Beardsley Bears: Our 2012 Artist In Residence

"She makes bears," Kim whispered across the Holcombe store counter at me as I was rushing thru the store one day last Fall, my arms full of bottles fresh from the lab.

"Huh?"

"Bears...Deb Elertson...she makes bears."

I glanced over to the elegant woman perusing our facial items.  An image of Deb standing over a downed bear, one foot resting on its shoulder and a large shotgun in her arms flashed in my mind.  Quickly rejecting that image I turned back to the counter, "What kind of bears?"

Please join us in welcoming Deb Elertson as our First Annual Artist in Residence!

As soon as I was told that Deb was the maker of Beardsley Bears I knew we were destined to meet!  I remembered her bears from years ago when I had a brief obsession with toy collecting and had spent many hours drooling over magazines and catalogs. What luck!!!!  Deb lives only a few miles from our Holcombe store!

Deb's creations have been featured in multiple international magazine articles, catalogs and stores. (http://www.beardsleybears.com/pages/press.htm)  To quote one, "Deb has sculpted emotions from wool, mohair, and excelsior that make us forget our everyday stresses and focus on the joys." I could not agree more!

Whenever I enter one of our stores I immediately have to go say "hello" to the creatures in their glass cases.  They make me smile. I can't help myself! Click this link to visit Deb's "gallery" and see for yourself how adorable these babies are!  http://www.beardsleybears.com/pages/gallery.htm

 In awe to have met her and crossing my fingers, I quickly asked Deb if she would be willing to make some bears for us to feature in our stores. 

After another week Deb arrived for a brief meeting at the lab. I'll never forget that day! Deb came in with her arms full of bears and dogs that were ready to be shipped to a vender far away.  She set the box on the floor of the lab.  A collective "Awwwwww....." went up from myself, Alyssa and Jessica (our Director of Operations) as we spied a box full of tiny faces peering up at us.  One little dog in particular caught my eye.  He looked up at me so forelornly from his box, as if saying "Don't make me go....I want to live with you...take me home."  I was hooked!

We immediately ordered more dogs (with one for myself!) and bears so that three items would be on display in each store.  Several weeks later Deb arrived at the store, placing all nine creatures on the counter while our entire staff giggled and cooed over them.  After Deb left we all had to give them a hug and move their little arms and legs until we'd played ourselves out. 

All parts of these pets are hand-made.  You can learn more about the details of the process by reading some of the many articles posted on Deb's web-site.  To keep it simple, I'll just say they are made completely by hand, right down to the hand-dying of the fabric. The toys are also made of top fabrics and built to last generations. Each stitch is a well thought-out placement, sometimes meant to hold the bear together, sometimes meant to give the bear an aged look and sometimes meant to bring character to the pet. A crooked nose?  Done completely on purpose.  A loose stitch? Again, completely on purpose. These toys are meant to look well-loved and aged.  The perfection of Deb's work is in the imperfections! 

I asked Deb to tell me some of the places her bears and animals live.  Her response: "Germany, France,  Italy, UK, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Japan, Luxembourg, Astonia, Australia, Netherlands..I am sure there are a few more , just cannot think of them now.  All over USA ~~~"

And this is from her web-site: "Deb was commissioned in 2002 by The European Ballet in London, England, to create special "one of a kinds" for their Gala Events. This was one of the biggest thrills in her career. She has also had the honor to be included for 10 consecutive years in the prestigious Teddy Bears of Witney catalog."

How cool! What's coming next to The Brown Barn Company's stores from Deb's workshop? Bunnies for Easter!!!  Our customers will have the opportunity to enter a drawing to win a special lavender filled bunny as part of a giant Easter basket.  We will also have one bunny for sale in each store during that time.

Over the course of this year be sure to check out Deb's bears as we rotate the collection thru the stores.  Every few months the stores will switch their trio of animals with each other to ensure all of our customers get a chance to see (and buy!) one of Deb's creations.  Be sure to stop in and welcome all of them!

