5th Anniversary Random Refunds!

It's Silk Natural's Fifth anniversary!!!  We have a ton to be thankful for, and to celebrate this year we're doing Random Refunds!

From Friday November 19th until December 4 we'll be choosing random order numbers and sending you a FULL refund for your purchase.  The odds of winning are 1 in 20, and if you've purchased anything since last Friday you've already entered.

I just sent the first round of refunds, and look forward to sending quite a few more.

Thank you so much for a wonderful 5 years, and hopefully we'll have many many more.

Holiday 2011 is LIVE!

After the Fall collection, and Colors for a Cure  I sat down and thought about what YOU need for the Holiday Season.    Another dozen new lippies?  Another dozen new shadows?  Right now we officially have over 700 products, and many of you own a large percentage of them.

It didn't seem really necessary.  What we ALL need is some ME time.  Family is a blessing, work is a blessing, life is a blessing.  But gosh, sometimes it's nice to curl up under a blankie with a cup of tea and watch some guilty pleasure TV, or read a good book, or take a nice hot bath.

I can't give you an afternoon with nothing to do (can you imagine...), but I can give you some little stolen moments, some things to pamper yourself, a few extra minutes in the morning, or one less thing to think about.

This collection is a total Pot Luck.  Each member of the SN staff had a specific request, and actually designed a specific product.  Each time a staff member comes up with a fantastic idea- I tell them to go in the back room and make it.

This time they did!  Susan made the lippie palettes,  bath salts, and gave me the basic concept behind the eye wands.  Heidi made the Body Oils.  Thea made two stunning new shadows.  Jen had a ton of input on the Eye Cream and Blemish Buster- plus she's Jen.  She did all of the swatches, and all of the hundred  "Jen things" that keep me from going fetal about this time of year.

And You came up with some great suggestions too!

There's a ton ton ton of new stuff- you're going to be clicking away for a while.

A few of the notable things:
Eye wands!  Travel friendly, and super easy to use- with pre-designed looks to make your life easier.  To use them just pull the wand out of the vial, give it a little tap and apply.  It's not a product that everyone is going to love, and it might take you a little bit to warm up to it.  BUT that first busy morning when you needed to leave the house 5 minutes ago- you'll fall in love.

They're designed to be super easy duos, and we have a new eye diagram for them.  It's a Half and Half eye, and it's really flattering.  We've been playing with it since Fall, and it just works on everyone- no matter your eye shape.

Lippie Palette-  5 colors in one neat little package!

A Bath & Body Extravaganza!

Eye Cream (about time)!

Creamy concealers- yes- it's the cream blush formula made into concealers!  The color is a little bit different than the older creamy concealers.  They are lighter weight, and super easy to apply and blend.  I hope you love them!

Brow Colors in the cream liner formula!

Lippies in big squeeze tubes- glimmery shades that are perfect for layering!

Tons of stuff that I think you'll really enjoy!

American Thanksgiving is on Thursday.  I'm thankful for you- among my many blessings.  We appreciate each and every one of you, and thank you so much for your support.

We'll be closed Thursday and Friday, and will resume shipping on Monday November 28th.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and safe travels!

The late Fall release is on the site.  We always do a small collection in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month, and this time it’s a little more personal.  I lost a friend to it last year, and have another who’s fighting it with everything she has.  It’s not fair. 

I’ve tried being positive, and playing nice.  We always released colors with a hopeful tone.  But this year I’m mad.  This is just fundamentally wrong.  We can send little machines to Mars to take pictures, but a few harmful cells are killing off women left and right. 

Anger isn’t always a bad thing.  I think it drives us to make things better, to find fixes and solutions.  I’m much more creative when I’m a little bit miffed.   

So I took inspiration from this:

I propose we fight like hell!!  The colors have a bit of a devilish theme- in honor of Halloween, and to remind us that this is a battle.  My friend was the happiest most positive person I’d ever known, and now I’m guessing she’s the sweetest angel.   Let’s fight.  Make ‘em take the lemons back.

