Hi guys!
i hope you are all staying safe, healthy, and sane during this stay-at-home stuff :) we've been doing our part over here, only leaving to pack orders and make products. ive been living on lentils for weeks. which, i always have loved lentils, but when we are cleared to grocery shop without so much worry, i dont know that ill ever buy them again. lol
i want to thank you all for your continued support throughout this whole mess.i cant tell you how much it means to us-- thank you for keeping us going!!! ( ps, we love the little messages you all put with your orders wishing us well, it truly means so much to us, thank you again! you guys are just so awesome and we are so grateful for you!)
so, first things first... i want to say that we are doing our best to transition to online only, which has definitely not been easy for us.... as you know, all of our soaps are hand cut and throughout the store we normally have all different shapes and sizes for retail sales since they are sold by weight in the store, we normally keep a certain number of bars within certain size limits saved aside for online only, which are stored in a separate area. however, due to all of this madness we have had to go through our piles of soaps in the retail area, and pull aside any bars that fit for online sales, and some of those bars are cut in ways that vary from our regular chunky type bars. so, if you happen to receive a soap and go hey, this one is cut different... well, yes, yes it is. but it may just be the only bar we have left that fits within the size requirements for our online pricing ;) so, just a heads up on that!
i also want to take a little time tonight to let you know about the things that arent going so well -- unfortunately, there are quite a few of them. I am having the worst time trying to get packaging and ingredients in. luckily before all of this happened i did place a big oil order, so i can continue to make soap for a while yet --- however, there may be quite a few " staple" bars that cant be made due to either essential oil shortages, or other ingredient shortages. but i will be making bars as close as i can to them if i cannot make them exactly, such as spa bar. i know for certain that one will be gone for a while. the good news in the soap aspect is --- i kinda had a heads up that this was all about to go down, so i placed emergency orders for things like tea tree, cajeput, rosemary --- very medicinal oils.. and i intend to bring out quite a few of those bars for you, as i feel it is my duty -- now more than ever, to protect you as much as i can. i always feel an obligation to bring you healthy, safe products, but right now -- i feel it is very important for me to bring extra medicinal bars, scrubby bars, things that are surely going to do everything they can to kill germs - ill be making some soaps specifically geared towards hand soaps, etc..
so, although my planned spring line up has taken a drastic turn... i think it will still be fantastic. you all know tea tree isnt an oil you find in the BG line very often, but i assure you -- you will be seeing that ingredient coming around quite a bit in the next few weeks. i also mentioned cajeput --- which most people arent familiar with -- i suggest getting to know it :) its an awesome oil -- a relative of tea tree, however much more gentle to the skin, and has some really unique properties! its the oil i call the "ace in the hole" for our bug spray! its just good good stuff!
alright -- another big downer is that my packaging has been nothing short of a nightmare :( out of all the things frustrating me -- this one is at the top of my list. ugh, i had a huge packaging order placed... it was shipped, and the day i was at the shop waiting for it -- they literally called it BACK OFF THE TRUCK and refused to deliver it to me. the sender called it back, and it was returned to them. in my shipping details it literally said " natural disaster or major weather event, sender requests return" .... so, my order obviously never was delivered to me. i called, i called again... they said they would send it but they didnt. .... and now, when i go to place a new order, it says the bottles and such are on back order until JUNE/JULY/AUGUST! literally have been on a mad hunt for weeks now on every supplier website i could find, to get you guys 4oz bottles with spray nozzles so i can continue to get refreshers out to you all ---- and.... nothing. literally every single supplier is out with no stock expected for MONTHS.
so, ugh.. what ive had to do, is order ( and there were only like 3 options in glass even with minimal supply) i ordered 1 and 2 oz glass, and i managed to find some, not many, boston round ( short wide bottle) in the 4 oz size. thats it guys, thats all i could get. i still have a few of our current green bottles and nozzles left at the shop-- but i strongly encourage you to HANG ON TO THE NOZZLE part of it once its empty, as i do believe i may be able to get bottles within a couple of months but getting nozzles is going to be a big problem. so, i plan, if i can get bottles, to order caps so that at least i can make you the product-- and hope that youve all hung onto the sprayers!!!
as i stated in my last post, i did manage to snag up 5 gallons of 190 proof organic cane alcohol. what i normally do with that, is not going to happen -- and instead ive decided i am going to be making you guys super strong super effective hand sanitizers. now, normally i make our refreshers with about 30% alcohol, for a couple of reasons -- mainly because using alcohol with a proof of 190 on your hands is going to be incredibly drying -- so i keep the content low, and add medicinal essential oils to compensate -- so the refreshers are multi use, for pillow sprays, linen sprays, etc... they arent intended to sanitize, they just do, naturally. however their formula was not " designed" as such, and would technically not meet fda requirements as such. which, is why we sell them as " refreshers".
so, back to what i was saying.... i am going to be making you guys actual (within fda guidelines) hand sanitizer, but i need you all to be aware, they are going to differ so much from what you are used to from us. they will include 190 proof organic cane alcohol, glycerin, and essential oils of tea tree, cajeput, lemon, rosemary and lavender. its the safest, least likely to cause any sort of allergic reaction and contains no synthetics, no chemicals, just natural things doing their natural things to combat germs, and i hope for the glycerin to make it a little less drying. My packaging hopefully will arrive soon so i can get these out to you guys ASAP as i know you desperately need them.
