Soapy Hollow

The Breakthrough in Beauty 2009 global search is now actively accepting and reviewing submissions.

Beauty entrepreneurs can submit innovative beauty products and ideas for consideration to become the next $100 million beauty brand.

The annual Breakthrough in Beauty search identifies the top innovative new beauty products in the world. After evaluating thousands of promising entries, the winner of the search receives an infusion of resources to vault the winning product from obscurity and into the mainstream.

Breakthrough in Beauty invests $3-5 million to launch the product to market, with an additional $50 million in advertising to secure its success.

“Breakthrough in Beauty represents a new, more personal era in beauty retailing,” explained Marina Randolph, Founder of Breakthrough in Beauty. “By continually searching for and accepting only the very best in undiscovered concepts, incubating them and providing them with growth opportunities and guidance, we enable innovators to thrive. Their products become irreplaceable and more importantly, accessible in woman’s lives.”

This year’s search emphasizes color cosmetics products. Products that feature advanced technology as well as anti aging benefits or a natural appeal are also being sought.  A panel of judges representing experts and leaders in the beauty industry will help evaluate submissions and select the final winner.

This year’s panel will feature a renowned color chemist, a top magazine beauty editor, a nationally recognized dermatologist and a world- class beauty branding expert.   All submissions will receive valuable feedback from the expert panelists on the products, which would typically only be available at a premium cost for consultation.

Product Partners Chairman and CEO Carl Daikeler explains the five key benefits of submitting a product proposal for consideration.

“Applicants’ business proposals will be analyzed by a panel of industry experts and will receive free feedback,” he says.  “Then, the winning entry will receive funding for product development and testing, as well as advertising and marketing support to create global brand awareness. And, the winning applicant will have the opportunity for endless earning potential.”

By submitting a product proposal, the expert panel of judges will analyze the plans, provide specific feedback on strengths and weaknesses, and work with applicants to improve plans.

Up and coming beauty visionaries can submit their products until August 30, 2008.

The following links all open PDF windows:

Product Submission Form

Application Form

FAQ

Even those of us who are wise in years, and experienced business operators get scammed.  It’s way more embarrassing, because by dint of graying temples and crone stick of wizened wisdom, we expect ourselves to be smarter than that.  But draw your chairs closer children, and I’ll tell you the sad story of how I let myself get taken.

Patricia Belgrave sent out emails to a targeted list of mid-scale soap manufacturers offering to let us buy out the remainder of her warehouse because she was closing shop in September.  Because the message purportedly came from within the soapers community, I didn’t do the due diligence I usually take when sourcing a vendor.

Lesson learned: Always do due diligence on your supply chain.  Never buy anything to do someone a “favor”.

After a month of placing an order, and paying their PayPal invoice, I still hadn’t received any product.  I emailed them, and the mail bounced.  I emailed their paypal email address, and asked for either tracking information or a refund, and there was no response.  I called their phone number which had been disconnected.

*facepalm*

I filed a dispute with PayPal, which was eventually decided in my favor.  Unfortunately, PayPal won’t reimburse you for claims if the company has emptied the paypal account, which this person did long before any of us with claims got through the mandatory claim time.

Lesson Learned: PayPal is not as safe as Visa or Mastercard, both of which would have reversed the charges. PayPal says “Yeah, sorry to hear that. Sucks to be you.” I need to find a new payment processor for the SoapyHollow shopping cart.

So, to save other from suffering the same sort of loss, and the embarrassment of getting scammed, I give you all of the information on these folks that I can find.

Doing business as; Wholesalershub

Also doing business as: EssentialsbyShishas

Also doing business as:: The Upper Room Bath & Body Basics

(Addresses, emails, phone numbers after the cut.)

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A former L’Oreal executive has accused the company of using ingredients in markets where they are banned and of selling products that contain unlawfully high levels of preservatives.

