Meet Revive, an upcoming Sarva soap - watch this space!

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a fabulous Easter.  Spring is all around us, and on the days I should have been writing a blog post (!), I was out digging in the dirt and enjoying the sunshine!

Today, I want to share with you the most amazing product review we’ve ever received at Sarva.   I’m so excited!

Sarva Soaps Review and Special Offer – from the Sterling Minerals blog

Now, my excitement is really saying something, considering we’ve been featured by our local media, a writer for the New York Times, many wonderful bloggers, and even selected to represent the Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild in national publications. (read more here).

Katherine Corkill of Sterling Minerals knows her stuff.  She’s the founder of an amazing skincare and mineral cosmetics company herself.  Check out her website and blog – it’s a wealth of information.  If you want to know about your skincare or makeup, ask Katherine.  You’ll get the facts and honest, intelligent, meticulously considered feedback.

Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with Katherine when she placed her first order with us.  (Boy was I nervous!)  Little did I know that just a few days later, after she’d had a chance to try out her soaps, she would write such a glowing review.  Wow!

We gave Katherine a special Sarva discount code for her blog readers to use, and she’s also offering special savings on Sterling Minerals’ Grecian Secret Body Souffle (doesn’t that sound divine?).   So I’d like to pass on the savings to you as well!  The Sarva soaps discount is good only until April 15, so be sure to get it while it lasts!

Of course, after perusing the Sterling Minerals website, I simply had to try some of their products, and I’m hooked.  If you’re a person who doesn’t like to use bar soap on your face (remember, you need to maintain the acid mantle of your facial skin, and many people prefer a special cleanser to do that)… Sterling Minerals offers some fabulous facial cleansers.

If you like what you read, check out Katherine’s recent interview with another personal fave bath and body company owner, Lisa over at Cactus and Ivy.

So!  Visit the Sterling Minerals blog, bask with me in the afterglow of Katherine’s review, and grab some savings on awesome goodies to pamper yourself!

Oats & Honey Soap. © 2010 Sarva.

On the Sarva web site, we note that we use only locally harvested Ohio honey in our soaps.  Further, honey is the only non-vegan product we use, so we choose our honey carefully!

I’ve been a fan of a company called Ohio Honey for years.  Many consider Ohio Honey to be the best honey in our region! Ohio Honey is what makes our Oats and Honey soap so special, and customers who try it quickly become addicted (though we don’t recommend eating our soap, of course).

September is National Honey Month, and I recently had the pleasure of chatting with the delightful Lucy Wellhausen of Ohio Honey.   Lucy kindly agreed to answer some questions for us regarding her fine honey, the ethics and process of harvesting the honey, her affection for her honeybees, and much more.  Read on!

Lucy Wellhausen

How did you get into beekeeping and making honey?

This was something we never dreamed would happen. My husband worked for a school system (incidentally, he just retired in July). I was a mortgage loan/escrow officer. A friend’s father asked if he could place hives on our property – which is adjacent to a very, very large field – where mostly goldenrod/wild-aster grows in autumn. Of course we said it was perfectly fine. For about 10 years, he would tend the hives and every year give us a jug of honey with a big thank you. We were very pleased with the situation. Along came 1997 and the man passed away. His family told us they were no longer interested in beekeeping….well, that was it. We learned in a hurry! We looked up some beekeepers (in 1997, it wasn’t easy to find them)… we drove around – “in the country” to find “honey for sale” signs and found help! We also got some in depth education from other beekeepers…and hands-on information, too!!!

How is honey made by the bees, and how is it then turned into the Ohio Honey we buy from you?

Honeybee scouts fly around to find out where and what is in bloom, then come back to the colony and tell them where the pollen/nectar source is…they tell them by doing what is called the “waggle-dance” – based on the location of the sun and the other bees are able to understand this dance and find the source, gather pollen and/or nectar and bring it back to the beehive by attaching the pollen to their legs via a sticky substance from a gland on their legs and carry it into the hive where it is then transferred to another honeybee – they process the honey with water and another substance in their body – and turn it into honey.

It is important to note here – that honeybees do not “poop” honey. Also, many people think that honey is made by regurgitating the substance…well, here’s where the plot thickens. Honeybees have their own digestive system. They eat, they poop. The honey is made in a different “stomach” – which is actually the honey-manufacturing-plant – like a little factory. I like people to know this fact, especially vegans and vegetarians, who may think that we are consuming something that the honeybee requires to live.

Is Ohio Honey organic?

We are not ‘certified’ organic…but we do try to be as organic as possible.

Can you talk a bit about the ethical treatment of bees, and how it affects them to harvest the honey?

