Category: feedback

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Lotion Formulations – 01 Feb 2021

These are the formulations presently being tested:

Lotion No. 10a is made with meadowfoam, mineral, and jojoba oils, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, BTMS, and allantoin. Scented with Litsea Cubeba. Litsea is a refreshing, rejuvenating essential oil with a lemony aroma.

Lotion No. 11a is made with macadamia nut, hempseed, and jojoba oils, stearic acid, BTMS, and allantoin. Scented with a blend we call Musk Rose.

Lotion No. 12a is made with fractionated coconut oil, monoi butter, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, and BTMS. Scented with Monoi. Monoi oil is derived from the Tiare flower, also known as the Tahitian Gardenia.

Lotion No. 13a is made with fractionated coconut and tamanu oils, isopropyl myristate, olive squalane, stearic acid, BTMS, and allantoin. Scented with rosemary. The tamanu oil has a unique earthy smell of its own.

The Tamanu oil, used in No. 13a,  is reputed to have special healing qualities, as does olive squalane. That said, all of the oils we use are chosen for some skin friendly quality.

Lotion No. 14a is made with walnut, olive, and jojoba oils, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, emulsifying wax, and allantoin. Scented with  Rockrose (Cistus ladanifer essential oil).

Lotion No. 15a is made with cocoa butter, fractionated coconut and jojoba oils, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, emulsifying wax and BTMS, glycerin, sodium lactate, chamomile hydrosol, calendula extract, and allantoin. Scented with a blend of German and Roman chamomile and helichrysum essential oils.

Lotion No. 16a is made with shea butter, walnut and jojoba oils, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, emulsifying wax and BTMS, glycerin, rose hydrosol (rose water), silk amino acids, and allantoin. Scented with sandalwood essential oil.

Lotion No. 17a (samples only at this time) is made with karanja, shorea, andirobab, and nigella seed oils, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid, emulsifying wax and BTMS, glycerin, rose hydrosol (rose water), and colloidal oatmeal. Scented with rose geranium essential oil.
(Note that although we are sending this out for testing I am concerned that some may not care for the unique smell of the karanja and nigella seed oils. It may only be that I smell them because I know they are there. I won’t sell this though until we get some feedback. If you like the smell of rose, which is evident in both the rose water and the lovely Bourbon variety geranium we use, you may really like the powdery feel of the colloidal oatmeal coupled with the skin-friendly glycerin. Nigella seed (aka black cumin seed) oil is supposedly very healing, by the way, and Karanja too. – John)

  • Vitamin E and a preservative/germicide is added to each lotion.
  • All (at this time) have a medium consistency, neither thick nor thin, although there is some variance between them. ANY lotion we make can be thickened if desired.
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Ongoing Testing of Lotion Formulations

I want to take a moment to explain why, after numerous formulations, we continue to test lotion recipes and have not yet settled on a single one or two. The simple answer is that we want to make the best lotion there is, using natural ingredients as much as possible, and feel like there is still room for improvement.

Since we formulate everything here it is easy to make changes, send product out for review, and compare the feedback to previous results. We will continue doing this into the next few months.

We really appreciate the enthusiastic response we get from our testers. Thank you always for your support.

— John

18 Nov 2020

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Alma-Clean in Square Bottles – Wow!

Square Bottles – Wow! – Yes, that’s meant to be humor.

We had such good sales of Alma-Clean this season that we ran through all one hundred of our 8 fluid ounce round bottles. Admittedly, that is a good problem to have. We had another hundred square bottles however, so we modified our labels to work on them until we get more round bottles in-stock. Same stuff, same size, just a different bottle. I can’t imagine anyone really cares one way or the other, but if you do have a preference I would be curious to know.

We did take the opportunity to note on the side of the “new” label that Alma-Clean is great for freshening scarves and knit caps – just a capful in a sink of cool water is all it takes. Soak, rinse, and hang to dry.

I love winter because I get to wear all the nice scarves I have, but they inevitably need a good freshening, even for a soapman.

Thank you all for your business this year!

John, still in Minnesota

Oh, and yes, I take all the photos here, including the bad staging. You are all kind to never make fun of it… although you can if you want! I make fun of everything!