We are still excited from our participation in the Napptural Beauty Expo yesterday afternoon in Dallas, TX.  We met some fabulous women, saw some beautiful hair, and made lots of new friends!

We received some wonderful questions and comments from guests who

stopped by to talk skin, hair, and gifting with us. I want to share a few with you guys so you too can be in the know!

Questions asked at the show:

• What makes us (mainelement: love) different from others? Our pri mary focus is making spa gifts that you know are healthy for your body.  It’s easy to run into the mall and grab a spa gift b asket but we want you to know what’s in the spa basket and feel confident that that lotion you gave your mother, sister, wife, daughter, or friend doest have the potential to cause her body harm.  We also want you to be able to express your Love in your own words, because no one knows the person you are pampering better than you do.  That’s why we allow you to customize the labels to create a gift that is truly from the heart.

• How are our products “all natural”? I tend to avoid the claim “all natural”. I don’t hammer anyone over the head if they use it, but I avoid the expression because products that are made to be sold cannot b e 100% natural.  Companies that claim that are manipulating their words.  You can’t manufacture a product that will sit in someone’s bathroom that doesn’t have some type of preservative in it.  As a manufacturer however you can be very selective as to what preservative you chose to use.  I choose to use vitamin e (tocopherol) as my primary preservative and almost all of our products also contact rosemary which also acts as a preservative.  These are healthier alterna tives to many of the preservatives commonly found in on the shelf spa products.  As I always say, please read your product labels and know what you are putting on your body.  I Love you enough to offer you a product that if good for your body, not every manufacture is a s caring.

• What do I do to my hair to get it to look like that? – *blushing* I will always get warm and fuzzy feelings when people compliment my hair.  My daily hair care routine is rather simple.  When I shower I saturate my hair thoroughly and apply mainelement: love’s treasured tresses aloe conditioner (available on the website very very soon, I promise!) and leave it in.  I do not rinse out conditioner, regardless of whether it says leave in on the bottle or not.  Conditioner conditions your hair to be moisturized, in other words it is a moisturizer itself, and is my primary moi sturizer.  I do use a separate one on occasion to give definition to my curls but my everyday routine is water and conditioner.  That’s it.  We all know with natural hair what works for some, doesn’t work for others so try it and let me know how it goes!

• Why don’t you sell directly off the table? This was a fairly common question, w hich didn’t surprise me.  I don’t make your products until you order them.  My goal is to provide you with the best, freshest, healthiest product I can, which means I don’t have it sitting on a shelf waiting for you to buy it.  Does this mean it takes a little longer to get to you; yes it does.  But it ensures that what you get, what you send to your loved one is the highest quality skin and hair care I have to give you.  I’m putting Love into your products so I need a day or two to get in all in there (smile)

• Will you create a custom scent just for me? Absolutely! My fav orite part about my job is putting YOU into your gifts!  Designing a custom scent for you lets you give gifts that are 100% from the heart.  Your scent is unique to you and whomever you give it to will think of you every time they use it.

Comments at the show:

• Your body butter feels surprisingly light! – *blushing* I’d have to say that is due to the fact that our body butter is more butter and less oils.  Also there’s a distinct feeling between a synthetic oil based moisturizer (mineral oils, petroleum, etc.) than plant derived oils (palm kernel, jojoba, sweet almond, etc)

• You have a very unique concept! – We offer a way to give Love because what you give you receive ten fold!

• This Gingerbread scent makes me hungry! – Sorry! LOL! We heard that a lot last year which is why we brought it back again for the holidays this year.

• Being natural is expensive; I love that your prices are affordable. – THANK YOU! That is one of  the highest compliments we can receive.  Healthier alternative to everything seem to be more expensive than their less that healthier counterparts.  While high quality products are more expensive, we do not believe in making them unattainable.  I can’t fathom paying $50 for a bottle of conditioner.  Quality does come with a price but my goal is to keep that price reasonable and affordable, always!

It was a pleasure and a blessing to be a part of the expo yesterday and we’re looking forward to meeting more friends this Wednesday and Thursday at the 4th Annual Four Oaks Place Holiday Market on Post Oak Blvd in the Houston Galleria area.  I hope to see you there; come talk skin, hair, and gift giving with me!