I thought about exploding lemons, and somehow my brain came around to torch flames.  The kind of heat that’s focused, productive, and that you can use to make beautiful things.  The trio is Howl, Scream, and Paranormal – they’re certainly not everyday colors, but really- you need more eye shadow like a hole in the head so I made colors that you’ll probably geek out on.  They’re interesting, complex and fun.  There’s also Demon to go along with the fighting Halloween theme.  It’s sassy and fun.

There were a lot of GWP re-release requests this year.  We also had a lot of ingredients become discontinued, so I did the best that I could.  Quite a few of the colors in this release needed to be reformulated from the original because I just couldn’t get any more of the colors that they used.  I did my best.  Sari is one that I know needed a  lot of changes- but I tested it side by side on my eye for a full day and it’s very close. 

I don’t know about you but sometimes when I’m a little touchy I throw-down with my English major vocabulary.  So we created the Smart Mouth Duo- with Propinquity and a special matching color Defenestrate (to throw something out the window). 

During the month of October we’re donating $.25 from the sale of each jar of all of the Colors for the Cure shadows to the Susan Komen Foundation.  None of these colors is limited edition, but if you purchase this month you’re helping a great cause.

In doing this release I got to thinking about old favorites, and we’ve brought back two very popular balms- Shirley Temple and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut as well as Autumn Harvest Olive Oil Lotion.  AND FINALLY we have 4 ounce bottles of the Organic Olive Oil Lotion.

We also have a very special lippie as well.  We’ve named it Hot Flash, and it’s a liquid packaged in a very handy squeeze tube.  It’s a little bit sheer, and it has the wonderful glimmer from the 24-karat gold.  It’s a little bit sheer, and should be flattering to most women.  It's really more glimmering than anything.

This year the price is $11.99 for a 10 gram tube, and we’ll be donating $2 of the purchase price to the Komen Foundation.

We’re also participating in Team Pink Eye and have donated four $25 gift certificates to be used as give away items.  There will be one give-away on a participating blog each week and to enter you must donate $5 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  The individual blogs will have the full entry details- and this week’s giveaway blog host is VampyVarnish!!!!!!

The giveaway should go up on her site sometime tomorrow, and remember to read the details.

Thank you again for being wonderful!  It’s an honor to be part of this project and I hope you’ll join us in FIGHTING LIKE HELL!!!!

Multi-Tasking Safe for Work Look

Funny story....I was doing my makeup one morning, and frogged it all up.  I was doing an experiment with colors, and it just didn't turn out well AT ALL.  Too deep, too shimmery, and just not really what I was going for.

Well, if you want to make an omelette you gotta break a few eggs (or marry a guy who makes great omlettes).  Normally I'd just clean it off and do something else, but we had to leave NOW.

In desperation I grabbed my foundation, and started patting it on top of the hot mess I'd created.   The foundation muted the color, took away some of the sparkle, and made it PRETTY.

So I experimented that night- with the deliciously unholy combination of Rollick and Superfly.  With a little foundation it was lovely.

Moving on to a little more "normal" combo- I went with Scout & Bling.  It's a great combo, but a little over the top for daytime.  Bling in particular looks like gold foil applied to your lids, and it's super fun for a night out.  I love it with a lot of black liner as sort of a Middle-Eastern/ Bollywood inspired look.

Safe for work depends on where you work- so I generally think of safe for church, and err on the side of being conservative.  I think this would work in just about any office.

So far, this technique has worked with every combo I've tried it with.  I like the muted, more neutral look for day, and it's really expanded options for color selections.  It doesn't really work all that well with super glittery shades, but it's a fun technique to play with.

To test the theory, you could try it at night when you're about to take off your makeup.  That's usually my play time to practice new looks- right after I've washed my face for the day.

Have fun!!!!!

The Fall 2011 Colors are HERE!!!

The Fall Collection is live!!!  It’s also pretty darn large.  Usually when I make a collection I just kind of keep going until I run out of “mojo”- and the mojo held out for three straight weeks.  So there are colors, and colors and colors!  

I spent a lot of time looking at the clouds this Summer- and I love the way they’re kind of lit from within.  So, I set to work to replicate that.  It took me weeks.  I played, I tested, I nuanced, tweaked, and experimented.

