This Dish is B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

We're discontinuing our Moisture Whip Light Conditioner. In it's place is a new formula I've been working on since late last year. I've finally narrowed it down to 2 iterations and it's out to test with some of our customers.

I have high hopes and big expectations for this conditioner. So far, both versions of the recipe are working wonderfully for my hair, which is why I had to send it to a larger test panel than what we normally use. My hair likes both and if it were up to me, I'd never launch it because I can't make up my mind. I've formulated it specifically for colour-treated hair in need of some tender loving care and moisture. While it delivers a moisturizing punch, it's light enough for daily use.

Why a conditioner with bananas? For starters, I love bananas. And growing up, we had a family friend - Auntie Annie from Indonesia who had long, thick, shiny, luxurious hair. In that childlike fascination, I asked her how she got her "princess hair" and she said used mashed bananas mixed with a bit of oil as a weekly treatment. Indeed, bananas are very beneficial to the hair. It is rich in natural oils and proteins that soften hair and increase its elasticity, thereby preventing splits and breaks. In fact, many at-home remedies for dry, damaged hair call for applying mashed bananas to your hair and leaving it on for 20 to 30 minutes. The conditioner also contains green tea extract, a well known anti-oxidant, to combat the dulling effects of the environment on our (colour-treated) locks.

Auntie Annie also used to rub a clove of garlic on her fingernails for growth and strength, but I'm going to leave this one alone.

I'd like to thank the wonderful gals (and one unwitting guy - Chris) who agreed to test the formulas. As I type this, Chris is begrudgingly getting his haircut. He claims he's been having a string of good hair weeks and has no idea why. It's been so good in fact, that he's put off getting his haircut, until I finally commented that his hair was looking rather "floppy" lately. Unbeknownst to him, his good hair weeks are due to the switch-a-roo I did to his regular conditioner. Tee, hee.

The feedback is slowly trickling in and it looks promising - I'm really, really excited. If all goes well, I'm looking at a late February, early March launch. Stay tuned.

Worldly Wednesday - Oh Vancouver

In honour of this year's host of the Winter Olympics, here are some pictures of Vancouver from our trip last summer.

The opening and closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics will be held at B.C. Place. I don't know if shirtless guy (pictured behind me) will still be at his post.

No matter where we go, we always find our way to the local Chinatown. This is the Chinatown Arch in Vancouver. It's the gateway to the city's bustling Chinatown. It's also the gateway that led me to the hair salon where I walked in for a trim and walked out with a mullet. Good thing about hair is that it grows back and shows no sign of the trauma it once endured. My self-esteem however, has been permanently scarred. I spent the rest of the vacation listening to Chris serenade me with 80's music in honour of my haircut. That and he said I looked a bit like Bruce Lee.

Chris pondering the next CLC promotion at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

So that's pretty much it for Vancouver. We were only there for a few days as a stopover on our way to Alaska.

Next post - Alaska.

Gimme That! Stack o' Scrubs Gift Set!

Win your very own Stack o' Scrubs Gift Set!

Last month, we sponsored a giveaway hosted by Courtney, blogger extrodinaire of Me and Bella. It was such a hit with 337 entries and we couldn't be more pleased!

So...here's your chance to win dear Scentimental Waxing readers. Simply send an e-mail to info (at) craterlakecompany (dot) com. You get multiple entries by doing the following:

1 entry for subscribing to our newsletter or being an existing subscriber.

Up to 5 entries for submitting a product review (please go to the specific product page on our website and click the Write an online review link.) You can submit up to 5 product reviews for a total of 5 entries.

2 entries by reviewing a CLC product on your blog (please include a link of the review in your e-mail.)

In your e-mail, please list what actions you took to enter so we can tally up your total number of entries.

Thanks for participating!

Here's looking at you 2010!

I'm back from my quick holiday/business jaunt to the Philippines.

We're starting the year off right with a big sale, so watch for our re-opening in the next week or two. We'll have a general sale for the public, as well as an extra something special to newsletter subscribers, so please make sure you're signed up to receive CLC's newsletter, The Fragrant Times.

Just a quick update on what's happening at CLC:

We'll be hosting a giveaway of our Holiday best-selling gift set, Stack o' Cupcakes, so stay tuned for details on how to enter.

The rising cost of supplies has made it necessary for us to raise our prices. Average price increase is approximately 16%. While I know this is not welcome news, we're doing our best to find other ways to make this increase easier, such as running more frequent promotions, enhancing our customer loyalty/points program and evaluating other cost-cutting initiatives.

We'll open with a sale on our Holiday fragrances. It will be a percentage off retail. However, if you're a newsletter subscriber, we'll provide a coupon code for you to enjoy an additional discount on top of the sale price.

Wanna get 50 points credited to your account? If you purchased a Holiday 2009 Sampler and used our new Whipped Cream & Sugar Scrub, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this newly reformulated product. Please e-mail your feedback to sharonn (at) craterlakecompany (dot) com. Was it scrubby enough? Did it rinse clean or would you chacracterize it as a moisturizing scrub? Did it make your skin smooth? Did it leave your skin fragranced? What were your overall impressions of the product? To thank you for your time, we'll credit your account with 50 points which is equivalent to a $5 credit.

Well that's it from me for now! Only 6 days into the new year and already my head is spinning! Whew!

Worldly Wednesday - Who Says You Can't Go Home?

6 more sleeps till I head back home to the Philippines. I can't wait! I'm so excited I can hardly sit still.

I've been doing this "pilgrimage" for 5 years now and I've developed certain rituals as I make the trek home. After clearing immigrations and security at JFK, there's a long hallway that leads to the departure gates and as I'm taking that long walk, I listen to Bon Jovi's Who Says You Can't Go Home. I do this every time to officially kick off my travel - the 16 hours to my first layover, then the next 3 to 4 to get to Manila. I love it. Taking the walk with my iPod blasting this song gets me so giddy with excitement. Just thinking about it makes me do the jumpy claps!

