Playing in the Mud (Moor Mud) -Fun or Therapy?

Dead Sea Mud, Moor Mud & Rhassoul Clay Facial Masque

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2044164

If someone told you that they had a tub full of mud and it would clean your body of harmful toxins, rid you of acne, slow the forming of wrinkles on your face, moisturize your skin, alleviate the pain of arthritis, rheumatism and muscle strains and sprains; and if you drank it your ulcers would heal along with your cystitis, you would think that they were either lying to you or were mentally unstable. Strangely though each one of these have been scientifically tested and validated. You can go to Medscape and do a search on Medline for moor mud or peat therapy and find the citations about this amazing natural mud.


For over 200 years, it has been said to have magical properties, which today can be explained through science. Its popularity has however not decreased and is still being used. To add to all the properties mentioned it is also said to induce relaxation as it stimulates the body’s natural production of cortisone.

The actual therapeutic properties of Moor Mud have been known for thousands of years. In fact, as far back as 120 B.C., Romans took advantage of the curative powers of Moor Mud and Renaissance physicians praised it as the Quinta Essentia.

Moor Mud Bar Healing Natural Acne Soap Buy 2 Get 1 Free

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=3042570

What is Moor Mud?




During the Pleistocene glacial epoch great glaciers pushed their way into fertile valleys, trapping rich abundant plant life under glacial lakes.

For over 200 years, it has been said to have magical properties, which today can be explained through science. Its popularity has however not decreased and is still being used to: Cleanse the body of toxins, hydrate the skin and helps alleviate health problems like arthritis, chronic skin conditions and ease muscle tension. According to some sources it induces relaxation, as it helps to stimulate the body's natural production of cortisones.



Moor Mud or Balneo-Peat is an organic substance, a product of natural decomposition of multitudes of plants under special conditions. It is unlike any other mud in the beauty, spa or medical industry. Containing almost no clay it is comprised of the organic remains of flowers, plants, herbs and grasses. Over a period of thousands of years these residues turn into a paste that easily dissolves in water and has an unusual concentration of bio-minerals, trace elements, vitamins, amino acids, plant hormones and fatty acids. These substances are readily absorbed into the skin due to Moor Mud's unique colloidal structure, making it ideal for cosmetic and therapeutic use.



Moor Mud increases collagen and skin cell production and can even stimulate the fibers of the nervous system between skin cells, improving the look and feel of maturing skin. It is suitable for all skin types and its astringent properties can be used to treat various skin conditions including acne, eczema, and psoriasis.



The natural acids and nutrients in peat (Moor Mud) are the force behind its healing abilities. As one aspect of peat opens the skin pores allowing nutrients in and acids out, another aspect actively draws out lactic acid and metabolic wastes from tissues.



The therapeutic properties of Moor Mud have been known for thousands of years. In 120 B.C., the Romans took advantage of the curative powers of Moor Mud and Renaissance physicians praised it as the Quinta Essentia. Scientific research has demonstrated that Moor Mud is an effective astringent, absorbent, ion exchanger, hormone balancer, anti-inflammatory, and cell regenerator.



For ages, Moor Mud has been used successfully in spas all over Europe as a natural preventative medicine because of its curative qualities. Modern scientific research has uncovered new applications and techniques for Moor Mud in many therapeutic treatments, particularly in the fields of Rheumatology and Dermatology.

Because moor mud has chelatic properties (it binds heavy metal isotopes) it is a strong natural detoxifier. It cleanses skin of impurities, detoxifies, helps to preserve skin thru presence of natural tanning elements, improves circulation and makes skin look and feel rejuvenated.

Recently Moor Mud’s ability to alleviate the problems of both acne and maturing skin  has been its primary uses in the beauty industry. Locally I found that Moor Mud was virtually unknown. I was the first to create and sell Moor Mud bars in this vicinity. After making my first batch of Moor Mud bars I had no sales for several weeks until I ended up giving about 15 bars away at no charge other than they had to promise use it for a month and then come back and tell me how it performed and if they liked it.

Moor Mud Rejuvenating Bar for Mature Skin Buy 2 Get 1 Free

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=3042617

That was back in July, 2007. A number of those in that group ended up using it all through their high school and college years and became my most persuasive sales persons.



Only recently have I changed the formula and created a bar dedicated to mature skin. I have begun receiving feedback that is as good as the initial Moor Mud bar’s feedback.



I have over the last few years come to believe as I use natural additives such as moor mud, Dead Sea Mud, kelp, and the many herbs and flowers that are gifts of nature that there are natural cures for everything. Whether God or evolution created these, I cannot begin to say. What I can say is that in my mind there are many more out there and all we have to do is find them.

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My Etsy Shop is Closed & Artfire is our Home!

