Happy Father's Day, Dad

For those of us lucky enough to have one of “those Father’s”, this coming weekend is a very important day. Father’s Day is June 17th and it is a great time to reflect on what your dad means or has meant to you.

My dad passed away in 2000 and I miss him dearly especially on his birthday and Father’s Day. And my birthday and Christmas that he so loved. Oh, also on Thanksgiving. And, on days that I think about his sacrifices for his kids and family. 

My dad was one of “those Father’s” that spent hours and hours supervising sports teams, traveling for great distances to watch me wrestle, putting countless time into what my siblings and I needed and making sure we were taken care of.

My dad would wear his shoes long after they were worn out so we could have better and wouldn’t think of vacations or golfing or spending any money on himself. My dad was one of “those Father’s”.

Fortunately, my dad lived to see the start and expansion of Absolutely Natural and was so proud of me.  He was one of “those Father’s” that when you asked him how his kids were doing, he gave you the anti-Reader’s Digest version!

One of my fondest memories is him using my products. Growing up, I never saw my dad use anything beyond shaving cream, deodorant and Old Spice After Shave but he became a product aficionado during the last years of his life. 

He loved the Rosehip Aloe and various oils, crèmes, butters and other products that we manufactured. When we would get together (too infrequently), after making me feel the muscles in his still stout biceps, he would point out his soft skin and say, “Not too bad for ____ (fill in the birthday!)

So even though our customer base is mainly the fairer sex, we have thousands of men enjoying the benefits of our 100% natural products on a daily basis. Our products make a great gift for Father’s Day and believe me when I guarantee you will love giving them to him as much as he will love getting them.

Best regards,

Charley

Are spray sunscreens really safe?

Past readers of my blog know how I feel about chemical sunscreens, especially the very high SPF's and the continuous spray product that has been so popular over the last few years.

For this of you reading for the first time, I'll make it simple.  I think these products are some of the worst to ever be foiled upon the American (and worldwide) public and in my opinion, are dangerous, ineffective and causing more problems than they solve.

Now, a tragic event in Massachusetts recently is proof positive of what I have been preaching.  A man was using a continuous spray sunscreen  while attempting to enjoy a cookout.  Cognizant of the warning on the sunscreen bottle that contents were flammable, he stepped away from the grill to apply his SPF spray.   When he stepped back to the grill apparently the "vapor trail" ignited the sunscreen and he was severely burned over his chest, arms and back, basically wherever he had applied the sunscreen.  Dan Dillard of the Burn Prevention Network explained it this way, “As he approached the flame, the charcoal simply caught the vapor trail and it follows the vapor trail to where the substance is, which is on the body.”

Fortunately these incidents are rare, but these products are very drying for the skin… obviously.  And, one of the secrets to getting a good, even tan is to keep the skin hydrated.

As for the very high sunscreens?  Do we really need SPF 70? SPF 100?  Absolutely not and the big problem is to get such a high validation in the lab to be able to make the claim, mass amounts of chemicals are used.  Here's a rundown of three of the most predominate sunscreens:

Octyl Metoxycinnamate - an estrogenic chemical that has been linked to hormonal imbalance and increased rates of cancer

Oxybenzone - a chemical that may cause hormonal imbalance.  In Europe products that contain more than 0.5% of this chemical have to carry warning labels

Avobenzone - a free radical generator that absorbs UV radiation energy and since it cannot destroy it, converts the light energy to chemical energy which is typically released as free radicals in the body.

The traditional chemical sunscreen manufacturers have convinced the buying public through extensive and slick marketing that we need mass amounts of these chemicals and the buying public is assuming they are safe for use.  Evidence is growing that is not the case.

But, why take the chance.  Absolutely Natural offers a safe, natural alternative with our reflective mineral sunscreens.

Best regards
Charley 

What's in store for 2012?

The response from our customers about our 20th Anniversary last month was overwhelming. Thank you so much to the hundreds of our customers who reached out to us with congratulatory messages, kudos for past accomplishments and best wishes for the future. My staff and I were amazed and touched at the outpouring of goodwill!

What about the next 20 years? Well, I'm not sure I am capable (nor willing) to look that far in advance, but even the next 20 weeks are going to bring significant changes to our Absolutely Natural family.

We are so proud to announce that we have signed a licensing agreement with IMG to be the official and propitiatory sun care line for Salt Life. For those of you in Florida and up the eastern seaboard, you are probably well aware of the power of the Salt Life brand. You see bumper stickers and t-shirts everywhere and IMG has led the way with effective marketing. Salt Life is truly a lifestyle brand and there are more than 1500 accounts supporting the lines.

