Beard balm for Christmas!

Pardon the blatant plug, but it's been a busy few weeks for our little Brawn beard balm business and we wanted to drop a quick link here.

We use only natural products in our beard balm and as many locally sourced ingredients as possible such as local Tennessee beeswax.

A lot of people ask us at shows and markets as to what exactly beard balm is and the answer is pretty simple.

We start with a bit of beeswax for hold and protection and then add skin-friendly oils and butters such as coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and almond oil.

A good beard starts with the skin beneath - which needs to be healthy, hydrated, and moisturized -- to optimize hair growth and eliminate itching, beard dandruff, and other issues.

The second line of attack are the specialty oils that go into our beard balm such as argan oil and jojoba oil. Both are great for the skin but where they really shine is in strengthening, moisturizing, and conditioning hair.

We only make Brawn in one scent, which is a natural, woodsy aroma that won't leave you smelling like citrus fruit or menthol.

Put all that together and you have Brawn beard balm!

Unlike other companies that charge $20+ for a tiny tin of beard balm, we've always kept Brawn at under $10 a tin, with a 2 ounce tin typically lasting the average bearded dude for several months.

Buy two tins or more and shipping is on us. Brawn makes a great stocking stuffer and is a unique gift for the distinguished bearded gentleman in your life.

Farm Life

This summer is flying by, what with normal life, trying to build a house, and helping out on the farm with things like hauling hay and other fun stuff.

I've also been selling at a few local farmer's markets, which has been interesting. Not amazingly lucrative but it's been a good nudge to get a little more serious about the handcrafted natural salves and soaps I've been making.

I've got the Shafer Springs Farm site up and rolling now and we're also selling a few things in our Shafer Springs Farm Etsy shop.

I'd tried setting up a seller's account on Amazon and got 90% done before throwing the laptop through a window. The contrast between using Etsy (super simple and very intuitive) and Amazon (willfully confusing and Stone Age-y) to set up a seller's account to list and sell items could not have been more different.

Very excited that football season and cooler weather are on the horizon..I guess I'm a Vanderbilt Commodore fan again now that I'm back in Tennessee, which likely means a loooooonnnggg season ahead.

How to Cook Bratwurst and Other Important Summer Topics

I'm not sure why I expect life to ever get less busy, as it seems to consistently trend in the more busy direction no matter what I do.

This spring has been especially crazy, as we're in the process of building our new house while trying to keep up with a two year old.

Not to mention keeping up with my various sites -- including an older domain that is going nuts traffic-wise as far as people wanting to know how to cook bratwurst -- as well as my fledgling beard balm empire and our raw amber teething necklace business.

I've been helping my dad and step-mom out on the farm which has been an experience in and of itself, as far as getting up to speed on the inner workings of goats and sheep.

I had the crazy notion that I might try to sneak off to Vegas to play in a smaller WSOP event but that will have to wait for another year.

Beard balm and hand salve

My first foray into selling stuff online was successful enough that I've launched a few more mini stores, including one for beard balm.

Making the products adds more than a few headaches (especially coming up with packaging and labels and sorting out shipping options and carriers and all that jazz) but the margins are far higher and it's nice to have more control over inventory.

The raw amber necklaces sell well but our supplier in Lithuania is a little hit and miss and often runs out of the styles we prefer, so it's been hard to keep them in stock on a regular basis.

As far as making salves and balms and what-not, while it sounds a little girly I'm actually enjoying it a lot.

Now that we're in Tennessee and living the farm life, we're looking for ways to eventually be self-supporting as far as the farm and the beard balm and hand salve are steps in that direction.

I'm buying all the ingredients now but eventually we want to grow and use what we can as far as natural ingredients like beeswax, lavender, and rosemary, so it's been kind of cool to play around with recipes to get down to something we're happy with that is crammed full of artificial chemicals and preservatives.