And I came up with a new texture that we’re calling Eyelights.  You have to wear them over a primer- preferably Stick ‘em because they look best when they’re a little bit damp, and Stick ‘em keeps them a little bit wet.  Rather than a sheen or a pearl they sort of glow from within.  There’s a subtle heat and luminosity to them.  There are also a few without interference colors that are modeled after Blanket Fort- that lovely soft focus pearl finish.  

They’re going to look a little bit different on each of you- and they’re going to look a lot different than when you just swatch them on your arm.  There’s a luminosity to them that is nearly impossible to capture in just a few pictures.  

They’re going to be different on different days, in different lights, on different people.  

The inspiration came from two sources- our vacation, and the Finger Lakes where we live.

We ventured into Van Gogh country near Arles on this vacation- and what really blew me away about his paintings is the texture.  The paint is built up- layer upon layer of brush strokes to get the shadows, and the light just right.  Starry Night is cool on a poster, but in person- it takes your breath away. 

Texture, texture, and more texture.  Color is what it is- it’s the way color sits on the canvas that’s transformational.  When we got back to Upstate NY it was right in the middle of racing season.  I grew up in Watkins Glen New York.  It’s a sleepy little Podunk town in the middle of nowhere- about 20 minutes from Trumansburg.  

There’s a HUGE race track up on the hill, and there’s a race almost every weekend.  The Vintage Grand Prix, NASCAR, and every once in a while a little Formula 1.

There’s just something about the throaty rumble of a performance tuned engine that gets my blood going.  Standing near the track when they’re going full throttle just shakes every cell in your body in a way that you can’t describe to a person who's never experienced it.   

So I combined the two influences- the beautiful light of Provence with life in the fast lane.  It’s a big nod to you.  I know you’re beyond busy, and I like that your makeup time is your little bit of “me” time- to play, to relax, to enjoy being you.  The colors are complex so you can play fearlessly without worrying about being late to work, or just keep it simple because the colors are already complex enough.

There are also nine- yes- nine new Amplifying Lip Glazes, a new Buttercream, and a new Kisser Slicker.  We’ve also added Vegan Illuminating Powder, Pink color booster, and a new lip stain.   Gigi makes her triumphant day-glo return to the site as well!

We all want the collections to be bigger than they are, but there has to be deliberateness to the colors- and stability testing when it comes to dyes.

There is no skincare in this release because the colors came pretty fast and furious this time, and it was all I could do to keep up with the ideas while I still had the mojo going.  I’m actually working on a few projects, and hope to have some things to the site in another month or so.

In the meantime- HAVE FUN with the new collection!!!!!  It’s big, colorful, and juicy.  I hope you love it!!

Thank you all for your awesome suggestions, and all of the input you have on the forum.  I listen and it helps more than you’ll ever know. 

Enjoy!!!!

Sneak Preview and THANK YOU!!!!

We've reached 1000 fans on Facebook, and as promised- the party has started!  This week's gift with purchase is a Full Sized Tube of Dancing Shoes Amplifying Lip Glaze, and we're doing a special sneak peek at the Fall collection.

I've added two new colors to the site in the sneak preview section- nice shimmering neutrals that you can use everyday, or tuck them away for a special occasion.  The Fall collection will have colors- it's not just a bunch of neutrals- we've been playing with different colors, and textures, and even have some all new pigments that are pretty darn fun.

I don't know when Fall will be ready- I've been up to my eyeballs creating colors like I've never created before, and it's been a process.

And the Facebook contest!!!!!  We drew 20 winners from our list of fans and each of them are receiving a $10 coupon to the site!!!!!

Because it's a Facebook contest where you only had to "like" us to enter, we're not going to post the winners names because of privacy concerns.  There was no expectation that your names would be listed publicly when you clicked "like"- so it just feels like it's not OK to post people's names on my blog.

The winners were notified via email- or if I couldn't find your email address I did send the notification through a friend request.

And in other super cool news Phyrra chose us for this month's Indie Spotlight on her blog.  It was cool to be interviewed by her, and there is a contest to go with the spotlight this month!  You can enter the contest here:
http://www.phyrra.net/2011/08/silk-naturals-giveaway-2.html

Anywho- Congrats to the winners- and THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!  Happy Happy Happy day :)

Yes, the site is down....

