For most, the holiday season is a time of entertaining. From dinner parties to having drinks with friends to family members visiting for a few days, the time can fly by in a blur of events. It can be too easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of both attending and preparing for all that is happening over the holidays. The details of getting everything ready can take away from actually enjoying your own event.

Of course, if you’re the host, you want everything to be perfect, everyone to feel welcome and comfortable during their time with you. By incorporating some handmade soaps into your preparations, you can ensure that everyone who is a guest will feel special during a stay at your home.  Nothing is more welcoming than being greeted by fresh towels adorned with a beautiful bar of handmade glycerin soap after a long day of travelling, shopping, visiting or attending other festive events.

With so many different colors, styles and scents to choose from, you can provide a unique handmade glycerin soap for each of your guests. You can choose a soap based on the person, or with the wide range of holiday soaps, you can easily find some that will match with your overall decor. Peppermint, cranberry, cinnamon, orange clove and myrrh are just some of the different soaps you can choose from. There are even snowmen and snowflake shaped soaps if you have children visiting or you want to add a little whimsy to a stay with you.

No matter what you decide, not only will the handmade glycerin soaps be appreciated when they are first received, but they will act as a subtle reminder of this special time of year throughout the following months.

This month we decided to give away some seasonal novelty soap so if you like snowmen and snowflakes, keep on reading!!

About the Giveaway:

Open to US residents only.

Winners: 
- First prize: a soap set of 1 snowman and 2 snowflakes in our beautiful branded gift box. (1 winner)
- Second prize: a snowman soap!! (10 winners)

How to enter (required): Visit MagicSenses.com and then come back and leave a comment telling us the name of a product you would buy as a gift this Holiday Season!

For additional entries (leave a new comment for each additional entry):
- one additional entry if you grab our button from the sidebar and post it on your blog, please post the link;
- one additional entry if you sign up for our Newsletter (the form is on the sidebar);
- one additional entry if you join our Fan Club on Facebook (log in to see the page);
- one additional entry if you follow us on Twitter (we have a new Twitter name!!);
- one additional entry if you send a tweet about this giveaway, please post the link (once a day only);
- one additional entry if you fave us on Technorati;
- one additional entry if you blog about this Giveaway with a link back to MagicSenses.com
- one additional entry if you follow our Blog via email.

The giveaway ends on Tuesday, Dec. 29th, 2009 (end of day). Don’t hesitate to tell your friends!

*Please make sure you leave a comment for each additional entry so you get credited.
*Also, please make sure you typed in the correct email address.
*The winner will be chosen via random.org and announced online and via e-mail.

Good luck!! Merry Christmas!!

**********

Find out if you won!!

If you are looking for a special gift to give to family and friends, why not include a handmade soap?

Why Handmade Glycerin Soaps Make Great Gifts

With so many colors, designs and scents to choose from, you can really add a personal feel to your gift. Based on the person you are buying for, you can choose a soap that is unique to their tastes. Plus, with the large range of choices, everyone on your list can get something different.

The fact that you have taken the time to pick the perfect soap for each person is just one way to show how much you care. Added to that is the fact that handcrafted glycerin soaps are much better for the person using it. Gone are all the nasty chemicals that can be found in commercially produced soap. Instead, all natural ingredients are used to make each soap.

With vegetable glycerin used as the base, the soaps are highly moisturizing, making the skin of all who use them much softer. Everyone will love the feel of the soft lather of the glycerin soaps and will be thanking you for the improvement of their skin. The tone, the texture, everyone about the person’s skin will look healthier and younger.

Handmade glycerin soaps are truly the gift that keeps on giving. Each time the soap is used, thoughts will turn to you and your thoughtful gift. From gift baskets to stocking stuffers and everything in between, the personal touch of adding a handmade glycerin soap from Magic Senses will be felt by all.

Probably one of the quintessential fragrances of Christmas is myrrh. Known by many as one of the gifts provided by the three wise men to at the birth of Jesus, the use of myrrh dates back much further. As far back as 3000 BC, the ancient Egyptians used myrrh resin for embalming their dead, as an antiseptic treatment and for burning during religious ceremonies. What many don’t realize is that, of the gifts provided, myrrh was recognized as the most highly valued, even more so than frankincense and gold!

Today, myrrh is a popular fragrance that is added to incense, soaps, candles and massage oils. With its sultry and seductive vanilla undertones, myrrh is popular with both men and women alike. It is known to help relieve feelings of stress and apathy, or of being stuck in a rut. The lingering scent is of great benefit both emotionally and spiritually. Combined with our all natural vegetable glycerin soap, this is a great way to lather away all your cares and concerns.

