Friday, February 28, 2014

Sharing Some DIY Beauty Recipes that You Can Make Today



Found this with Scoop It and thought you may enjoy some of these recipes.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Addicted to Lip Balm Queen No. 7 - Rose Buttercream Cupcake

Rose Buttercream Cupcake
by The Lip Balm Queen
 
This formula and flavor is No. 7 in my series of luxury lip balms made to pamper using specialty butters and high-end and exotic oils.
A deliciously decadent, moist white cupcake covered in rich, smooth buttercream frosting and finished with sweet rose. You can't resist this one! It's even better than sitting in a rose garden on a warm day in Spring eating a cupcakes. Definitely brings back childhood memories. The result is worthy of royalty but we'll just keep it to ourselves for now. This balm truly pampers.

I'm now on my 4th tube. This formula is amazing! The ingredients include Shea Butter, Kokum Butter, Avocado Oil, Apricot Seed Oil, Cherry Kernel Oil, Argan Butter, Organic Evening Primrose Oil, Raspberry Seed oil, Candelilla Wax, Calendula Oil, Vitamin E, Flavors and/or Essential Oils.

These ingredients make the perfect lip balm. Smooth and creamy and super moisturizing. It's lasts a long time on the lips but even after it wears off your lips have this wonder feeling of nourishment and moisture. I wear this all day and apply it before I go to bed. 

What is it?

Kokum Butter exhibits excellent emollient properties and high oxidative stability, which can assist emulsion integrity. Because Kokum Butter has a relatively higher melt point, it melts slightly at skin temperature. However, the butter is solid at room temperature, but melts readily on contact with the skin. It is one of the most stable and hardest vegetable butters known. Kokum Buuter’s triglyceride composition is uniform, and consists of up to 80% of stearic-oleic-stearic (SOS) triglycerides. This naturally white and incredibly smooth butter has enormously high compositions of beneficial materials to help regenerate tired and worn skinn cells and further support elasticity and general flexibility of the skin wall.

Cherry Kernel Oil contains a polyunsaturated fatty acid called "eleostrearic". Eleostrearic is considered to play an important role in the production of Prostaglandins, which are an important group of hormones that are involved in pain relief mechanisms as wells as controlling cell metabolism.  also contains natural antioxidants, alpha, delta and gamma tocopherols plus vitamins A & E.  Even though the taste and smell of the refined oil has no resemblance to the actual fruit, it smells and feels great on the skin.

Argan Oil (INCI name Argania Spinosa) is made from the kernels of the argan tree which grows only in the South Western part of Morocco. It is known as “liquid gold” and has been used by the Berber women of Morocco for hundreds of years for its beneficial use in skin, hair, nail and therapeutic treatment. Argan Butter is a proprietary recipe using Argan oil which is exceptionally rich in natural tocopherols (vitamin E) which aides in anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and UV protection. The oil is rich in phenols (particularly Ferulic Acid) which helps prevent damage caused by UV light. Argan oil is also rich in squalene which is present in human sebum at 25%. This attribute makes argan oil very compatible with the skin’s lipid profile and can penetrate the skin deeper than other oils. Argan oil is 80% unsaturated essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids protect cellular integrity and affect cell fluidity, helping to prevent loss of moisture from the skin. They play a vital role in the formation of prostaglandin, a natural anti-inflammatory that reduces pain, swelling and inflammation, while stimulating blood circulation.

Evening Primrose Oil provides a nutrient that’s essential for your health, and you take the oil in capsules rather than apply it to your skin. The important component of this oil for skin – and for other health benefits – is gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Primrose oil comes from the seeds of a flowering plant that grows wild in North America and many other parts of the world. As its name suggests, the plant has an unusual characteristic -- its creamy to bright yellow flowers only bloom after sunset and on cloudy days. Evening primrose seed oil contains a high level of GLA, which is an omega-6 essential fatty acid.

Raspberry Seed Oil is extraordinarily high in Omega-3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, Red Rasperry Seed oil is a superb anti-oxidant. It contains 83% essential fatty acids. Much research is available online showing the healthcare benefits of internal use of Red Raspberry Seed oil.  Its high level of Vitamin E is known to be give it an important role in skin repair and conditioning. 

You can get you own here. You'll LOVE it!

Thanks for reading!
Lisa :)




Monday, September 9, 2013

Martha Stewart 2013 American Made Awards


ForGoodnessGrape is an official nominee in the 2013 Martha Stewart American Made Awards

The Contest Deadline for Votes has been Extended to 9/22/13
As of today we have 1,768 votes so far which puts ForGoodnessGrape among the top 10 nominees in the Style Category!!! 
Thank you for all of your continued support!
Lisa :)



ForGoodnessGrape is a finalist in the Martha Stewart 2013 American Made Awards!
Thank you for helping to make this happen for me!!! I am so grateful and honored and without YOU I would not be here.

Please take a minute to checkout my nominee page and cast your votes. You can cast 6 consecutive votes every 24 hours from now until September 22, 2013. I also have a really cute video in there (also on my website) which I made for this award and I do hope you enjoy it.

Please pull out all the stops and show your GRAPE support during this campaign!
Also, please do mark your calendar to cast your 6 consecutive votes every day until 9/2213.
Just click the badge above which will take you to my entry page on Martha.
Thank you for helping me make it this far!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Lisa's Top Twelve Flavorite (Favorite) Lip Balms

Seville Rosa by The Lip Balm Queen

Hi all!

I thought that today would be a GRAPE day to share with you my top twelve favorite lip balms. YAY!  I wanted this to be a top ten list but couldn't do it. So without further ado here they are in no particular order:


So if you'd like to try some of my All Time Favorites here's a link to all of them and a coupon code to save 30% on each one. Coupon code is ALLTIMEFAVS to be used at checkout.

ps-came up with the new word "Flavorite" by way of a typo. who would have guessed?

