There's just so much LOVE on my skin today.

When I started this project I was certain that I was drawn to all natural ingredients simply because I could pronounce them and could easily identify them (think Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Olefin Sulfonate, Sodium Luaroyl Sarcosinate, and Potassium Cocoyl Glutamate compared to... say... Shea Butter, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Coconut Milk, Apricot Kernel Oil, and Vitamin E). Too often I would find myself scanning ingredients looking for things I could relate to, identify with, understand, pronounce and remember easily, so I could reserach if they were harmful or not. I soon was lost in a sea of -pyls, -sulfates, -laureths, -nates, and -fins. What the F is this crap anyway? Drawing on my elementary education I recall my bell bottom wearing, frizzy hair donning, delightfully outrageous 4th grade teacher reminding us to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid..)... cool, I'll use shit ingredients I know work, and have been around MUCH longer than this lab produced stuff. So I seek out the natural stuff; the butters, the oils, the essential oils because I believe they carry with them the care with which they were produced, ESPECIALLY the organic, fair trade and recycled items I try to incorporate. Each ingredient has a story and that story gets absorbed into your skin! Isn't it BEAUTIFUL! An entire world of love, experience, care, knowledge and life, and you can have ALL OF IT (this is the scene where we pan across the meadow and I'm frolicking amongst the daisies and butterflies).

Ah, here I am, back on Earth.

SO, the moral of this fairy tale, is that the stuff you put on your skin matters, and it matters to me, too. I'm learning to love and care for this large and under appreciated organ, so I talk sweetly to it, caress it, and think good thoughts for it, as well as feed it good food. We give it the same care we would a seedling, or newborn niece, or lost puppy. We give it the attention and care it deserves, because it is the culmination of all of the stories and lives that have happened before it. And, because, we need it, for our personal containment, and, to continue to write the story.

I am a huge believer in the reality that we absorb EVERYTHING; the thoughts, the memories, the physical properties, the ENERGIES, the love. Science says so, too. We absorb the things we put on our skin, sometimes between 60 and 100 percent of the things we touch. The most permeable areas being the sensitive areas under your arms, around your genitals, the bottoms of your feet, YOUR HANDS (the area most commonly used for touch), your lips, the area behind your ears, and your face. Don't believe me? Ask these people, or these, or these, or this company, or this newspaper.

GET TO THE POINT, you're screaming I'm sure... OKAY OKAY so here it is. I'm learning to LOVE my body, and I want you to LOVE yours too. I want to honor it by putting amazing ingredients on it.. to let it know you care... SO, ALL of the items produced during this endeavor will a) use only stuff you can pronounce, 2) be FREE of fragrances, dyes, and harmful chemicals, d) be sourced from vendors who produce organic, fair trade, locally wild harvested, or recycled materials AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Because, well... I LOVE YOU, and you should LOVE YOU TOO.

-Annie