NEW Blog!

Watch this space!! R.D. Apothecary Blog

I'll be updating the new blog with news about product release dates and such! This is exciting!!

New Names??

Just playing around! *smile*

New products, new name?

I've been working on some new facial creams, and I'd like to redesign my labels to go with them. While I was working on that... I had a thought... maybe my shop needs a new name.




A new name will take great consideration, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make a change. Changing over the Etsy should should be fairly easy, but I'd have to also start a new twitter, blog, AND facebook fanpage. All of that would be... less easy. haha!


So that is what is on my mind ... to change the name, or not. If I discover the perfect name, then I think I'll go for it. Until then I am still happy with Bella. *smile*


New Name Brainstorming


Pixie Potions
Rose Dawn Apothecary
Rown Apothecary
Keller Soap Co.
Keller Apothecary

Nature's Love





What do you think? Should I consider the name change? Like any of the name ideas above? Got your own idea? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

One for the guys?

I'm so girly sometimes, I forget that guys like pampering goodies too. Of course, they don't say things like pampering, or goodies ... but you get the gist.

So I've been brainstorming a way to offer my products to the guys, but without it looking too girly, OR having my company name too large (that was a complaint from some guys, that it said BELLA Bath & Body much too large lol).

I have several sexy men's fragrances, but my favorite is going to debut as Dapper Dan.  Tobacco and black tea are the dominate notes with hints of fruit and  spice. It's a bit mysterious, sexy and old fashioned (in a good way!). 

This is what I've come up with.

Shower Gel, Shampoo, Bar Soap, Shaving Oil or Creme... maybe Soaking Salts? I'm undecided how far to extend the men's line... but I do like the name! Dapper Dan... the picture is Mark Twain! hehe He's so gentlemanly looking... I love it!

Tell me what you think! I love to hear my customers thoughts, good & bad!

Do you think your man would use this? Does this fragrance sound like something your man would like?

Soap is not Shampoo

I think when people decide they want to use natural skin care products, the first obstacle they come up against is how to care for their hair. There are an abundance of natural hair care products and methods out there, I'm just going to share with you my views on the matter.


I have naturally curly hair, and I have had great success in the "no poo" method, which I found in the book Curly Girl. If you have naturally curly hair, and want to wear it natural, I highly recommend this book!


After a while, I felt my hair could benefit from an occasional shampoo, but what to use? I was already well into making soap and lotions at that time, and thought I'd research natural hair care products. This is when I came across some information that I'd never heard before. Soap, real soap, is bad for your hair. Hmm. So many of the natural hair products I found were shampoo soap bars, castille liquid soaps and the like. How could this be?


Well, it's true, some people do have great success in washing their hair with real soap. It's not the best thing for it. The pH of most castile soap ranges between 9 to 11. This high pH causes the cuticle cells of hair to swell up and get rougher which can leave your hair looking dull and lifeless. Additionally, castile soap often leaves "soap scum" on your hair, leaving behind deposits of calcium and magnesium.


I then realized that some of the shampoo bars I'd found where not real soap, but in fact syndent bars made with surfactants. This is the type of shampoo bar I eventually developed. 


The mild sufactants I used produce abundant lather, clean gently and all are eco-friendly! I'm now working on a liquid shampoo & conditioner for the store using gentle surfactants and botanical extracts. 

Yumm Sauce & Bowl!

I just love cooking simple & colorful dishes! Bowls are one of my favorite things to eat (sounds weird, but hopefully you know what I mean! lol). The combinations are endless, but I'm going to share with you the bowl (and sauce) I made tonight.

In Oregon there is a very small chain of resturanuts called Cafe Yumm. I have to say right now, I've actually never been to one! lol! A location recently opened in Portland though, so SOON I'm going to check it out!

I found out about Yumm when I was browsing sauces at Whole Food's looking for something yummy to add to a rice bowl dish. I saw the Yumm sauce, the name sounded cute, it looked tasty, and so I tried it! Mmm, it was love at first bite! It's creamy, spiced but not hot and very refreshing tasting. The jarred sauce was a bit spendy though, and since I like to cook I thought I'd scour the internets for a recipe.

I found this, and with only a couple of minor tweaks it became perfection!

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almonds (I chopped them roughly before adding)*
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (must be nutritional, not bread or brewers yeast)
1/2 cup garbanzo beans
1/2 cup silken tofu (the original recipe called for soybeans)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
dash of dried basil, or several fresh basil leaves

*if you can find it, you can use almond flour for a smoother sauce. Or pre-grind the almonds until they are almost powder.

Dump everything into the food processor and whirl away until relatively smooth! 

Mmm, lookin tasty! You should end up with your sauce looking something like this...

This sauce works great on rice bowls, over eggs, as a salad dressing, veggie dip, sandwich spread... it's very versatile! Be sure to make this ahead of time, because it needs at least an hour in the fridge to let the flavors mingle. You can also add water if you feel it's too thick, but I like it like that.

