Holiday for Her: Our Starter Kit on Dooce

Heather Armstrong, blogger extraordinaire behind the fiercely-loved blog Dooce, included the Chivas Starter Kit in her ‘Holiday for Her’ gift guide. As regular Dooce readers, Heather’s keen eye for style, design and craftsmanship has introduced us to many amazing independent artists and designers. We are honored to be included in her wish list.

Looking for a holiday gift to surprise the beauty-conscious women in your life? Packaged in a simple kraft box which requires little to no wrapping effort, our Starter Kit includes one each of our best sellers: Sweet Nothings facial creme, Original goat milk soap, Sweet Nothings bath salt sachet, and an Original vegan lip balm. We’re happy to customize your soap scent and/or include a hand-written note if you’re shipping it directly to the recipient. Please just note that in the comments section of your order.

The Luxury Spot Showers With A Goat!

Chivas Skin Care was recently reviewed by “The Luxury Spot”.  Read up on what Linda had to say about showering with a goat.

“I was recently given the Chivas Skin Care Starter Kit it’s a like a mini-spa retreat in a box! But unlike costly, time-consuming spa treatments with Chivas Skin Care products you can give yourself a quick, affordable indulgence each morning in the shower. The kit contains one Original Soap, one Sweet Nothings Crème, one Original Lip Balm and one Sweet Nothings Bath Salt Sachet.

Bet when you think of goats heavenly scents are not the first thing that come to mind.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised when just opening the starter kit box is actually your first treat.  In fact, the soap smells so soothing I almost didn’t want to start using it!  Almost.  The scent of the original soap is peppermint citrus and the blended all-natural fragrance is surprisingly uplifting and relaxing at the same time.  Truly a scent you’d think of as only available at a spa.

The soap feels wonderfully luxurious.  It’s incredibly smooth and moisturizing without being at all greasy.  The facial crème is another scrumptious blend of goat milk and eleven essential oils. The lip balm not only feels delicious on your lips, but is also made with peppermint essential oil and gives you a quick aromatherapy pop throughout your day.  If you have a little more time to indulge your senses the bath salts satchel is definitely the way to do it.”

Click Here to check out the full article!

More Q&A from Donna and Lauren

Check out the “Mother & Daughter Beauty Experts” article from New Beauty Fall/Winter ’09.

Here are a few questions that didn’t make the cut for the New Beauty “Mother & Daughter Beauty Experts” article but we feel are just as interesting nonetheless.

• How do you define beauty?

Donna: I tend to downplay beauty that is thrown at us through the media.  In fact, it really turns me off.  To me, beauty is an attitude and an expression of how we see ourselves.  If we are content with what we’ve been given and can get over the superficial hurdle of beauty self-consciousness, we can move on to real beauty.  A sincere smile, playful eyes, and good grooming out of self-respect are a few characteristics of natural beauty.

Lauren: Beauty is when you feel like you’re glowing.  You feel it on the inside – you stand up straighter, you smile more proudly, and you have that energy of peace, confidence, and excitement all at the same time.  When you feel that on the inside, others see it on the outside.

• What’s your beauty routine?

Donna: Considering I own a skin care business, my beauty routine is quite basic.  I love baths, especially when I add Chivas goat milk bath salts, and typically take one bath a day where I wash my face and body with our goat milk soap.  I spray my face with rose water and then apply our goat milk crème.  Once a week, I exfoliate my face and body just to remove dead skin.  Until I started using Chivas products, my skin would feel dry after about just a few hours of applying facial moisturizer.  Now my skin feels great all day long.

Lauren: If you define beauty as that “glowing feeling”, your beauty routine is synonymous with your entire lifestyle.  It’s not only how you care for you skin, how much you sleep and how often you exercise, but it’s also whether or not you feel grounded in your life.

That being said, respecting yourself means caring for yourself.  So I don’t think one’s skin care routine should be devalued.  Just like I feel better about my day when I make my bed, I feel better about myself when I take the time to wash my face.  I’m very basic though:  every morning and evening I wash my face with Chivas “Clear Complexion” goat milk soap, and apply eye crème (I’ve been using Weleda Rose eye crème lately, but we are hoping to launch a new Chivas eye crème in Fall 2009) and Chivas “Sweet Nothings” goat milk facial crème.   I try to exfoliate every day but that’s hit or miss.  I try to use a masque once a week, but I can’t tell you the last time I actually did.  My mom and I are both very simplistic when it comes to our personal skin care, which I think translates over to the simplicity of our Chivas Skin Care line.

• What’s the one product every woman should have (can be from your own line or an outside company)?

