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Here are 6 quick tips for spotting the greenwashers in the ‘natural’ personal care product industry…

1. Beware of misleading brand names – Just because the brand name is ‘So-and-so Naturals’ or ‘XYZ Organics’ doesn’t mean the product as a whole can be classified as natural or organic.  More often, this just means they use some natural or organic ingredients – along with all their synthetic chemicals.
2. Ignore the marketing images –  Just because a catalog has lots of plant pictures in it does not mean that the products are natural or organic.
3. Caution on the marketing claims – Marketing words on the front of a box or bottle – such as natural, safe, pure, gentle, beneficial, non-toxic, organic, and even certified organic – can have varying standards for ingredients and these days demand a closer look at the full ingredient list on the back of the packaging.
4. Demand full ingredient disclosure – Just because the ‘key ingredients’ list contains natural ingredients, or the product says, ‘made with’ natural ingredients, doesn’t mean the rest of the ingredient list doesn’t contain potentially harmful chemicals.  If a company does not readily disclose or answer your questions on the complete ingredient list, a big red flag should start waving in your mind.
5. Verify the third party verification standards – Case in point, ‘certified organic’ products.  Certified by what organization?  And what are the certification standards?  There are many different standards out there now vying to become ‘THE’ organic standard for personal care and cosmetic products.  Few if any meet the standards which most consumers have come to think of when they think ‘organic’ – that is 95% minimum organic content, the other 5% natural, no chemical preservatives, etc.  These are the food grade standards and they can be applied to personal care products as well.  Compare products meeting the food-grade organic standards with other ‘organic’ standards that require as little as 10% organic content and often allow ingredients or processing methods that would never be allowed in organic food.
6. Take the Toxic Test – Become familiar with the more concerning ingredients often still found in ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ products and start scanning the backs of boxes and bottles as a regular habit before you buy.  You can find lists of ingredients to avoid from groups such as the Environmental Working Group or the Breast Cancer Fund.  If you wish, you can also get a  free downloadable “Toxic Test” resource list of 50+ ingredients to avoid – all compiled in one document.

The bottom line is, you must have a clear sense of what you are looking for and then do some careful digging to find out if a given product matches what you want.  When in doubt, feel free to ask!  People regularly send me messages via my Facebook page asking me to look over ingredient lists for them, and I’m happy to help whenever I can.

I recently became aware of a big upcoming event called the Natural Beauty Summit America.  Their webpage says, “Take part of the fastest growing segment of the beauty market.”  A market segment that is estimated to reach $5.8 billion in the US alone by 2016.  The natural market segment.

My first thoughts, I’ll be honest were a little… um… cynical is not really the right word.  Sorrowful maybe?

I thought…

Yes, this is the fastest growing segment of the beauty market because – whether they are high maintenance or low maintenance – more and more people want truly natural products.  But they are so often led astray by misleading claims and even blatantly false advertising.  They think they are buying a truly natural product because the nice words on the big front label say ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ or some other equally meaningless, unregulated buzz word.  They often don’t bother to look at the ingredient label on the back.  They just trust the advertising images or claims…

Sigh…

Sometimes this is subtle.  A company may be 100% honest and yet still – intentionally or unintentionally – be misleading people.  For example, if a company says very clearly in its marketing literature that they use science and nature combined (side note – ‘science’ here usually means man-made synthetic chemical ingredients), but then has a website or catalog full of plant images, customers will still come away with a strong sense that they are buying a truly natural product.

Case in point:  Before my personal discovery of truly organic products that work well and stay fresh without the synthetic chemicals, I used and worked with a semi-natural line that I believed to be better than most conventional products out there (I had not yet become aware of all that I know now regarding the toxicity of some of their ingredients).  I always stressed very clearly to my clients that the line was NOT all-natural, yet still, some people would develop a wrong impression because of the catalog images (over which I had no control).

In reality, nowadays, with the trends in natural beauty products – remember, the fastest growing segment of the entire beauty market? – these sorts of ‘semi-natural’ products are the new norm.  Dime a dozen almost.