 This is Absolutely Natural's first entree into traditional retail and we couldn't have a better partner. Salt Life will have a complete array of sunscreens, aloes, a lip balm and tanning oils, all in award winning designs by our own Suzanne Clements.

We have more new lines coming before the end of 2012 as our long awaited Sunburn Rescue is in the final stages of development. Sunburn Rescue will be offered in resort hotel rooms for those who take in a little too much sun and need, well, rescuing! Enhanced versions of our all natural, famous Rosehip aloe and Pure aloe with tea tree will be paired with an aloe mist in a handy kit. The kit will include specific directions on how to treat that nasty sunburn and get your skin back in shape.

In addition, our "new look" sun care line for Absolutely Natural will debut this fall. In addition to a new decoration and sizes, our formula for our sunscreens is changing. Among other ingredients, we are adding zinc to our active ingredients as well as a host of anti-oxidants.

 Also planned are a new series of cosmetic grade serums including night, day and eye treatments that have been in the works for years (more on those later). We are also developing a natural self tanner, an insect repellant and several new fragrances of our Rosehip lotion. A natural lip balm is also in the works.

Late this year we are debuting our new comprehensive catalogue which will be our end of the year mail out. Plans call for at least two issues annually to keep you updated on all of our product offerings as well as tell you a bit about the resorts we are so proud of.

Finally, we are opening our first Florida retail store at our factory in Melbourne. The "Factory Fresh" store will open in July at 644 Atlantis Road in Melbourne, Florida.

Again, I want to thank you for all your support these last twenty years. You can be assured that we will continue to make the world's best product for many years to come.

Best regards,
Charley

Remember 20 years ago?

Seinfeld was the biggest hit on television. The Crying Game shocked people on the big screen. Gasoline was 93 cents a gallon!

And, Absolutely Natural was officially launched April 16, 1992. Our first bottle of sunscreen was sold at a resort in Hilton Head Island while many hours later resorts in Maui made their first sales.

At the time we had one employee (me) and a 500 sqft facility on Hickory Street in Melbourne, Florida. The goal was simple ... Make the world's first truly all natural suncare and sell it through resort hotels with company trained skin care consultants. 

We had just seven different products at the time, Rosehip Aloe, Pure Aloe, SPF 4, 8 and 15. Plus our Platinum Tanning Oil and our Professional Tanning Oil. The sunscreens were revolutionary and worked great, but were a challenge to sell as the Titanium was thick and white and left people looking like Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Great cartoon; not so great on sun lovers at the beach.

Within a couple of years we improved our propitiatory technology and we were able to add an SPF 25 to the mix and make the sunscreens less whitening as well. This was our entire product mix for about 10 years.

From those humble beginnings we grew. We added territories including Southwest Florida, Orlando, Las Vegas and Palm Springs. We honed our training and created programs that are still the gold standard in the suncare industry. We were often imitated but never duplicated and even now are light years ahead of our competitors with our training systems including the famous 3-P's program (see some of our past blogs).

Lots of things have changed in 20 years. We started at six resorts and now have products in more than 200 worldwide. Hawaii is still an important region for us but we are now in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and all over the Caribbean.

Our catalogue has increased from the original seven products to more than 250 with all natural formulas in Suncare, personal care, spa and specialty products. We now sell to Ritz Carlton properties all over the world, the Fontainebleu Resort in Miami, Sandals and Beaches Properties, Trump Resorts, the Venetian and Aria in Las Vegas and hundreds more.

We've grown physically as well and now have nearly 35,000 sqft of production, offices and warehouse in Melbourne, Florida as well as two stores in Kauai. Absolutely Natural employs 25 people full time with up to 20 more seasonally.

Some things haven't changed. Our formulas are still made with cosmetic grade raw ingredients and still hand crafted with exacting standards. Even though we make 1000x more product than we did in 1992, we will never take shortcuts. That's the biggest reason we have thrived over the last two decades.

There are scores of people to thank especially my wife, Kelly, who used to coordinate all of our labeling of bottles with housewives all over Brevard County burning up the miles in an old Ford Taurus station wagon. And, she has been supportive of me through good times and bad and the million miles I have had to travel and the great amount of time I was absent from our home.

Mike Kelley, my oldest friend, first customer and still my best client with his fantastic Beach Activities of Maui. My brother, Steve, who was instrumental in keeping the business going in the early years. Bob Hamner originally developed the formulas with me and still comes up with phenomenal fragrances and products. All our employees in the past for their hard work and all of our great clients who have made it possible for our growth. And, many, many more.

