Calling all poets!

Announcing our very first blog contest!

Are you a "wordie?" Love to rhyme? You're in luck! In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we're hosting a contest for the best limerick. Here are the rules:

• It has to be clean. This is a family blog.
• It must follow standard limerick formatting to be considered  - five lines, 7-8 syllables each, and the established rhyming structure (A,A, B, B, A)
• You can write about any subject, but "extra points" will be given if you write about natural bath and body products.  =]
• Entries must be in no later than March 11th. To enter, write your limmy in the comments section of this blog.

The winner will receive a bar of our Green Irish Tweed soap (pictured above) and a jar of White Clover Jelly.

Good luck!

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Here is our limerick, created for our soap team's (Soap Artisan Friends of Etsy) March St. Paddy's Day challenge:

If your skin is all wrinkled and spotty,

And not matching with your inner hottie,

You must try our new butter

- Read these words that we utter –

It will fix all that’s wrong with your body!

Do you find yourself in a bad mood?

Are your neighbors quite snotty and rude?

Buy a jar of this, quick!

It will quite do the trick,

This amazing new cream that we’ve brewed

It will remove the fat from your bum!

It will triple your family’s income!

Friends will think you quite smart,

Men will vie for your heart!

Jealous women will beg you for some!

It will heal halitosis and warts

And those are just two things for starts!

It can re-grow lost hair!

Make you dress with more flair!

(It can even un-stinkify farts!)

Throw away all your alpha hydrox

And your silly old shots of botox.

Buy a jar of our cream –

You’ll think you’re in a dream

When the girl in the mirror’s a fox!

Your old car will burn up much less gas,

Your employer will treat you with class,

No more waiting in lines!

It prevents traffic fines!

And a cute guy will come mow your grass!

Of course greenies have no need to panic

As our recipe is all organic

It is vegan of course,

From a fair-traded source,

And it’s filled with all good stuff botanic.

So please buy up this listing today,

Before somebody calls FDA

They may find a few flaws,

(Oh those labeling laws!)

And we’d hate if they locked us away.

If you like it, come vote in our challenge (http://etsysafeteam.blogspot.com/) by leaving a comment at the very end. You'll be entered to win the winning entry!)

What are shampoo bars?

Most of us have been told that we need to have massive heaps of bubbly shampoo lather on our hair in order to clean it. And that our shampoo should make out hair “squeaky clean” when we’re done.

But that simply isn’t true. Commercial shampoos usually contain chemicals that do nothing but boost lather – and those chemicals have been found to be harmful to some people. They certainly do nothing for your hair. And that “squeaky clean” feeling? The detergents in most commercial shampoos strip the hair and scalp not only of dirt and grease, but also the natural, necessary healthy oils normally found there. Most regular shampoos actually strip so much oil from the hair and scalp that with some people, the body goes into overdrive to produce a lot of oil to accommodate that, creating “oily hair.”

Our shampoo bars are different. Because they are a true soap and not a detergent, they are much more gentle on your hair and scalp. Our shampoo bars are formulated with a very high percentage of coconut oil, because its molecules are actually small enough to penetrate your hair shaft and help your hair look softer and shinier.

Often when people first use a shampoo bar, it feels … weird. It does take some getting used to. Simply lather the bar in your hands as you would to wash your skin, then apply the lather to your hair, starting at your scalp. Some people with shorter hair can simply rub the bar right on their head. Initially most people say this takes a bit longer than with liquid shampoo, until they “get the hang of it.”

Commercial shampoos leave a chemical build-up on the hair. Over time, your shampoo bar will help remove this build-up. That is one of the reasons hair can feel “dull” or heavy at first. This can be remedied with a quick vinegar rinse – simply spray a bit of vinegar on the hair and rinse. If rinsed off completely, your hair will NOT small like vinegar afterward. Most people remark that they don’t need conditioner after a few weeks of using a shampoo bar.

If at first using your shampoo seems to be awkward, or causing “bad hair days” or simply not working well, we suggest you keep with it for at least two weeks. Once your hair “gets used” to shampoo bars, you’ll never go back.

Shampoo bars are a great way to be kind to your hair and scalp, and you have the added benefit of knowing that you are not adding empty plastic bottles to your local landfill.

So, what are you waiting for? To buy our Glacier Blend shampoo bar, pictured above, go here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41712646