Jerome Chevalier, the former head of regulatory affairs for L’Oreal, claims that he was harassed and ultimately dismissed by L’Oreal USA after he complained about the company’s allegedly unlawful activities. According to Chevalier, products from the company’s Maybelline range containing dibutyl phthalate were being sold in South America, where the ingredient is banned. (Note that the US hasn’t banned it, nor has the FDA banned most of the other dangerous chemicals in American mass-market cosmetics. )

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Everybody loves bath bombs. It’s like taking a bath in champagne, only without the show tunes and chorus boys. They are fairly simple to make, keeping in mind that the strangest things can make a batch go weird; humidity, room temperature, oil viscosity, the moon rising in the seventh house of Aquarius…they are a mysterious wonder.

For this recipe, I’m using ingredients that are pretty common, or easy to find in most areas. Essential oils can be found in small amounts at places like health food stores and craft stores often carry essentials and fragrances. Just make sure, if you buy fragrance oi, that you’re buying “body safe” oils and not stuff for candles.

So, let’s start with a basic recipe in two parts.

Dry ingredients:

• Baking Soda - 8 ounces
• Citric Acid - 4 ounces
• Corn Starch - 4 ounces
• Salts - 4 ounces ( in these pictures, I used Dead Sea Salts, but mineral salts work too, and are easier to find and significantly less expensive.)

Wet Ingredients:

• Water - .75 tbsp
• Essential or Fragrance Oil - 2 tsp (for these I used a Ginger Peach.)
• Oil - 2.5 tbsp (I used cherry kernel, but any light vegetable oil will work.)
• Food coloring - 1 or 2 drops. (Your color will look very dark in the emulsion, but will be light in the fizzies, so as to not leave rings around the tub. For this batch I used one drop red and two drops yellow. The final result will be very light peach.)

Step One:
	Begin by putting all of your dry ingredients into a big bowl. Glass is best because it’s non-reactive. Whisk or pestle those pesky clumps out. You want a fairly smooth consistency throughout the entire mix.
Step Two:
	Blend your wet ingredients together. I usually use a small jar and shake it up. Don’t worry about separation too much, you’re not going to get a full emulsion. Then, while whisking, slowly add small amounts of the liquid to your dry ingredients. Here we see my faithful Igor prepare to pour.
	If the mixture starts to foam, you’re going too fast. Quickly whisk the reacting ingredients into the nonreactive part and you should be able to stop the reaction. I add about a teaspoon at a time. When all of the wet ingredients have been added, you should have a mixture with the consistency of slightly damp sand. It should clump together.
Step Three:
	Once your mixture is together, you have a pretty limited amount of time in which to get it into molds. To create the giant Soapy Hollow ball of bath doom, I use round christmas tree ornaments that were designed to be filled with goodies. To do a three-dimensional bomb like these, you pack each side, then overfill a tad and the center and press the two sides together. It takes a little practice to get a feel for how much “filling” you need, so don’t get discouraged if your first couple fall apart. Here we see Igor holding a filled ball.
Step Four:
	You don’t need to leave them in the mold for very long, and in fact can tap them out as soon as you fill them. These are four bombs we made with this batch.
	You can use all sorts of things to make your fizzies; muffin tins, ice cube trays, candy molds, Aunt Magnolia’s denture case…whatever makes you happy. This batch didn’t make quite enough for five bombs, and it started reacting, so I quickly stuffed what was left of the batch into my “bath cookies” mold. When using objects that surround the seltzer mix, the mix must stay in the object until dry, or it will crumble when you try to take it out. This is what the bath cookies look like after spending the night in the mold.
Step Five:
	Once they are completely dry, store bath bombs in an airtight container or bag. High humidity will make them activate. Because we used oil and water and no preservatives, you want to use them within about 6 months. Assuming you can keep them for that long. Igor demands payment in immediate fizzy baths, but you may have better luck actually getting to *use* yours. When you’re ready to use one, just drop it into a warm bath, and relax.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, starting at 1 p.m. EST for interested stakeholders to provide an open forum to solicit feedback on the establishment of the BioPreferred voluntary labeling program.  This program will allow USDA to authorize manufacturers and vendors of qualifying biobased products to use a “USDA Certified Biobased Product” label.

For those of us who make our soap using primarily biobased products, and who would prefer to be able to easily source our organic and sustainable growth oils, and who would benefit from being able to use both the label and the preferred procurement channels, this may be worth spending an hour or two on the phone.

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