Nilotica Lip Care
One of my favorite products from our new African Adventures Collection has to be our Madagascar Vanilla Nilotica Lip Care. A rich blend of organic, fair trade Nilotica shea butter form Uganda and five exotic oils from all over the African continent, it glides effortlessly across the lips to soothe, enrich and nourish. Infused with kiss of Madagascar vanilla absolute and a dash of clementine essential oil, it smells positively divine…and it’s 100% natural, too! 
from Bead For Life
Two weeks and $10,000 to kill. Where to? 
The most famous tree in all of Africa, the baobab is nicknamed the “upside down tree” because its braches look like roots sticking up in the air. A myriad of folklore surrounds the baobab: in West Africa, natives believe that spirits inhabit the flowers and lions devour anyone foolish enough to pluck a bloom. In Zambia, it’s considered good luck to wash the seeds in a river as it wards off crocodiles. In Nigeria, the tree is revered as a symbol of fertility and couples marry beneath its branches. The seed of the baobab fruit is pressed to yield a luscious oil celebrated for its ability to quickly absorb and soften skin without clogging pores. Say it: Bow-o-bab. Native to Kenya. Find it in: Baobab & Red Tea Naturally Nourishing Shampoo, Madagascar Vanilla Nilotica Lip Care, Argan & Acacia Rich Body Creme 
“The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.” ~ Ralph W. Sockman 
The perfect remedy on a warm spring day, this softening mask utilizes our favorite skin treats from your pantry! 1/2 cucumber Toss peeled and deseeded cucumber into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Add honey, cream and yogurt and blend for 45 more seconds. To use: massage mask onto freshly cleansed skin. Grab a good book and relax for 10-15 minutes. Splash face with cool water to remove. Store any remaining mask in a covered container in the refrigerator and use within 4 days.
Christine B. of Akron, Ohio. As our latest drawing winner, she’s enjoying a host of goodies from our new Asian Indulgences Collection. It’s a package worth more than $75…congratulations! Want your chance to win? Enter here. 
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I highly recommend the following cozy nooks and places of interest- they represent some of my favorite stops on the web.
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Announcing the launch of our African Adventures Collection· September 1, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsI traveled to Africa six times over the past two years, studying the natural botany and beauty traditions of village juju’s and native women. Through Ghana, Morocco, Mali, Egypt and Uganda, I’ve observed essential oil distillations, listened at the feet of village chiefs and cheered on women in war-torn lands who are harvesting and processing shea butter as a means to escape abject poverty. I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Bella Lucce’s new African Adventures Collection. The culmination of over 60,000 miles traveled, 23 planes ridden and dozens of hours in cars along rutted clay roads in transit to remote village, these eight innovative products are a celebration of the richness of indigenous cultures, incorporating a stunning array of natural oils, fruits and extracts rarely seen in the American cosmetics market. Handmade bogolan soap wraps from Mali. Colorful woven display baskets from Uganda. Rare oils from Kenya, South Africa and Morocco. Out of the wilds of Africa, we invite you to join us on an African Adventure!  Celebrate Bella Lucce’s 7th birthday with us!· August 26, 2010 - Bella Luccè News
 September marks seven AMAZING years of Bella Luccè. In the infamous words of Jerry Garcia: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” What started as a small collection of luxuries made by hand in my tiny Knoxville kitchen has blossomed into more than 100 products for face to feet and everything in between, sold in more than 700 spas around the world- from Los Angeles to Dubai and New York to Nairobi. How to celebrate such a momentous occasion? Good question! Not satisfied with a single sale, we’ve assembled thirty incredible offers, one for each day in September. We offered something similar last year and, with your help, September 2009 turned out to be the biggest month in Bella Luccè history. We’re doing it up even bigger and better this year and hoping to set a new record. From free shipping offers, free products, coupons for future orders and double VIP points to knock-your-socks off discounts, every single day in September is like opening another present under the tree. We’ve included especially generous offers on our gorgeous new African Adventures Collection, so this is perfect time to give it a whirl.  