Additionally, I want to thank our fantastic staff today especially Danny Richards who has been with me his whole life and worked for the company for the last 11 years. Danny has done whatever has been asked of him and currently works in sales and with special projects. Also, Lindsey Barber who has put her heart and soul into the company for the last seven years and has proven invaluable in the day to day operations, product development and web sales. Todd Anderson is going on four years of service as our director of sales and resident technology guru and brings a wealth of personal experience to the company (see Todd's story in past blogs).

We are also fortunate to have Suzanne Clements on our team. Suzanne is an extraordinary graphic artist who is responsible for our label design, web site look, new product design, mail outs, all collateral material and much more. She is assisted by Curtis Canham and they make an award winning team.

Scott Faris is also an integral team member and our consultant CFO. Scott has been instrumental in developing our financial resources and some exciting license products that we will announce shortly.

I also want to thank Brittany Quave, who is so capable handling our mail order department, Jessica Bouwsma, utility player extraordinaire, Joan Marshall, our excellent bookkeeper, Josh Yanni, my other son and IT expert, Gordon Cameron, production manager who gets out a remarkable amount of work in a short time, Anita Shaw, head of our labeling department, Eddie and Franco Citron, our master blenders and most responsible for our unequaled quality products, Kristina Hamner, our micro wiz, Matt Carrerio, our warehouse manager plus our hard working capable crew in production, Chris Lurcott, Mike Pigg, and Calvin Littles.

In Hawaii, Aerial Farr is our island manger for our Kauai stores and has done a great job alongside her mother, Karen Farr, in making our first Absolutely Natural store a great success. Her sister, Julia Smart, handles duties at our kiosk at the Kauai Beach Resort and offers their clients the ultimate in guest service. They all three are fantastic representatives for our natural products.

I also appreciate our vendors who embrace our exacting standards and insistence on the best quality. They have been important in the growth of our company.

Finally, and most of all, I want to thank all of our tens of thousands of loyal customers who make our efforts worthwhile.

Best regards 

Charley 

Spring is here!

It's spring time and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love, so the poet says. But for a lot of us, spring is the time to hit the road and enjoy a respite from winter weather ... Sun and fun after dreary months of cold temperatures and grey days.

This rite of Spring comes with an inherent danger though, as too many people end up enjoying too much sun and a bad sunburn can ruin a trip.

Absolutely Natural has the answer. Our 100% natural sun care products are all you need for a safe time in the sun and a bonus of a great tan. 

 Here are a few tips:

1. The first couple of days be extra cautious. Avoid exposure during the most intense time of the day, noon to 2pm.

2. Wear the proper sun protection as we'll explain

3. Most importantly, rehydrate your skin at night and "condition" it to be able to take more sun the next day.

Follow our time proven 3-P's program taught to thousands of beach professionals at resorts all over the world and used by tens of thousands of resort patrons over the last 20 years. The 3-P's stand for Protect, Promote and Prolong and it is simple and effective way to know what to do in the sun:

1. Protect: Sun sensitive areas of the body need a higher SPF since they burn more easily than the rest of the body. These sun sensitive areas are easy to determine... Anywhere the bone is close to the skin like your forehead, nose, décolletage area for women, backs of the knees and tops of the feet. You should use our SPF 25 or our SPF 15 depending on your skin type.

2. Promote: The rest of your body is not as prone to sunburn since UVB light does not penetrate as deeply on areas where you have muscle and fat beneath the surface of the epidermis. A moderate sunscreen such as our SPF 8 should be used there. Once you have a base tan, our tanning oil is a good selection as well.

3. Prolong: Probably the most important and neglected step. Everyone will pick up color through the day and what you do at night is crucial. If you do nothing to help heal the skin and get it ready for the next day, damage will occur with each day of repeated sun exposure. And, even if your tanning process catches up, your skin will be dry and the tan will flake off. Nightly use of our Rosehip Aloe helps heal the skin, rehydrates the epidermis and "conditions" the skin for exposure the next day. The result Is a healthy, vibrant and long lasting tan.

If you get a little too much exposure during the day and actually have a burn, use our famous Pure Aloe with Tea Tree before use of the Rosehip. It is such a great healer that Emerson Hospital in Boston uses it as a treatment for patients with radiation burns.

Some of you may be wondering why not an SPF 50 or even higher? Read my blog from last year and get the true story behind the dangerous high SPF's.