But a truly natural, truly organic product that doesn’t go funky halfway through the bottle, still has a good shelf life, and actually works?  That’s tricky.

So, when I first saw this site advertising the Natural Beauty Summit, I also thought, “I wonder how many of these companies are just greenwashers like so many others?”

Greenwashers…

For example, companies that say their products are natural or organic when in fact they still contain toxic ingredients.

Or, companies that develop truly organic products to stock on store shelves right along side their conventional toxic products…  They clearly just want a piece of that growing market demand for natural products; they are not actually founded on and committed to natural and sustainable living principles at their core.

Whatever the case, they are everywhere.  Walk up and down the store aisles and read some ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ product labels.  Can you pronounce that ingredient?

Google search online for natural products…  The greenwashing is everywhere and endless.

Here is one example of a blatantly false claim I recently found.  I won’t mention brand names because I don’t like to ever slam anyone, but really now, come on…

This facial scrub is introduced to the reader as containing “only natural and herbal ingredients and is safe for both mother-to-be and fetus.”

But here is the ingredient list openly displayed right below that intro.  (I at least give them kudos for putting the list there!)

Ingredients:

• Purified Water
• Glyceryl Stearate
• Ethylhexyl Palmitate
• Butylene Glycol
• Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate
• Sodium Cocoyl Methyl Taurate
• Polyethylene
• PEG-100 Stearate
• Myristyl Myristate
• Tridecyl Stearate
• Neopentyl Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate
• Tridecyl Trimellitate
• Phenoxyethanol
• Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer
• DMDM Hydantoin
• Triethanolamine
• Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate

 

OK, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that most of those ingredients are not natural or herbal.  Most?  Unless my eyes deceive me, how about all but the water?!  Yikes!  And if you really dig into these ingredients, you will see that some are downright dangerous for people and/or the planet.

(Note – If you want more details on these ingredients, sign up for my newsletter for a free, downloadable “Toxic Test” resource list (over 50 ingredients to avoid and why) or contact me about doing a label reading workshop for you and a group of people who also care about avoiding hidden toxins (note – there are no sales at a workshop, it is strictly generic educational info and can be held in person or online via webinar).

But contrast it with the ingredient list for a truly natural facial scrub (Miessence’s Garnet Exfoliant).

Ingredients:

certified organic aloe barbadensis (aloe vera) leaf juice
alluvial almandite garnet
sclerotium rolfsii gum
citrus aurantium amara (bitter orange) fruit extract
certified organic citrus limonum (lemon) essential oil
certified organic citrus bergamia (bergamot) essential oil
certified organic citrus dulcis (sweet orange) essential oil

What a difference!

At any rate, back to the Natural Beauty Summit.

So, at first glance I was skeptical and a bit saddened by the madness of all the probable greenwashing.  The marketing noise is so loud out there, that it’s sometimes hard to hear the small but mighty and growing voices demanding truly organic and sustainable products. It’s sometimes hard to hear my own voice. But it’s getting louder and clearer as more people join in the chorus.  🙂

As I dug deeper into the website for the summit event, I noticed that it looks like the organizers want to address many of these issues.

From their site…

12 Reasons to attend The Natural Beauty Summit

1) Identify the opportunities in the natural & organic cosmetics market

2) Achieve an in-depth understanding of natural & organic cosmetic standards

3) Gain an understanding of ethical sourcing & ingredient issues

4) Learn what to avoid when developing and marketing natural & organic products

5) Overcome the technical issues when formulating natural cosmetics

6) Gain insight into the regulatory environment for Europe and the US

7) Gain a better understanding of corporate social responsibility and ethical business practices

8.) Learn how to use food & novel ingredients in cosmetic products

9) Discover the innovative and provocative trends in sustainability

10) Update your knowledge in natural technologies

11) Get practical insight from marketing, R&D and retailing success stories

12) Learn about sustainable best-practices in the cosmetics industry

 

This all sounds very hopeful.  It sounds like the event has huge potential to create more momentum for change as various stakeholders come together to evaluate the past, present, and future of the natural products market segment.

