Get ready for Spring

Congratulations! You have survived one of the craziest, coldest, snowiest, wettest and l o n g e s t winters in recent memory. It is relatively safe to start thinking of this spring and wishing for this summer.

As you get your houses, cars and wardrobes ready for the more hospitable weather, add a couple of things to the list: your skin and your psyche!

Of course, that means turning to Absolutely Natural and our incredible array of skin products and wonderful aroma therapy oils for help.

How about a quick trip to the tropics (mentally at least)?
Step 1: Rid Yourself of Winter Skin
Start with either our sugar or salt body scrub to slough away the winter blues and prep for spring and summer. You’ll reveal touchably soft, glowing skin hydrated and ready to play center stage.

Step 2: Pamper & Indulge
Pamper yourself in a long hot shower with our sulfate-free shampoo, conditioner and body wash following up with our nutrient rich lotion. The fruit essence fragrance will take you right to the beach.

Step 3: Fight Persistent Dry Winter Air
For those stubborn areas of winter skin that persist (probably be cause you STILL have the furnace running despite it nearly being April!) quench it with our shea body butters. Available in a variety of natural aromas, if you wish to go tropical pick our classic Mango Body Butter or our Papaya Pineapple.

Step 4: Prep your Pucker
Give your lips a nourishing kiss of the tropics. Toss aside your waxy lip balm and instead use one of our all-natural lip moist therapies. Tropical flavors include Mango and Papaya Pineapple.

Essential Oils & Aroma Therapy:
One of the most popular features of our Absolutely Natural store on Kauai is our oil bar. In Hawaii, our knowledgeable staff assists customers in creating their own custom blends starting with our base oil of fractionated coconut and adding only the finest essential oils to create a tailor-made, distinct fragrance. The final result is oil great for massage, excellent as a super hydrator and skin conditioner, and makes a fantastic oil to add to any hydrotherapy session.

While, we can’t currently custom blend fragrances on our website, we have come up with seven brilliant blends as follows:

• Serenity: Balsam, Tangerine and Ylang-Ylang

• Sensual: Mandarin and Vanilla

• West Indian: Bay Rum and Allspice

• Herbaceous: Patchouli, Vetiver and Juniper Berry

• Refreshing: Ruby Grapefruit and Tangerine

• Energizing: Rosemary Mint

• Enchantment: Jasmine and Neroil

These oils come in 10ml glass bottles and sell for $18-$22, far below market rate for such pure oils. Put a drop or two in a bath or enjoy them in a diffuser or reed diffuser. The aromatherapy “session” is designed to heighten the senses and relax the mind.

Pair one of the blends with our unfragranced oil and enjoy the experience after your “treatment” while using the oil in your daily regimen. You control the amount of fragrance that is right for you.

So, here’s to spring eternal and a nice, long, sunny summer.

Best regards,

Charley

Absolutely Natural and Facebook? But Why?

Many of you may have noticed that we’ve been reaching out to our fans a lot on Facebook lately. While we know not everyone wants a Facebook account, we know there are over 500 million people throughout the world on there, and we figure a good slice of our fans are among those 500 million.

Why do we like Facebook?
Facebook gives us an opportunity to interact with our fans in a way that email and blogs haven’t been able to do. We get to include our fans in some of our day-to-day decisions, helping us decide on a new fragrance, suggesting new products and more!

Let’s face it, we’re a small, but growing company and we love how it feels so much like a family. We want to include our fans in that family, and no matter how far you live from our offices in Melbourne, Florida, it feels like you’re right here with us.

What is Fan Friday?
For a limited time (until May 1st) we’re offering Facebook fan specials. These are only available for a handful of hours across as many lunch hours as possible each Friday. Again, because we’re a small company, and we’re only on-site for so many hours ourselves, we run these specials from 11 am to 4:00 pm EST.

It’s our way to say thank you for supporting us and sharing how much you enjoy Absolutely Natural with your friends and family.

We hope that you’ll enjoy spending time with us online, swing on by and say hello won’t ya?
Our Facebook Page

Product News: What happened to the SPF 30 Lip Balms?

Is anyone else having a difficult time with the fact the first quarter of 2011 is rapidly coming to a close? What happened to January and February? The great news, especially for you mid-westerners and northeast residents, is that spring is so close.