How to Breeze Thru Airport Security

This week we drove (yes drove) from Steamboat, Colorado to Holcombe, Wisconsin.  We took our worse-for-wear four door pick-up, loaded with cases of freshly minted bath bombs, back to Wisconsin. Alyssa sat up front with Steve (my husband) and Miji, Alyssa's extremely furry American Eskimo, in a box between them. Steve was determined to keep Miji in a box so that he wouldn't be covered in white dog hair but Miji decided Steve was her new best friend and repeatedly leaned against him, snuggling and nuzzling Steve's right arm. 

Fuzzy white Miji with Alyssa at Christmas.

I was relegated to the back seat with Lola. Being a Border Collie, Lola is honor bound to herd. She herds everyone and everything, including attempting to herd every car that we pass. Our truck window quickly became smeared with doggy breath (and I prefer not to ponder what else) as Lola enthusiastically watched for on-coming cars and then attempted to nip the cars as they passed.  These nips were followed by my scolding "No Bite!".  We drove Alyssa and Steve crazy.

As we traveled I thought about the last time I'd traveled to Steamboat, that trip in the luxury of an airplane.

When we travel we try to keep it light and use carry-ons as much as possible. The only flaw is that I hate the security check process and loathe having to pull out liquids, my computer and all the other detritis necessary to clear entrance to the airport. The last time we flew I decided to try something new and took the following items:

- My Blackberry instead of a lap top because all I really need is Internet access.
- A massage bar for body lotion. http://www.brownbarnbath.com/hydrating-sugar-scrubs/lotions-and-body-butters/massage-bars
- A shampoo bar (which will be added to the web-site in about a month, when our current stock is cured and we can guaranteed consistent inventory from now on. I never need conditioner with these.)
- A Bar of body soap in a plastic holder http://www.brownbarnbath.com/hand-crafted-soap-bars
- A Deep Cleansing facial bar in a tin http://www.brownbarnbath.com/deep-cleansing-facial-bar
- A test of a solid facial lotion product I hope to launch this summer

I always purchase a small toothpaste once thru security so I don't have to worry about that item.

Smugly, I breezed thru security, knowing there was no reason for me to be stopped.  I was wrong!!

As soon as I stepped thru the body scanner I was pulled to the side and told to wait.  The entire line of luggage on the scanning conveyer belt had come to a halt and the two guards who were scanning came to the end of the conveyer system to talk to me.  They were joined by two other security guards.

"Is there a problem?" I asked the four guards, thinking maybe the tin from the facial bar set something off.

The guards smiled and said, "No, we just had to see who this belonged to because we never have anyone go thru without a computer AND without a toiletry bag!"

After being congratulated on such a good system, I was allowed to leave. So much for saving time, but it was a great compliment!

On another airport excursion I was surprised my mother was able to go thru security without putting anything in the "2oz container bag" either.  She had a similar list as mine above but hers also included:

- a large jar of our Whipped Soap Sudz (http://www.brownbarnbath.com/hydrating-sugar-scrubs/body-wash) and
- a four ounce container of body butter (http://www.brownbarnbath.com/hydrating-sugar-scrubs/lotions-and-body-butters/body-butter). 

I'm not sure if these items were legitimately not liquids or if they took one look at my white haired mother and deemed her not a risk, but she did swing right through.

I hope you all have Safe Travels and, if you try our toiletries strategy, a speedy trip thru Security!

Chris Untiedt
Owner
The Brown Barn Company llc

A Review of 2011 and What's to Come for the Brown Barn Bath Company

For me, with the New Year always comes the desire to take stock of the previous year. What have I learned? What do I need to do differently? What changes are to come?

When I sat down with myself this week and thought about 2011 all I could think was "Wow." The last year has been a complete blur of lotion, soap, store openings, customer faces, e-mails, phone calls and let us not forget...printing labels! We began this year with the intention of taking the first year of business slowly. Taking time to perfect our branding, recipes and store styles. Instead, we ended the year with three stores instead of one (and each one we love), fifteen employees instead of the planned two (and each one we love) and a sudden need for an overhaul of our labs, labels, recipes and spaces. We felt we needed this year because none of us had any experience in owning a retail store.

To say things spun very far away from our initial plan is putting it mildly....

What have I learned from this experience? 