I can only really respond to how we treat our own colonies. We are so careful with our “girls” – when working in the hives, we are careful to not step on them, crush them by accident, we even talk to our honeybees. There are large, commercial honey-packers, however, who may not be able to say that…for example when they truck honeybee colonies from – say, a southern State up to a Northern State, like Michigan, Maine, etc… in springtime to pollinate the blueberries in Michigan, for example. I feel so sad for those colonies because they don’t have a chance to live a “bees life”… they are transported on truck flat-beds from one location to another, not having any chance to establish their colony as Mother Nature intended. In fact, those honeybees are disoriented with the travel involved and don’t even get a chance to make much honey. Work, work, work – that’s it. Their main job is POLLINATING… no reward.

What kinds of sustainability and/or environmentally-friendly practices does Ohio Honey follow?

By not using products in our hives that would hurt our bees or people eating our honey. In fact, at the various farms where we have placed bee-colonies, the farmers use honeybee-safe products in their fields.

Sarva's Oats and Honey Soap, made with Ohio Honey. Click picture to buy this fabulously honey-oaty soap!

Where can people purchase Ohio Honey?

We sell at various farmer’s markets in the spring/summer/fall. We have belonged to the North Union Farmer’s Markets for many years now…Shaker Square, Chagrin Falls, Cleveland State University… and are represented at Crocker Park via the Sirna Farm stand. There are a few other stores you can shop to buy our honey as well… The Cheese Shop at the West Side Market, Olive & Grape at Tower City, Sirna’s Farm (at Crocker AND at their farm in Auburn, Ohio), Bay Lobsters in Twinsburg, Buckeye Water and Coffee Company in Eastlake, Bauer Restaurant Supply in Mentor, Ohio, Natural Remi-Teas in Madison, Great Scott’s Bakery in Rocky River, and more… see our website at www.ohiohoney.com.

Anything else you’d like to add?

We are so happy to be beekeepers. It is an awesome experience to be out at the hives with the honeybees, harvesting, extracting and selling. We also harvest bee pollen and make propolis and propolis tincture available… all gifts of Nature! Even though our job is time-consuming (honeybees are like our babies) it is rewarding.

I’m honored to be asked to join Eco-Office Gals in their blog relaunch celebration!  For a total of two weeks, they are offering daily product giveaways… really fabulous items.  I’m in good company!

On Monday October 27, Eco-Office Gals offers you a chance to win a free Custom Spa Trio from Sarva Soaps!

So, here’s how you enter:  Visit the Eco-Office Gals web site tomorrow (Monday 10/27) and follow the instructions on the blog post.  You will have a little bit of “homework” to do in order to place your entry.

Here is what you will win:

Sarva offers you this one-of-a-kind Spa Series Trio, valued at $22.50, a custom creation just for this giveaway!  Packaged in all recycled papers and tied with natural jute twine, this is eco-friendly luxury at its finest.

• Benigara:  The word Benigara refers to a very particular shade of red in the Japanese language, the oxide red stain of traditional Japanese buildings. You’ll find that same shade of red in the speckles in this soap, along with a mysterious, meditative essential oil blend reminiscent of the finest Asian incense. This luxury formulation contains rice bran oil and macadamia nut oil, both very popular in Japanese culture for skin care.
• Oats and Honey:  Sweet mildness! You won’t believe the lather.  Oat flour and nurturing honey in a silky soymilk base, with a heavenly toasted honey-oat scent. (Remember Bit-O-Honey candies? Yep, just like that.) Superfatted with rich apricot kernel oil.  Sarva supports local business and uses local raw Ohio honey.
• Miss Lily: Originally designed as a soap for babies and named after one very special little person… but grownups love it just as much!  Miss Lily has a gentle, abundant, creamy lather. There is just a touch of lavender essential oil, providing a soft, comforting scent.  Calendula-infused olive oil, along with shea butter, creates a wonderfully mild formula. All pigments are natural, so there’s nothing funky going on your skin!

Hurry… don’t miss this great chance to try some great soap!

Once the contest results are announced, Sarva will ship this Custom Spa Trio directly to the winner.

Good luck everyone! If you are the lucky winner, I hope you enjoy your soaps!

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Vote for Sarva Soaps in the StartupNation Home-Based 100 Businesses Competition!  Winners of the Home-Based 100 find themselves at the center of a media storm that includes recognition on national and local TV, radio, in newspapers and magazines, and on some of the largest, most influential websites on the web, MSN and StartupNation among them.

As always, thanks for your support!

I am not crying wolf.

Here is, hands down, the BEST, most informative post I’ve seen yet.