I used my freshly made sauce to create a classic Yumm Bowl (with added eggs as per my daughters request).

My Yumm Bowl Recipe 

Cooked rice (any kind you like, this time we used Basmati, reg. white or brown rice works great too)

Black beans

Scrambled eggs

Grated cheddar cheese

Sliced olives

Diced avocado

Pico de Gallo salsa

Yumm Sauce

Sour cream

First cook your rice. While that's going I get the rest of the ingredients ready. Slice the olives, dice the avocado, scramble the eggs and grate the cheese. Once the rice is ready, assemble in any order you like, and chow down! 

If you try this recipe, let me know how you liked it! I think it works equally well on cold & hot days, it takes minimal prep (which I love) and travels well to work too! Enjoy!

Heartsy!

I'm so happy with my Heartsy experience! They were an awesome group to work with, I gave my customers a GREAT deal, and hopefully earned some new business in the process!

It was a great experience, and if you're looking for some exposure, new customers, or just want to give your customers a great deal, check out Heartsy!

I also made my first Heartsy purchase, and I'm so excited about it! Now I'm checking out Heartsy almost every day to see what new deals they've got.

Thanks again Heartsy! <3

Lots of new goodies!

Hi all :)

I've got lots of new goodies in the shop, & coming your way soon! First up, new face care products! I have a new cleansing face scrub, made with creamy whipped soap, camellia seed oil, vit e, and scrubby apricot kernel seeds and adzuki bean powder!

I've also added organic essential oils of lavender & tea tree to help heal and balance troubled complexions.

Next up I've got 2 new DRY face masks. First, Chocoholic's Therapy!

Made with real dark cocoa powder, kaolin clay and creamy coconut milk powder! This is formulated for most all skin types!

Next DRY face mask is Revitalizing Papaya!

Perhaps for most all skin types, but especially beneficial for oily and problem skin! Made with real papaya extract and creamy coconut milk for a skin pampering experience!

Check out the shop to see all my new products! Take care lovelies & hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Cooking 101

Hi everyone!

So this post will be a bit of a departure from the norm around here. I usually talk about my soaping adventures (or disasters! lol), my Etsy shop and product ideas and so on. Today I'm going to post about... food!

I don't necessarily consider myself a foodie (well... maybe just a little bit, lol) and I've never had any formal training, I just love to cook! I like experimenting, and I'll often just make things up as I go along. I understand that can be hard for people who feel they can't cook, but it's honestly very easy.

Unless this begins to take over, I'm planning on writing foodie posts every so often. I like sharing my food pictures on my Facebook, and I thought hey... why not share recipes too!

A couple of my fav ways to create dinners are "bowls" or "fancy salads" ... this is also a great way to get kids to eat loads of veggies I've found!

With a bowl, it usually starts with rice (sometimes noodles) then I add a variety of things, depending on what's in the fridge. Chopped tomatoes, chopped avocado, grated cheddar, varies salsas, black beans, grilled chicken, fresh cilantro, broccoli florets, red onion... as you can see, the combinations are virtually endless! It's yummy, satisfying and can be eaten hot or cold. Mmm!

Fancy salad is my fav lunch, or hot summer day dinner... starts with various lettuce and spinach leaves. Next add any combination of the following .... chopped tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced hard boiled egg, grated cheddar, blue cheese crumbles, crumbled bacon, grilled chicken strips, mini corn (Is that what it's really called? I'm not sure.. lol), sliced olives, various salsas, black beans, crutons, and any dressing you like. This also makes a super satisfying meal, and is very filling! Sorry, no pics of the fancy salad at this time... we always devour them, and then I think... oops, forgot to snap a pic! Oh well, next time!

If there's interest in learning my recipes and cooking style, I might make a separate blog for that. For now, enjoy and if you try a yummy bowl, or fancy salad, let me know!

Soaping Disaster!

Oh man I had a soaping disaster last night! lol It's funny now, but wow was I feeling frustrated last night!

First, I haven't soaped in a couple of weeks. I've been busy with the start of the new school term, and then I've been sick, and felt too weak and dizzy to try and soap. Over the weekend I began feeling much better, so last night I got out my equipment and began.

I decided to make Honeysuckle soap, since honeysuckle and lilac got the votes on my scent poll. :o) First disaster, I spilled the bottle of fragrance. On the kitchen floor. It smells faintly floral in there now. ha!

So I grabbed the bottle of lilac fragrance, and violet soap coloring and got to work. On a whim (never a good idea once the soap is cooking!) I decided to add titanium dioxide to the batch, to hopefully, give it a more pastel look.

Second mistake! This caused my soap to heat up so fast, and become a thick, pasty mess that when I tried to add my color it didn't want to incorporate. Grrr.