1. Don't be afraid to fail. The fear of failure is what personally holds me back the most. The Brown Barn Company is not the first company I've had, I've experienced failure. In looking back now I see that the lessons learned from my failed attempts were what have pulled us thru to this point. Let go of fear of failure, if you don't try you'll always wonder what could have been.

2. Build a great support system for yourself and let them know you appreciate them.  Without our amazing team of employees we would not have the stores we have now or even have made it to Christmas and stayed open.  Each person on our team brings their own unique skills, talents and style to the mix; making us a whole. I value each person in our company for different reasons...from Erika's previous experience in a national company to Jessica's brutal honesty to Brenda's quick hug...they are each equally important to this company and my ability to do my job.

My family, providing me the support to
kayak a series of caves in Belize, 2009.

3. Take time for yourself.  This was the hardest lesson for me to learn and one I continue to struggle with. The whole premise of The Brown Barn Company is to take time for yourself, care for yourself, a minute alone.  But I have to admit I didn't follow that and now am paying the price for it. I'm pooped out! LOL. One of my New Year's resolutions is to institute me-time and self-care firmly back into my life.  I'm placing boundaries on business time vs. family time and making a point of daily down-time for myself.  Otherwise I turn into a very crazy, very crabby person!

4. Admit when you're wrong and made a mistake, ask for help where needed to fix the mistake and move on. Address and fix your mistakes quickly and with firm decisiveness. I guess that says it all!

5. Communicate. Communicate every little thing to everyone. Talk, talk, talk...be honest, open and fair but also be tough when you need to be. Have a buck-stops-here attitude. You cannot control how people are going to behave or think but you can control how you behave and think and how you react. You have the choice in how you respond to people and situations. Empower yourself. When you make decisions, stick to them and be firm about it.

And what will 2012 bring to The Brown Barn Company? 

1. Doing A Better Job: Because we fast-forwarded, we now have the luxury of focusing 100% of our energy on catering to our customer needs and improving what we've built in our Wisconsin stores.

2. Tools To Do A Better Job: While we will always be a hand-made company, there are devices and automation that will help us to meet consumer demands. We've purchased a bath bomb press and are quickly working to crank out enough bath bombs to get them back into the stores and to expand that area. A bottle filler and some larger soap making equipment is on the list to be purchased this year. This equipment will allow us to expand our product lines and make a much finer product out of our current offerings.

3. Expand to Colorado: It had been our initial intention to start out in Wisconsin, where our roots are, and then expand to Colorado, where my son is. As I write this I am sitting in the living room of an apartment/commercial work-space in Steamboat, Colorado. I'll be living here this year, making product and introducing The Brown Barn Bath Company to Colorado....a full year ahead of schedule. This was a difficult decision to make, leaving Alyssa (my business partner and daughter) in charge of our Wisconsin operation so she can institute her organic line and assist Jessica (our Director of Operations) in running the stores there; and leaving my husband for several months at a time so he can continue to run his business. On the flip side I get some precious time here with my twenty-two year old son as he finishes college. To me this is a precious gift.

My son, Tommy, at Colorado
Mountain College, Steamboat.

I'm sure any parent can relate to my desire to want an excuse to be close to my children, even if the time is split between them. Also, Colorado is a great fit to our product line. There is a big push in the Western US toward more all-natural body care, the Western US is where the movement seems to have begun. We are excited to put a toe in these waters, we think its a great fit to what we've done this year in Wisconsin with one side of the business providing support to the other financially and in production.

4. More Product, Better Product: We have already made a long list of what is to come this year, from Organics to improved Facial Care items to solid Bubble Bath to improved Lotions, we think you'll be pleased with our changes and new offerings. This is what drives Alyssa and I personally, we love to formulate!!

5. Improved Web-Site and Product Branding: This has been a real challenge area for myself. I've carved a firm block of time into my schedule each week for work in these areas. Hopefully soon you will see positive changes in our web-site. We are also working to bring a more professional image to our products and hope to have a solid brand established this year.

Are my dreams coming true? They just might be! Did this happen overnight or easily? No! High Hopes? Lofty Goals? I think so, but without our dreams, where would we be?

