STS is a Yogathon event that is geared to raise funds for CAMH. This year’s event is held in memory of Fred Degasperis.

I hope that you can join this fundraiser. Mental health is still one of those topics that people are not fully comfortable with. It usually doesn’t have a physical manifestation, and as such, often easily ignored and left untreated.

Please join us for this fundraiser. Register at www.stretchthesoul.com. Shoosha looks forward to seeing you there as well!

I’m not a dermatologist, just a skin chef and aromatherapist. From everything I read and studied about infant eczema, there is no one who really knows what causes it. Thankfully, most babies outgrow it, and it’s very treatable!

Infant eczema and cradle cap are not the same. Infant eczema doesn’t have a known cause, but can be triggered by soaps, creams, allergies and detergents. Products can dry and irritate baby’s delicate skin. They contain perfumes, residual herbicides, pesticides, detergents and other chemicals that are harmful. Winter months makes thing worse as the air is drier, especially during winter months. It can also get a lot worse with stress, heat, sweat and allergens. Cradle cap appears on the scalp, nose, eyelids, and brows and behind the ears. It usually clears up at around 8 months, and doesn’t require any treatment.

One thing that comes up time and again is to find a good, fragrance-free moisturizer or ointment. This will help your baby retain its natural moisture. All of Shoosha’s baby products have active ingredients that will help baby retain its natural moisture, and also calm, soothe, and heal dry, irritated or inflamed skin. These active ingredients are replenishing and soothing for all skin, including normal skin.

Every ingredient in Shoosha’s baby line is ‘active’ and has a benefit. There are no fillers, chemicals, or short-cuts for you or your baby and this is our core philosophy and approach. Some ‘star’ ingredients you will find in all our products are Evening Primrose Oil, Chamomile, and Calendula. But it doesn’t end there; we go above and beyond to carefully select every ingredient for their active biodynamic properties. Sounds fancy but it really isn’t. Just as you would add a gorgeous organic extra virgin olive oil or organic avocado to a salad for the taste and nutritional properties, we add the same ingredients, and a few select more, to make our nutritious skin food products.

If you or your child has sensitive skin, you can rest assured every one of our products is designed to soothe, calm and restore your skin. Don’t also forget our Caress Laundry Detergent! It also has active ingredients like Aloe, Chamomile, Calendula and Evening Primrose Oil to compliment and keep consistent the help for sensitive skin.

As our products are USDA food grade organic and carry the seal, you can rest assured that there are absolutely no chemicals, pesticides, or residual pesticides/herbicides/roundup, chemical perfumes, fragrance of any kind, ever in our products. We’ve gone through the considerable time and expense as a startup company to make sure that our message is consistent; we care enough to make sure everything we make is of the highest standard, and that the term “Organic” is meaningful and trustworthy

It’s mostly true. I can’t actually think of any times when it isn’t! Mom’s run a tight ship at home.

In my minds eye, I have a collage of expressions of mom’s that are being told a fib…it’s so subtle…that faintly tight, still, dead-eye look. When I started dreaming of Shoosha, I remember speaking to a person (male) that retired from the cosmetic industry. He told me women don’t care to know what’s in their product, and that the organic industry is saturated and all about hype. I’ll never forget the conversation. He was quite agressive on the phone, and confident he knew everything about the organic industry.

Well, that may or may not be true I thought, but one thing I was sure he didn’t know a thing about, was how women think. Especially, moms.

Like most mom’s, before buying a food or personal care product I flip the side of the box or container to read the ingredients. Ialways do this. If it’s too complicated to understand, I put it back. I, like almost every mom I know, what to know the truth of what I’m buying.

That’s why I believe labelling GMO’s is so important. It’s our right to know. This past weekend, over 2 million people across 53 countries and 436 cities marched against American Agri-giant, Monsanto. The main issue, mandatory labelling of GMO’s.

As Shoosha’s products are all USDA Certified, we’re proud to state that GMO’s are in any of our products.

Shoosha knows that mom’s want to know everything, not just what is convenient at the time!

Shoosha’s baby products are now being carried at The Big Carrot!We’re going to be doing product demonstrations today, and hope you can come by and see us in the HABA section. Check out our Butter Bars as well by the front desk. We are the only fully USDA organic certified line of products at The Big Carrot, which is a great as The Big Carrot serves on the Board of Directors of The Non-GMO Project, The Organic Council of Ontario (organiccouncil.ca), and is a member of the Organic Trade Association (ota.com).

I hope you can come by and see us there. If not, please check out our products online at shooshatrue.com.

Wishing everyone a wonderful May 24!

For many of us, the mere idea of watching a physical catastrophe barrel down on you with no mercy is beyond comprehension. It’s at times like these that I think of what’s most important in life-the time spent with loved ones, taking care of your health, and conscious appreciation of your every day. We’re bombarded every day through the media to want to buy this or that ‘thing’, to covet status items likes designer bags and shoes, and to concern ourselves with everything except what’s in front of us; our families, our friends, and our pets that we love so much.

I hope these families in Oklahoma receive the support they need to recover. It’s a good reminder for all of us to not be so distracted (me included), and spend more time with the people I love the most. Block time off your calendar as you would any other ‘meeting’, turn off your computer, cell phone, ipad, and just talk to someone you love with no distractions. If you can take one step further, go outside in the fresh air with someone you love. Everything else can wait.

