the story of stuff & my womanifesto

first, the story of stuff by annie leonard. amazing. concise. fantastic. it reminds me to be as aware as i should be of what i buy/ don't buy. it ties directly into the values i'd like to share w/ the world. the work-watch-shop cycle? hello, it's so ubiquitous that when i got cable 2 weeks ago i decided to limit my viewing to things i knew i'd enjoy watching. when i'm not interested in what's on, i don't watch. i'm aware of how much trash i generate by not packing my own lunch or eating things that come in their own natural wrappers. i feel like an ass for it -- but i'm working at it. i guess that the thing i most want for my dgf customers is that y'all also feel like you're doing your part. not just your part to put money in my pockets, but to take your money away from the beastly monster corporations that want you to shop more. it's a process. let's shake it up y'all, even if only a lil bit.

and now, the womanifesto:

why dope girl fresh? :: a mission statement

my running joke was that with all that mysterious white powder & baking soda, something fully illegal must be afoot in my apartment. i measure & sell items by weight, i let things dry out (like crack rocks or the beginnings of crystal meth, i'm told). & to top it all off i give folks their samples in plastic baggies. a girlfriend of mine once said, "you pull that stuff out of your purse just like you're pushin' dope!" i laughed it off continually, as i felt that all i pushed was luxury: yummy smelling bath salts & the occasional bag of tea. before i knew it, i was mixing instead of making dinner & scribbling down scent recipes on train schedules. it was getting serious. i stalled a few times, though; i wouldn't make anything new or i'd use up all the stuff myself because i didn't think anyone'd buy from me. i wasn't sure that there was space for me & my ideas. but one day, i saw a recipe for bath bombs in a magazine. the next thing i knew, i was all over the internet trying to get ingredients together so i could make my own.

i started crafting again. full-speed ahead. i couldn't stop. but i still didn't have an official name for my baby. i was thinking of picking a word in sanskrit, spanish, portuguese -- anything but english. i wasn't gonna be owner/ chief mixer of eileen's daughter. oyin handmade was already taken & i refused to use sweet or honey in the name of my line. i admire this brand of soaps called fraiche (you should check that stuff out; it's wonderful) so i thought maybe i'd call my line fresca. something simple, w/ a leaf logo. that didn't fully satisfy me. i wanted something that looked good on paper. fresca was too simple; fresca beauty? fresca cosmetics? nah. fresh . . . fresh pot? no, because someone may mistake that for, well, good weed. fresh girl? nope. but there's this saying, "dope boy fresh" that's become a bit popular as of late. it's a testament to the money that the dope game brings in & the material benefits of such. i thought about it: there're dope girls. & there're dope girls, too -- some push weight, others are dope in the early hip hop sense. they are chic, on point, innovative, stylish & all around fly. i'd like to think that the latter applies to me on a consistent basis. so, i didn't wanna call it "dope girl." it didn't fit all of the things i was trying to express with my handmade crafts. but the word "fresh" brought it all together. "fresh," meaning new. "fresh," meaning i'm not compromising quality for mass-produced factory stuff. fresh means i do everything i can to make products to order; no two orders go out identically. this is definitely an at home, around-the-way girl operation. i mix to scent/ consistency, not to measurements. like my mother & her mothers before her, recipes are just suggestions to me. ;) the rest is the product of my very keen olfactory senses. my hands craft & package w/ tender loving care; my eyes spot new items for my nose to sniff. when i smell a blend & have to think of a name for it, it's based on a song i know/ love. dgf is organic insomuch as it's mine, that i came up with, that i conceived. it's not organic in the trendy, loosely government-regulated way. but in the true sense; i cultivate my craft & fine-tune it the way it was once typical to care for a crop or raise livestock.

dope girl fresh is an expression of my desire to see people with the best possible products at their disposal. have you ever read the back of a tube of anything from bath & body works, or most of the stuff you find in the market or drug store? per my observation, these items are labeled with phrases such as THIS FINISHED PRODUCT NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS or list anywhere from 5 to 15 ingredients that have nothing to do w/ smelling like cucumbers, melons, or anything else that comes from the earth. synthetic fragrance oils are one thing -- they're often wonderfully potent & help maintain low costs for consumers. i use synthetic fragrance oil in at least one of my blends. but how could anyone feel about dimethicone, imidazolidnyl urea, methylparaben, or propylparaben on your skin/ hair if they don't even know wtf those things are? i'm dedicated to creating/ maintaining a market where higher-quality products are readily available to the public. i don't test on any quadrupeds; only bipeds. actual human beings. some who're super allergic to all sorts of things, along w/ others who never have a reaction to anything. i'm not keen on using things i can't pronounce. but, ultimately we all know the difference between the scientific name of sweet almond oil versus some man-made chemical that's supposed to simulate the oils your skin naturally secretes. it's really a quality issue. i put positive thought into my entire creative process, & i think that makes or better products. hopefully, you will, too.

so, that's my womanifesto, my mission statement, my declaration to the world. dope girl fresh is officially ready to go.