What are your dreams? Do you think they are unrealistic? My advice is to pick one thing you'd like to work on this year, break it down into miniscule, tiny steps and take that first awkward, tentative step forward.  You won't regret it!

Here's to a wonderous 2012!

Chris Untiedt, Owner
The Brown Barn Company, LLC

Essential Oils vs. Synthetic Oils and All Natural vs. Organic

Alyssa, San Francisco, CA

Alyssa and I just returned from ten days in sunny California where we participated in a certification class in All Natural formulating.  The Brown Barn Company tries to be as all natural as possible but this is not always practical depending on what we want the product to accomplish or to meet consumer's desires for certain fragrance blends.

We find many customers do not fully understand the difference between essential oils, synthetic fragrance, all natural and organic formulating.  Here is a "primer" on these items:

Essential Oils - Put simply, Essential Oils are oils drawn from plants. Essential oils are basically the DNA of plants, the oils being their "life blood". Some plant DNA contains qualities that are beneficial to us in our health or provides therapeutic benefits to us. For example Lavender Essential Oil helps calm and relax, promoting quality sleep. Myrtle Essential Oil is antiseptic. High quality therapeutic grade essential oils provide the best therapeutic benefits. Oils of this quality are very expensive. It takes hundreds of roses to make an ounce of Rose Otto Essential Oil! The Brown Barn Bath Company will soon be offering more products using therapeutic grade essential oils. These products will be priced at a higher price point than our fragrance oil products because of the cost of the Essential oils used BUT they will provide aromatherapy and Essential oil benefits not available in any other form. 

Because essential oils are basically "alive" they respond to their environment, smelling different to and on each person. During our class we noticed that essential oil blends smelled differently on each person who tried them. For example Rose Geranium essential oil smells beautiful on Alyssa and horrible on myself.  And I love love love the scent of Cedar essential oil while Alyssa can pass it up. 

We see this concept in action all the time in the store and among the employees. Some employees will smell an item and say "This is great!" while others will turn their noses up at it!  We recently had one employee remove all of a product from the shelf because her and a customer both didn't care for the smell.  When we investigated "the problem" we were stunned to find no problem at all!  The scent of the combination of peppermint and tea tree oil was off-putting to them and fine to the rest of us. (I'm not that crazy for tea tree and peppermint oil scent either but its benefits outweigh that so I continue to use it to heal my skin and put it in our facial bars so you can benefit from it as well.  And this scent combination is also found in one of our best selling bar soaps.) 

Another interesting example of essential oil differences is that essential oils can draw forth "aroma-memories" that can be good or bad. We have a facial creme that uses Lemon Essential Oil and Geranium Essential Oil.  This is the same combination that scents Murphy's Oil Soap. We had an employee who was alarmed and pointed this out to us when she first started working for us.  (Of course we knew it smelled like this, HA HA!) Some people just love that facial cream, I've had customers say it has a calming and soothing effect on them as they associate it with their grandmother. Others don't want to use it on their faces as they associate it with cleaning their house.

Aromatherapy -  Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of plant-derived, aromatic essential oils to promote physical and psychological well-being.  Alyssa is soon beginning her work on becoming a licensed Aromatherapist.  An Aromatherapist  is someone who uses their knowledge of Essential Oils to make products to help people using aromatherapy techniques.  We are very excited (and lucky) to soon be offering products formulated just for our company by our own "in house" aromatherapist!!

Fragrance Oil - "Fragrance Oil" is the term that describes the synthetic, lab produced scents used in many bath and body products. The decision to use fragrance oils in our products was one that promoted much thought and debate. The reason we struggled with this decision is because we do not know what is in the synthetic oils used by companies that make fragrance oils. These oils are considered "proprietary" blends and their ingredients are highly guarded secrets. The FDA does not consider the use of fragrance oils a health risk due to the small amount of oil that makes it to the customer's skin. It takes only a small amount of this oil to fragrance a huge batch of product.

Fragrance oils are highly desirable in the bath & body industry because they are so stable. The scent can be duplicated over and over without change and it will smell the same on everyone because it is not "alive" like Essential Oils.