Let’s hope they all commit to stop greenwashing and move in the direction of honest and clear marketing with regard to what’s in the products they provide.

Here is Part Two of my client’s recent questions.  If you missed it: Part One.

(Note: this discussion was with a Miessence client, so I use Miessence as an example a lot here, but you can apply the general principles to evaluating other products of any type or brand just as easily).

Her second question…

“2) Cost – I definitely consider cost when I shop, and my initial reaction to the Miessence line was that is was more money than I usually pay for personal care products.  So, I decided I would monitor how long the moisturizer lasted and was pleasantly surprised that it lasted about six months; that seemed reasonable to me.  So… How do I best consider / justify cost in light of environmental impact?”

And here was my reply back to her…

“2) To be perfectly honest with you, I can’t even fathom trying to figure out the exact math on this.  It would be a great high school math project, I bet!  But, a general weighing out of the true cost analysis can be done somewhat intuitively, I think, by asking the types of questions I discuss throughout the video series.

For just one example, carbon emissions.  A company that runs its manufacturing facility on wind power and offsets their global shipping emissions will, environmentally speaking, cost less long term than a company that uses tons of non-renewable energy in its manufacturing and does nothing to offset its transport emissions – even if the more energy intensive company is closer geographically.  Also, with most products on the store shelves, they’ve been shipped more than once all over the place before landing in our homes – vs ordering direct from a manufacturer.  In Miessence’s case, the cost of the products does reflect the wind powered manufacturing and the carbon offset work the company does.  It’s all wrapped up into the price – similar to how some customers are willing to pay a little more for wind or solar energy for their homes through 3rd part suppliers.

And actually, in Miessence’s case, even at full retail price they are right in the middle range price point (not economy drug store stuff, but also not super high end fancy schmancy stuff either) for these types of products – and that’s including all these environmental benefits (organic ingredients, fair trade/pay for workers in fields, no toxic ingredients for our bodies or waterways, carbon negative manufacturing and shipping practices, recyclable packaging with R&D working on compostable packaging…).  And that’s not counting the additional 20% off all orders option customers have via the lifestyle membership.  Compare this to other mid-range price point brands on the market that are full of toxins, use non-recyclable packaging, do nothing to offset their manufacturing and shipping burdens, likely pay people poor wages along the supply lines, and offer no ongoing regular discount options to customers…“

Bottom line?  No matter what the product is we’re talking about – food, personal care, cleaners, furniture, clothing, energy… whatever…

True costs are more than just the retail price sticker.

But what if budgets are tight – as they are for most people?

Thankfully, more companies are beginning to take innovative approaches to serve customers who want to vote with their dollars by purchasing more healthful and sustainable products but who may not have the budget to do it as often as they’d like.

Check out this video.  Again, I use Miessence as an example, but you can apply the same principles to evaluating other companies.

 

In the end, as I always tell people in my general label reading seminars…

YOU decide what matters most to you when you weigh out all the variables.  But becoming more mindful of the ‘true costs’ – the hidden social, economic, and environmental costs – behind our daily choices is critical for a sustainable future.

As we support one another in finding safer and more sustainable choices for every area of our lives, we are participating in and adding momentum to the bigger movement of history that is at work to restore sustainable life to the earth.  What an exciting journey!

Not long ago, a client asked me two VERY good questions.  I’d love to share the first one here, and the second in a later post.

