolution list this year. nope! instead, they are flat out added to the goals for the first quarter. remember, it takes 21 days to make a habit....or so Mr. Harris, my high school science teacher said, so, you may get sick of all the blogging, networking, and overall shameless promotion, but, if i don't get started, it can't become a habit!

so, here's to a fabulous beginning in 2011....both personally and professionally, and i look forward to creating many more wonderful treats for us all to be pampered with in the new year! blessings, love, and light, ophelia