The reason we debated so ferociously over the fragrance oil issue is because fragrance oils are known to cause allergic reactions. In the end we decided to let the consumers decide what they wanted.  Fragrance oils are so very popular in our store that they outsell our essential oil scents more than ten to one. Will we continue to use fragrance oils once we introduce more natural scents? Sure. As long as there is consumer demand.  We would rather see our customers buy our fragrance scented items with their healthy natural bases than be forced to buy them from the other companies using these oils combined with horrible, unhealthy bases.

All Natural - This is a term thrown about a lot in our industry. At the Brown Barn this means that the ingredients used in these products are all derived from plant sources.  We NEVER animal test!!  If the product does not say "All Natural" then most likely the preservative or base used is derived from a chemical or it uses fragrance oil.  Our products are all healthy though. We research carefully each ingredient to the best of our ability ensure that you  are receiving a top quality item. It is difficult to make an oil based item without the use of some type of emulsifier to keep the oils from separating. Thru our course we learned new techniques to provide you with some wonderful all natural perfumes, room sprays, body sprays and facial oils. Again though, the use of the all natural ingredients drives the cost up because they are difficult for us to source and cost more than chemicals.  However we feel the extra price is worth the long-term health benefits so will continue in this direction.

Organic - The "golden" word! It is very difficult to make a 100% organic bath/body item. We are allowed to call an item organic if 85% of the ingredients in the product are organic. Organic soap is a good example of this. In the organic bar soap all of the oils used to make the soap are certified organic. The lye in the soap is not organic. However, the lye evaporates from the soap over time so it is just a saponifier (holder togetherer) of the oils. That is why we can have organic bar soap. The Brown Barn Company farm is currently not certified organic but we have been laying the foundation for this certification for years. It is our hope that in 2012 we will be able to start producing our own organic fruit fibers and flower waters from the farm!

I hope you enjoyed this little "vocabulary list" and that you will try some of our soon to come all natural sprays, mists, perfumes, smelling salts and more!

Have a great Pumpkin of a weekend! 

Chris Untiedt

Owner

The Brown Barn Company llc

Introducing Brenda, Our Holcombe Store Manager!

Our employee blogs continue this week with Brenda Anderson. Brenda is also a member of my family and one of my most beloved people. I can always count on Brenda for a smile and a kind word, a punch in the arm or a good joke just when I need it most. Brenda has literally been with the company since its inception years ago when I started making products from the left over plants in the greenhouse. Brenda was the original "tester" (along with my Mom) of my first bath bombs, lotions (it was Lemon Verbena) and scrubs. I can remember a coffee sugar scrub that smelled amazing and left her tub filled with coffee grounds! After she used it Brenda said to me, "Did you have as much trouble as me getting those coffee grounds cleaned up out of your tub?" My answer: "No, I never used it once you told me about the mess it made!"  Chris

Brenda Anderson, Holcombe Store Manager

BRENDA'S BLOG:

Hi,

My name is Brenda Anderson and I love working at The Brown Barn Bath Company.  First of all, I'll share with you a little bit about myself. I have a daughter named Caroline who is married to Josh. They have given me two grandsons, Dontae is 11 years old and Chance is 6 years old. My grandsons look forward to me bringing them fun things from the store like Bath Bombs.

Let me share with you what a typical day is like for me. I wake up in the morning and start my day off at home by using either a Sugar Scrub or a Whipped Soap product. Now that I am feeling great, it's time for me to go to work at The Brown Barn Bath Company. I unlock the door to the shop and step inside. I pause and inhale a slow breath, enjoying the wonderful aroma of products in the store. The smell of the store just makes you feel peaceful and ready for whatever the day may bring.

I've had some funny moments working here at the store. One day Erika (Lab Manager) came in with a candle fragrance called Camp Fire. She wanted to a make a Camp Fire Candle for a friend. As I made the candle, the scent strongly filled the store and wafted down the hall to the bank. (The bank is in the same building as us.) The ladies in the bank thought the camp fire smell was a real fire and came to check on me. They thought something was on fire. We laughed at how real the candle smelled. After that I thought I better send them some more relaxing smells, so I made Lavender candles.