“I jumped ahead a bit and previewed your video series.  Still need to take the survey, but it was evident the amount of work and thought and heart that went into your video series… so well done!  I wasn’t very conscious about the stuff in my personal care products.  And, the awareness is still a work in progress for me…  I have a couple of questions to help increase my personal awareness and understanding of this topic:  1) Ingredients – When I look at the ingredients on the back of my moisturizing bottle, I’m surprised to see a rather long list.  I expected organic to be simple…”

Here was my quick answer to her:

“Organic definitely means simple in terms of the types of ingredients – things we can pronounce.  🙂  But, there is still quite a lot of science and research that goes on with regard to what ingredients do what and in what combinations – in the case of skin care – for the skin.  If you ever have a chance to listen to Narelle, who has formulated the Miessence products, speak on this, it’s really quite fascinating.”

Creating a shelf-stable product that is certified organic to food grade standards is a HUGE challenge.  Many people can and do whip up their own DIY recipes in their kitchens using organic food ingredients.  And in these situations, you can often use just a handful of ingredients.  But there are a few major drawbacks for some:

1- It takes time and often needs to be done daily to ensure freshness of the DIY product.  Some people love doing this – rock on!  Personally, I’d rather buy products from someone I know I can trust and spend my limited time in the kitchen preparing food to eat instead of lotions and potions.  (Although, truth be told, I’m not a big fan of cooking either.  We border on ‘going raw’ because it’s just so much easier to grab some raw produce – plus it leaves the full nutritional potency in the food.)

2- There is a microbial concern in some cases.  If you whip up your own concoctions in your kitchen and DO keep it more than one day, it almost always needs to stay in the fridge (with some obvious exceptions, like using straight coconut oil for a moisturizer).

3- There is a compromise in what many think of as quality.  Perspectives on this will obviously vary depending on what a person is used to using.  For example, some people find straight coconut oil works great.  For others, it’s too greasy and they just don’t care for it.

Whether for time saving reasons, microbial safety reasons, or quality reasons, many people prefer to find truly organic products that just replace their conventional products rather than go the DIY route.  But to create a shelf-stable product that is food-grade organic and that you can keep in your bathroom for months, there is a LOT of research that goes into what organic ingredients and packaging and more will keep the product from separating, molding, or going rancid.

Check out this presentation Narelle put together on their R&D process.  That’s some extensive, organic science and research.

The coolest thing though, is that it CAN be done!  For years, people said it couldn’t be done.  In 2001, Miessence proved the naysayers wrong.  And now, 10 years later, others are catching on.  The old, “But you have to have some synthetic preservatives” excuse just doesn’t fly anymore.

Been meaning to share this story for a week or so, but just hadn’t found the time.  Two Thursdays ago, after too many nights in a row of staying up late researching some very interesting stuff, I noticed that my left eye was feeling funny a bit before midnight.  And sure enough, when I headed up to bed not too much later and looked in the mirror as I washed my face, there was the pink and the goop.  Ugh.  Great.

But never fear!  I knew what to do.  If you know me well, you know that I am no movie buff (except for the Lord of the Rings movies).  But even I know the joke from My Big Fat Greek Wedding about “put some Windex on it!”

No, I did not put Windex in my eye.  I’m not sure if I even have any Windex in my house anymore at this point.  But my solution lends itself to a similarly funny sounding quote: Put some breast milk on it!

I’ll never forget when my friend Sarah, from Real Food Outlaws, first told me about this wonderful trick.  One of my munchkins had pink eye, and I had either just picked up or was about to pick up the Vigamox prescription the doc had called in for me.  She said, “Just put some breast milk in his eye.”

Really?  That works?  Yup!  I put mama milk in his eye, and it cleared up within 24 hours.  I think I gave him a few more doses just to make sure the infection was gone, but it was so much better than the ‘conventional’ alternative.  No need to prolong the trauma of dosing eye drops out 3x a day for 5 days to a cowering, crying toddler (eye drops are no fun at any age).

So, back to me a week or so ago.  I put some breast milk in my eye, went to bed, and the pink and goop were both gone by morning.  When the virus decided to try and set up shop in my husband and younger daughter’s eyes instead over the next few days – same thing.  A few doses of mama milk and no more pink eye.

