Scent Paks - What are they?

If you've perused a Scentsy website or you've looked at my facebook page you'll have seen scent paks and you may have been wondering what they are and why you should pay £7 for one.

Here's what one looks like:

Scent paks are fabric bags that contain food-safe polymer beads (that's where the fragrance is).  The bags themselves are a high thread count polyester and are 3.5" high x 3" wide and have a hanging loop.  The high thread count of the bag means that it is very difficult to tear, so minimising the risk that a child could rip it open and eat the beads.  Having said that, even if they did manage to eat some beads, due to their food-grade ingredients they will do the child no harm. However, if you felt that the child had ingested a large amount of beads it would still be best to seek medical advice.

Scent paks are primarily used in Scentsy Buddies.  One scent pak is included in the price of a buddy (£20/£25).

Another great use for scent paks is to use them on their own in small spaces such as inside wardrobes, airing cupboards, under-stairs cupboards, cars etc to either replace smells you don't much care for or to freshen in the case of cars and wardrobes.  I currently have a coconut lemongrass scent pak in my airing cupboard which means my sheets and towels smell fresh and lemony!

To buy scent paks individually costs £7 each.  Now you might think that's a lot of money for an air freshener, but just hold on a second and consider these two facts:

1.  I've had a scent pak inside a buddy for 15 months and it's still going fairly strong;

2.  I put a scent pak in my under stairs cupboard last December (2011) and didn't need to change it until June this year (2012).  I also had one in my car from February to August this year.

£7 divided by 6 (months) is £1.16 per month.

Now if you go and take a look at my Scentsy website, built by Scentsy, you will find that it says on there that a Scent Pak fragrance will last for at least 30 days.  Why?  Because Scentsy do not believe in making extravagant claims about their products - they're a very straightforward company.  So why am I telling you the scent pak in my buddy has lasted for 15 months?  Well....because it has....this is my experience of a scent pak in use.  You can see that my experience of using a scent pak inside a buddy and outside shows that outside the buddy the fragrance dissipates alot quicker.

Scent paks are available in 14 fragrances:
  Black Raspberry Vanilla
  Coconut Lemongrass
  French Lavender
  Hemingway
  Honey Pear Cider
  Luna
  My Home
  Newborn Nursery
  Paradise Punch
  Perfectly Pomegranate
  Satin Sheets
  Skinny Dippin'
  Sweet Pea & Vanilla
  Vanilla Cream

If you have any questions about Scent Paks that I haven't covered here, please do contact me at niceniffs@gmail.com

All of the products featured on this blog can be purchased at:  https://niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk

Featured Warmer of the Week

Today we're going to get 'up close and personal' with a Scentsy warmer.  Tilia will be our model for the day.

Here she is:

Isn't she gorgeous! Shown here with the LED lights inside lit up to demonstrate how the light glows through the whole body of this warmer.

Tilia is an unglazed porcelain warmer in plain white, with the stark contrast of a winter tree in black adorning one side.  This - and indeed any - picture does not do Tilia justice at all, to really appreciate how special she is you need to see her in real life.

As with all of Scentsy's warmers, Tilia has a detachable electric lead and an on/off switch on the back of the warmer, making it easy to switch the warmer on and off - just the push of a button!

Here's another picture of Tilia to give you an idea of what she might look like in your home:

A stark winter's day with a Tilia lit on the shelf, sporting one cube of Apple Press and one of Christmas Cottage to produce a cinnamon apple scent with hints of spice and maybe even a bit of toffee in there will make any home feel warm and cosy - perfect for the Christmas season.

To see the full Scentsy range or to buy Tilia, please visit:  https://niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk/buy

Thank you for reading,
Bye for now!

Travel Tin Thursday

Scentsy travel tins are great for on the move fragrance.  As their name suggests, they were designed with hotel rooms in mind - take it along with you when you travel.

Travel tins are 8cm long x 5cm wide.  

All travel tins feature a sliding lid which allows you to open it as much or as little as you prefer.  If you only open it a little bit the fragrance with last longer.  The fragrance is housed in a gel covering the entire bottom of the tin, so is perfect for travelling as it cannot spill (note: the gel may melt in extremely hot temperatures, so should always be stored in a cool place. English summers are not a threat!).

