Essential U Blog

Shipping Credit Promo Through May 30!!

s you know, the cost of fuel is driving up the cost of shipping, among other things, which in turn eats into your business profits and personal income. Well, Essential Wholesale wants to help you get those shipping dollars back. So through May 30th, with every online order over $200, excluding shipping, we will allow ALL of the shipping cost to apply back to your online customer account.

                         

That means that you get 100% of the cost of your shipping back on any orders over $200 (some exclusions apply) applied toward your next online order. How cool is that? So now, Essential Wholesale not only has some of the most competitive prices, but we also give you back your shipping dollars too.

NOTE: Our goal is to make this a permanent program for our customers but we won't know if you like it unless you are using it. Learn more about the Shipping Credit Promotion here.

Ylang Ylang Oil

Popular, Hard to Come By and Fabulous!

've recently received a lot of requests for and inquiries about Ylang Ylang oil, one of the most complex and exquisitely fragrance essential oils of all. This is another oil which has conspicuously shot up in price over the last year. The Comoros Islands are the most prolific producers of Ylang Ylang oil, exporting approximately 80% of the world’s Ylang Ylang oil. As with the Comoros Islands’ other two biggest export commodities, vanilla beans and cloves, production and availability of Ylang Ylang oil fluctuates dramatically in response to both demand and supply, which is often determined by natural disasters such as powerful cyclones.

       

Today, the Comoros Islands are producing approximately half the volume of Ylang Ylang oil they produced five years ago, and with powerhouse consumers like Chanel buying up the oil to manufacture perfumes, competition between buyers is intense!

Odd Man Out

When It's Good to Be Different

ecently, an Essential Wholesale employee was interviewed for an article about the importance of making sure your products stand out in a crowd. Being the "odd man out" is critical if you are to make the most of your business and also make the most profits!

      

When I was a little girl, I lived in Japan and boy did I stand out in the crowd! My most vivid memories of Japan are from walking in downtown Tokyo with all the vibrant colors. I had super blonde hair and stood out in the jam-packed city streets. I remember that everywhere I went I was pulled aside to pose for photographs with perfect strangers. As I walked around the Japanese found me to be quite a novelty. Strangers would motion to me while speaking Japanese to pose in their photos. I stood with families and individuals waiting for flashbulbs to pop.  Everywhere I went I was noticed. 

Meet the Hardest Working Woman In the Beauty Business

finally got to meet the one and only E-Commerce Diva in person at the 2008 Conference of Handcrafted Soapmakers in Vermont last month. Jamila is an amazing fireball of energy and has resources that can help you take your business to the next level with training that will help you use the Internet for your company.

      

I had the pleasure of listening to her speak about all the resources available in e-commerce.  She is an remarkable lady that is truly fired up about helping people get over their fears about using the internet.  And the way she teaches really does make it all sound so easy.  I highly recommend spending some time on her website E-Commerce Diva.

Organic Lavender Biscotti

orry to report that our Brooksie had a family emergency and had to leave Essential Wholesale. We are very sad to see her go. As a parting gift, she shared with me her Organic Lavender Biscotti recipe. We are only months away from Lavender Festivals. It is time to start practicing your recipes and perfecting them before festival time.

           

Lavender Biscotti

2 cups Organic Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
½ cup Organic Macadamia Nuts (coarsely chopped)
½ cup Organic Sugar
3 tablespoon Organic Lavender Buds
2 Organic Cage Free Eggs
1/4 cups melted Organic Butter
2 tablespoons Organic Honey
1 tablespoons Organic Lemon Rind
Juice of 1 Organic Lemon
3 tablespoons Organic Milk
½ teaspoon Organic Vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt, nuts, lavender buds and sugar. If your organic sugar has large grains put it into a food processor or magic bullet for a few seconds before adding it to the dry mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together with electric mixer on slow eggs, sugar, butter, honey, lemon, lemon rind, milk and vanilla.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir well. Dough will be soft and sticky.
5. Spoon onto cookie sheet into 2 “log” shapes: approximately 2 “wide.
6. Bake 35 minutes until golden then remove from oven.
7. Cool 10 minutes. Place on board, cut into 1” wide slices then place on sides on cookie sheets.
8. Return to oven to cook 20 minutes longer, turning once.
9. Cool on rack. Yield: 2 dozen.