Then the baby had a touch of an ear infection.  Couple drops of mama milk in the ear a few times a day for a couple days – all better.  No need to wipe out all the good bacteria in his gut with an antibiotic just to knock out something festering in his ear.  🙂

And here is an even better testimony to the amazing power of breast milk.  Last week, my older son somehow scratched his cornea.  He just randomly started crying and crying about his eye hurting.  So, we called his eye doctor to make sure it couldn’t be some sort of post surgery problem.  It had been over two months though since his strabismus surgery, so we couldn’t imagine that was it.

Anyways.  Took him in, the doc checked his eye, noted the scratched cornea, gave us a prescription for an antibiotic eye drop to prevent infection while it healed (I had another idea), said it would take 2-3 days to feel better and maybe a week to heal.  He also patched the eye and said to bring him back the next day to remove the patch and check it out.  When we got home, it wasn’t long before the bub wanted the patch off his eye, so we took it off, and I gave him his ‘special’ eye drops.  😉

The next day, the doc said my son’s eye was almost completely healed already.  Yay!  Go mama milk!  Somewhere I think I saw a bumper stick that says, “I make breast milk.  What’s your super power?”  Love it.

Then just today, a friend shared this really super thorough post on 57 uses of breast milk by Dionna over at Code Name Mama.

Check it out!

http://codenamemama.com/2012/02/20/medicinal-cosmetic-alternative-uses-breastmilk/

So, next time you have any sort of problem, maybe “Just put some breast milk on it!” (to be read with a Greek accent – and not to be taken as medical advice.  Anecdotal only.  I’m not a doctor.  If in doubt when caring for yourself or family, ask a doctor.).

Don’t have your own supply?  Find a healthy nursing mama you trust – she’d probably be happy to share.  🙂

 

Raw milk made my family sick last month.

Maybe you saw it in the news a few weeks ago.  Raw milk from a farm in PA made people in the greater Philly region ill.

When my hubby came home from work early with a fever, nausea, and ‘the poops’ (sorry, I’m a mom of preschoolers!), I thought, “Oh great, stomach bug.  Here we go.  Everyone start pumping the Fast Tract double time!”  (Love Fast Tract!)  Since we started using fermented food probiotics, we haven’t gotten stomach bugs nearly as often as we used to, but when/if we do get them, they usually plow through all six of us pretty quickly, and don’t last long.   The baby had a touch of it very soon after my hubby.  And then it seemed to stop spreading.  Strange.

Then a week after my hubby got the bug, my 7 year old got the exact same thing.  And the 5 and 3 year old each puked once, but nothing else.  I still had no symptoms.  Again, strange.  (But I was sure thankful to be well enough to take care of everyone else.)

Until we got the ‘it might have been us’ email from our farmer, the thought that it could have been the milk never even crossed my mind.  If anything, I figured the raw milk, with all its amazing probiotic benefits would be helping everyone fight the bug.

And then we found out that it WAS the milk.

But you know what?!

We still love our farmers and will continue to buy raw milk from them.  The Shanks handled the whole situation with such grace and humility (click here to read their letters), and I have no doubt that they have taken the necessary steps to correct the problem.

And, while I do not mean to downplay the awful experience of some folks with this bug… honestly?  To our family, this bug was not scary enough to outweigh the HUGE benefits of raw milk.  Any food can make you sick.  Germs are everywhere.  And I believe that the long term benefits of the raw milk are one key part of what helped my family kick the bug faster than ‘normal.’  Apparently, this bug can last 8-10 days; for us it was 3.  (What are the other keys that I think helped kick the bug faster?  Eating real food, using InLiven and Fast Tract probiotic products, and resting.)

I’d love to write a huge post about the benefits of raw milk, and even more so about the media bias against it.  But, Jen at Real Food Freaks already wrote that post, so I’ll just send you there and say a big DITTO!  🙂

www.realfoodfreaks.com/2012/02/03/i-still-believe-in-raw-milk/

To the Shank Family and their farm team (including the cows!) at YourFamilyCow.com …  We love you and appreciate you SO much.  Thank you for all you do!  🙂

Did you know that the average US household spends around $600 per year on personal care products?  Do you think it could be about the same per year on nutritional and digestive supplements?