All in all, the soap got into the mold, smelling like lovely lilac, but looking rather like .... mud. lol

We shall see, colors often change slowly over a period of days/weeks so it may turn out all right yet. Fingers crossed! If the color does NOT pretty up, then I'll offer this soap at a discount, it smells great, and will work just wonderfully, it just won't be so pretty to look at. lol

I think I'll soap another Spring/Summer scent today, maybe Blue Hawaii! Mmmm, I love that fragrance. :)

Fingers crossed no disasters this time!

Giveaway over on Little Chief Honeybee!

Go check it out! Kaelah is having a giveaway on her blog LittleChiefHoneybee and she's giving away a really cool, Lomography fisheye camera! It takes amazing looking photos! Check out her blog for a couple examples! :) If you have a minute, follow her blog and enter the contest! You won't be sorry, her blog is the cutest! 


Talk to ya later friends! 

Hello friends!

My poor neglected blog! lol I had some good posts planned, and then wow I got busy! I guess that happens! Sorry blog. *sad face*

I'm just heading into finals week, so I probably won't be back here until after that! But, when I do, I think it's time for another contest!! I tried doing one on Facebook, and well... it didn't go so well! LOL

I do have plans for some lovely Spring products, as well as plans to expand my hair care line, with more scents, and a couple new products. Yay!

I mentioned this on Facebook, but I also have plans for a Princess style line of goodies. *grin* I saw Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst) and just loved it! All the beautiful colors and frills and girly-ness was just inspiring! So stay tuned for that! *wink*

Also Mother's Day gift ideas will be popping up soon as well!

Take care everyone & see ya after finals!

Giveaway over at Little Chief Honeybee!

So first off, this is probably the cutest blog, made by the cutest girl on the internet. :D Now that that's out of the way.... go check it out! She's having a giveaway this month, and the prize is sweeeeeeeeet! A flip cam! It's super cute, and looks like tons of fun! Go follow her blog and comment to enter!

Little Chief Honeybee



Ok, back to your regularly scheduled programming. *grin*

So busy!

I haven't been meaning to ignore my poor blog! *sad face*

School and life have been keeping me busy! If you've been checking out my shop, I have added a few new products lately! *smile* Face care is in the shop, as well as the first round of hair care offerings! My plan this weekend is to work on more hair care products, and face mask options (course my plans, and reality don't always mesh lol) I've added some new perfumes, and lip balms as well!

Spring is on the way in the PNW and that sure makes me happy! The sun was very welcome today, even if it didn't exactly WARM much. hehe

Finally!

Yay! Face care products are now available in the shop!

I'm really excited to offer this to everyone, I've been testing face care for a long time now! hehe I still have just a couple more face products to introduce, including a blemish gel and dry face mask powders! Yay!

Also, I'll be adding all the hair care products over the weekend, and next week (depending on how much time I have to take and edit pics! lol) I'll be offering shampoo bars, conditioner bars, liquid conditioners, and a protein hair mist, which I looooove!

What does "natural" mean? and How I formulate my products!

So I was thinking about this after browsing the Bath & Beauty section of Etsy & Amazon.. ( I love to check out other's creations, and look for packaging inspiration! lol) So many products are claiming to be "all natural" or "eco-friendly", but what does that really mean?

Legally, anyone can use the word "natural", there are no regulations or rules regarding the word. The word "organic" IS regulated, and products must be submitted for certification to legally be called "organic".

To me, natural means, minimally processed. Frankly, just about everything use use, eat or wear has to be processed at least a little bit. I try to buy my supplies with this in mind, such as unrefined shea butter instead of the ultra refined, modified shea butter for example.

I also buy organic ingredients whenever possible. Right now I'm using organic coconut oil, shea butter, avocado oil, and all of my essential oils are organic.

~
I like to formulate with the products intention in mind. I choose oils, butters, and all my ingredients based on 2 things. What the product is for, and how I want it to feel. By making my products from scratch, I can control what does into them, and I opt NOT to use fillers, or extra "pointless" ingredients to bulk out my formulas.

I also make small batches, so when you order a product from me, it's fresh! Nothing sits around very long, eliminating the need for extra, or paraben based preservatives.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment, or shoot me a convo on Etsy!

Milestone Giveaway!

It's contest time! I'm celebrating reaching 200 sales on Etsy! 

To enter this contest you must be:

A Facebook fan of Bella Bath & Body

Resident of the USA (sorry!)

How to enter:

Write a blog post about my Etsy shop! Review a product you've tried, or maybe discuss why you love handmade beauty products. Be sure to include a link to my shop in your write up. Come back here and post a link to your blog post!

Create a Youtube video about my Etsy shop! Same as the blog post, you can talk about my products you've tried, your fav scents or anything related to my shop! :) Be sure to add a link to my shop in your vid details, then come back here and post your video! 

