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Dear Shoppers,
 Bottled
Water - Is it Safe?
It's an amazing fad, one of the most
successful advertising hypes in recent history. Advertising
for bottled water suggests that drinking water in plastic
can make you thin, sexy, healthy, affluent and
environmentally responsible. It used to be
practically a requirement for the eco-conscious urbanite to
lug water in reusable hard-plastic bottles.
Last year Americans spent nearly $11 billion
dollars on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water, and then
tossed over 22 billion empty plastic bottles in the trash.
In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles
of water consumed each day in the United States drain 1.5
million barrels of oil during the course of a year.
Yikes!
Is it Safe?..............
From
Rolf Halden, PhD, PE, assistant professor in the
Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the
Center for Water and Health at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.
First, people
should be more concerned about the quality of the water they
are drinking rather than the container it's coming from.
Many people do not feel comfortable drinking tap water, so
they buy bottled water instead. The truth is that city water
is much more highly regulated and monitored for quality.
Bottled water is not. It can legally contain many things we
would not tolerate in municipal drinking water.
Having said this, there
is another group of chemicals, called phthalates that are
sometimes added to plastics to make them flexible and less
brittle. Phthalates are environmental contaminants that can
exhibit hormone-like behavior by acting as endocrine
disruptors in humans and animals. If you heat up plastics,
you could increase the leaching of phthalates from the
containers into water and food.
Here are some links to
alternate options to bottled water:
Voss: It's water comes in
cool-looking reusable glass bottles.
Kleen Kanteen Water Bottle: Made
from dishwasher-safe
stainless steel and holds 27 oz
Biter Bottles-
Lightest, highest quality reusable option is their very own
resin-lined aluminum SIGG bottle, in silver and gold.
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Customer Testimonial
 I
love the Eclipse Spa products, especially the Eucalyptus
Sandalwood soap, white tea and ginger lotion, and the green
tea candle. It is so soothing, especially when I am so busy
and I have to find a way to rejuvenate myself without a lot
of time. These products are so relaxing - I feel like I'm
taking great care of myself, not neglecting myself although
I am very busy!!
After using the Eclipse Spa products
for my own unwinding and relaxation, I decided I would give
a gift package to my clients with promotional materials for
my own business. The common gifts are chocolate and wine,
and after a while, you can only have so much of that! I
received a wonderful response from my clients - and a lot of
business as well!! Within the two weeks of my gifts,
everyone called to schedule with me.
I highly recommend the products - first for yourself - and
they also make wonderful gifts!
Kathleen Wilkins
Certified Shorthand Reporter
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Featured Herb
 Sandalwood,
also known as Santalum album reigns from India. The essential
oil provides perfume with a striking wood base note. The aroma
is rich, sweet, warm and woody. You'll find sandalwood to be
popular in incense and also used for woodworking. There are
temples in India that had been built with sandalwood which has
retained the aroma for centuries!
Sandalwood has been used for
centuries in Ayurvedic medicine. Traditionally, it has been
used for skin revitalization, yoga and meditation. It has
also known to help cure bronchitis.
Sandalwood is considered to
be a small tree standing 20-30 feet. Its flowers are small,
but numerous. Sandalwood has become an endangered species in
Nepal due to over harvesting and is very expensive.
There are several religious
uses for sandalwood. Hinduism uses sandalwood
for rituals or ceremonies. A vast majority of Hindus wear a
small mark of this paste on their forehead right above the
middle of the eyes. It is supposed to keep the
"third eye" (pituitary gland) cool.
Sandalwood is the most popular and commonly used incense
material by the Chinese and Japanese in worship and various
ceremonies.
Pick up one of our
Eucalyptus Sandalwood
handcrafted soaps for your favorite guy or use it for
yourself. It has a captivating scent and is a healthy
alternative to most mass-produced soaps.
Make sure to use the coupon
code "ECLIPSE" for 10% your entire purchase!
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Hidden Hazards
Top 20
companies of concern
Skin Deep's safety assessment ratings
provide a measure of potential health concerns linked to
ingredients
used by personal care product companies. The companies
listed below are those using ingredients with the
highest average levels of concern according to our rating
system, from among the 91 companies with at least 50
products in Skin Deep's database.
I am listing these companies in order of highest concern:
1. L'Occitane 11. Murad, Inc
2. Combe, inc 12. Avon
3. Kamins Dermatologics 13. Louis-Vuitton
4. BABOR 14. L'Oreal
5. Revlon 15. Elizabeth Arden
6. Playtex Products 16. Blissworld, LLC
7. pH Beauty Labs 17. Beiersdorf
8. Alberto-Culver 18. Vincent Longo
9. Dead Sea Laboratories 19.Unilever
10. NARS cosmetics 20.Schering-Plough
L'Occitane is very popular for bath & body products. These
franchises have opened up in many retail shopping areas.