Donna: Every woman should have a facial crème that they have confidence in.  I look forward to applying Chivas Sweet Nothings Facial Crème.  Our facial crème contains jojoba, avocado and neem oils among many other skin conditioning ingredients.  I also love the scent, which is made from 11 essential oils and developed by my daughter, Lauren.  My skin has never been happier.

Lauren: Soap is the foundation, so every woman should have a soap that she feels is both cleansing and moisturizing.  For me that soap is our Chivas Goat Milk Soap, which suits my hands, body & face all-in-one. Many women use a more harsh body wash or face cleanser (which are technically detergents) and then have to counteract that with an expensive and rich body lotion or face cream.   If you have a good soap, it should leave your skin so moisturized that you don’t really need a body lotion.  I have not used body lotion even once since I started using Chivas soap.  Facial crème is a different story; I use it to protect the more sensitive skin from wrinkles. But honestly, my skin never feels dry!

• What’s the one product you can’t live without?

Donna: I could not live without Chivas Goat Milk Soap because my skin stays supple even though I wash my hands so often.

Lauren: I used to carry 5 lip balms with me everywhere I went.  I struggled with dry, crackly lips and switched around from one medicated lip balm to another.  Now, I have one tube of Chivas “Original Vegan Lip Balm” and that’s all I need.  And rather than using it once an hour, I used it like once every other day.  I think I still have the same tube I started with when we launched the product in 2008.  While I have nothing but good things to say about our lip balm, I feel I must also attribute my happy lips to the lifestyle change of drinking lots of water and using flax seed oil and fish oil supplements.  At the end of the day, it’s more about what goes in your body than what goes on it.

• Why is creating an all-natural product important to you?

Donna: I have been interested in natural products long before they became popularized.  I have never liked using artificial ingredients when cooking.  It didn’t make sense to use artificial ingredients on my body either.  Many companies use fragrance oils to scent their skin care products, and others combine fragrance oils with natural essential oils.  I admit that fragrance oils can smell really good, are less expensive than essential oils, and are more concentrated because they are man-made.  Lauren and I made a commitment to go the extra mile and only use all natural ingredients in our soap, which means no fragrance oils.  In fact, we are not required to list the ingredients on our soap label, but we are proud to list ours.

• What’s the best advice your mother ever gave you?

Lauren: Growing up, my Mom was not one to tell me what to do or how to do it.  For example, I pushed myself to be a straight-A student and my Mom was the one telling me not to worry so much.  Now, as I mature, I come to her for advice on life decisions – “Should I break up with him?” “Which school should I go to?”  She is a good listener.  She rarely gives set-in-stone advice, but gives me the space to come to my own decisions.  And it’s a comforting feeling to know that if I take a wrong turn, she accepts my mistakes.  This commitment to unconditional love is my Mom’s best form of advice.   She leads by strong example, not by empty words.

• Do you have a business motto?

Donna: Simplicity with integrity.

Lauren: Good for your skin. Good for your environment.

Your Questions Answered: Lip Balm 101

When I found myself ‘addicted’ to my many brands of medicated lip balm, I realized I needed an intervention. And so my mom and I formulated Chivas Vegan Lip Balm using high-quality ingredients, quite different from many of the ‘other’ lip balms on the market. The result? I’ve officially kicked my must-reapply habit. And so can you!

What makes our lip balms different? And what exactly is a Vegan lip balm? And what are some of those ingredients in the ‘other’ lip balms anyway? You asked; we answer.

Q: I often see lanolin as an ingredient in lip balm. What is it? Why doesn’t Chivas use it?

A: Lanolin is a greasy yellow substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool bearing animals, usually sheep. Different forms of lanolin can be found in shoe polish, printing ink, and hairspray.

For some people, using cosmetic products that contain impure lanolin can result in an allergic reaction.

That certainly doesn’t sound too appealing to us! Unlike many others on the market, our lip balm is proudly lanolin-free.

Q: What does it mean when you say your lip balm is vegan?

A: A vegan product is a product that does not contain any kind of animal product. That said, you won’t find animal products like lanolin and beeswax in our lip balm. Instead of beeswax we use plant-derived candelilla wax, which serves as the hardening agent in the balm. We also add coconut oil and Shea Butter, which at room temperature are hard oils. This combination keeps our lip balm firm yet smooth.

Q: What other ingredients are unique to Chivas’ lip balm?

A: The other oils contained in our lip balm are not often found in lip balms. Why? Because they are of such high quality.

These high quality oils set our Chivas Original Vegan Lip Balm ahead of the rest:

• Jojoba Oil: Made from the seed of the jojoba plant, and is an exceptional moisturizer.
• Rosehip Oil: Has a high vitamin-C content and is often found in anti-aging products. The fatty acids in rosehip oil are good at regenerating the skin and smoothing out wrinkles.
• Vitamin E: Nourishes the skin and leaves it soft.
• Neem Oil: A vegetable oil made from the fruits and seeds of Neem trees. Also said to be very therapeutic.