Other uses for travel tins are: in a locker; in a cupboard; use as an in-car air freshener.  Basically, any small space you can think of would suit a travel tin.

The range features eight fragrances
 
Clean Breeze: White florals with a touch of spring, this is the scent of fresh, clean laundry.

Hemingway: Rich, ripe apples and warm, woody accents of sandalwood and cedar with hints of spice.

Simply Irresistible: Lavender with a strong, woody background of amber, moss and musk.

Echo: Sophisticated and metropolitan fragrance of manly spice notes, Mediterranean citrus and herbs and bitter orange.

My Home: Spicy cinnamon and floral scent - a must try!

Skinny Dippin': Fresh green apples perfectly harmonised with refreshing melons and juicy pears.

French Kiss: Sweet fig tenderly caressed by coconut pulp, exotic cedar and caramel.

Satin Sheets: Sensual and earthy sandalwood, perfectly paired with rich, warm vanilla.

Travel Tins cost £5 each and last for around a month.

Buy here: https://niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk/Scentsy/Buy/Category/536

Autumn/Winter 2012/13 Home Interiors Trend

Having spent some time on the internet researching the incoming trends for this Autumn/Winter season, I thought I'd share them here.

So what's the trend to be? Answer: colour, colour and more colour. Nice bright vivid colours in lime green, turquoise, magenta and orange, along with some gray and white to take the edge off the brightness.

I love having a bit of brightness in my decor, I already have red accenting cream walls and dark wood floor. I may change it to turquoise for the winter though for a bit of a change. The key to adding colour is moderation: maybe one accent wall, several cushions or other accessory items. Purchase lots of items in the same color to add even more impact. This creates colour repetition in your interior and unifies it. Keep your expensive items neutral and add the colour with lampshades, cushions, rugs, throws and flowers (dried or real) and your decorating budget will go much further.

The trend over the last few seasons has been neutrals with black and white added. The good news is that you can keep all of that, just change accent items, like this:

The full size warmer 'Flare' (below, £35) would feel at home in this room. 

 As would the midsize warmer 'Rosso' (£30)

Gorgeous pops of citrus could be added to this room:

Simply replace the candles with any of the these midsize warmers (£30): 

For aqua fans, this room might be just the thing:

Fullsize Aqua (£35) fits the bill:

Midsize Azure (£30) would feel at home:

So which would be your colour of choice to brighten up your winter home?  Let me know either by signing in to follow this blog and commenting below or at www.facebook.com/scentsifythenation

All of the warmers featured in this blog can be bought at: http://niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk/buy

Thanks for reading!

Trend information from: http://activerain.com/blogsview/3408197/2013-color-trends-by-foxy-interiors-central-florida

How to Make Liquid Laundry Detergent

I'm no eco-warrior, I don't even buy into the whole mankind has created climate change argument, I'm more on the side of the planet has cyclical events - anyhow, that's a whole different post.  No, I'm not an eco-warrior, but I am a money saving warrior, especially since every time I go to the supermarket prices have shot up again.  I was never particularly profligate with money anyway but I bought everything I needed..... until now.

When I go to the supermarket and see the cheapest brand name liquid laundry detergent is £4 for 1 litre I'm kind of put out by that - I mean, really, £4, is that really what it costs to produce, package, transport and a little bit on top for the retailer?  I couldn't really accept that so I started looking for a way to produce it myself.  I costed it all out before I bought any of the ingredients - I also wanted to see how readily available ingredients were.  The result?  Five litres of liquid laundry detergent for £2.95!!!  And it's not difficult to make at all, so here goes with a quick tutorial on how to do it yourself.

First you'll need to assemble the ingredients, I got the recipe from http://whynotsew.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html.  I halved this recipe because I don't have the storage facilities for two gallons, here's what I used:

1 bar of Dove (100g)
1/2 cup of Soda Crystals
1/2 cup of Borax substitute (you can't buy Borax in this country because of EU regulations!!)
A 5l container
Funnel
Spoon for stirring
Grater

The measuring spoon at the front is the equivalent of half an American cup measurement so I used one scoop this size.

