In case you were wondering, some fruits are better for blood-sugar-spiking than others. Mark’s blog here has the round-up. But here’s a hint: no melons for snack food. Sorry.
Do Entrepreneurs Walk More?
I had the privilege of participating in an experiment Entrepreneur Magazine undertook. They had four entrepreneurs wear pedometers (which, for future reference, are not fashion friendly) and log average daily steps. The magazine also made us keep a diet journal but that part didn’t make it into the article. Click here to read the full article and see which entrepreneur walked the most per day.
Stem Organics from Down Under
I am on a huge skin care kick. I’ve been trying out a line for two weeks and moving onto the next. Since skincare lines are getting clever with the try-me samplers, it’s been somewhat affordable to go on this luxurious skin bender.
Stem Organics has a straight forward tag line:
Everything that you touch or touches you, matters.
Not surprisingly, Stem focuses on sourcing as much organic ingredient as possible. They also purport to be the worlds first 100% climate neutral skin care company. Stem Organics buys offsetting carbon credits to make the company energy neutral. Bramble Berry does this as well.
Here is a link to their sampler kit. It’s $9.90 and that includes shipping. The samples are small. There is enough serum in one little disk for approximately 3 to 5 applications. I am almost through my sample kit.
You can read more about the young, environmentally friendly founders here.
Review: The cleanser is gentle and does its job: it cleans without stripping. It feels no better or worse than Cetaphil. It is pricier – aloe vera juice instead of water, copious herbal extracts and 70% organic cost more. For a rinse-off product, it’s dubious whether all the goodies make a difference.
Personally, I spend my skin care money on leave-on products. Stem sent 1 serum and 3 moisturizers to try. The serum works well. It absorbs in quickly. It fills in crevices and makes my skin appear instantly smoother. This feels nice and gives me a mental boost (“My my my, you look so spry and young! You can go take over the world!”). However, I will not spend $66 for smoothness alone. Vaseline could perform the same function. The real “Wow” factor in this serum is that my skin looks brighter. I can actually see clear pores. It’s a beautiful thing. Seeing more pores and a naturally glowing complexion is worth $66 to me.
The moisturizers are only okay. I didn’t love then because I felt like I needed to apply another moisturizer after them. They were light and not fulfilling (similar to most diet food). Also, there is no SPF in the moisturizers. With skin cancer and wrinkle concerns, SPF would be a welcome addition.
Future reviews to come include Juice Beauty, Daniel Pry Organics, Stella McCartney and Benev. I am hoping to look like a 12 year old once all the testing is done.
Hey! You could be making soap!
It’s official. We are now watching more t.v. than ever as a nation. The numbers are astonishing. The average US household watched eight hours and 14 minutes (what, only half of a show?!) PER DAY last official t.v. season according to Nielsen Media Research. Not to worry, each individual American only watched four hours and 35 minutes a day. Both figures are the *highest ever* in Neilsen Media history of tracking t.v. (some 50-plus years).
This is disturbing on so many levels, and not just for cottage industry start-ups (such as myself) that are constantly looking for more time in the day to do our ever-increasing task list. Aren’t we supposedly lagging as a nation in the competitiveness scale against India and China? I’m betting they don’t watch as much t.v. as we do.
But, I digress… This blog is all about soap, the finer things in life and running a small business. Each of the average Americans cited in the study could actually run a small business fairly efficiently if they turned off their t.v. It takes about 30 minutes to make melt and pour soap and about 60 minutes to make a batch of cold or hot process soap. That leaves you a full three hours and thirty-five more minutes to package your soap, market your soap and work on having a small, cottage industry that provides a nice savings account for your family or perhaps a very nice vacation every couple of years.
Do something nice for you and your family. Turn the t.v. off. Go make some soap and start saving for that great family vacation today.
Soap in the Microwave
Just saw this fun little video on what happens when you put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave. If anyone’s a chemistry buff out there and can tell me why that reaction happened, I would be very interested!
There is also a more grainy, slightly more irritating version of this video that actually shows the consistency of the exploded-microwave-soap. It turns out that exploded Ivory soap is somewhat hard and flaky. Who knew?
And, the Europeans are microwaving their soap. Their soap microwaves differently than Ivory but still poofs up very impressively.
Dove also acts differently than Ivory when microwaved.
Washing Hands with Plain soap!?
Did you hear that washing hands with plain soap and water is as effective as using the expanding range of sanitizers or antibacterial soaps if done correctly and often? This is great news for handcrafted soapmakers! The study was conducted by the Harvard Health Letter and found that just washing with soap and water for 15 seconds removed 90% of bacteria. They cautioned, however, that many people do not wash their hands often enough or dry them thoroughly. Wikipedia also supports the notion that there is no evidence stating that antibacterial soap is better for cleaning your hands or body.