For an added touch of fun, we’re tucking an adorable elephant sugar cookie (from our dear friends at Blue Flour) into the first 30 orders in September. Each elephant cookie includes a special offer on its belly, so every cookie is a winner. From a $5 gift certificate to $250 in free Bella Luccè, it’s our way of celebrating the African Adventures Collection and showing you a little love, too. They’ll go fast, so no dragging those feet… Let the fun begin, with our sincere thanks for your support over the last seven years! The Safe Cosmetics Act needs to be more in tune with science· August 25, 2010 - General News Of NoteCosmetic Design asked me to write a comment article on the new cosmetic legislation pending in the US House of Representatives. I was honored to do so and my article was published today. If you brush your teeth, take a shower or spritz yourself with perfume on any sort of regular basis, this legislation will impact both your pocketbook and your access to natural personal care products. However well-intentioned it may, HR 5786 will decimate this industry and leave consumers at the mercy of only a scant few multinational corporations who can afford to comply with dozens of new regulations and none of us will be any “safer” for it. Please read the article if you have a moment, and then consider the action steps in the closing paragraph…we need your help! The Safe Cosmetics Act needs to be more in tune with science Continue reading the article right here. Pretty City names Bella Lucce a “Fall Beauty Must Have”· August 19, 2010 - Bella Luccè News The fabulous women of PrettyCity.com just named our Pumpkin Glow Sugar Scrub to their “Fall Beauty Must Have” list. We can hardly keep this deliciously creamy scrub in stock once the mercury starts dropping and fresh batches are flowing from our kitchens as I type. We invite you to grab your own jar right here. We’re giving away $1,000 in FREE Bella Luccè products on Facebook next week!· August 16, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsComing soon…our African Adventures Collection launches September 1st! Beginning next week, we’ll be hosting ingredient contests on Facebook (one per day Monday through Friday at 12noon EST). Prize packs are valued at over $200 and include these new product launches. If you’re not already our friend on Facebook, we invite you to become one now, sharpen your pencils and get ready to win!  That’s an actual product photo for one of my personal favorites from the new collection. Ah, if you could just peel back that black dot and see what we’ve been up to! No peeking until September 1st… A peek inside our shea butter processing facility in Uganda· August 12, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsWhile in Uganda, I had the chance to observe the process of turning raw shea nuts into finished Nilotica shea butter, known as “moo yao” in Langi, the local language. There’s a fascinating, labor-intensive process behind that creamy shea butter that women covet in their American personal care products… Native women begin by gathering raw shea nuts from wildcrafted trees. The general rule of thumb is this: if the tree is on your property, the nuts are yours. If the tree is on communal property or lining a road, first woman to the tree gets the nuts! 
A mature shea tree in Otuke, Uganda The nuts are washed and dried on handwoven mats in the sun. As they dry, the kernel inside the shell contracts a bit, so the women shake the nuts next to their ears to see if they’re ready. If they rattle slightly, the inner kernel is dry and ready for processing. The women then remove the outershell by gently smashing the nut between two rocks. At this juncture, they take them to the local project coordinators at Bead For Life, who grade them, weigh them and purchase nuts by the kilo. The very best, classified as “grade A”, are reserved for shea butter processing destined for the export market. Grade B nuts are typically not purchased by BFL and the local women retain them for use in soaps and shea butter processing for the local market. Grade C nuts are the lowest tier, used by the women at home- both as a cooking oil and to smear upon their babies to encourage soft skin and deep sleep.  An unshelled shea nut (on the left) and a freshly picked nut (right) The deshelled, dried and graded shea nuts are then transported to Lira, the nearest town in Uganda, to begin processing. They are graded once more as part of a stringent quality control process and only grade “A” nuts are used in Nilotica butter processing. A generator-powered grinding mill quickly turns the nuts into a coarsely ground powder. East African shea nuts are never boiled or roasted, unlike their traditional West African counterparts. The result is a cold-processing method that maintains an abundance of the natural vitamins and skin benefits of the natural shea nut.  A grinding mill crushes the nuts into powder The powder is blended with hot water, which excites the natural oils inside the nuts. The resulting “slurry” is scooped into small cotton bags, which are then placed in a manual steel press fitted with a sieve. Heavy plates are placed on top of the bags to add pressure and weight, then a giant “screw” head is lowered upon the bags, winched down by two men walking in circles until the full pressure of the press has been applied to those bags of shea slurry. The pressure causes the liquid shea to ooze from the bags.  