FDA Globalization act of 2008 survey

I just received this email from Debbie May of Wholesale supplies plus. I would encourage you all to follow the links and complete the survey so that she can better represent us to those in DC.

The United States Energy & Commerce Congressional Committee is discussing a draft bill they have entitled "The FDA Globalization Act of 2008".

While this discussion bill is not yet a formal bill, which can be voted into law, it addresses problems of food chain supply and consumer safety as it applies to drugs and cosmetics. It is expected to become a formal bill soon.

I am most concerned with this draft bill as it pertains to small businesses producing cosmetics such as lotions, lip balm, bath salts, shower gel, moisturizing soaps, etc.

If this bill becomes a law, as it is currently drafted, and you are producing cosmetics you will be required to:

· Annually register your company with the FDA.
· Pay a fee of $2,000 per year.
· Register all ingredients in each of your individual formulas.
· Document good manufacturing practices.
· Report all adverse reactions.

I know the hardship this potential legislation will have on small businesses in our industry. Now is the time to act. This discussion bill is not a full bill. There is still time to have the language modified so that it does not interfere with your business, product innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit of the American Dream.

On September 24th, I will be making my first trip to Washington DC. I will be meeting with several people including Senator George Voinovich, Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Betty Sutton.

I need your help for this important visit. Please take the time to answer 10 important questions. I will be binding your answers into a book for presentation with additional support materials.

Now is the time to "Be Informed & Get Involved". Please pass this link to every appropriate blog, website and social network. It is time for us to stand together so that our voice can be heard as one!

Complete your survey now and have your voice heard! I will personally deliver your message to Washington on the 24th!

Sincerely Yours,

Debbie May
President & CEO
Wholesale Supplies Plus.com, Inc.

New Website!

I am in the process of building a new webstore. It still needs a bunch of work, but I am pretty proud that I have been able to do this much alone. I still need to make the site look pretty, but I have many of my products set listed and shipping and billing all set up. Let me know if you have any suggests. Again this is still a big work in progress, but any feed back is appreciated! See the store here http://ladybugsoapworks.net

Costa rica part 2

This is a continuation of my Costa rican adventures. I will hopefully get back to my soap soon. With school starting this week I am really busy with my other (less exciting) job. But here are some pictures that I really liked from our trip. This on is of a large lizard that jumped onto a tree very close to the dining area in our rainforest lodge.
This is a white-faced capuchin monkey. He kept trying to steal bananas from the lodge kitchen.

This is a picture of Arenal volcano in La Fortuna. It is an active volcano as evident by the big smoke plume. In the evening you can see the lava flow if it is a clear night.

Cool bug we saw in the rainforest. Dylan has some amazing photography skills.

Dylan spent a morning taking pictures of all the butterflies that he could find. I really liked this picture.

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. I went to Vermont to see my parents and we went to Montreal and then I went for a hike on the Long trail up Jay Peak. It was a nice and relaxing weekend...though the hike was tough and my body is still recovering from it.

Costa rica part 1

I am back! I thought you all would like to see some pictures so I will be posting some cool ones over the next few entries. On our trip to Costa rica we initially flew into the main international airport outside of San Jose. We rented a car and drove as far down to the Osa peninsula as we could and then had to take a boat the rest of the way. There are very few roads on the Osa peninsula. We spent a lot of our time hiking in the Corcovado national park and snorkeling around Cano island.

This photo below is of a Tapir. It is in the horse family and is huge for an animal in central/south american rainforests. They are nocturnal animals and we happened to see one during the day in Corcovado.

This is a Coati we spotted on the Corcovado beach.

A beach picture in Corcovado.

I think this is a gecko. Geckos and lizards were everywhere and are basically as common as squirrels or chipmunks here in the states.


After the Osa peninsula, we took the boat back to our car and drove to the other end of the country where we stopped at La Fortuna, the town near Arenal vocano. This picture below is from the eco thermales hot spring that we went it. It was really amazing...how I wish I had a hot spring to go to everyday. So relaxing.

Okay that is all for now, but I will post more soon.

New Soap

Well no luck getting Dylan to take pictures, so instead you will have to check out my bad photography skills. I have a few more new soaps that the pictures are just way too bad so I will have to hold off on them. All of these soaps are made with a newer recipe I have been using that has olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and shea butter. I really love the silk lather that the shea butter provides.

The first soap below is scented with pink sugar. Unfortunately, the FO had and orange tint to it and it turned my soap a funky could instead of pink. So, I am trying to come up with another name for the soap...any suggestions?
This soap is scented with green tea and cucumber FO and the green comes from French green clay. I sprinkled some sparkles and spirulina powder on top.
This is my sandalwood soap. I colored a portion of the soap white with titanium dioxide and another portion with heavy gold mica. Too bad the mica turned green. I still like the look though.

Chamomile soap made with chamomile tea and chamomile infused oil. I also sprinkled a bit of ground chamomile in the soap and on top.
Lemon Poppy Seed Soap. I tinted the lye solution with calendula petals and at trace mixed in poppy seeds and a lemon FO.

Vacation!

I am leaving for Costa rica on Wednesday!!! I am so excited. I will attempt to blog while there, but we are going to some very remote places so I may not have access to a computer or internet.

Hopefully, I can get Dylan to take pictures of the many soaps I have curing on the rack before we leave. Last weekend I made a chamomile soap, green tea and cucumber soap, pink sugar soap, sandalwood soap, and some soy mocha cafe candles. So that is at least 10 picture that are due. I really like how all these soaps have come out. The scents are all great too. I think I will be keep them as permanent scents in my line. I will probably start making my Halloween/Thanksgiving soaps when I get back. I am planning right now to make the following scented soaps pumpkin pie, cranberry, caramel apple, apple pie, and brown sugar.

Tomorrow I am going to try to make nag champa soap, neroli soap, white tea and ginger soap, and coconut lime verbena soap.

I have been tagged!

I've been tagged by Trisha over at Sud's To Love

These are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Random items:
1) I dislike cooking.
2) I play with proteins at work that I purify from bacteria and then label them with fluorescent dyes so that I can measure distances within the protein.
3) I have two wonderful kitties (Maya and Toshi).
4) I have been learning wheel thrown pottery since February...I am still pretty bad though. ;)
5) I love to travel and wish I could take more than one trip a year.
6) People who do not use their directionals (turn indicator) really annoy me.

People I'm tagging:
1) Anhoki
2) Morgan Street
3) Great Cakes Soapworks

There are many other blogs that I love and read regularly, but I think they have all been tagged recently.