If this doesn’t spur you to action, I don’t know what will.    I’m writing my congresswoman.  What will YOU do?

Please support small business in America and, while you’re at it, remember what principles this country was founded on.

Thank you.

_________________________________________________

Letter to Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, my local Congresswoman (with personal contact information removed, of course):

I am writing to create respectful dialogue about the FDA Globalization Act of 2008.

I am in your district; I am a small business owner who would be immediately put out of business, literally bankrupted by the fees imposed by this Act.

I would like to know how–and whom–I can discuss this matter with in more depth so that I can make it clear how harsh, draconian, and unjust the proposed Act is to small businesses, who depend on their income and want a fair chance to grow their businesses without unfair fees and oppressive paperwork.

At a time when our nation’s economy is in a state of crisis, this Act will only serve to threaten our financial security all the more through a dangerous, damaging domino effect.

A petition against this Act may be found here, issued by Donna Maria Coles-Johnson of the Indie Beauty Network: http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/indie_business/2008/06/stop-the-fda-gl.html#more   She will be in Washington next week to meet with representatives, and has contacted the Wall Street Journal as well as John Kerry to gain publicity.

I happen to be a woman with two chronic health conditions, not eligible for Disability or Welfare, who is following one of the few dreams she has left.  I love what I do, and to have this taken away from me, after years of hard work, would be devastating.  I am far from the only person in this situation.  Please answer my plea for affirmative action to be taken seriously.

My sincere thanks for your time and consideration.  I look forward to hearing from you or your assistants.

Michelle Gilbert
Sarva Natural Artisan Soaps

The FDA’s proposed Globalization Act of 2008 places businesses like Sarva in severe jeopardy, potentially forcing small/cottage businesses to shut down and preventing new ones from starting.

The Globalization Act proposes mandating outrageous fees for food, drug, medical device, and cosmetics companies.  Also required would be paperwork that would cripple the average sole proprietor.  Fees for registration and re-registration, certification, importing, exporting, inspection and reinspection, heavy fines for noncompliance, and so on and so forth, are predicted to generate $600 million to fund FDA activities!

Companies such as
Sarva Natural Artisan Soaps
WILL NOT SURVIVE
under this proposed Act.

Let me be clear.  I am fully in support of protecting the safety of consumers.  After all, I too am a consumer, and there’s a lot out there to wonder about! However, these draconian measures are complete overkill and go beyond simply protecting the consumer.  What they will serve to do is limit YOUR choices to only businesses who can afford what might amount to $12,000 per year in fees to simply stay in business.   Yep, that’s big box companies.

And the effects will trickle into an incredible domino effect. If businesses all across the country don’t exist, they don’t need supplies, which shuts their suppliers down. Which puts a dent in the shipping industry. Which causes even more job loss. Which affects every single community. Think of the damage to an already drowning economy that can ensue. Think of the message it delivers to would-be entrepreneurs nationwide: “You don’t have a chance of even getting started.” In a time when many people seek to supplement their income, this is a devastating message.

Think also about consumers like yourself, my valued customers, who come to companies like mine for an alternative to mass-produced synthetics… seeking an environmentally friendly, meaningful product they can feel good about using. What will be left?

What will YOU choose if you lose your right to purchase artisanal products?

Remember:  The fee structure under this Act is NOT tiered.  All businesses, regardless of size, must pay the same fee.  That means a business who earns $1500 in annual profit must pay the same fees that a business who earns $15,000,000 in profit.

Also remember:  The most highly profitable cosmetics businesses are frequently using cheap, synthetic, often highly sensitizing ingredients.  Don’t believe me?  Read the ingredients for yourself.

Doesn’t it seem that the FDA is trying to protect you from NATURAL PRODUCTS?

This could happen very soon. This is the outcome if enough support is not garnered to lobby against this bill.

Thankfully, the bill is presently in draft stage, which still allows time for petitions and discussion!

Please watch this important video made by Donna Maria Coles Johnson, a former attorney, author, and founder of the Indie Beauty Network, a support and advocacy network for small business in the beauty industry.   She explains the issue far better than I ever could.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW9SlqiA_DI&hl=en&fs=1]

Next, get involved.  It only takes a couple of minutes to make a difference. Visit the Indie Business Blog, where she has created a petition that YOU can sign to prevent businesses like mine from going under.  You can also visit the site she mentions in the above video, Families Against Unfair Laws, for updates on this important issue.

I am so grateful to all of my customers and friends for supporting what I love to do so much… and if you love your Sarva soap, or any other handcrafted/artisanal personal care items, now’s the time to take action… or you may never get to enjoy them again!