Tag Archives: natural products

Next Chapter for Aloe Baby

Posted on by
Reply

It’s official: Aloe Baby is going to be a big sister! That precious girl who adorns our company logo, for whom Tender Defender was created and the company was founded? If all goes well, she will be having a little brother in December or January!

Here at Aloe Baby, we’ve already been impacted significantly by this wonderful event. As CEO and Momma to our adorable Aloe Baby, I’ve been extremely sick with this pregnancy. My severe nausea has effected our ability to engage in marketing events and move our product into more brick & mortars, so it has slowed our progress somewhat. But as we navigate the medical screenings and monitor the little guy’s development, it also helps us remember what’s most important: good health.

After all, that’s what Aloe Baby was founded for: providing a well-researched, natural, botanical product to support skin healing.

Last weekend, we spent some time at a local Mom-2-Mom sale, where we met some terrific people. Laughter: we enjoyed a lot of that! But we also had some amazingly uplifting conversations as we connected with people of all ages who were experiencing myriad skin challenges. Our Travel Packs were a huge hit as folks were eager to try Tender Defender to see how it would work for them. We’re excited to see many of these kindred spirits “liking” us on Facebook, and we look forward to having them add to the conversation there (or here) about how Tender Defender works to support their families’ skin health.

We’re so excited that our little Aloe Baby is going to have a baby brother, and we welcome thoughts and prayers for good health! We will be sending out an announcement to folks on our mailing list and posting one on our Facebook page. Our announcement will have a celebratory coupon code for the largest-ever discount at our own online store. Find the coupon code on Facebook or join our mailing list for future discount codes. Our deepest hope is that Tender Defender can support your family’s good skin health!

Tags: aloe baby, Aloe Baby LLC, Babies, baby brother, big sister, Facebook, Health, Mom-2-Mom, natural products, online store, pregnancy, Skin Care, skin healing, tender defender, travel pack

Product Review: Eco Nuts, OMG Sport Spray, Seventh Generation Dish Soap, and Method’s new packaging

Posted on by
Reply

When we went to Natural Products Expo West in March, we collected a lot of very fine products to try. Some are specific to baby care, and others are general household products that moms and caretakers might want to try. I’d like to report on some of them that I have used (and a few that my VP has used) to give you a sense of what’s out there that you may want to purchase. Let me state up front that I picked up free samples like everybody else at the Expo. I didn’t promise to do any blog entries or get any sort of compensation for these reviews. I’ll do a few entries at a time. Let’s start with 4 for today.

  • Eco Nuts: Here is a truly wacky and wonderful idea: Skip the soap in your laundry altogether. Throw some nuts in. Wash, rinse, dry, and have clean, soft clothes. It’s true! Eco Nuts were one of my favorite finds at NPEW. They are soap nuts, full of natural saponin. Actually, they are drupes, not nuts. Drupes are things like mangos and cherries where the fleshy part of the “fruit” is found outside a substantial inner seed or pit. I can’t tell which member of the Sapindus family these “nuts” come from, but they’re very cool. The small box (trial size) of Eco Nuts comes with a little fabric bag to put the nuts in, and they’re good for about 10 loads of laundry. Now, I’m not doing poopy diapers or anything (shame on me—we use disposables), and my husband hasn’t been playing hockey (more about that in a moment) lately, so I didn’t put these nuts through the most grueling tests. A few stinky workout shirts did go through and come out still smelling a little stinky, so I wouldn’t trust these to deal with heavy duty odors, at least not on their own. But for regular laundry with the occasional baby spit up/barf and dodgy brownish diaper leak spots were dealt with pretty well. I give these a huge thumbs up for regular laundry. I LOVE that they’re biodegradable, obviously sustainable and renewable, and very friendly to skin with sensitivities.
  • OMG Sport Spray: Another of my amazing finds was this sport spray. The makers claimed that it would destroy ANY gym bag odor. I was incredibly skeptical. Have they ever smelled hockey equipment? Have they ever smelled *my husband’s* hockey equipment? (Sorry, honey!) We haven’t put it through its paces entirely yet. He isn’t playing regularly yet. But I sprayed his gloves and equipment pretty liberally and found the odor to be greatly reduced. I didn’t gag when I went into the garage. That’s a HUGE improvement. I think that with successive uses, it might well destroy that odor. We’ll keep using it. It’s the first thing my hubby let me spray on his equipment without being afraid that it would harm it. I tried a couple of shots of it in some stinky laundry, and the minty essential oil smell persisted through the dryer. Very pleasant! High marks!
  • Seventh Generation Lavender Floral & Mint Dish Soap: When I first started going “green” about ten years ago, I went out and bought a lot of Seventh Generation products. Maybe it was because I was new to natural products and my expectations were off, but I just didn’t find them to be terribly effective. My impression was that their “green” goals were more important than the performance of the product. But I picked up some of their dish soap at NPEW, and boy was I impressed! It sudsed better than my stand-by Method (and much better than my runner-up BioKleen), and the smell was enchanting. Yeah—do dishes and get enchanted. How improbable! As far as I’m concerned, Seventh Generation products are back on the menu. I’m going to try more and see how they do.
  • Method’s new packaging: This isn’t so much a product review as a review on packaging. I’m tremendously impressed with Method’s new initiative. They are cleaning up Pacific Ocean beaches that are littered with plastic waste. They crunch it up, extrude it, pelletize it, and finally have a material that is suitable for making bottles. HOW COOL!! If we’re going to use plastics, I love the idea of using plastics that have been left for dead. This can’t be a cheap solution to a packaging problem, so I applaud Method for putting the resources out there to make this happen. Bravo to you!