It's actually a longer job to grate soap than you might imagine, but persevere because the end result is worth it.

And here is the grated bar of Dove.

I then half filled this pan with hot tap water and popped it on the cooker. 

Just a word of warning here - producing the detergent is not cooking, it is chemistry so reasonable precautions need to be taken for the next step (like wearing rubber gloves).

When your soap has all dissolved add the Borax and the Soda crystals and stir until dissolved (keep the pan on the heat during this).  WARNING: when you add the Borax it fizzes up slightly so make sure you've got a big pan to do this in.

You'll notice that the mixture thickens to the same consistency of shop bought detergent, keep it on the heat to thicken more then leave to cool and pour into your 5L container.  Top up the container with hot tap water - I then left it to cool before I put the lid on.

Here's my 5L container:

As you can see, I didn't quite fill it to the top, I wanted to see if there was any expansion during cooling.  After around 6 hours there was no expansion so I topped it right up, put the lid on and gave it a good shake.

I was using Surf and have a measuring cup that comes with it, that's what I'll be using to measure out my detergent and I'll be putting it in the drum, not the drawer.

One last thing, this detergent will not create suds, it's not suds that clean anyway so it doesn't matter, they're just there to make us think the detergent is working when it would work anyway!

So there is my 5L of laundry detergent for £2.95.  Based on 1 litre being 28 wash loads (as it says on my Surf bottle), this is enough for 140 wash loads, which equates to just a fraction more than 2p per load! (0.02107p for those that want to know).

I hope this is clear and that it will be of help to you.  Let me know at www.facebook.com/scentsifythenation how you get on.

Thank you for reading.

Just Do It!

Any visitor to this blog site will very quickly see that I posted two posts fairly close together....then....nothing ......until now! The reason? Laziness, pure and simple!  There, I've said it in public, I am lazy.  Am I lazy about everything or just blogging?  Well, luckily for me it's just the blogging where the laziness really kicks in.  Over the past year I've been working my Scentsy business, growing my customer base and team, so no laziness there.

This post is primarily to update you all with the great new products we have this season.  The Scentsy Autumn/Winter season began on 1st September.  Not only do we have some incredibly gorgeous new warmers, we also have new features to the warmers.  All warmers now feature an on/off switch, a detachable electric cable and brighter LED lights inside.  The brighter lights are especially good with the warmers that 'glow', ie the light really lights up the body of the warmer and turns it into a mini-lamp.  These are the white unglazed porcelain warmers, Fizz, Whoot, Cordeline, Heavenly, Heirloom, Tilia and the Glowing Core.  

Here's a video of the all the great new items we have available now.  These are only the new items, there are lots more that stayed in from last season, you can view them by clicking the link below the video.

Click here to view the entire new season catalogue pdf:  www.niceniffs.scentsy.co.uk 

That's it for today, but come back tomorrow for a post on making your own liquid laundry detergent for pennies.

Have a nice Sunday!

Scentsy Convention

The Scentsy convention held 18th-20th August was an attitude changing event for me.

For the first time I was able to meet the co-owners of Scentsy, Heidi and Orville Thompson, who are genuinely warm, caring people.  They ate with us, and sat on long after the meal was over, talking to people who wanted to talk. They answered all of our questions openly and honestly, explaining some of the hitherto perplexing decisions the company seems to have made in their UK launch. Most of the reasons have to do with mad EU laws, so we can't blame Scentsy for any seemingly wacky decisions.

The training was first class, with none of the American hoopla and whooping (thankfully!). Both Heidi and Orville and their staff took individual training sessions, which were invaluable to all who attended the convention.

We were able to preview all of the new season's products and were given samples of many of them to take home.

Orville's speech which closed the convention was the most inspirational I have ever heard. And not just about Scentsy unusually for this type of event. He spoke about the need to live life from an attitude of gratitude instead of entitlement and how doing so can change your life for the better. Something that resonated very deeply with everybody in the room, myself included.

So, here I am back home and trying to grow my business. But with a new attitude. I'm grateful for every customer I have, for every new customer I will meet and for those that will become friends, and I'm grateful for the chance to have a business with such a low start up cost. But mostly I'm grateful to be part of the Scentsy family, the most authentic company I've every come across.