The resulting powder after two runs through the mill The bags are then handwashed and hung to dry in the sun. The shea powder, now devoid of the lion’s share of its valuable oil, is retained. The rebel insurgency has contributed to the rapid deforestation of Uganda’s shea parklands, as villagers cut down large shea trees, transforming them into charcoal to earn a living. The Bead For Life team in Uganda is experimenting with turning this powder into charcoal cakes, which could help slow the deforestation by preserving existing trees. As it takes twenty years for a shea tree to bear its first fruit, preservation is vital since replanting won’t yield results for at least a generation.  The freshly-washed muslin bags hanging to dry in the sun The liquid shea butter is then heated twice. The first heating purifies the butter and removes any impurities, such as ground nuts which may have seeped through the bags. The second warming evaporates any remaining water, leaving nothing but pure shea behind. The shea is poured into buckets while still warm. Upon cooling, it becomes more firm and is ready for incorporation into a variety of different personal care products. The butter is transported to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, then flown to Boulder, Colorado (Bead For Life’s US headquarters).  Pouring warm shea into containers at the processing facility I was fortunate enough to meet with two different groups of women who gather the shea nuts in the Otuke district in Northern Uganda. I wanted to hear their personal stories, see the processing methods for myself, and I also wanted to learn how these women have traditionally used shea butter in Africa. Here’s what I discovered. 1. Mothers typically rub their babies in shea butter almost every day, believing the “moo yao” makes babies fat and promotes good sleep. As discussed in an earlier article, the nuts for Bella Luccè’s Nilotica shea butter are gathered by the women who have survived the twenty year insurgency of the LRA rebel army in Northern Uganda. You can meet a few of them right here. We’re proud to be a part of this exciting new project from Bead For Life and we’re sharing our source for this beautiful fair trade, organic shea butter with you in the hopes that more cosmetic manufacturers in the US will help Bead For Life in their mission to help these amazing women rebuild their lives and permanently escape abject poverty. If you’re affiliated with a cosmetic manufacturing firm and you’d like to learn more about Nilotica shea butter, we invite you to contact Malinda at Bead For Life (303.554.5901). …and then we danced.· August 9, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsThough I’ve been home from Uganda a solid month now, I’m still busy processing all that I experienced while there. I’ve sat down to write this blog several times, but words escape me, I get tangled in the intricacies of all I saw and abandon the effort. But Uganda still comes to me in my dreams- often when I least want it to. I’ve seen a nice little slice of the world, but I’ve never been anywhere that boggled my mind quite the way this place did. When family and friends ask me what it was like, I can only say that I saw the very best and the worst of humanity, all in the span of 10 days. Last March, I met a lovely American woman named Devin Hibbard. She was at the Global Shea Conference in Bamako, Mali in an attempt to make trade connections for her Ugandan shea butter. I had no idea that East Africa was capable of shea butter production and she and I struck up a conversation. I learned that she was a cofounder of Bead For Life, an amazing NGO in Uganda that teaches poverty-stricken women to roll beads for BFL’s paper bead jewelry. The women participate in a 15-month program through BFL, during which time they are offered literacy and business training as they roll beads to earn an income. At the completion of the program, they’re encouraged to start their own business ventures to permanently escape poverty. It’s a fabulous concept and one that BFL has pioneered and managed quite well. Devin, however, wanted to expand the organization in an effort to impact more women and she was championing a new shea program in Northern Uganda. Devin graciously invited me to visit her and I began planning my trip to Uganda almost immediately upon my return home from Mali. I’d heard of the conflicts in Northern Uganda…seen a documentary or two…but I started a more diligent study of the area and its history. I had visited “remote” African villages on several occasions, and seen plenty of abject poverty all over the third world. Almost as soon as I landed, however, I realized that my false sense of preparation would melt quickly in Uganda. You’ve likely heard about what’s happened here too, though you may not yet realize it.  A Ugandan woman selling beads at Bead For Life headquarters in Kampala, Uganda Keep in mind that I landed in Uganda having already spent 3.5 weeks in Africa. My time in Ghana and Morocco had left me physically and mentally exhausted and I was pining for home and all the comforts that come with it. I was battling a cold and missing my babies. No rest for the weary, after 24 hours of flying from Casablanca, through Dubai and Addis Ababa, I landed in Kampala and spent one night sleeping like a baby before setting off the next morning with Devin. As we drove six hours north to Lira town, she and I talked about how various American political policies impact Africa, about AIDS education and treatment, about the intricacies of serving a population who have all too often become dependent on Western aid. We stopped for the night in “the nicest hotel in town”, which offered rooms for $10 a night…mosquito net and breakfast (a hard boiled egg and slice of bread) included in the price.  