Botanical Effects™ skin care is a simple regimen designed to help your skin achieve healthy balance. Every product in all three formulas contains a special botanical complex — featuring silymarin and Luo Han Guo – to help defend against environmental damage and help promote healthy skin. Each formula is personalized with additional botanicals specifically chosen to give your skin type just what it craves for beautiful balance. Dry skin finds its harmony with flax seed and sea kelp extracts, which are known sources of fatty acids important for  moisturizing. Normal skin is treated with the antioxidant powers of frangipani flower and water lily extracts, and oily skin gets pore-clearing help from a kanuka and guava extracts-infused formula.

What’s special about the packaging?
Each of the tube sleeves – Cleanse, Hydrate, Mask – contain 50% post-consumer resin (PCR) material. So what was destined for a landfill instead gets a new lease on life as part of our packaging. The tubes also feature lightweight caps, using one-third less plastic than traditional flip top caps.

In addition, the freshener bottle is recyclable*, which will save it from a landfill and give it the chance at a “new life.” Not only are all of the cartons made from 100% post- consumer content, as well as Forest Stewardship Council† certified material, they can also be recycled. So you can help continue the “greener” momentum when you choose to recycle. If we all do our small part for the planet, together we really can make a big difference.

*Where facilities exist
†The Forest Stewardship Council (FCS) is dedicated to supporting the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide. FSC-certified paper and print products contribute to conservation, responsible management, and community-level benefits for people near the forests that provide the paper.

These products are sure to carry on the Mary Kay reputation of surpassing expectations; if you’re not a Mary Kay user, this Botanical Effects™ skin care line could be the perfect opportunity for you to get on board. For more information regarding this line, and numerous other Mary Kay products that will make your world beautiful, please check out the main website listed below.

*A special thank you to Amy Genske, Mary Kay Beauty Consultant, for her knowledge in these products.

www.MaryKay.com

Biggby Coffee is the largest coffee franchise in the country, and why wouldn’t they be with the deliciously addictive, high quality products they offer?  They are community-minded and keep the environment at heart.  Biggby Coffee is known for hiring locally, helping local organizations, and thinking green!

One of the specific keys to the success of Biggby Coffee is the strong marketing emphasis that CEO Bob Fish places on social media.  Blog and Twitter presence are both important elements to incorporate into any business that wishes to stay wildly popular.  Even before @BiggbyBob —or any of us for that matter— were able to Tweet about their latest endeavor as a follower of their favorite people or places, Biggby baristas would pose daily trivia questions on a neon marker board for their customers to contemplate.  This written communication from the employees makes customers feel connected even if they end up in line during the morning rush.  Biggby caters to all sorts of coffee-lovers, so if you do end up in line during a rush, or you’re just not into ordering a Grande Sugar Bear, with an extra shot, over ice, no whip…you can always drop your money in the bucket and fill your reusable travel mug with one of the many Biggby brews.

If you are part of the Biggby Coffee family, but aren’t following @BiggbyBob, or checking out the latest news at www.biggby.com, you should be!

“MessageAMP gives you the power to send promotions like emails, contests, surveys, and free samples across email, Facebook Apps, Twitter, embed in blogs, or use our own hosted landing pages with just one click. Plus, you’ll receive a dashboard with complete analytics so you know who received and opened your campaign.

We call it create once, publish everywhere promotions.”

Join Us In Supporting MessageAMP!

You can join us in supporting MessageAMP by voting for them in MassChallenge.  It’s super quick – here’s how:

1. Go to http://masschallenge.org/profile/team/messageampcom

2. Register for an account (5 seconds), select “Observer/Supporter”

3. Click the 5 stars!

Thank you!! Taking two minutes to support these great new business communication tools pays off for us all in the end.

Learn more about MessageAMP: http://www.MessageAmp.com/

Follow MessageAMP on Twitter @ MessageAmp

Join the MessageAMP Facebook community @ http://www.facebook.com/MessageAMP

An article on Mashable.com shared a couple of apps:

Lutron Home Control iPad app ($19.99) Lutron’s RadioRA 2 or HomeWorks QS control systems installed can monitor their systems while away from home, control multiple systems, adjust energy-saving preferences, modify time clock functionalities and edit presets. The app is basically a remote control for a user’s lights, window shades, temperature thermostats and appliances.

SmartNotes ($11.99) enables the company to import and notate scanned documents; capture data (over 50 pages of handwritten notes for an average audit); create charts, tables and diagrams; highlight important notes with the highlighter feature; tag data needing further clarification and export notes for e-mailing to clients as one handy file.

Mashable.com also mentions that you can use your iPad for presentations and sharing portfolios, articles, and images.  Instead of using handouts and brochures, companies can use iPads to showcase presentations, designs, maps and portfolios to clients.