What happened to our SPF 30 Lip Balm?
We have been deluged with letters asking why we have discontinued our SPF 30 lip balm. Unfortunately, this was the one product that we did not produce and could not control the raw materials for. For years we put up with the chemical sunscreens required for a “stick-based” lip balm product and at least took solace in the fact that the rest of the product was all natural.

I love the product … the way it feels, the way it works but when our sub-contract manufacturers put parabens in the last batch of 25,000 we bought, I could not, in good conscious keep selling that product. Why are parabens bad? I’ve posted a blog about that, you can read more here.

We do have an alternative as we make our ultra hydrating lip moist in five flavors … strawberry, mango, papaya pineapple, mint and vanilla. It is an organic crème and is the only thing that helps me in the when visiting dry desert areas. That was proven once again during my recent Las Vegas trip.

For those of you seeking SPF protection, fear not, we are working on getting a new product with SPF and will have it done as soon as we can, but only if we can produce it as an all natural product.

Other News: We’re Adding Rose Hips to Our Organic Spa Series!
By popular demand (we do listen), we are adding to our organic spa line a Rose Hips fragranced shampoo, shower gel, conditioner and lotion. We should be launching it in mid-April and we will discontinue the 99% natural Rosehip shampoo, shower gel and conditioner we now offer. Like our Papaya Pineapple and Cucumber Mint products, the Rose Hips line will be sulfate free, phthalate free and Paraben free and chock full of organics, anti-oxidants and cosmetic grade raw materials.

On the Horizon:
New Tanning Butter! Men’s skincare line, anti-aging serums and more!
A coffee butter tanning product, a dedicated men’s line, incredible serums for the face and décolletage, Vitamin C serums, a facial SPF, and a new sunscreen formula …. all in 2011.
Best regards
Charley

Spring is Coming, Really

When you live in Florida and your typical business trips include the Caribbean, Mexico and Hawaii, sometimes you have the tendency to forget what winter can be like.

But this year has been so rough all over the country that the news reminds us constantly of the hardships endured by our friends in cold, windy, snow laden regions.

Looking to thaw out?

The Carribean
Negril, Jamaica
Any of the Sandals or Beaches properties would fit the bill but I particularly recommend Sandals Negril in Jamaica as well as the Sandals St. Lucia property. The Negril Sandals has awesome beaches and a ton of activities. They also have a great spa which features our products under the Red Lane label.

St. Lucia
St. Lucia also has a fantastic beach and stunning views. The island actually reminds me a lot of Maui as far as topography goes.

Turks & Caicos
Another great choice for families would be the Beaches Turks & Caicos. This truly a spectacular property that has activities for all ages of kids as well as unique programs for adults as well.

All these properties can be reached by a short flight from Florida and of course, they are all inclusive. For one price you get a great room, incredible food, a variety of activities and for those of you so inclined, all the drinks you want. There is a no tipping policy which adds up to big savings as well. You will want to bring a little extra though for the luxurious spa services featuring our products!

Hawaii
If you are starting out from the west coast or have the time, the ultimate pre-spring trip would be to Hawaii. Absolutely Natural products are featured at 30 plus resorts on three islands!

Sheraton Maui
On west Maui I absolutely love the Sheraton Maui. It is built along side the world famous Black Rock where you can enjoy spectacular snorkeling and SCUBA. The fish have been hand fed for 40 years. The beach in front of the Sheraton is among the best on the island.

Our products are featured at the beach desk there as well as the Spa at Black Rock.

Over the past few weeks, we have spoken to a lot of our customers who are tired of the winter blues and eager to go someplace warm. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Best regards
Charley

The 2011 Space Coast Addy Awards

It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was writing about the Addy Awards of 2010 and how our fantastic graphic artist, Suzanne, was the star of the show.

Well the 2011 Space Coast Addy Awards were held recently, honoring those with high achievements in the advertising business. Again, Suzanne shined winning 12 Addy Awards in a field that was highly competitive.

One of the more amazing things about Suzanne is her versatility. She medaled in numerous categories including book design, photography, logo, packaging, brochures, catalogs, as well as online game and website design. She has been working with us for a few years now and I guarantee Absolutely Natural would not be growing as quickly without her influence.