My hotel room in Lira The next morning we drove another two hours over rutted clay roads to reach Orum, an internal displacement camp for Ugandan victims of the LRA insurgency. Religious fanatic Joseph Kony founded the Lord’s Resistance Army twenty years ago and proceeded to terrorize almost the whole of Northern Uganda for the next decade and a half. His rebel soldiers were a mobile army, traveling from village to village burning homes, enlisting little boys as soldiers and abducting young girls. They were driven out of Uganda a few years ago, but now continue their reign of terror in the Congo and Sudan. They left behind 1.4 million displaced Ugandans (80% of whom are women and children) who will struggle for the rest of their days to rebuild their lives. More than 30,000 children have been forced to become foot soldiers on the front lines of the insurgency. The widows of the IDP camp are the very women Devin has enlisted to gather the shea nuts needed to make the shea butter Americans adore in their cosmetics. Devin had arranged for two groups of women to greet us and share their stories. She had warned me that virtually every woman in Northern Uganda had a walking case of PTSD (post traumatic stress syndrome), but I was utterly unprepared for what I heard.  Graves of some of the LRA victims in Orum We began the conversations casually, with my asking about how they were, telling them how much I loved their shea butter, etc. The usual niceties. I was timid about introducing the subject of the rebels, but Devin assured me that such talk wasn’t taboo and that the women would graciously share their stories. So we sat together and I asked each one “Are you married?” “Is your husband alive?” “How many children do you have?” “Have you lost any?” “What was your life like with the rebels?” The women, who had been previously been careful to make eye contact, each slowly gazed out into the distance, their eyes glossing over a bit and told me their stories: most husbands were dead, several of the women were living with HIV, many children had been taken as foot soldiers, most girls terrorized by the rebels. Their voices were low and I felt like their eyes were dams holding back a river of emotion that they dare not unleash. Stories of inexplicable horror poured out, the things you see in movies, the kind of terror that haunts the dark crevices of your nightmares…Kony and his followers as the ultimate boogey men.  Bullets holes from the rebels in Sarah’s concrete home I slid my sunglasses down over my eyes as the tears rolled down my cheeks. I just kept thinking “I cannot imagine…” And though I sat there with them, saw the residual horror for myself, I still can’t. I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up in the middle of the night to the heat of my thatched roof set ablaze, to the sound of gunfire, to the cries of my children. Sweet Cecilia, the tiniest woman I have ever seen, took my hand, her fingers like tiny paws, soft and dark and squeezed it and said “I wish I had wings so I could fly away from this place.” And just when I was starting to really, really lose my composure, we got up and…danced. That’s right, we danced. Because what else can you do when you’ve lost virtually everything? When evil has come to visit and roost for years- stealing your home, your family, your security and your hope? You get up the next day and you dance. Because that’s all that’s left to do.  The women dance after sharing their stories It was a heady experience. And I admit that it felt horribly uncomfortable and unnatural when they asked me to join them in a dance, their voices high in a traditional African trill, just moments after telling me of the worst atrocities I’ve ever heard. But they were insistent, so I danced. And it did, indeed, help heal my soul. Sarah, one of the local project coordinators, later took us on a walking tour of Orum and told us of life “back then.” Past the mass graves, past the spot where they snatched her father, past the spot where she had rescued her infant daughter from the mud puddle where the rebels abandoned her, past the tall tree where the rebels would perch so they could monitor the village. Sarah is the only survivor in her school class- the others all victims of either HIV or the LRA. On the walk, we encountered Helen, who had previously shared her story with me in one of the small groups. She was balancing 30 or 40 pounds of water in a jug on her head, returning from the well to her hut. She invited us to come along. We walked dirt paths, past free roaming cattle and children playing with abandoned tires. As we rounded a corner, she said “this is my home” and I spotted a gorgeous plot of wildflowers. No one here grows flowers- the land is reserved for crops that feed their families and daily life leaves precious little time for leisure activities like flower gardens. But this patch of brilliant purple, red and green was quite obviously loved and well tended. As I walked over to it, I complimented Helen on what a great space it was. And then I stopped. It was a mass of gorgeous flowers, which obscured a series of concrete slabs that served as graves. Her father, her brother, her son…and on and on. Six in all. All rebel victims over the series of years that the LRA came to roost in Orum.  