I did a little research of my own and found a few apps:

• Off Remote ($2.99) gives you access from your iPad to shut your computer off, or put it onto sleep mode. There shouldn’t be a reason to waste energy by leaving them on overnight – simply reboot when you get in the office in the morning!

• Control4 (Free app with a $99 activation fee) is a business, and home, package that will monitor and automate electricity usage. From lighting, to air conditioning, Control4 will decrease energy use and maximize efficiency. The Control4 app gives the user access to every light, thermostat and appliance in the home or office.

There are also many newspaper and magazine apps (too many to list them all). You can use these apps on your iPad to get your daily dose of local or worldly news without wasting paper. You can read the newspaper via your iPad and even bookmark articles to come back to later!

• NY Times: Free
• USA Today: Free
• Digital Post: $2.99

With all that said, I am certainly not saying that you should run out and buy an iPad to be an environmentally friendly business, but it you have one, these apps may be worth checking out.

Are there any iPad apps not mentioned that your company uses to be lessen your carbon footprint?

So, the question stands – “Can I really get cash back for my old iPhone?” There are numerous companies out there right now offering this service.  I wondered which was the most reliable solution.  Therefore, I did a little research.  I sought out a couple reviewers of iPhones Into Cash on Facebook to get a better idea of what I was in for.  I was planning to replace two iphones, so I just wanted to be sure.  Here’s what I found.

iPhonesIntoCash.com: What’s My Old iPhone Worth?

The pricing for each phone you return is follows. You can return two phones in one package if you’d like.

The 3-Step Process

It’s simple.

1. Order a Pre-Paid Envelope

Fill out  a quick form on the iPhonesIntoCash website.  This will take about two minutes.  My envelope arrived within a week.

2. Package Your iPhone For Delivery

Once your pre-paid envelope arrives, package your iphones into the padded envelope, circle your iphone model/condition on the form and affix the mailing label to the front. You’re ready to mail.

3. Mail Your iPhone

Once iPhonesIntoCash.com receives your iPhone, they’ll send an email to confirm that your check is on the way.  From the time I received my confirmation email, I received my check within a week.

FAQ

Can I send in any phones other than iPhones?
No – only iPhones are accepted at the time of this blog post.

How long did it take to receive the check?
From the time I ordered the envelope, the entire process took about 2-3 weeks.  Most of that had to do with time involved in shipping the envelope, phone and check.

Sam Calagione – Dogfish Head Brewery

Sam Calagione has been everywhere lately.  You may have seen him on the new show BrewMasters or front and center on Inc.TV answering questions about business and brewing. If you’ve been under a rock, Sam Calagione is the founder of probably the most well-known craft brewery in the U.S., Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware. Sam’s experimental process produces “off-centered ales for off-centered people,” such as the popular Pumkin Ale (you have my personal stamp of approval on this one – it’s delicious.) Dogfish is a marketing powerhouse in the craft beer industry, but it’s their success in cult community building and use of social media that’s especially impressive to me.

In this age of social media marketing, we see ads on Facebook pages, salesy tweets and annoying commercials before you can ever view what you really want to see on YouTube or Hulu.  The Dogfish team’s approach is a bit different or may I say: “off-center.”  As a craft beer enthusiast, I have enjoyed watching Sam and the Dogfish crew in their YouTube videos showcasing most of the popular beers. While the videos give great insight about the brewery, sometimes the entertainment factor even outweighs the educational factor. Sam is such a character! Not only are the videos about the beer-making process, but they also touch on the the various everyday happenings at the brewery and his restaurant where guests can try some of the more experimental brews.  How about the tree house that greets the visitors and employees as they enter the brewery? Check out this time-lapse video.  It’s this type of use of Social Media that allows for great marketing as well as entertainment.  As YouTube-happy consumers of Sam’s brews, we crave that inside look at Dogfish Head Brewery.  Now that we’ve seen how much fun it is, we only want more.  More importantly to Dogfish, we can’t wait to share it with each other.  Really, when was the last time you searched YouTube for the latest Cadillac commercial?

In addition to the usual suspects, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Dogfish also hosts a blog on their website, Blogfish.  I found this blog to be a bit different from most in that it’s updated regularly (what a novel concept) by the brewmasters.  Mariah Calagione (Sam’s wife) has a strong role in managing the social media community, so my post would not be complete without giving props to her.  As an outsider, I can really sense the passion that Sam has for his craft, and it’s clear that this carries over into the Dogfish team, as well.  I enjoy the brews, videos, articles and am proud to be a member of the Dogfish community.  It definitely makes the experience of drinking a Dogfish Ale more fun and a bit “off-center!”