I have been gradually notifying my customers that I would be closing my Etsy shop and focusing solely on my Artfire shop. The day has finally come and my Etsy shop is officially closed. I have to admit it was a very difficult decision for me. Since I opened the shop in 2008 the business had slowly but steadily been growing. Even more important than the fact that the income from the Etsy shop was substantially greater than my Artfire shop is the fact that I had made many friends that started out as customers and I pray they come visit at my Artfire shop if not to buy to stop by and say hello and let me know how they are doing.

Come visit me at : http://pigeoncreeksoaps.artfire.com/


A few of my customers have asked me why I had planned to close my Etsy shop and I promised that I would share some of my reasons in the blog. The easiest answer would be to say that it is a financial decision and that the Artfire shop is less costly to maintain. I was lucky and managed to sign up for a PRO account during their special promotion. This was a fantastic deal where it only costs me $5.95 a month for the PRO account. I have unlimited listings (no more $.20 for each item which doesn't turn up in a search after 8-10 days) and in particular, no percentages due when I sell an item. Those are the financial reasons- not the important reasons.

I began hearing warning bells in early 2010. I began to hear mutterings about sellers being muted in the forums because of negative statements they had made about Etsy. At first I thought they must be false accusations because Etsy had  waved the flag of  the 1st amendment numerous times when items were flagged for being offensive, in particular this one is my favorite. Many items by this seller are disgusting and reprehensible, but when brought to the attention of Etsy they were totally ignored -that is until CNN ran this spot  http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/07/jvm.greeting.cards.hln

Kalin's answer to this the CNN segment- "It is important to us that we allow members of the community to express their own sensibilities, and to develop their shop identity to suit themselves and their market. What is offensive to some may be intended as a statement about culture by an artist." Then he proceeded to state that the offensive items and the artist's shop would remain.

And he meant it- at least for a minute.



A website called WomensRights.Change.org began a petition asking for Etsy to remove the listings, which received over 17,000 online "signatures" and he rather quickly changed his tune.

As per AuctionBytes, "The policy has been revised to state that Etsy will no longer allow items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation, including items or content that promote organizations with such views."

In other words all one has to do to foment change is get the media involved.  Bringing problems up on the Etsy forums and questioning policy will only get you muted.  It seems that Etsy has developed a "dictatorial habit of quashing debate on its own users forum". There is actually a list somewhere out there on the internet. I have seen it but can't seem to find it now but I will tell you that it is immense.

These are several of the problems that have driven me off of Etsy, but I actually started making plans to leave around the 1st of October. For sometime I had been noticing that my sales were begining to slow down. This was strange since Jan. 2010 my sales had (for me) skyrocketed. I thought for awhile that it was just a minor glitch and the sales would go back to the way they had been- but they actually got worse. Then I found out why. Here is the best explanation I have found for the reason that mine and many other sellers sales have plummetted.

From http://etsybitch.blogspot.com/search/label/search

Saturday, October 30, 2010


Etsy search and categories limited to 50,000

Do you feel that? You’re getting screwed. I know I know, Etsy’s little limp noodle doesn’t make much of an impact, but your wallet sure does feel it.

Etsy made “minor adjustments” to the search pagination resulting in a return of only 50,000 results when a buyer searches for something. The reasoning:


“our data has shown that purchases drop to .000001% on item listings beyond position 50,000 for a given search”




Yeah, so why help those items sell? They’ll just keep pimping out the constant renewers

Cuz guess what, the results get returned by – recently listed date! (and check out the latest weather report - the backlog of unsold items keeps growing by hundreds of thousands)



To quote an Etsian: “This does nothing to help sellers or buyers find items they may be looking for. This does everything to line Etsy's pockets with more renewal fees, your motivation is so transparent Etsy.”



Oh yeah, and it affects browsing categories, too. So if you haven’t renewed in the last 2 to 4 weeks, your item isn’t being returned in the category when a shopper is browsing. Didn’t you pay for 4 months?


“Only 3% of the items listed in jewellery are now accessible when browsing.


That's a staggering $324,019.60 spent on listing fees for items that are inaccessible. When sorting by price, you can not browse items between $4.49-$139.”




And that thread – more than 1100 posts and no admin response. Surprised?



So rather than updating the hardware, Etsy is simply screwing all of you to get you to pay more to be seen.

Oh this is going to be a GREAT holiday shopping season!

Twit This!

Posted by The Righteous One at 4:53 PM
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I know that each time I paid $.20 for an individual listing I expected to be able to be searched for the entire 4 month  period that I had paid my $.20 for and I don't like and won't tolerate being screwed!
I know this has been an extremely long "rant" but I did promise to tell you why I was leaving Etsy. I do have one more comment.

I LOVE ARTFIRE!

One of the main reasons is that they listen.