Sarah and Devin on a walking tour of the IDP camp And that, dear readers, is when I lost it. Completely and utterly lost it. Red faced, shoulders shrugged, hands shaking, no-composure-left sobbing. And Helen just stood there- staring at the remnants of her family, smiling gently and telling me it was okay. But it’s not. And it likely won’t ever be. And yet she had joined us in dance. Because what else is there to do?  Helen and her children with her family graves Bella Lucce works incredibly hard to cultivate socially responsible suppliers of all the exotic ingredients we use in our product range. And while we generally have to treat those sources with some secrecy as they’re proprietary business resources, I want desperately to share this one with you. Bead For Life offers the most amazing shea butter. If you create personal care products, you need it. Bella Lucce is transitioning almost all of our products over to it and we couldn’t be happier with the results we’re getting. East African Shea is softer than the traditional West African variety, melts immediately on the skin and formulates beautifully. At Suppliers Day in New Jersey last May, one of the world’s foremost shea experts, who has dedicated his life to its study, confided in me that he believes the East African shea is better for the skin than West African. Bead For Life’s shea butter is fair trade and organic and every time you purchase it, you’re creating a bridge out of poverty and a step towards recovery for Cecilia, Sarah and Helen. You have no idea how critical this income is, how important being able to provide for their surviving children is, how vital this opportunity is for them. And you I assure you that you’ll be making a difference…I’ve traveled 9,000 miles to see it for myself.  Buckets of Bead For Life shea butter ready for transport back to Kampala Later this week, I’ll post another blog to illustrate just how the shea is gathered and processed. It’s a fascinating process. In the meantime, you can meet some of the shea gatherers. You can also ring Malinda at Bead For Life and ask her to tell you more about that dreamy shea (303.554.5901). She’s an absolute delight and she’d love nothing more than to tell you about it. Please tell her I said hello… A Day in the Life on Capitol Hill…· August 4, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsOn Monday, I was honored to engage Congressional officials in a discussion about the impact of the H.R. 5786 on small beauty companies. I was joined in DC by Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Beauty Network, Leigh O’Donnell of The Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild, Kayla Fioravanti of Essential Wholesale and Anne Marie Faiola of Brambleberry. We met with five staffers from the offices of co-sponsors of the House Bill (specifically: Reps. Jan Schakowsky, Ed Markey, Tammy Baldwin, and Barney Frank) and Sen. Feinstein’s Senate office. Here’s my take-away from those meetings:  Anne Marie, myself and Donna Maria in a cab on the way to Capitol Hill 1. The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics has had the ear of these legislators for quite some time. It’s abundantly clear that the bulk of this “junk science” is coming directly from CFSC. These meetings were a terrific opportunity to combat some of the misinformation that’s been saturating DC for the last few years. A prime example? One staffer asked us why we wouldn’t just agree to stop adding lead to lipstick. That’s a line straight out of CFSC’s playbook. Though I tire of hearing that one, it opened the door for a discussion on the issue. In fact, no one is adding lead to lipstick. Manufacturers don’t maniacally toss in a 55-gallon barrel of lead into each batch of lipstick just to see what will happen. Lead is found in the mineral pigments used to make red lipstick. The pigments are mined from the earth, which contains lead as a natural mineral. Unfortunately, Mother Nature left us precious few options for creating that brilliant red lip that so many American women have taken a shining to. (The only other viable option is crushed beetles- no joke). The staffers seemed a bit shocked by this revelation, as well as the fact the amount of lead detected in lipstick in that infamous CFSC study was less than the amount of lead found in the average glass of American drinking water. You know, the variety we’re advised by medical professionals to down 8 glasses of per day? To add insult to injury, the FDA already regulates the amount of lead inherent in personal care products, so today’s cosmetic landscape isn’t the “Wild, Wild West” that special interest groups have made it out to be. It’s clear the “studies” they based this legislation were ill-advised and designed with a specific agenda in mind. We opened the door to introduce logical, fact-based science, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to unravel some of the damage that’s been propagated over the last few years. 