Among her wins were three medals in package design. One for the popular new line, Envy Organics, one for the budding tattoo company, La Peau Ink and finally a gold for her work on the Sandals resorts Red Lane Spa line of products. Other Absolutely Natural projects were honored with silver for the Envy Organics catalog, silver for our year-end mailer and finally silver for the Marlee and Noah marketing photography.

While I was in Hawaii during the awards and wasn’t able to attend in person, Suzanne and my son Danny made sure I could take part via a live-streaming feed from their smart phones. I am already eager for next year as we have some great new projects to be revealed in 2011 and I’m sure Suzanne will be back on the podium several times for the 2012 Addy Awards.

Thanks Suzanne for being such an integral part of the team.

Best regards,

Charley

Scientific SPF Biodegradability Study

Where it all started...
Recently we initiated a study of our SPFs to find out just how biodegradable they actually are. As you may know, many chemical sunscreens have been blamed for the decimation of our ocean's precious coral reefs. It has been thought that the chemicals in these unnatural SPF's encourage viral infections among the coral reef colonies. We wanted to see how our SPF's stacked up.

The Results...
This study, performed by the Florida Institute of Technology, started this past April and used the "closed bottle" method. We were thrilled by the results - to quote the study "the test substance was found to be easily biodegradable"

What this means...
Our SPF 4 was selected by our researcher because it contains the highest amount organic materials and would biodegrade slower than our other SPF's (8, 15, 25). According to our researcher, most likely, the product in a real-world environment (rather than a sterile "closed bottle") our product would biodegrade even more quickly.

We're proud to not only offer a much safer, chemical-free product, but to be able to tout the lotion's ability to biodegrade quickly just makes a great thing even better.

You can view the study at:

http://static.shopify.com/s/files/1/0007/0332/assets/AN_BiodegradationStudyFinalReport.pdf

The Turtles Need Our Help

We are fortunate enough to live, work and play in Brevard County Florida, one of the worlds most important nesting grounds for sea turtles. From the first of May through the early fall, sea turtles climb the beach to the dunes where they build nests to lay their hundreds of eggs.

The hatchlings emerge (usually in the summer) and frantically head toward the water. It is an amazing phenomenon to watch and my kids and I saw it right before our eyes about 20 years ago on one warm summer night at our beach. I have been a huge fan and supporter of sea turtles ever since. As you may be aware, these majestic creatures are struggling to survive and thrive.

Recently we partnered with the Brevard Zoo and becoming patrons supporting their important work as they build their sea turtle rehab program. In addition, with the start of our newest Absolutely Natural spa line, we have dedicated space on each label to help raise awareness of sea turtles. These bottles are distributed worldwide to resorts fronting the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course, our products are reef-friendly and the recent scientific study of our sunblocks proves that our sunscreens biodegrade in as little as 14 days. Incredible when you consider chemical sunscreens can take months and months to biodegrade and are thought to be one of the main causes of our precious coral reefs dying off at an alarming rate.

We invite you to join us in supporting these magnificent turtles. To learn how you can help make a difference in sea turtle survival, visit:

Sea Turtle Conservancy
The Sea Turtle Conservancy, formerly known as the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, is the world's oldest sea turtle research and conservation group. Sea Turtle Conservancy's research programs have yielded much of what is now known about sea turtles and the threats they face, and the organization is applying this knowledge to carry out the world's most successful sea turtle protection and recovery programs.

Sea Turtle Preservation Society
The society's goal is to help maintain the current sea turtle population and to prevent a potentially irreversible decline in that population.

The Narture Conservency
The Nature Conservancy protects Earth's most important natural places — for you and future generations — through great science and smart partnerships.

Florida Wildlife Federation
The "Goal" of the Federation is to be the leader in promoting, through education and political action, the conservation, restoration, sound management, and wise and ethical use of Florida's natural resources, to the end that present and future Floridians may live, work and pursue traditional outdoor activities in an outstanding natural environment.

Florida Marine Turtle Program
FWC helps to protect and conserve marine turtles and their habitat through the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation - Imperiled Species Management Section (ISM), the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) and the the Division of Law Enforcement (LE).