Thanks for reading and most of all...enjoy!
Lisa :)


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Jaffa Lip Balm Review (Miessence Brand)



Hi all!

I'm going to post reviews on specialty lip balms that I find reading lip balm reviews. I purchase them myself with my own funds. There will be no biased reviews nor do I ever ask for free items. The sellers do not know that I make lip balms or that I will be reviewing them. These are blind reviews so that I won't be given and special consideration.

Most recently I purchased a Miessence Jaffa Lip Balm - Certified Organic (however, it is not vegan) in Vanilla Orange flavor off of Amazon. Contains .12 oz in a tube. Cost was $6.60 plus $1.00 shipping with Amazon Prime. Not a bad price for a certified organic lip balm since organic ingredients do cost more than non-organic ingredients.

Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NCRHYC/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Flavor: I love the flavor. I've always loved orange and vanilla together. It does have good staying power but remember, I am not a Lip Licker so it may not last as long on someone who is.

Texture: the shea butter is fractionated which makes it feel grainy when applying it but doesn't impart these grains on the lips. I know this is something that can happen if the shea butter is not heated and cooled properly. It can also happen if it isn't properly stored.

Ingredients: (organic) Sunflower oil, shea butter, beeswax, avocado oil, sweet orange essential oil, vanilla extract, rosemary extract.

Manufacturer: Jaffa is made in Australia and imported to the US. When I looked up the company headquarters in Australia, it appears they are a multi-level marketing company and are offering home based business opportunities. I can not speak on this other than what I read since I am not one of their distributors. Australia does have stringent certification standards however I did not see copies of their suppliers certificates on their site but that's not unusual.

In a nutshell:

Recommendation: yes I'd recommend the item I purchased based on my findings. It tasted great and had very good staying power.

About the ingredients: I like that they are certified. However, please note that I do not know what percentages of the ingredients are used to make up this formulation. The first ingredient is Sunflower Oil which is very inexpensive. Note: Just like food nutrition labels, the first ingredient listed on a cosmetic label makes up the largest percentage of the formulation. The other thing I noticed on their website is that when they talk about Jaffa and list the ingredients for this item, they are not listed in the same order as they appear on the label. I think that may be a little misleading since on the website they talk about the shea butter first which is the second ingredient and they don't talk about the sunflower oil benefits at all which is the first ingredient.

About the manufacturer: Read more about them here in Wiki


Thanks for reading!
Lisa :)

Has anyone else tried this yet? If so what did you think about it?

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Growing Pains




It's official! As of March 1, 2013 I will no longer sponsor my shops on Etsy.com

Everything from my Etsy shops ForGoodnessGrape, Lip Melts and The Lip Balm Queen will now be all in one easy location.

HAPPY ANNOUNCEMENT: Yes I've been having some Etsy growing pains and have decided not to continue sponsoring my shops on Etsy. As of March 1, 2013 all of my products from all three shops can be found in one easy location! Which means lower prices and combined shipping for YOU.
 

ForGoodnessGrape - Lip Melts Organic Whipped Lip Butter - The Lip Balm Queen

can all be found at
www.ForGoodnessGrape.com
 

YES I've been able to lower my prices too since a direct website has less fees and overhead involved and I've been able to pass that savings on to you :)

For instance -
Lip Balms were $4.00 and up - NOW $3.50 and up
Lip Tints were $7.00 - NOW $6.75
Shimmer Lip Tints were $6.75 - NOW $6.50
Sugary Lip Scrubs were $7.75 - NOW $7.50
and the list goes on. Everything has been repriced and adjusted for SALE on my direct site.

THE REASON FOR THIS IS SIMPLE: I would like to be the captain of this ship and chart my own course and see where this magical journey takes me. I must take charge of my own destiny.

Thank you so much for your continued support as I do enjoy chatting with each of you and making your GRAPE lippies!

Here's a coupon code to get you started :)

NEWCOURSE20

Save 20% on your entire order on top of my new lower prices.


Good this weekend only 3/1/13-3/4/13.

See you there!
Lisa :)
www.ForGoodnessGrape.com

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Education Series - Buyer Beware of Photoshopped Lip Colors

Photo Courtesy of eHow.com

Like you, I am drawn in by the glossy, rich colors of lip tints, glosses and lipsticks that I see on the internet. After all I love this stuff! I think, "WOW! How did they get all of their photos to have the same pose?" Then I look at the other photos displayed just a little bit closer and I can easily see that all of the examples are from the same original photo and only the lip color or glossy element has changed or maybe its been cropped a little differently. Oh my!

I'm amazed at how many people are Photoshopping images of their own handmade products. I know the big name cosmetic companies and magazines use these "tricks" all the time. Did you know that with an easy search in Google there are lots of free tools to use with Photoshop to change lip color in a photo? Yes I know pictures sell but let's be honest here, personally I don't think it's proper for a handmade item to be Photoshopped in the name of sales just so your colors look amazing or different from how the product will actually look on a consumer. After all, I believe people shop for handmade items for other reasons such as quality of raw materials, craftsmanship, flavors, etc. Then I got to thinking...I don't know if most shoppers even notice that this is going on.  

So in a nutshell what I'm saying is that technology is a fantastic thing as long as it's not deceiving anyone and to please be aware that this practice is being used. We all work hard for our money and we want to spend our dollars wisely and we want to spend it on a quality handmade product that the artist who created it is proud of.

Do you think this practice is deceitful? If you've noticed photoshopped lippies too I'd love to hear how you feel when you see them.