Apparently the thingamob in the doohickey went kablooey, and then the switch that turns on the backup power failed too.  There are folks on site working on fixing it, but there isn't really an ETA at the moment.

As anyone who's been married for more than about 10 minutes knows- when something is broken, yelling, or asking a lot of questions doesn't really help- and never ever speeds the process.  So, hopefully it will get fixed in a jiffy, and we'll be back online.

We actually have a pretty stellar hosting company- we chose them because they had THE BEST server uptimes in the business.  Yeah.

Onto more fun things- it's high time I tell you what we've been up to!  We were closed/on vacation for a large portion of July.  My husband and I went to France to visit his Mother who lives in Provence.  We made it there during the lavender harvest, and OMG.  If visiting Provence during lavender harvest isn't on your bucket list- you might want to think about adding it.

The scent is heavenly.  Of course, I picked up some more French lavender essential oil for our French lavender lotion, and toured yet another distilling facility.  The place where I purchased it this time does small batch distilling, and I think it does make a difference.

Normally lavender is harvested, and baled in giant 1000 pound bails, and then they put a couple of those in the still, and in a few hours they have a few gallons of essential oil.  The farm that I purchased from is a much smaller operation.  When I asked them about getting a 500 ml bottle- they firmly said no because they just don't produce enough to start putting it in big bottles.

I bought 3 smaller bottles.  It's heavenly.  I apologize for the poor pic quality- the weather was a little rainy, and the fields are absolutely FULL of bees doing their thing.  We took the pics as fast as we could so we didn't get stung!

Other than that we mainly stayed around my MIL's house- she banged up her leg pretty badly, and we just sat around, drank wine and enjoyed each other's company.  It was just what the doctor ordered- for all of us.

Shall we discuss the past few GWP's??  It's something I keep meaning to blog about, and by the time I get around to it half the time I've forgotten.

Luau was inspired by Susan.  She came back into the lab one Wednesday before I left for vacation, and said the Whiskey Tango girls needed a mermaid inspired color for a piece they were performing over the weekend.  Luau is what resulted.  When you fly into Niece the thing that always strikes me is the absolute crystal blue of the water.  It looks like a lagoon, and signals to me that I'm really far from home, and vacation has started.  Luau draws from that color, and I twisted it up with a few other things to keep it interesting.

I fell in love with Luau, and wanted a color to match it- so I created Duct Tape.  Duct Tape was designed to match pretty much everything.  There's grey, silver, gold, and a bit of blue.  It really does pick up most tones beautifully.  I wore it as an inner lid color for a good portion of vacation and was really pleasantly surprised by how well it went with so many different colors.

While I was away we stopped at a farm stand and got some fresh figs.  We don't really get them much around here, and the color scheme really blew me away.  The outer part is a deep almost black plum color, and the inside is a creamy purple coral, graduating into cream.  It's beautiful.

So, when I got back I put all of those colors in the blender, and out popped Eden.  How could I name it anything other than Eden when it's based on a fig??

I've also been busy at work...making some of the products that need to get back on the site.  Maiden has been reformulated,and as soon as I can get to the site I'll put it back- along with the microdermabrasion gel.

We actually had to reformulate a fairly large number of lippies this Spring when a supplier discontinued a LOT of the pigments that we relied on for lippies.  The line was descimated, but I did manage to round-up a few replacements,and completed the reformulations.  It was really about half of our lippies that needed reformulated, and it was not a pleasant process.  It's done, and in the past now though- thankfully.  It was actually kind of neat to reevaluate everything, tear it apart and build it back up again.  Not that I ever want to do that again.

Bubble Gum, and Honeysuckle were casulaties of the great pigment discontinuation of 2011- they were completely made up of discontinued colors, and I couldn't get even a reasonable match.  I tried and tried, but Honeysuckle in particular had a certain pigment where there was just no close replacement at all.

It's ok- we'll rebound.  Oranges are big for Fall- and we'll have something great in it's place (I hope).

I hope you all are having an amazing Summer! I apologize for the inconvenience with the site being down.  It's rather annoying for everyone, and hopefully it will be fixed soon!

Thank you all again for being you- you really brighten our days.