Meet Ellie of Essential Wholesale's "Mom Squad"

ast week, Essential Wholesale was flooded with children on National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. One of the first bright and smiling faces I ran into was Ellie’s daughter Hannah. We have so many Laura’s working under one roof that we have started calling them all by nicknames or their full name. I’ve known Ellie as Laura for years. Her daughter, Hannah and my daughter Caiden have been best friends since Preschool. When Ellie was looking to work part time she asked if she could join the Mom Squad. Ellie comes to us with years of office experience and is highly qualified. She jumped right in as Steven’s assistant in the purchasing department.

       

We had been wrestling with a new highly sophisticated inventory system when Ellie came to work for us.  She jumped right in and set her sights on making the new system work. It is an overwhelming task due to the large number of supplies that we bring in that must be interfaced with thousands of cosmetic formulas  Ellie is up for the challenge. She divides her time between working on the new system, assisting Steven, assisting Laura and even sometimes assisting me with office work. We all fight for our own piece of the precious hours that Ellie spends here each week. Ellie only works during school hours and the rest of the time she spends with her family.

How to Protect Your Business in a "Down" Economy

Start With the Basics

fter 9/11, the economy took a down turn. During that time, we created the Basic Line of products in order to provide an affordable cosmetic base that was not filled with chemicals. It is tough to compete when our competitors sell chemical filled cosmetic bases that are cheaper.

       

We refused to compromise our quality by adding chemicals that would lower our costs. Instead, we created the Basic Line of products that are simple, clean and use less expensive natural ingredients.

Though Fearful, Press Onward

s a psychology major in college, I had an overwhelming desire to experiment with what I learned on myself and those around me. I used college as a four year counseling session, as many psychology majors do. When I learned about aversion therapy I decided this was the very best method to cure myself of a fear of being under water.  This was an unfortunate fear for someone like me who grew up constantly in the water.

     

In retrospect, I think my Dad had some serious aversion therapy training. He made me face my fear nearly every weekend of spring and summer. He didn’t just bring us swimming, but he intensely worked on my fears. Over and over again he would lure me into the deep water to have “underwater tea parties." I was a sucker for tea parties and was willing to face down any fear to do anything my beloved father asked of me. We spend hours underwater having tea.

Take Our Daughers and Sons to Work

Because You Can Never Have Enough Hands

esterday, was National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. At Essential Wholesale, we put a few extra hands to "work" around here in recognition of our collective responsibility to pass along a good work ethic to each other and our children. The kids loved spending the day shadowing their parents. Here's one now.

       

Oh, wait that isn’t a kid…it is our fearless leader Laura.

       
Stewart is a pro already at helping our his dad Dave. This is old hat for Stewart, who has done this for a few years in a row. He helped us show everyone else how it's done.

       
Hannah offered her mom, Ellie, a lot of help.  She was so helpful that Soaprah put her to work making a few special soap bars for the 2008 Conference of Handcrafted Soapmakers. Hannah plugged her nose while making a fresh batch of Anchovy Soap, but she didn’t question it for a moment.

         
Kathy won’t let anything slow her down. She put Hope right to work beside her.

       
The “Mom Squad” leaders are slave drivers!  But they did take a break to pose for a picture.

I have my eye on a few of these kids as future employees when they grow up!

What did you do for National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day?

Like The Blind Leading the Blind

am sure you have heard the saying “the blind leading the blind.” This expression was quite literally the case for me as a child. It wasn’t until I was half way through my second attempt at Kindergarten that I was diagnosed legally blind in my left eye. Yes, it is true; I failed Kindergarten.

We were living in California during Kindergarten Year One just down the street from the school. My mother was quite sick in my early childhood and was unable to walk me to a school. So I walked to school with the boy next door. He wore a patch over his left eye and unbeknownst to the rest of the world I couldn't see out of my left eye.

Control Freaks: Beware!

ometimes, the journey begins after the great emergency happens. After I burned down the kitchen in our very first house, the real adventure of the year was put into motion. In the middle of life, when you are juggling a dozen balls, you can't simply put down everything in the air to deal with a crisis.

      

In the midst of chaos you have to keep the juggling act going while cleaning up the mess from the crisis.  After checking into a hotel once Caiden and I were released from the emergency room, I remember thinking clearly "what is next?"