What about you?  How much money would you save per month if you didn’t have to take funds from your budget for the products you use in your routines?  Skin care, hair care, body care, oral care, baby care, cosmetics, deodorant, supplements…  Whether you’re a high maintenance or low maintenance person, whether you buy your stuff from a larger company or an indie artisan, or even if you ‘DIY’ and make your own products, you put some amount of money toward your health and hygiene every month.

And what if you are trying to live a more mindful life – being more careful to avoid toxic ingredients, packaging, or business practices that are harmful to people and the planet?  Do you ever get disheartened by the fact that, no matter what type of product, the truly safe and sustainable options tend to be pricier?  Perhaps you want to live more simply and spend less in general, but you know that most things that are cheap are cheap for a reason – whether it’s the synthetic chemicals in the product, the child or slave labor behind the product, or any number of other social ills.  You understand how quality and social, economic, and environmental factors impact the total value equation, but maybe your budget, like most people’s,  remains limited nonetheless.

Let’s face it, when it comes to truly safe and sustainable personal care and nutritional supplement products, very few companies offer you the option to get discounts all the time on every order of any size.  And virtually none offers you the option to get products free every month.

But Miessence offers both – and it’s just one of the things that I love about them.  They have all the charm and heart of a small, family-owned company, and a clear and intentional focus on benefiting local and regional economies across the globe, but with a business plan that also benefits customers in ways far greater than a traditional retail model ever could.

Now, we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch, right?  Miessence is obviously not just giving away free products for nothing.  But for some people it almost feels like nothing because it’s either so natural, or so fun and rewarding, or both.

If you haven’t seen my video series on sustainability yet, take a quick few minutes to check out the “On Our Wallets” video and then read on.

OK, so as I mentioned in this video and in my post last week on Miessence’s free superfoods offer this month, there are many reasons why people become members of the Miessence community, whether as Customers (pay full retail price), Lifestyle members (get 20% off all the time), or Representative members (get 20-40% off all the time, free shipping, and more).  Representative members are often people who want to build an ethical home based business income to help support their families, but many more people become Rep members just to get a big discount on their own safe and sustainable products – or maybe even to get their products for free.

This is the post I promised earlier this month for those who are interested in knowing the answer to the question… How can I get Miessence products for free every month?

If you order monthly and refer just 3 other folks to the company who also want to order monthly as a Rep for the great savings and free shipping, then you get a thank you bonus from Miessence every month that basically pays for your monthly order.

Now, Lord help me if any of you think for even a second that I’m suggesting that you pester friends and family to buy these products just so you can get your stuff for free – far from it!  I hope you all know me well enough by now to know that I am all about doing things professionally, ethically, and naturally – always preserving relationships and respect.  🙂

There are two very viable options here that many people love:

1) If you love and use the products yourself and are happy to order monthly, and you naturally share it with others who want to do the same, then hey, the thank you bonus from Miessence that pays for your own products is a great little perk that can save you money each month and essentially take the personal care and nutritional supplement spending categories out of your monthly budget – or give you back the time you were using to make your own products so you can tackle the other 50 projects on your ‘want to do’ list.  You are genuinely ‘representing’ Miessence to others – including the caring, ethical, educational, and totally not pushy vibe of the company – and the company thanks you for it by paying for your monthly order.

2) If you want or need to earn your products for free asap, it requires some actual work.  Feel free to contact me for additional information on training and support available to you through our team on how to build a Miessence business professionally and ethically, without ever feeling like a pest to anyone.  If you’re only looking to build a business big (or small) enough to pay for your own monthly products, finding 3 monthly customers does not have to be a huge effort, but it is does require more focused and intentional effort than just casually referring friends to the company.