Talk back to us! What is your experience with these products? If we were to sell some of these in our online store, which would you want to purchase?

Until next time! Treat your skin well, and it will treat you to good health!

Tags: Eco Nuts, expo west, household products, Method, natural products, OMG, plastics, Seventh Generation

Directions for Using Tender Defender

Reply

These directions are very important! Each step has its value.

Tender Defender Directions

Directions for using Tender Defender

 

  1. First, gently cleanse. Babies with very sensitive skin or sudden diaper rash that may be caused by environmental factors (diapers or wipes themselves) may do best with just a warm, wet washcloth.
  2. Apply a small amount of Tender Defender.
  3. Gently massage the Tender Defender into the entire affected area. For more serious rashes, especially those with significant fungal infection, the affected area may extend to the legs and torso. Use your hands to inspect the skin gently and reassure your baby that you love him and are taking the best care of him that you can!
  4. Completely air dry. It is important to provide the skin with as much air as possible! Your pediatrician may recommend diaper-free times each day. During these times, the baby’s skin is getting much-needed exposure to fresh air. You can give a dose of that fresh air between diaper changes! This is also important because leaving any moisture behind may feed the microbes we are trying to wipe out! And using plant-based powders to dry the area provides the microbes with yummy starches to eat. Air dry! Some parents use hair dryers that have a COLD setting. Never use hot air to dry baby’s skin!!
  5. Apply your favorite barrier cream, ointment, or paste. This step seals in the now-aired skin with a nutritive base coat and keeps the diaper environment from doing too much further damage to the skin. When using cloth diapers, you may want to use liners to protect the cloth from ointment buildup until the rash clears. We encourage you to try natural products that are free from petrolatum, mineral oils, boric acid, “fragrance” (which can mean a whole host of things!), or non-purified lanolin. When in doubt, if you can’t identify the first four or five ingredients as safe, look it up on EWG’s Skin Deep Diaper Cream database.

We recommend that you use Tender Defender at least twice a day to support skin’s good health when there is no rash. Use it at every other diaper change (or more) when there is an active rash. Be aware that the gingerols increase blood flow to the tissue, so your baby may experience a warming sensation, especially if his rash is severe. If you are worried about a potential negative reaction, see your pediatrician immediately.

Cautions: Do not use this product if your baby has any known allergies to any of its ingredients. Always consult a pediatrician before using any product on broken skin. For external use only. Keep out of reach of children. Never use hot air to dry baby’s tender skin. If condition worsens, discontinue use and contact physician immediately. 

Tags: aloe, Babies, Baby, barrier cream, cloth diaper safe, diaper changes, diaper cream, diaper rash, diapers, Environment, environmental factors, fresh air, fungal infection, hair dryers, Health, hot air, Infant, Ingredient, Irritant diaper dermatitis, lanolin, massage, microbes, mineral oils, natural products, pediatrician, petrolatum, Rash, rashes, Sensitive skin, Shopping, starches, tender defender, torso, very sensitive skin, wet washcloth