No, we aren’t literally headed to the Amazon.  I don’t really feel like being eaten by some ferocious beast or taken hostage by some pygmy who wants to shrink my head. Even though it is far less dangerous, we have officially launched our first product on amazon.com!  Thanks to my good friend, Chaser, we have gotten our business officially off the ground and will be listing our products as we refine the recipes and get them available for sale.  For those of you who are in the know, I began a company a couple years ago selling beard balm.  This next part is going to sound like an advertisement and it sort of is, but I am pretty excited that something I created works so well so I am not going to be ashamed of bragging about it a little.

After one of my good friends (love you Nodi!) was tragically killed in a motorcycle wreck, along with a few other personal losses, the business was all but forgotten.  I have, however, decided to begin making and selling the balms again due to Michelle’s constantly pushing me to do so.  I lost the formula for the base balm, but still have a pretty good idea of what went into it and in what proportions so it shouldn’t take too long before we have it available again.  My chemistry degree is still working hard for me, evidently.  I realized just how much I missed using it when I ran out a couple of months ago.  I neglected to ask Michelle where my supply was hiding out after the move, so I started using some stuff she had for her hair on my beard.  It was not a very satisfying experience.  As the beard is very close to your nose, you become acutely aware of any smells that your beard products have and the stuff she had smelled very strongly of soap.  I was not pleased with it.  Additionally, the product was liquid instead of a balm which made it much harder to apply to my beard and the product left a greasy feeling on my fingers for a long time after applying it (unless I washed my hands with a good oil cutting soap).  The last element to my dissatisfaction was the 500 mile ride I took on my Harley last weekend.  I have a fairing on my bike, but it is pretty low so the wind is constantly blowing in my face.  As a result, without something to protect it my beard gets very dry and brittle feeling.  No one wants to snuggle up to a brillow pad on your face.

With my balm, the smells vary (peppermint, citrus, vanilla coffee, woodsy, and cinnamon spice) and are all pretty pleasing.  The texture of the balm is like stiff pudding and I researched a few options which would make it absorb quickly into the skin without being liquidy.  As a result, you simply grab a little bit of it and the heat from your skin immediately begins to turn it into a liquid, which gives you a few seconds to get it into your hair before it starts dripping between your fingers.  The high absorbion of the resulting liquid means that your hands don’t stay greasy for long and it actually will soften the skin on your hands (your welcome, ladies).  It also contains beeswax, so it coats your hair and preserves the oils when exposed to strong winds like you would find when you are riding a motorcycle for hundreds of miles.  I don’t know if I am just experiencing a placebo effect because I made it, but I find it to be better than most of the products that I have tried and it is made with all natural ingredients bought from local Oregon companies (GloryBee for example).

The last product that we have in mind, for right now, is to take a spin off of the beard balm and make a lip balm. I haven’t put a lot of time into researching how to get the perfect texture and the right amount of smell from essential oils, without making it taste bad, but rest assured that I will make sure that it is going to be something I use on a regular basis before I will sell it to anyone else.

Thanks for all of the support from my friends and family.  I have really enjoyed this creative outlet and being able to share my fun experiences with all of you (now more than just two!).