The whimsical design of our myrrh glycerin soap brings to mind ribbons and celebrations, making it an ideal addition to your Christmas bathroom. Guests will love the scent that fills your rooms, helping to make what can be a stressful time a lot more relaxing.

This soap is a great gift idea for the holidays. Add it to the stockings of your loved ones, so the lovely fragrance will fill the room even before the gifts are opened. Family and friends will always want to stay with you, if you include it with their linens on arrival.  With the quality of the scent and look of our myrrh handmade glycerin soap, you will be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t love it!

While many of us pay close attention to what we put in our bodies, we are not as vigilent about what we are using on it. Our skin is the biggest organ of our body, and although it provides a protective barrier to the outside environment, what we use on our skin can both damage it and also be absorbed into our systems.

Say NO to petroleum based soap

Many soaps are petroleum based, which can clog the pores in your skin. Coupled with the many chemicals added to the soap for color and fragrance, the natural moisture of your skin can be depleted. As the moisture is removed, the ability of your skin to renew itself decreases, which in turn can lead to further skin damage and premature aging. This doesn’t just apply to the skin of your face, but to that of your whole body.

Choose Glycerin soap

With all natural soaps, you know exactly what is being used to create the soap. Instead of a petroleum base, nourishing oils or glycerin make soaps moisturising and help your skin renew and replenish itself. Glycerin is actually a by-product of the soap making process, yet many producers actually remove it to use in their creams and lotions. By using glycerin to make soap, moisture will be attracted to and trapped in your skin, making it look smoother and healthier and feeling softer to the touch.

Oils

The addition of natural oils can have many benefits, besides just providing an attractive fragrance. Oils from nuts such as almonds and shea are excellent for dry and sensitive skin, as they soften and protect the skin. Eucalyptus and tea tree oil have many medicinal benefits including being anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antiseptic. These types of oil are great for problem skin types. Lavender can actually calm the nervous system and help with insomnia. All of these examples are naturally occurring and can easily be used to create soap, instead of using a chemical alternative.

So, before you go out and buy your next bar of soap … isn’t it worth considering purchasing an all natural one instead? Your whole body will thank you for it.

 This Labor Day weekend the shipping costs only $1 for domestic packages so you can spend more on your favorite products and less on shipping!

Offer expires on Monday, September the 7th, 2009 at the end of day. All orders will be processed starting on Tuesday morning. Packages will be shipped via Priority Mail, USPS.

Take advantage of this offer today! Check out our unique handcrafted glycerin soap, shea body butter and soap subscriptions! Start shopping!

Happy Labor’s Day weekend!

This year we decided to join forces with SheFinds.com and Count Me In in their efforts to promote economic independence and the growth of women owned businesses. 25% of the proceeds will be donated to this cause.

We created a Special Edition design to be added to our Cheerful Butterfly Soap Collection. Made with vegetable glycerin base with little colorful flowers throughout, “Believe in You” Glycerin Soap smells like beautiful Sweet Pea.

Each soap is handcrafted with love here, in California, and weighs approx. 4.7 oz. It comes in a clear plastic box with a gold stretch loop bow, ready to be given as a gift!

Price: $6.50

Help us make a difference! Get yours today! And get one for your best friend, too!

Mountain Rain Glycerin Soap

I am happy to introduce one of our latest additions to the Glycerin Soap Collections. It is called “Mountain Rain” and is very refreshing with a “green feel” to it. You would never guess but it has light flower notes of Gardenia and Lavender, with refreshing citrus notes of Mandarin and Lemon plus a touch of Patchouli and Vanilla. This is the type of fragrance that you would smell again and again and never want to let go.

The design is very simple but beautiful at the same time: blue and green “rain drops” falling down in a white bar.

You can purchase it online at MagicSenses.com for $6.75.

 Our friend, Barb, at KnackStudios is hosting a Soap Giveaway for us.

A lucky winner will receive 3 bars of our beautiful designer glycerin soap; the fragrances we chose are: Lemon Drops, Rain and Mango Papaya. We took a few pictures so you have a better idea of what the prize looks like. 

If you’d like to submit your entry, please visit KnackStudios. Barb will announce the winner on Friday! Good luck!

UPDATE: This giveaway is now CLOSED. Thank you all for participating! It’s been fun reading your messages!

For those of you who would like to see all our Collections or just go ahead and purchase these soaps, please visit our online store at MagicSenses.com.

Good morning, dear friends! I am delighted to announce that Magic Senses has been featured on Wasabi Ventures, in their kick-off article!

They decided to do a three part series on e-tailers this week– their successes, failures, and lessons learned! And we are one of them! Our interview will be published in the days to come!

Thank you, Wasabi Ventures! And Thank you to all our customers and friends for supporting us! We couldn’t have done it without you!