Mom’s-one thing I’m pretty sure of is regardless of our ethnicity or our religious beliefs, all mom’s our unified by an overwhelming desire to keep our kids safe from any harm, and to secure their future. You know how the saying goes..your as happy as your unhappiest child. Well, isn’t that the truth!

I talked to a mom in Ottawa yesterday with 5 children under the age of 12. She wakes up at 5:30 every morning to make breakfast, take her kids to school, does all the washing, feeding, etc., and still works most nights recruiting for IT roles often until 1 in the morning. When I asked her why she does all this, she told me it’s because she knows how hard life is, and is worried for her children’s future. She said she doesn’t seem to get tired, and just keeps their future in mind while she goes about her day.

I’m sure I could talk to so many mom’s from any one of a number of backgrounds or circumstances, and they would understand the passion this woman has for her children. She’s no different than millions around the world that work day and night to secure their children’s future.

I really wish more mom’s were in a position of political and economic influence. I believe there would be far less strife, poverty, and our environment would be protected. And God have mercy on any person that harmed a child and had a mom decided on the consequences.

When I was working on Shoosha, I would walk by mom’s with their babies and think about how important it was to protect these babies with a the purest products possible. Thus, the USDA Certified standard route.

I hope that on this weekend, we all remember to thank our mom’s for all that they do.

Love,
Pat

So, I thought, I better see what can be done about packaging Shoosha.  I asked my daughter Kristen Rogers if she knew anyone who could help out, and she referred me to her friend Ivan Verlaan who owns Visual Inclination in Toronto. I heard he was super talented, and had a boutique company that did excellent work.

That was a couple of years ago. Since then, Ivan Verlaan and his super team at Visual Inclination not only did a really beautiful job in creating our logo, brand materials, product packaging and website, but also gave us outstanding service every step of the way.  This means, in a pinch they will pick up a rushed print job and deliver it, drop by a trade show to make sure our booth is set up correctly (and adjust the lighting, displays etc.), or call me at home on a weekend to let me know that a website problem had been fixed. Now that’s dedication!!

As a start up, you need people around you that just don’t do a job, but reflect on what they do, how it impacts your brand, and go above and beyond what is expected. There are so many moving parts with a start up, and everyone involved needs to be fully committed and the very best at what they do…and keep the client focused too!

The team at Visual Inclination are the platinum standard for creativity, execution, and service. We’re so thankful to the team at Visual Inclination for their outstanding teamwork, and making Shoosha so gorgeous!

Here’s some quick notes on Dimenticone and Allantoin.

You may see Dimethicone as an ingredient list in your shampoo, conditioner, lotion, foundation etc. It’s a man made chemical, basically a silicon oil. It’s easily spreadable, gives a great ‘glide’ over your skin, and fills in fine lines on your face. Cool right? What’s not so cool though is that it can trap everything under your skin including bacteria and impurities contributing to breakouts. Your skin works to regulate your body temperature and also helps sweat out impurities etc. Spreading a lab made silicon oil all over your skin can increase skin irritation and impair your skin’s ability to function optimally. A high price to pay for nice glide.

Allantoin is an ingredient that can be found in Comfrey plants, or in the uric acid of most mammals. Yuck. It is used to promote skin healing. The finished product of Allantoin is a white, doorless, crystalline powder. Not so yummy.

Of the 3 FDA approved barrier ingredients, Cocoa butter is the only product that’s organic food grade, which is why we uses it in our Protective Diaper Butter and Rescue Nipple Butter. Both products are protective, healing, restorative and entirely food grade organic! You also don’t have to wipe off the Rescue Nipple Butter before breastfeeding.

You can’t beat mother nature!

Photo by: daveynin

It’s no wonder at all that so many of us do not want any scented products in our homes. I can hardly ever pick up a product where I don’t see ‘perfume’, and wonder what may be in that product. Ever even taken a whiff of scented products? I can hardly ever tell what I’m smelling… is it lavender? Nope. Is it… orange or mint? Nope. What is it? It’s some complicated synthetic soup of toxic chemicals that’s going to go into our bloodstream, and settle in our fat tissue.

As a rule, if I can’t read or understand an ingredient, I don’t buy the product. I don’t think everyday people should have to be chemists in order to understand what they’re putting in or on their body.

The thing is, everything has a true and natural scent. The ocean has a scent which I love, as does falling leaves on an autumn day. I love the scent of a fruit stand too, and absolutely adore any plant derived scent like mint leaves, chamomile flower, oranges or lavender. Also, who doesn’t love the smell of vanilla, chocolate or COFFEE first thing in the morning? I sure do!

At Shoosha, if our products are scented, it’s from the actual plant oil, extract, or butter from an organically farmed plant. Gorgeous organic Lavender, Vanilla, Neroli, Sweet Orange, Hazelnut Coffee can be found in our soaps and personal care products. We also carry unscented products as well that actually still ‘smell’ lovely and clean-there’s just no added scented organic oils in the products.

Photo by: woodleywonderworks

Sooo happy! It’s great to see The National Post cover a Canadian start up company that is trying to give Canadian parents an entirely safe, organic food grade product for their babies. Thank you so much National Post!

Please read the full piece here: More of much less: Four Canadian companies bringing eco-friendly products to your home.

An excerpt:

The company got its start in founder Patricia Di Gasbarro’s kitchen. In 2009, fed up with phony eco-friendly products on the market, De Gasbarro started whipping up her own butters and balms. “I created SHOOSHA for anyone who wants to live a clean, simple life, stay healthy and enjoy more time on earth with the people that they love so much,” Di Gasbarro said.