Q&A With Carrie and Taylor, our summer interns

We’re excited to bring two summer interns to the Chivas team.  Taylor Harkins and Carrie Widder grew up together in Newport Beach, California.

Taylor attends Santa Clara University where she studies Marketing and is a member of the women’s water polo team. She will help us expand our custom order business and work on sales and marketing efforts.

Carrie will contribute to our social media efforts, including writing for our blog and newsletter. An aspiring journalist, she studies English at New York University.

To get to know them a little better, we had Taylor and Carrie interview one another for our blog. Here’s what they had to say:

Taylor: So, Carrie, how did you hear about Chivas?

Carrie: Funny you should mention that. You actually told me about Chivas and how much you were loving your summer internship. How did you hear about Chivas?

Taylor: I heard about it through someone who had worked with Angie [our marketing/sales director] previously and knew Chivas was looking for interns. I applied and now here I am, playing with goats and computers – not together, for obvious reasons. So, I have a fun question for you. If you had a goat of your own, what would you name it and why?

Carrie: I love the show Lost, so I think I would name the goat after one of my favorite characters – either Desmond, Sayid, or Sawyer. Should my goat procreate, there are an endless amount of character names on the show to continue the naming legacy. What would you name your goat?

Taylor: My first instinct is Santa, but that’s a lot of pressure for a goat. I think I’ll settle on Blitzen, one of his reindeer. Also, fun fact, Blitz means lightning in German. Bet you didn’t know that.

Carrie: Actually, I did, because I’m the one who just told you that.

Taylor: Sassy.

Carrie: I know. You mentioned that there are some pretty crazy animals at the Johanson’s farm, like tortoises and pigs. I’m excited to meet them when we’re at the farm tomorrow. What animal would you add to the mix?

Taylor: Ideally, a baby elephant. Unfortunately, due to size limitations, climate, and probably health codes, that’s not really a possibility. More realistically, I think I would bring in a female German Shepherd so that Moose [the Johanson's male German Shephard] could not only have a companion but also a girlfriend. Carrie, last question. What is your favorite Chivas product and why?

Carrie: I have to say the Chivas Original Vegan Lip Balm. Not only is it perfect for summer, it doesn’t use that lanolin nonsense! After helping to research the answers for our lip balm FAQ, I was a little grossed out by the idea of putting lanolin on my lips.

Pioneer Woman raves about Chivas

Photo credit: Ree Drummond

We were excited to see Ree Drummond, the blogger behind The Pioneer Woman, feature products from Chivas Skin Care.  She declared our product scents “divine,” saying, “When I picked up the box, I was immediately struck by the scent-ohhhhhh, the scent… I can’t even begin to tell you how good it smelled.”

We especially love the above photo which shows how she displayed our goat milk soaps, creme, bath salts and vegan lip balms for her guests.  What a great reuse of our crinkle packing paper too!

You can read full story and see more of Ree’s stunning photos here.

Simply Stated, Chivas is the Real Deal

As a beauty line that prides itself on simplicity, we definitely feel a bond with the mission of the Real Simple magazine.  We were happy to see our products featured in one of the Real Simple blogs, Simply Stated.

Real Simple staffer and one of the writers for Simply Stated, Julee Wilson, wrote that Chivas is “a simple line of natural, handmade skin care products focusing on the benefits of fresh goat milk and aromatherapy.” She continues to note that the line has expanded from goat milk soap to also include “facial cremes, lip balms and even bath salts!

Click here for the rest of her review.

DailyCandy Deems Chivas Extraordinary

DailyCandy, the popular online guide to what’s hot and new, featured Chivas Skin Care in their national Everywhere edition and included a photo of our Lemongrass soap.

About our line, DailyCandy wrote, “Extraordinary goat milk soaps, cream and lip balm handmade by a mother/daughter team on a tiny Cali farm.”

To see the original post, click here.

Win a Chivas Gift with Ecorazzi

Ecorazzi, the site for the “latest in green gossip,” praised Chivas Skin Care for our eco-friendly and farm-made line.  They’re currently running a giveaway on their site for a free Chivas gift pack.  To enter, go here an enter a comment on why Chivas would rock your world.  After three days, they will select a winner at random.

About our products, Ecorazzi wrote, “The great thing about these products is that they aren’t made in any laboratory. It’s created on a small farm about one hour outside of Los Angeles. They use fresh goat milk, as well as herbs from their garden, pure Essential Oils, Fair Trade Shea Butter and other high-quality Vegetable Oils, to create nourishing, moisturizing and gentle bars of soap. They also offer Organic Milk Facial Creme and Vegan/Organic Lip Balms.”

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