Another thing I really enjoy about working at The Brown Barn Bath Company is the people I meet.  We have so many great people come into the store. There are ladies who make beautiful crafts and women who do relaxation techniques. Sometimes peole also share their wisdom with me. Sue Sutor told me to tell your loved ones every day that you love them because you don't know what life will bring. How very true her words are.

Working at The Brown Barn Bath Company is fun. Every day is different and exciting in its own way.  I love all the fragrances I get to take in. Stop in some time and say, "Hi", you will be glad you did! 

Brenda Anderson
Holcombe Store Manager

Silly Soap Stories and Candle Craziness

When we started this blog we promised peeks "behind the scenes" at the Brown Barn Bath Company. This post launches a series of blogs by our staff that talk about their job at The Brown Barn Bath Company and anything else they would like to share. To kick things off I thought you'd enjoy some "soapy stories".

Learning To Make Bath Bombs...About four years ago I stumbled across a bath bomb recipe on the Internet. YUM! I thought, remembering my beloved fuzzy bear soap from childhood. I immediately invested over $100 in supplies and anxiously waited for the UPS man to arrive.

Several days later I set up the KitchenAide mixer my mother-in-law had given me many years before as a wedding gift (and which I had never used!). Back then I made everything from my home kitchen. I followed the recipe perfectly, heeding their warnings that the mix can be set off with inaccurate measurements. I mixed the dry ingredients and set the mixer to slow, then mixed the wet ingredients separately...confident I'd find success because I had ordered the exact ingredients in the recipe from the company who gave me the recipe. I then quickly dumped the wet into the dry, ramping my mixer up to full speed to avoid setting off the mix. 

WHAM!! My kitchen was suddenly COVERED in white dust from the dry ingredients. Coughing and Hacking, my face white with powder (I hadn't used a face mask or goggles either!) I backed away, recovered and came back to the mixer to find the mix had been set off!!

When you use one of our little bath bombs they come to you dry and hard. When you set off five pounds of mix in production it turns to foam, fizzing and spewing forth like an ooze monster. The foaming bath mix quickly foamed up and over the mixing bowl, down the counter, over the edge, down the front of my kitchen cabinets and onto the floor. On the opposite side, it was actually crawling UP my wall toward the electrical sockets. I yanked the plug hard, slamming my elbow into the mixer hard enough to cause the heavy mixer to fly off the cabinet onto my foot..breaking a toe! Jumping up and down I notice my Himilayan cat, Theo, licking the mix. I grab Theo, flinging him into the living room, come back into the kitchen only to SLIP ON THE MIX and land flat on my back covered in Margarita scented bath bomb foam! Our house smelled like Margarita mix for at least two weeks after that. 


My favorite bath bombs are these huge bombs but no customers wanted to pay $5 for a single bomb...this pic makes me think we might have to make some for the Christmas season! 

Word of warning...there are tons and tons of recipes for every possible bath item on the Internet. Some are good but many many are awful. And worse, some posted by companies who sell ingredients can include ingredients we shun do to their potential hazards. Research everything you use if you decide to make a product of your own and look over several recipes BEFORE you buy ingredients. The goal of these companies is to sell ingredients to home hobbyists, many of the recipe pages include disclaimers that say something like "our recipes are untested, we are not resonsible..."  Believe it!!

Stinky Soaps - When I decided to add Dog Soaps to our mix I wanted to be sure to make an amazing dog soap that was super healthy. Somewhere in my research I read that Neem Oil was a great additive to the soap as it soothed their skin and coated the dog hair to help repel pests. I found our cute paw print mold, poured a luxurious Aloe Vera base and added our essential oil mix followed by a generous dollup of Neem Oil. I then cured the soaps, knowing they'd be ready just in time for a big Christmas Show I was going to be a vendor at.

I was still working at home back then and had made the soaps late in the day. When making products my nose stops working around 1pm. It just gets overwhelmed and checks out around that time every day. That's why I measure all my scents! Back then I was just starting out and had not realized my nose was letting me down every afternoon. Also, our house back then smelled amazing..imagine all those scents in a small space, it was like walking into a garden every day.