2. It’s clear that these staffers did not fully understand precisely how H.R. 5786 would practically impact the industry. For example, if I began marketing a massage bar tomorrow with just 3 ingredients, the label would look like this: Olive Oil, Cocoa Butter, Lavender Essential Oil. That’s it! A clear, easy-to-digest label for consumers that precisely states what’s in their 100% natural, 99% edible product. Under this new bill, that same cosmetics label would look like this: Olive Oil (Tri-Glycerides of Palmitic, Di-Glycerides of Palmitic, Palmitoleic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic, Arachidic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Squalene, Beta Carotene, Campesterol, Methylenecholesterol, Stigmasterol, Sitosterol, Fucosterol, 28-Isofucosterol, Stigmadienol, Brassicasterol, 7-Cholestenol,Ergostadienol, Avenasterol, Triterpene Alcohols, Tirucallol, Taraxerol, Dammaradienol Beta-Amyrin Germanicol, Butyrospermol, Parkeol, Cycloartenol, Tirucalladienol, 4-Methlene 24-Dihydroparkeol, 24-Methlenecycloartanol, Cyclobranol, 4-Methyl Sterols, Esters of Tyrosol, Esters of Hydroxytyrosol, Vitamin E (Tocopherols), Carotenoids, Oleuropein), Cocoa Butter (Tri and Diglycerides of Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Lead, Oleic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Isoleic Acid, Beta Carotene, p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid, Vanillic Acid, Ferulic Acid, Syringic Acid, Phenylehtylamine, Theophylline, Aliphatic Esters, Aromatic Carbonyls, Caffeine, Theobromine, Diketopiperazines and Alkylpryazines), Lavender Essential Oil ( Cineole Octanol, Octanone, Alpha Bisabolol, Alpha Cadinol, Alpha Humelene, Alpha Phellandrene, Apha Pinene, Alpha Terpinene, Alpha Terpineol, Alpha Terpinyl Acetate, Alpha Thujene, Alpha Thujone, Beta Bisabolol, Beta Pinene, Beta Thujone, Borneol, Bornyl Acetate, Camphene Camphor, Cineolealpha Terpineol, Carvone, Caryophyllene, Carophyllene Oxide, CIS Alpha Terpineol, CIS Alpha Bisabolene, CIS Carveol, CIA Linalol Epoxide, CIS Ocimene, Citronellal, Citronellol, Coumarine, Cuminaldehyde, Eugenol, Furfural, Geraniol, Geranyl Acetate, Geranyl Butyrate, Hexanol, Hexyl Tiglate, Isoborneol, Lavandulol, Lavandulyl Acetate, Limonene, Linanlol, Linalyl Acetate, Methyl Heptenone, Myrcene, Nerol, Neryl Acetate, Oleanolic Acid, P Cymene, Rosemarinic Acid, Sabinen, Terpinenol, Terpinolene, Trans Carveol, Trans Epoxy Linalyl Acetate, Trans Linanol Epoxide, Trans Ocimene, Ursolic Acid). Do you feel any safer? Any more informed? Or just totally overwhelmed? It’s the exact same product, but you’ll need both a chemistry book and a magnifying glass to make sense of that label. Can you imagine fitting all that on an 8 ounce bottle? Along with the existing requirements of net contents, applicable safety statements, manufacturer’s contact information, directions for use, and on and on and on. I wish you could have been there to see the faces of the staffers as we passed around the handout with that “expanded” ingredient list. I think we’re beginning to illustrate that what’s fabulous in theory may be disastrous in practice. 3. We talked repeatedly of the impact the new fee system would have on small business. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard lately (from small cosmetic companies, from consumers and from legislators) “…but the bill specifically excludes fee for businesses grossing less than a million dollars per year.” There are several problems with this position. Chief among them: $1m in sales isn’t a small business. It’s a MICROBUSINESS. I know that number sounds huge when you’re making cosmetics at your kitchen table, but it’s minuscule in practice. A “small” cosmetic company- by industry standards- is a business grossing $7m or less per annum. What about the businesses making $1-6.9 million per year? They’ll be slammed with new fees. Just how much, we can’t say. Why? Because H.R. 5786 specifically omits any description of the actual fee structure. The bill jut gives the FDA the authority to institute a fee structure on any business grossing over $1million in order to cover the cost of all the new buildings, researchers, paperwork and enforcement. Privately, the FDA will tell you that it’s HUNDREDS OF MILLION of dollars. Sounds like those fees will be rather steep. It breaks my heart to hear young cosmetic companies say “Whew…well at least I’ll never have to pay fees because we don’t gross a million.” Why? Well, I’d hope that the moms who are working full-time jobs and taking care of their children and trying in the wee hours of the morning to launch their dream businesses (inbetween juggling all their other responsibilities) aim higher for themselves than to launch a company that will never come close to grossing a million dollars per year. And I literally shudder when I hear that sigh of relief escape their lips, because it’s at that very moment that I realize they have yet to understand that everyone