Again, no free lunch here.  But Miessence will pay for your monthly products if you casually and naturally refer 3 customers who also order monthly, or if you do just enough real honest-to-goodness work with the company to find 3 monthly customers in a way that is consistent with the ethical, educational, and missional focus of the company.

If you would like to open a Rep account for the great savings and/or potential to earn free products every month, check out this post from last week on the “Birthday Blast” offers this month and the different options for opening a Rep account.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.  Cheers!  🙂

February 2012 marks Miessence’s 9th anniversary, and they are celebrating with a $9 “Birthday Blast” offer that could also get you $200+ worth of their superfoods products for free.   I like free.  Do you?  🙂

And I do love their superfoods products.  Have you tried them yet?  The Berry Radical, the Deep Green, and the InLiven products are all part of the routine here in our home.  (If you’re not familiar with Miessence or with these particular products, I’ll put some resources at the bottom of this post for you.  And for those who are budget conscious out there, like I am, ask me how to make the 30-day supply last 90 days.)

So here’s the “Birthday Blast” scoop and how you can get $200+ worth of superfoods free…

Until midnight on February 28th (yes, I know there are 29 days this year, but the deadline is the 28th in the US), you can become a Miessence Representative member for just $9.  It’s normally $40.

Now wait a minute.  I know some of you may be thinking, “But I do not want to build a home based business.  I don’t want to be a Rep.”

No worries.  That’s fine.  A Miessence Rep account is available to people for lots of different purposes.  A growing number of folks are becoming Reps to build an ethical home based business in line with their core values, but many more people become Reps just to support their own safe and sustainable product usage.  Here are a couple examples – which one would better suite you?

“I became a Rep just to serve myself with a discount.  I am my only customer.”

“I became a Miessence Rep just to earn my own products for free every month.”
———————–                       (more on that option in another post later this month)

Representative members receive on-going savings on orders, are given exclusive access to Miessence specials at 40% off the recommended retail price, and can qualify for free shipping – and possibly even free products every month (again, watch for a post on that).

So, if you love the idea of using truly safe and sustainable, certified organic products on a regular basis, becoming a Miessence Rep might be a great option for you.  And in February only, you can open a Rep account for just $9, regardless of the size of an accompanying order…

You can even open the account without an order if you want, but by far the most popular options are to place either a ‘Fast Start’ or ‘Super Fast Start’ product order when opening your Rep account.  These are by far the best deals, money savings wise, and again – they are not just for Reps who want to build a business.  These packs are also totally applicable to people who just want to becomes Reps in order to get a “Fast” or “Super Fast” start on using certified organic products in their own homes at the best price.  Some people use these ordering options just to stock up on the superfoods products (usually folks who make their own personal care products), and others use these options to also stock up on external personal care products (for those who aren’t into DIY – do it yourself – recipes).

And what about the $200+ in free organic superfoods?

I’ve never seen Miessence offer this before and don’t know if they ever will again, but as part of the Birthday Blast, Miessence will send a free Vitality Pack – which includes Berry Radical, Deep Green, and InLiven and is over a $200 value – along with every Fast and Super Fast start order placed on a new Rep account by February 28th.

You could think of it as a ‘Buy Two, Get the Third Free’ deal.  Buy two Vitality Packs (plus 38 points of other products you might need) and get the third Vitality Pack free.  🙂

That added value brings the total savings on Fast and Super Fast start orders to roughly 50% off the retail prices.  And more importantly, gets your home outfitted with truly safe and sustainable product choices for both inside and outside your body.

When it comes to the inside – many health experts, including Dr. Mercola, are stressing the importance of using real food to supplement our diets, instead of all the synthetic vitamin pills we’ve been using for years.

When it comes to the outside – many consumer advocate organizations, including the Breast Cancer Fund, are recommending that we use truly natural personal care products, instead of the toxic soup of synthetic chemical products we’ve been using for years.