*****

Invite your friends! There will be three, count em... THREE winners! 

*1st Place winner will receive 2 bars of soap in the scent of their choice, 1 body butter in the scent of their choice AND 2 lip balms in the flavors of their choice! 

*2nd Place winner will receive 1 bar of soap in the scent of their choice & 1 lip balm in the flavor of their choice! 

*3rd Place winner will receive 1 lip balm in the flavor of their choice!

*****

On Feb. 15th, 2011 I'll use Random.org to choose the winners! For your entry to count, you must comment here! 

*You may enter one time, in each category. You do not need to enter in both, if you only do one that's just fine*

Good luck friends! :) 

New style Pics!

I've been experimenting with new picture styles! What do you think?

Lip Scrub

Solid Massage Melt

Natural Deodorant Bar

I'm still not sure if this kind of picture will work with my colorful labels. Labels are something I'm forever tweaking with and changing tho.. lol

What do you think? Better? Worse? Eh?

Hope everyone's had a good Monday! (Is there such a thing? lol)

New Look!

Well I've been experimenting with a New Look for the blog! What do you think?
Pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself! *wink*

The sale is still on, so hurry over to the shop to snap up a deal while it lasts! This is the last sale for a while, fyi. *smile*

Hair products WILL be debuting in Spring, along with the rest of the All Natural Face Care line! Wooo! It's been a long time coming, but I wanted to be sure I'm offering the very best products I can. *smile*

Hope everyone's doing well, and stayed tuned for sneak peeks of the new products as I get ready to add them to the shop!

Surprise SALE!

Yay! All products in my shop are currently marked down by 20%!!!

Grab a great deal while it lasts!

*Includes Holiday & Limited Edition products*

Torn

I want to offer hair care products, but I'm torn on what kinds of formulations to use!

First off, I'm undecided if I want to offer liquid shampoos and conditioners, or solid. I love both styles, and each has their advantages. Which kind do you prefer???

My second stumbling block is how many kinds ... I have endless fragrance options, but what I'm wondering is... should I use my in-between, good for most people, formula, or should I do several ... a dry hair, oily hair & normal hair formulas? I'm really thinking I can make an excellent formula that will work for most people ... after all, the girls and I are all using the same formula right now, and each of us has very different hair. Ok, I think I just answered my own question. lol I'd still love to hear your thoughts about this!

Be on the lookout!

Are you on my Mailing List?

If not, you better sign up quick! :D A special coupon code is going out to all those on my mailing list, VERY SOON!

Please feel free to share the code with friends and family, and while you're at it, point them in the direction of my Facebook page or Blog! :)

I've been busy working on Valentine's Day products and scents, and I'm so excited! Hey, I may be single, but I can still fully appreciate "Love Day"! :)

I'm also working on a re-design of all my labels, banners, etc. and it's proving to be harder than I thought! lol I'm torn between what kind of new look I'd like to go with .... Vintage Glam, or Retro Chic? Decisions, decisions!

Until next time!

Sneak Peek!

Introducing a brand new product .... In-Shower Body Butter!

This is kind of amazing stuff, and I'm SO excited to share it with everyone! I have two scents to offer at the moment, with more on the way!

Basically you use it like lotion, but in the shower! After you've washed, and scrubbed, take a small pinch of In-Shower Body Butter and rub it along your wet skin. The water will activate the lovely butters and oils to intensely condition and deeply hydrate your skin. Sweet!!

Featuring Macadamia Nut Oil, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter & Mango butter! Wow!

Visit my shop and check it out!

Giveaway from Miss Demented!

Ok, so Miss Demented is an amazing seller from Etsy! She makes wigs and extensions, as well as hair and body sprays and amazingly cute jewelry!

She's having a contest to celebrate 400 fans on her facebook page!

See here about entering the contest!

I've bought two wigs from her, and I love them both so much! I'm currently deciding on which to make my third and fourth! lol

I own Chocolate Butternut, and Bruises. They are both beautiful, soft, and incredibly real looking. :) I've never had such beautiful hair in all my life!

Check her out, you won't be sorry! ;)

A few of my fav wigs:

Vicious

Twisted Sister (I actually named this one!!)

Bubble Gum

Valentine's Day & Spring

We are in the thick of winter here, but right now I'm working on Valentine's Day surprises and a new Spring Line of products! :D

So far for V Day I have ... massage melts! In lovely, romantic and yummy fragrances! Chocolate Passion, Silk Sheets and Sassy Strawberry to name a few! ;)

Massage oils! With ... lickable flavors ;) hehehe

And heart shaped sugar scrubs! Cuuute!

For spring I've got some new fragrances to debut, but those I'm keeping secret for now!

Let me know your ideas! Products you'd like to see, and fragrances too! :)

Happy New Year!

I hope all your hopes and dreams for the New Year come true!