above them in the cosmetics “food chain” will be passing those hefty new fees right on down to the little guy. As a microbusiness, you might not be cutting a check to the FDA but believe me- you’ll be paying those fees. We stressed that fact again and again to legislators. Action Steps: Good morning from Washington DC…· August 2, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsSurprise! I snuck up to Washington over the weekend to join my dear friends and colleagues Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Beauty Network, Leigh O’Donnell of the Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild, Kayla Fioravanti of Essential Wholesale and Anne-Marie Faiola of Brambleberry. What would compel five women to drop everything, book last minute plane tickets and hustle up to hot and humid DC? HR5786 was introduced into Congress on July 20th under the guise of “protecting consumers”, this heavy-handed piece of legislation will, in actuality, punish consumers. And women especially. Thousands of your favorite cottage beauty companies will close if it passes. The soap shops and tiny beauty labs nationwide (predominantly owned by women and largely employing women) will shutter the doors, adding to the already dire unemployment lines. Only the multi-billion dollar, multinational companies will be able to afford the team of scientists needed to be compliant, so your product choices as a consumer will dwindle back down to those companies who mass produce, who lag behind in innovation and who have the massive legal budgets necessary to operate in that type of regulatory environment. The prices for all cosmetics (from your toothpaste to your shower gel and your eye shadow to your body scrub) will increase, as companies are saddled with both the hefty new fees this bill will levy and the layers and scientists needed to kick it all into action- and those charges will trickle right down to the consumer. Sadly, none of this will bring us any closer to “safe cosmetics.” New lab testing and labeling requirements would mean that our ingredient decks read like a copy of War and Peace. Any trace contaminants found in the water we use will need to be declared on the label. So hundreds of contaminants found in parts-per-billion in your every day drinking water will now congest an ingredient label and scare you half to death. Is the water unsafe? No- you drink it very day. But you’ll be left with fold-out ingredient listings that are impossible to read- let alone make any sense of- and anything with potential carcinogens (think coffee and apples) could potentially be banned. Natural ingredients will be impacted the most- as natural ingredients naturally contain more “contaminants” than synthetic, lab-created chemicals. This bill will be an absolute disaster for natural personal care products. If you haven’t already signed the petition to voice your opposition to the bill, please do so now. Bella Lucce needs every client, every vendor, every competitor and every natural product lover to take a moment to take a stand. Later today, Kayla, Leigh, Donna Maria, Anne Marie and I will be meeting with senior staffers in the offices of those original bill sponsors. We’re in DC to stand up for this industry, to defend natural products and the people whose passion it is to create them. We’re here to protect consumers who deserve better legislation and unfettered access to the safe cosmetics they already know and love. We need your support via Twitter, Facebook, and the official Oppose SCA website. Speak your truth, call your representatives, alert your customers…this is your chance to make a difference and your assistance is desperately needed. We’d like to invite anyone close to the DC area to join us tonight for dinner. We promise an evening full of great networking, yummy food and an opportunity to discuss this legislation and how we can collectively impact it for the better. Dinner starts at 6pm and I hope to see you there… Famous Luigi’s Whip out your virtual pens…it’s time to save small business and defend indie beauty!· July 30, 2010 - Bella Luccè NewsAs I mentioned a few days ago, a poorly crafted piece of legislation introduced by Congress last week will limit your choice on the cosmetics aisle, shutter thousands of independent beauty companies and cost tens of thousands of Americans their jobs, all under the banner of providing “safer” cosmetics. Unfortunately, your cosmetics won’t be safer, your ingredient lists will read like a copy of War and Peace, you’ll have to wade through thousands of listed “contaminants” (in parts per billion) to find out what’s REALLY in your bottle of shampoo, and many of your favorite cosmetics companies (including Bella Luccè!) will go the way of the dinosaur. Please, please, please- take a stand for small business AND safe cosmetics. The two are not mutually exclusive and you can show your support for indie beauty companies nationwide with a quick click over to sign the petition against HR5786. Please take a stand today!  This is an excellent blog post about how the passage of this bill will negatively impact consumers…please take a few moments to read it! |
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