Essential U Blog

A Cedar By Any Other Name ...

Just Because It's Called Cedar, Doesn't Mean It's So

ne of Steven's and my favorite essential oils is cedar wood. And I mean real cedar wood oil, which is the only kind Essential Wholesale uses. I asked Steven to share his insight as our buyer to give you the inside scoop.  True cedar wood oil is distilled from Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), or Lebanon Cedar (Cedrus libani), or Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica). But there are many essential oils called “cedar," which aren’t really from cedars at all. So be sure the oil you are using is the cedar you intend to use.

      

One so-called “cedar” is Virginian Cedar, also called Texas Cedar and Pencil Cedar. Virginian Cedar is a juniper (Juniperus virginiana), which is a member of the Cypress family. Comparing Virginian Cedar Wood oil to pencils is perfect, because the essential oil really does smell like freshly sharpened pencils! It’s a very pleasing scent, but it just won’t do as a substitute for true, sweet and resinous cedar wood oil.

Reformulated Sugar Scrubs Are Here!

Change Is Good

here's a lot of talk going on tonight about change. Well, we've got some of our own changes to squawk about! Before I get to that, I have to first say that our changes are not just any old changes. The fact is that, when it comes to reformulating products, we have been known to drag our heels a bit. We don’t want to upset customers who have been using the product for years with no problems. But sometimes we just have to make the leap because the issues outweigh the good values of the product.

      
That is the case with the reformulation of the Dead Sea Scrub, Turbinado Sugar Scrub and Coffee Salt Scrub. The old formula is lovely and beautiful, but has always caused leaking problems in retail and wholesale packaging. We worked on the new product in the lab about a year ago but never released it because we were concerned about the customers that depended on the old formula.

Supreme Serum

nnouncing the re-release of Essential Wholesale's Supreme Serum – finally! Several months ago, we release an amazing new product called Supreme Serum. It passed all of our lab tests and got rave reviews from our volunteer human testing division. So what happened? When we large scale manufactured this product it had separation issues that it did not have in the small scale lab samples.

                    

This serum is very similar to the Ultimate Serum, but it does not contain propylene glycol. In the large scale production the missing propylene glycol really caused a problem with the suspension of all the active ingredients. It took us several months to rework the formula so that we could continue to offer a propylene glycol free version of the Ultimate Serum and include Hyaluronic Acid. Finally, the new version has passed all lab tests, human volunteer testing AND large scale production. It is beautiful.

New Blush Colors For Fall!

e now have two fun new Blush colors to add to our continually expanding line of mineral make-up. Coming from a make-up artist prospective, these colors really help to round out the line with the addition of this warm bronze family.

      

You will love these two amazingly beautiful colors. They remind me of the colors of fall (think of leaves and warm spices), and fall is just around the corner so how's that for perfect timing?

The Sandalwood is not too dark which is great for lighter skin tones, it has a lot of warm tawny golden tones with just hint of a peachy tan and a light sprinkling of sparkle.

The Sandstorm is darker with lots of divalicious sparkle and it looks awesome on the darker skin tones, this has more of a bronzy look with warm almost reddish and apricot undertones.

Apply our new blushes with a big fluffy blush brush.  You can apply as little or as much as you would like to the apple of the cheek and then gently sweep upward.

Have fun this fall with all of our new autumn colors!

New Mineral Makeup!

e have just added some new and exciting Mineral Make-up colors to our collection! They are ready in bulk or pre-packaged to add to your line right away. I am so excited about these colors because they increase the versatility of our already fine collection of minerals.

         

The new Eye Shadows work as amazing eyeliners or to create sexy, smoky eyes. I have been using these colors for several months and have found them to be fun, exciting and beautiful.

The new eye colors include:

• Midnight Sky
• Navy Matte
• Chameleon Green
• Moss Matte
• Fairytale Green
• Mauve Matte

They are all easy to use as an eyeliner by wetting our Brush Liner with water, dipping the brush into the color and then using the lid to even out the color on your brush and apply just like your regular eyeliner to your eye lids. I used a Q-tip with some Under Eye Nourishing Crème on it as my “eraser” to clean up the any uneven application. I’ve never been good at drawing inside the lines.

Sulfate-Free Products Reformulated

he sky rocketing prices of Sodium Cocopolyglucoside Tartrate and Sodium Cocopolyglucoside Citrate have made the prices of all of our amber colored sulfate free shampoos, cleansers and 3-1 gels go through the roof. We have been working round the clock to reformulate all of the products that depend on those ingredients.

                  

The price increase turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The new products are superior to the original formulas! And the prices are great too. We have also added a Basic Shampoo (Sulfate Free) and a Basic 3-1 Gel (Sulfate Free) to our line-up of products. The icing on the cake is that they all have a 78% Organic Content now!

Bitter Almond Vanilla Lotion

et me see a show of hands – how many of you have been manufacturing one product and accidentally used the wrong ingredient along the way. Suddenly, you have a giant batch of product that doesn’t match anything you already sell. Well, that is what happened to us recently.

      

We were making a 90 gallon batch of Basic Lotion and realized that the drum of melted oils we were using was mislabeled. It should have been coconut oil, but it was palm oil. The lotion turned out beautiful so we decided to add our very favorite new scent blend of bitter almond essential oil and vanilla extract to the entire batch and see how it sells.

Inspiration Comes From Anywhere

y son, Keegan, is the inspiration behind my journey into aromatherapy. I recently found this photo of him that clearly shows the case of ringworm (under his eye) that started our company. When he meets customers here at Essential Wholesale, people often say, “Oh, you are Keegan, the one with the ringworm!” Keegan laughs and tells them he doesn’t have it anymore.

      

It often seems like most famous case of ringworm ever. When I meet people the ringworm is the part of our story that they remember first. Total strangers will tell me that they read all about me and my son’s ringworm. I think that it is great that Tea Tree Essential Oil is getting so attention for what it did for our family. Not only did it cure the case of ringworm, but became the inspiration for our company.

The More Things Change ...

... Well, You Know the Rest

he other day, I was hearkening back to the first formulas I created when Essential Wholesale was a very tiny company. Won't you walk down memory lane with me?

      

The picture is of our daughter, Selah, helping her daddy label some of the early FCP Party products. How could I not share such cuteness with you? Just look at those cheeks!! OK, I digress.

Minerals On Parade

Mineral Makeup Without the Fillers are Best

his week, I've been at a color cosmetics meeting were we played in a big pond with some very large fish. The other attendees included Avon, Bare Escentuals, Chanel, Estee Lauder, Johnson & Johnson, and L'Oreal.

                   

But at the end of the conference, I am even more proud to stand behind our mineral make-up than ever. After hours of education, I continue to believe that mineral make-up without all the added fillers and chemicals is superior.