Home for me now is in a city called Marikina, which I think is kind of like a suburb of Manila. When I was growing up though, the first home I can vividly remember was in a place called Sampaloc. I make it a point to revisit my childhood home because it reminds me of my humble beginnings and the blessings I now have. It reminds me of how extraordinary my parents are for the sacrifices they selflessly made to give their children a fighting chance at a good life. We didn't have much back then, but I remember a very happy childhood. I never felt deprived and I was always so happy and grateful for what I had.

I guess I need this yearly reminder because sometimes, I find myself whining about not having this or not being able to afford that. Back then, I think I had 2 pairs of shoes and I loved and cherished them both to pieces. Now, I sometimes complain about not having the right shoes to go with my outfit as I stare at a walk-in closet full of them. We've had to cut back on luxuries such as eating out because of the economy and I find myself feeling deprived or less fortunate, even as I stare at a pantry full of food, that I'm just too lazy to cook. I forget that there are people out there who are lucky if they have even just one square meal for the day.

I'm not proud of this admission and at the risk of sounding sanctimonious (sorry, I really don't mean to) and in the spirit of the Holiday season, I hope we can start counting and feeling grateful for our blessings. It sounds simple in theory, but hard to practice...the act of counting what we have and not dwelling on what we want, can't have, can't afford or can't do. As the new year approaches, I for one will try to be more mindful and grateful for all that I have - a sound home, 2 cats, 2 dogs and a man who loves me...(I know this because every time I come home, I am showered with sloppy kisses, vigorous tail wags and excited barks...and that's just from Chris!) While my once a year homecoming may not be enough to keep me grounded and grateful all the time, I can always count on my friend Debra and my family to keep me honest for the rest of the year. And for this, I am truly grateful.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Here's a picture of my first home. We lived in the second floor of the building in the middle background of the picture (where the airconditioner is in the window - and no, we didn't have this growing up!)

Sneak Peek at Black Friday Sale!

Pssst...here's a look at the 2 sets we'll have for sale on Black Friday.

Actually, for newsletter subscribers, it'll be a day early.

Stack o' Cupcakes return! Our cupcake sampler from last year was such a hit that we've decided to bring it back again. You can't have too much of a good thing right? You'll get 3 - 2.5 oz of Sugar Cloud in the following cupcakey declicious scents: Lemon Cream Chiffon, Zesty Pumpkin and making a return from last year, White Vanilla. These cute scrubs are decorated just like real cupcakes, come in a frosted gift bag and housed in a holiday themed liner. How cute is that?!

Holiday 2009 Sampler - next up is this season's holiday sampler to make your bath merry and bright. We're debuting our new scrub, Whipped Cream and Sugar, that's a reformulation of last year's Cream & Sugar scrub. This time around, we've whipped up the butters and oils to a frosting like consistency for a truly decadent experience. We've also reformulated it so it rinses clean, leaving just a touch of moisture and fragrance on your skin.

Oh right, we were talking about the Sampler. Okay, the sampler contains 5 - 2 oz. products featuring our new Retro Holiday labels. The goods: True Lustre Conditioner in Cranberry Sparkle, All Tressed Up Sulfate-Free Shampoo in Cranberry Lime Cupcake, Bath Cloud in Pistachio Cream Pie, Flutter Butter (check out The Luxury Spot's review of Flutter Butter) in Nutmeg Divine and finally, Whipped Cream and Sugar Scrub in Vanilla Snaps - a scent exclusive to our Holiday Sampler.

Fragrance Bar Crisis Resolved

Okay, I've loaded all our new and returning Holiday scents under the New Scents section of our Fragrance Bar. Thank you for your patience. Of course, it was a user-generated error and I apparently broke some kind of HTML code. Surprise, surprise. I'm the dangerous type of "coder." I know just enough to get by, but if I break something...I know nothing of how to fix it because I don't really understand the error message it's giving me! As my mum would say in Tagalo, "Ay naku!" (Translated to something like Oy vey I think.)

Anyway, so I sent the newsletter out then went to bed. I woke up this morning to an inbox full of e-mails inquiring about the sale. As I read through them, I realized that there was a common thread to the questions. So here are the 2 questions I got asked most.

1. Why did you drop the limit to qualify for Global Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope/Box?

We dropped it from $50 to $40 because technically, with the 25% off discount, you'd actually be able to purchase $62.50 worth of Holiday sale goodies for $50. $62.50 worth of merch will definitely not fit in a flat rate box or envelope. Due to the sale, $50 worth of merchandise will only actually cost $37.50 so we had to make this adjustment to our shipping to accomodate for the discount.

2. This is a big discount. Are you going to have a bigger sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Broke Tuesday (I made this one up, tee hee!)

No. We're going to have a special sale for Black Friday, but nothing as big as the one we're currently running. For Black Friday, we're going to be offering our Holiday Gift sets, taking down the entire Fragrance Bar, but keeping the Holiday scents around. We'll have a special coupon code for newsletter subscribers only (so please don't forget to subscribe) that's good for a percentage off your entire purchase. So it basically works out to this: For this week, till Thursday, November 26th, you can enjoy 25% off our Holiday goodies or wait till next week and enjoy a smaller discount, but it will be off your entire purchase (that's our gift sets and holiday goodies.) Does that make sense?

We've been talking about our holiday sales schedule here at CLC and we've been bouncing ideas around since September so please know that we put a lot of thought and preparation into this. We wanted to have staggered sales and promotions so if one doesn't appeal to you, then maybe the next one will.

As always, we thank you and deeply appreciate your support of CLC.

'Tis all!