One last thing. Make sure you apply the product correctly. It is almost comical to watch people rubbing their sunscreen in so quickly; it's like they are in a frantic race. That is exactly the wrong thing to do. Apply sunscreens in sensitive areas by "dabbing" it on while the rest of your body should be covered by "laying" the product on the skin. Spread it smoothly over the skin and let it sit for at least a minute before putting it the rest of the way into the skin. At night, take a warm shower and apply the Rosehip Aloe after patting yourself dry by laying it into the skin.

Here's to a safe, fun spring vacation and upcoming summer.

Best regards

Charley

We are Proud to Support Sunny Cyclers...an Epic Fundraising Trek in New Zealand inspired by a Young Cancer Survivor

Recently, through a mutual acquaintance, I became aware of a young woman named Mikki Kragelund. Mikki is a Danish American who grew up in Cocoa Beach, FL near our Absolutely Natural headquarters. She has since moved to the beautiful country of New Zealand where she and a friend named Nina Oosterveer decided to make an inspirational journey together riding their bicycles North to South through New Zealand, approximately 1,500 miles. For a comparison within the U.S. the distance is roughly Dallas to Los Angeles or Boston to Miami!

The inspiration for their ride came about as a way to celebrate “life” one year after Mikki received her last treatment for skin cancer that she had been diagnosed with nearly two years earlier at the young age of 24. She and Nina selected The World Skin Cancer Foundation to be the charity they wanted to raise funds for through their own personal, grass-roots efforts.

Absolutely Natural is pleased and grateful to Mikki and Nina for allowing us to take part as Title Sponsor of Sunny Cyclers! Their inspiring adventure through the wonderful scenery of New Zealand is being chronicled via today’s web technology as they share journal updates and pictures on their website and via Facebook.

Without telling their story any further…please click on the graphic link below and go to the Sunny Cyclers Site to learn more and join us in supporting The World Skin Cancer Foundation through their efforts if you feel the desire to do so!

Enthusiastic Customers, We love them!

We are extremely proud of all of our Absolutely Natural products and put great effort into making them the best lotions, crèmes, oils, butters and personal care in the world. It is challenging making all natural products and even more challenging trying to put into words how special our products are.

Sometimes our customers say it best!

We received this recently from Saarah regarding our Marlee and Noah products.

Hi Marlee,



I met you at the ABC Expo and am on the spokesmoms team. I acquired some of your products to try for myself, as well as for my niece with eczema. Please feel free to use my comments in any testimonials you may need. Additionally, I am starting a blog called All Around Beauty Blog. It should be up and running near the end of December, and I am definitely going to be putting my reviews/comments about your products on there as well. I tried the lavender vanilla lotion for mommy, the foot lotion, the body butter, mineral bath sea salts and the washies. The items for my niece were the vanilla pineapple shampoo, body wash and lotion.





Products for me:

Body Lotion/Butter: The body lotion feels like silk on my skin. I absolutely LOVE LOVE it, and my skin thanks me everyday that I use it. Especially through these colder months, I find that I only have to apply the lotion on in the morning. The natural ingredients in the product make me feel better, as I know I'm not absorbing those toxic chemicals into my body!!! And let’s not forget to mention how GOOD it smells!! I will go in the bathroom and pump some of the lotion on my hands just to smell the essence of it. This smell would be SO perfect as an essence oil that you can burn to permeate the room.



Foot Lotion: I keep this lotion on my nightstand and put this on every night before I go to bed. It makes my feet so soft, and help to keep my feet soft. Sometimes I put on socks afterwards, and other times I don't. The peppermint in this lotion is mild, to where it doesn't sting and hurt like some peppermint lotions do, nor is it too mild that I don't feel the effects of the peppermint in it. This foot lotion also smells really good!! Again, this makes me feel better I am putting natural products on my skin.



Washies: These washies are amazing! I love putting my face wash into them and using them as a mild exfoliate! My face feels smooth after I've used them. They dry rather quickly and are very easy to clean.



Products for my niece:

Can I just say that these natural products have helped to clear away some of the eczema on her skin. My sister-in-law (and me) already saw a difference within a matter of 4/5 days to her skin. The only thing left are her thumb areas where she continues to pick at the scabs....but these lotions are so gentle that they don't aggravate her condition. My sister-in-law puts the lotion in a cabinet near all my nieces’ bath items, and squirts a little into her hand as she ALSO loves the smell!!



All in all, your combination of essential fragrances is simply amazing. I don't wear perfume at all (partly because of the alcohol in it) but mostly because I have yet to find a scent I love. I LOVE all the scents of everything I have used from Marlee & Noah.



Take Care

Saarah

Thank you Saarah for the time and effort you took in writing to us. It is our loyal and enthusiastic customers who make it all worthwhile.

Best regards

Charley