I set up for the show, proudly displaying our new dog soaps right in there with all of our other pretty soaps. All day I sat at that show, people came and went, sniffing and oohing until suddenly abruptly walking away. At the very end of the day a very pregnant woman entered my booth, she picked up the dog soap, sniffed and immediately set it down. The woman then turned to me with a look of utter disgust and RAN to the bathroom!! My neighboring booth-mate said to me "Do you know her??"

I walked to the dog soap, sniffed it and GAGGED!!! The Neem Oil smelled HORRIBLE! Lesson learned: made at the end of the day sniff the next morning outdoors, away from all the other scents!  We removed the Neem oil from the soap and you now have a great smelling dog soap.

The original offender.

Candle Campfires - This story happened just last week!  Erika, our Formulary Manager, had been familiarizing herself with the many bottles of synthetic scents in our lab. When she stumbled across a scent called "Campfire" she exclaimed excitedly, "Oh Wow! I have a friend who was telling me he wants a campfire scented candle, do you think this would work in a candle?"  The outside of the bottle claimed it was good for candles, soaps and body items. I told Erika to take it to the store sometime and have them try it in a candle.

I spent the following week in Tomahawk helping open the store. One day I got a phone call from Jessica, our Director of Operations. She told me that Erika and Brenda (our store manager) had decided to give that campfire candle scent a try. Full of anticipation they had melted the wax and poured in the scent only to find the scent was far too strong for candle-making and once ignited, the scent had a distinct burning Italian sausage scent to it. It didn't take long for the manager of the bank next door to stop in to make sure the store wasn't on fire. The store and bank had to open its doors to air out the spaces!

And one last candle story.... Something else we've been giggling about for the last month is that since starting making soy candles I've been frustrated by the development of "Frost" between the candle wax and jar. I would spend an entire day pouring the most beautiful candles only to find Frost all over them the next day. I've researched and researched, trying everything I can think of to get rid of this Frost. Throwing my hands in the air I had marked all the candles down to the lowest possible price when we opened the Holcombe store and then been surprised when they sold and people told me they loved their candles.

When we moved the candle making operation to the store the employees joined me in this quest for Frost-Free soy candles. A few weeks ago we took a road trip to set up our store in Tomahawk. Several of the stores on Wisconsin Ave. offer beautiful soy candles, we were so HAPPY to see many of the candles had similar frost on them! One of the store owners told me that was the sign of a quality soy candle and that was how you knew you had a genuine soy candle!!!  Oh My Gosh! We've been trying to remove the sign of a quality soy candle from our quality soy candles and I'd even given some of them away as "rejects"!!

Hoping you have a safe and great smelling weekend!  Chris Untiedt, CEO, The Brown Barn Company llc

The Perfect Facial Care Routine

Greetings!  It's great to be back on The Brown Barn Blog. 

Katie Giencke



There are four steps to basic skin care which includes cleansing, toning, exfoliating, and moisturizing. These four steps should be done both morning and night. Other products to enhance the status of your skin can be used as well, some morning and night, some one time a day and some every few days. Below is a reference to help you to know what each product does for your skin.

Cleanser: Removes impurities and prepares the skin for following products. Some cleansers exfoliate as well. Cleanser should be used morning and night.
Toner: Corrects the PH balance of the skin. Toner should be used morning and night.

Exfoliate: Removes dead skin cells, there are two types of exfoiants, liquid and granule, a liquid gives a chemical exfoliation which dissolves away dead skin and a granuler exfoliant gives a mechanical exfoliation rubbing away dead skin as well as bring circulation to the skin. Exfoliants should be used every other day or every three days.Serums: Treat the skin. Serums are usually used morning and night but sometimes once a day. Serums each have different purposes.

Eye Cream: Treats the delicate eye area differently then the rest of the skin. Eye cream should be used morning and night.

Moisturizer: Moisturizer should be used morning and night. Moisturizes and sometime treats the skin.

Masks: Masks treat the skin. Each mask has a different purpose. Masks should be used one time a week. 

  　

How to choose a perfect routine for you and how to use the beautiful Brown Barn Facial products. The following are suggested combinations available, there are other options in the store as well as these and all work well.  All of these products are available on the The Brown Barn Bath Company Web-Site: http://www.brownbarnbath.com/ and in the stores. If you have questions please feel free to ask!