In either case, have you made the switch yet?  Maybe you’ve tried and know how hard it is to find nutritional supplement products that contain only real food or truly natural personal care products…

With food-grade organic certifications, Miessence makes it easy in both cases.  And with great options like the Representative membership, they make it easier to save money than buying from a retail store.  Not to mention the time saved by ordering online instead and having it shipped right to your door (carbon negative, by the way).

I know I risk sounding pitchy in this post, and of course, as a Rep who is building a home based business with Miessence to help support my family, I do have a financial interest in sharing all this with you.  But, I love Miessence first and foremost as a customer myself and would use these products even if there were no business potential for my family.  And, if I ever find a company that offers a better, safer, more sustainable product line – when all factors are considered as a whole total package – I would change companies…  Many of you know I had five years invested in working with another company before giving that up to work with Miessence – because the products are truly natural and effective.  🙂

If you would like to take advantage of this month’s Birthday Blast offer to become a Miessence Representative member, click here to view and select the option that best suites you.  Note: If you are building your own pack, it is helpful to browse the online catalog and jot down your product selections ahead of time to avoid being timed out and having to start all over again.  You will also be given a free website with your account – even if you do not intend to do business with your account – and should think of what name you’d like to use on your site ahead of time.  For example, mine is kvorganics.miessence.com.

If you are not familiar with Miessence, click here for a good intro.  If you wanted any of the additional resources on the superfoods products in the Vitality Pack…  Click here for a very informative webinar that is long (about an hour) but includes a ton of general information and research in addition to product specific information; here for a short video on InLiven; here for a short video on Deep Green; or here for a fact sheet on Berry Radical.

Below is an article from a recent Miessence company newsletter.  Thought I’d share it here as it discusses the benefits of chlorella, blue-green algae, spirulina, and other deep green superfoods…  Dr. Mercola talks a lot about these ingredients on his site as well.  We use all three of Miessence’s supplemental superfood blends in our house and love them.
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Give Your Health The Green Light

Exciting new formula change for DeepGreen features improved benefits.

DeepGreen, Miessence’s popular Alkalising superfood supplement has just gotten better with the introduction of two potent new ingredients.

In addition to spirulina, which is rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, Alphanizomenon Flos Aquae (AFA) Klamath Lake Blue-Green Algae and Chlorella have been added to DeepGreen to offer even greater health benefits.

AFA Blue-Green Algae, sourced from the pristine mountain lakes of Oregon, contains more protein, B12 and chlorophyll than any other food source.

Chlorella is an excellent detoxifier associated with its ability to bind with mercury, lead and cadmium and eliminate them from our system. It is also renowned for its anti-tumour properties.

These algae join DeepGreen‘s powerful combination of organic freeze-dried grass juice powders (wheat grass, barley grass, alfalfa grass, oat grass and kamut grass) and dark green leafy vegetables (nettle, collard, kale and parsley) powders.

Research has shown that increasing the amount of greens in your diet helps prevent cancer, detoxifies and alkalizes your cells, boosts your immune system, and gives you more energy.

As part of a balanced health program, Miessence DeepGreen helps keep the correct pH balance in your body, neutralizes the toxic acids in your body, encourages remineralization of bones, and helps boost immunity.  Our unique combination of alkalizing greens harnesses the very best of nature to promote benefits for the brain, bones and heart.

Miessence DeepGreen is available in single tubs, as part of our popular Vitality Pack which also contains BerryRadical Antioxidant and InLiven Probiotic, or in an economical DeepGreen triple pack.

Not sure if your ‘natural’ product is really as natural as you hoped?  Tired of buying a ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ product only to find it has toxins in it?  Wish you could find something truly all natural?  You’ll need to learn all the labeling tricks in the industry so you know how to see through the half-truths and find what you really want.

Our label reading webinar launched off this past week with over 40 registrants.  Very fun!

If you missed it, there is a recording available here.  You will need a code to access it.

If you are already a newsletter subscriber, watch for the code in my next newsletter (coming soon).

If you are not already a newsletter subscriber, you will get the code in your welcome email when you subscribe.  Click here to subscribe.

Cheers!  🙂