also, as for thieves -- that is unfortunately going to be gone for a while. i literally just cannot get the stuff i need to get them made. if you are big on having thieves, my best suggestion would be to see if young living has any stock of their thieves sanitizers. i will continue to do everything i can to get in the things i need to get them made again. i apologize, it really is just out of my control right now. im hoping for a miracle to get my ingredients in, thats all i can say about that.
my suppliers ( for regular things like essential oils and such) are averaging about a 3 week turn around for things they HAVE in stock just because the demands with orders coming in is so high. so that alone is an issue, but a bigger issue is that they are running out of, and already out of so many things that come from other countries ( like australia, india, etc) that they are having trouble getting THEIR stock in. so, you see, the little guy like me really has a hard time obtaining the ingredients necessary for things i need to make, so, i just have to make do with what ive got on hand and just hope i get through this. its scary, ill say that much.
our solid lotions are currently in limited supply, so if thats a product you cant live without i would suggest getting an order placed asap for them. I think i have enough beeswax left on hand to possibly squeeze out one more batch, which will be in lavender if i can. we are completely sold out of lavender pucks as of today. unfortunately packaging for that is also a problem. :/ and whats worse, is the last order i had come in of those tins, the lids are incredibly tight on them. so i have no choice but to use them. i was attempting to replace them due to that issue, but unfortunately i cannot. argh.
on a good note, i have a batch of synchronicity ready to be made -- which just so happens to be one of my all time favorite bars, so im excited to get that one made again. i have a tea tree lavender bar coming, a lemon rosemary bar coming and a few others that im working on ;)
i hope to be able to continue to get you what you need to keep you all safe and healthy. I hope the products we create, make you feel safe, clean, and happy. being happy is such an important thing to me, and its so important to me to have that happiness throughout bodygoodies in hopes of it passing onto you -- so i hope we are able to continue to make products that make you feel happy when you see it, smell it, use it. happy when you see the box on your porch from bodygoodies. happy to pass along as loving gifts in this difficult time to your loved ones. i just cant even find the words big enough to have you all know just how truly lucky i feel, how grateful i am, to have all of you supporting us right now. i promise, to do everything within my power to make it through this time, to continue bringing you products you can love and trust for many years to come.
i also want to take a moment to apologize -- on any given day i am normally already horrible at responding to emails, txts and phone calls. either my hands are in production and i cant answer my phone, or by the time i remember its the middle of the night and i dont want to wake you with calls or alert tones on your phones. i am scattered by nature, and being forgetful is something ive had to come to terms with throughout my life-- i simply cant not be. i try, i really do. but lately its been especially hard :( i feel huge weight on me when i realize i havent responded to that mail, or txt, etc... and so many of the reaching outs have been incredibly in depth issues or special requests and its all seeming to happen while the business is completely upside down due to the covid-19 issues we are faced with. so, again, i honestly apologize.
maddi has done a really really good job keeping up with the emails and messages... so my best suggestion at this time would be to please write in through the website, but please allow time as we are fully operating online only and every part of that has been overwhelmed from what we are typically used to ;) id be lying if i said this has been easy. it hasnt. lol its totally sucked to be honest!!! worst part of it all is WE MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!!
soooo... i think thats the majority of the things i want to fill you in on -- sheesh, i really miss you all. i hope life can go back to somewhat normal sometime soon -- its so weird isnt it? like.... im home, the sun is out, the back door is open, dogs sitting there listening to the birds chirping, a neighbor is playing the most beautiful music on her flute and i can hear it in the background.. its so peaceful ... and life just seems so normal -- and its just SO SO not... the second i think about how badly i want a coffee from starbucks or groceries from the store i have a mini panic attack. hand sanitizer everywhere a box of gloves in my truck, i spend an hour washing groceries in thieves soap if i DO happen to have to live on something other than lentils for a minute lol... like, what the heck man!!
i was thinking about that the other day ---- do you think you will keep any of your new habits since covid with you even if ever the fear of covid has passed? maddi and i were discussing it -- after all of this, i think ill forever be washing my packages of feta cheese, bags of cranberries, and every single grocery item i ever bring into this house forever. i washed a pineapple guys. i washed the carton and all of the eggs in a box of eggs, i washed a BOX of amys something or other of maddis lol. literally.wash.everything. ( i know, i know, its more for my peace of mind than anything, but at this point im ok with that lol) ha. this is just crazy. what are some habits youve picked up? any tips to share?? sanitizing the bottoms of your shoes before you come in the house? how to make coffee at home that tastes just like a starbucks triple shot over ice in a grande cup? haha love on the dogs. just love the dogs, it makes it all go away for a little bit. at least, thats whats been working for me. ;) would love to hear any tips, suggestions, etc from you all!
stay safe and healthy, friends!!!
we love and miss you and cant wait to see you all again!!
until next,
-heidi
ps, the pic at the top of this blog is a photo my sister took years ago of the original soaps in the line. ive always loved this photo, and ive been reflecting on the last 11 years so so much lately as i attempt to get through this time, so i thought it would only suit to use this photo, the original. (thanks amy)