 

(Duplicate numbers indicate steps where you have a choice of products to choose from.  Choose of the products from any number group.)

Anti-Acne- If your skin is oily with frequent blemishes.

1. Grapefruit and Lime Cleansing Gel Use morning and night, use two to three pumps on damp skin, work into skin with upward circular motions, rinse with water.

2. Clear Complexion Corrective Toning Mist Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

3. Anti-Inflammatory Facial Serum Use morning and night, use about a pea size and pat onto face an neck.

4. Revital-Eyez Eye Cream Use morning and night, use about a pea size and dab around eyes in upward motions.

5. “Problem Solved” Moisturizer Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

Anti-Aging- If your skin has signs of aging or want to begin prevention of aging.
1. Radiance Glowing AHA/BHA Face Wash Use morning and night, use two to three pumps on damp skin, work into skin with upward circular motions, rinse with water.

2. All Natural Fresh Complexion Corrective Mist Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

2. Glycolic Toner Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

2. Floral Facial Toner Use morning and night , spray two to three times.

3. Revital-Eyez Eye Cream Use morning and night, use about a pea size and dab around eyes in upward motions.

4. Replenish Anti-Aging Moisturizer Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

4. Anti-Oxidant Protective Morning Moisturizer with Vital Night Repair Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

　

Increased Radiance- If you have balanced skin and need to maintain.

1. Radiance Deep Refining Face Wash Use morning and night, use two to three pumps on damp skin, work into skin with upward circular motions, rinse with water.

2. Dew Complexion Corrective Toning Mist Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

2. Citrus Twist Toning Mist Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

3. Balancing Facial Serum Use morning and night, use about a pea size and pat onto face an neck.

4. Revital-Eyez Eye Cream Use morning and night, use about a pea size and dab around eyes in upward motions.

5. Intense Hydration Cream Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

5. Replenish Anti-Aging Moisturizer Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

5. Anti-Oxidant Protective Morning Moisturizer with Vital Night Repair Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

　

Dry Skin- If your skin is dry.

1. Orange and Geranium Cleansing Facial Cream Use morning and night, use two to three pumps on damp skin, work into skin with upward circular motions, rinse with water.

2. Floral Facial Toner for Dry Skin Use morning and night , spray two to three times.

3. Balancing Facial Serum Use morning and night, use about a pea size and pat onto face an neck.

4. Revital-Eyez Eye Cream Use morning and night, use about a pea size and dab around eyes in upward motions.

5. Intense Hydration Cream Use morning and night , use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

　
Sensitive Skin- If your skin is sensitive to the touch or to products.

1. Cucumber and Chamomile Facial Wash Use morning and night, use two to three pumps on damp skin, work into skin with upward circular motions, rinse with water.

2. Floral Facial Toner Sensitive Skin Use morning and night, spray two to three times.

4. Revital-Eyez Eye Cream Use morning and night, use about a pea size and dab around eyes in upward motions.

5. Intense Hydration Cream Use morning and night, use about a dime size and pat onto face and neck.

Exfoliation: Facial Scrubs should be used two to three times a week.  Cover entire face and neck with product and use upward circular motions to manually exfoliate skin for about one minute, rinse with water and finish with your hydration routine.

• Royal Jelly Moisturizing Facial Scrub
• Honey Oats Gentle Facial Scrub
• Bamboo and Green Tea Facial Scrub

Clay Scrubs and Masks:

• Ylang Ylang and Lime Clay Facial Scrub: Use two to three times a week, cover entire face and neck with product, leave on for about three minutes, allowing the clay to dry a bit and detoxify the skin, gently use upward circular motions to manually exfoliate skin for about one minute, rinse with water and finish with your hydration routine.
• Orange and Ylang Ylang Mineral Mask and Stinky Dead Sea Mud Mask:
Use one time a week, cover entire face and neck with product, leave on for about ten minutes, allowing it to dry, rinse off with water and finish with your hydration routine.

As usual, I am available for free private consultation for Brown Barn Bath Company customers.  E-mail postmaster@brownbarnbath.com if interested.  Have a great Labor Day Weekend! ~Katie