However, these products rate the highest in ingredients of
concern. For example their Lavender Harvest Body Milk rated
a 7 out of 10 for safety concern.
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Spa Cuisine
Harvest
Pumpkin Mushroom Soup
Ingredients
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1 lb Fresh Sliced Mushrooms
- 1/2 cup Chopped Onion
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2 tablespoon Butter
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2 tablespoon Flour
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1/2 teaspoon Curry Powder
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3 cup Vegetable Broth
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1 can Solid Pack Pumpkin
15oz can
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1 can Evaporated Milk 12 oz
can
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1 tablespoon Honey
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1/2 teaspoon Salt
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1/2 teaspoon Pepper
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1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
Instructions
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In a large saucepan, sauté mushrooms and onion in butter
until tender.
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Stir in the flour and curry powder until blended.
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Gradually add the broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for
2 minutes or until thickened.
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Add the pumpkin, evaporated milk, honey, salt, pepper, and
nutmeg. Heat through.
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Garnish
with chives. (Optional)
Credits
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October Drawing
Handcrafted Soap/Wooden Soap Dish!
Win our Rosemary Lavender Soap and Wooden Soap Dish.
This will come in a eco-friendly gift package.
Just make a purchase in October and we will enter you in our
drawing. You will be entered more than once for multiple
purchases.
Drawing will be held on October 31st.
Congratulations to James T. Smith....Walnut
Creek, CA who won our Votive Candles Sampler Set.
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Spa Review
Avello Spa at the Westin, Whistler, Canada
 The Westin
Whistler's Avello
Spa is nestled in the heart of
Whistler Village in one of North America's top ski
resort's, Whistler-Blackcomb. It advertises that it's a
total retreat for the body, mind and spirit, offering
advanced massage treatments and a multitude of bodywork
and skin care therapy.
We had high expectations for Avello, having been pampered
at the Westin Resort's Heavenly Spa in Maui. Upon entering
The Avello Spa, our hopes for an experience similar to
Maui were dashed. We were greeted by the staff and asked
to wait in the small reception area for our appointments.
We were not given a tour of the spa or shown to a changing
area. Spa robes were not offered, and there was no water
or tea service or tray of healthy goodies to munch on
while waiting that you find in many other resort spas. It
was more like sitting and waiting for a doctor's
appointment. Our therapists converged at the door at the
same exact time, which made it seem like we were being
shown to an examination room. The massage therapists wore
starched white uniforms - very reminiscent of old hospital
movies. One flew over the cuckoo's nest comes to mind!
My therapist was very nice and did a
good job; nothing terrific or memorable, just a massage. My
husband's therapist didn't listen to his particular requests
for areas that needed special attention after our hike up
Whistler Mountain. Being a massage aficionado he left
feeling disappointed and still sore in the areas that needed
some extra work. Janet, one of our staff writers, had a
different experience all together. She LOVED her massage and
thought her therapist, who did heed her request for special
attention to her tired legs, was excellent. Considering it
was her birthday, we were happy she got the best massage.
Perhaps Avello hasn't had an upgrade
since the resort opened. Maui's Heavenly Spa by Westin
underwent extensive renovations 3 years ago or so and is
only the second
spa in the world to receive SpaExcellence(SM) certification.
Heavenly Spa by Westin is really a treat for relaxing and
rejuvenation with the Pacific Ocean as its backdrop.
If you are looking for a basic
old-fashioned massage without the ambiance, then Avello is
suitable for those needs. However, if you want ambiance and
all the rejuvenating benefits you get from the spa
experience, I would keep looking. We've promised ourselves
another trip back in 2008 in search of a great spa
experience in Whistler.
Footnote:The photo gallery online represents
a completely different view of the spa than what we
experienced. The photo gallery represents a spa experience
that most people are looking forward to receiving.
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 Reminder:
October is Breast Cancer Awareness
Month. Please make sure to have had your yearly mamogram.
EclipseSpa is a proud sponsor of
Necessities,
a non-profit organization that
provides women who have just undergone a mastectomy a tote
bag full of items that they needs after surgery.
Your continued support of
EclipseSpa products allows us to send a check every month to
sponsor a bag.
Oh, and check out some of our new gift packages. They are
becoming very popular already!
Sincerely,
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Anne Keefe
EclipseSpa
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Take
10 % OFF your next purchase. Use "Eclipse" in the coupon section in
the shopping cart.