Sheep Grease

BAAAAAAAAA...
Sheep Grease is also know as LANOLIN!  I was in back with Chris and Lee, our Chefs du Jour, and there was a rather pungent odor coming off a barrel in the blending area.  Pure barnyard.  And Chris told me it was Sheep Grease.  Which is of course, lanolin.

The history of lanolin dates back to 8000 years when people first began to use the substance derived from sheep wool. Going by ancient Egyptian history, we find that the primeval Egyptians placed blocks of lanolin on their head. When this lanolin melted in the sun and spread over the face, it made the skin soft. Several therapeutic and pharmaceutical texts written during the last 2000 years offer us valuable information and guidelines regarding the use of lanolin. In fact, the term lanolin is derived from the Latin words ‘lana’ meaning wool and ‘oleum’ denoting oil. However, chemically, lanolin is not oil, but a kind of wax. To be precise, lanolin is secreted by the sebaceous glands in sheep and shields their coat from rain and other natural elements.
Lanolin is derived from the wool after shearing the fleece of sheep and it is interesting to note that extraction of lanolin does not cause any harm to these animals. Normally, 100 pounds of wool or fleece from sheep produce merely two to four pounds of lanolin. The best thing about lanolin is that the substance is a replenishing natural resource and not a synthetic compound produced artificially.

And we use lanolin in a variety of our products.

So how much shearing goes on to fill a 55 gallon drum?  How about 12,000 lbs of wool!  That is over 1600 sheep's worth of fine waterproofing..

The Pied Piper

Launch your own cosmetic line!

One of the nice things we do here at Alliance Packaging is help other people reach for their dreams!

We know there is an entrepeneur lurking inside all of us.  A hope to get a slice of the american pie.  A chance to get our best bright idea to market.  A chance to be the next Face Book or Fabrege.  Here is an interesting link:

How to Launch Your Own Beauty Products


And I would encourage you to take a look at this free 44 page report that outlines how to start your own beauty products line. 

 The EASY part???? 

We can formulate, make and fill the product part, we just need you to be the band leader!  Or the pilot of your own Cosmetic Launch!


The Pied Piper.

Football Legend Terry Bradshaw and skin care products?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n5uVavkJL4&feature=email


Jump onto You Tube and see what Terry has to say about Alliance Packaging Group.  5 minutes long, so grab a cup of coffee!
And Good Morning!
The Pied Piper

Ever Hear of Tea Tree?

I wandered back into production and asked what the heck they were making.  My nose knows smells and this was a very unusual odor.  Jeff, our GM, told me it was Tea Tree lip balm for a client.  Very different from the usual oils we add.  So what is tea tree?  I had to dive into Wikipedia to find out. And most of you will be learning it first here!

The indigenous Bundjalung people of eastern Australia use “tea trees” as a traditional medicine by inhaling the oils from the crushed leaves to treat coughs and colds. They also sprinkle leaves on wounds, after which a poultice is applied. In addition, tea tree leaves are soaked to make an infusion to treat sore throats or skin ailments.^[2][3]
Use of the oil itself, as opposed to the unextracted plant material, did not become common practice until researcher Arthur Penfold published the first reports of its antimicrobial activity in a series of papers in the 1920s and 1930s. In evaluating the antimicrobial activity of M. alternifolia, tea tree oil was rated as 11 times more active than phenol.^[4]
The commercial tea tree oil industry was born after the medicinal properties of the oil were first reported by Penfold in the 1920s. It was produced from natural bush stands of M. alternifolia that produced oil with the appropriate chemotype. The plant material was hand cut and often distilled on the spot in makeshift, mobile, wood-fired bush stills.
Production ebbed after World War II, as demand for the oil declined, presumably due to the development of effective antibiotics and the waning image of natural products. Interest in the oil was rekindled in the 1970s as part of the general renaissance of interest in natural products. Commercial plantations were established in the 1970s and 1980s, which led to mechanization and large-scale production of a consistent essential oil product.^[5]
Among over 98 compounds contained in the oil, terpinen-4-ol is responsible for most of the antimicrobial activity.^[6]
Although tea tree oil normally is extracted from Melaleuca alternifolia commercially, it can also be extracted from Melaleuca dissitiflora and Melaleuca linariifolia. Tea tree oil is defined by international standard ISO 4730 (2004) ("Oil of Melaleuca, Terpinen-4-ol type"), which specifies levels of 15 components which are needed to define the oil as "tea tree oil."

Tea tree oil composition,
as per ISO 4730 (2004)

Component	Concentration
terpinen-4-ol	30–48%
γ-terpinene	10–28%
α-terpinene	5–13%
1,8-Cineole	0–15%
α-terpinolene	1.5–5%
α-terpineol	1.5–8%
α-pinene	1–6%
p-cymene	0.5–8%

Tea tree oil has been scientifically investigated only recently. Some sources suggest beneficial medical properties when applied topically, including antiviral,^[7] antibacterial, antifungal, and antiseptic qualities. It also has beneficial cosmetic properties.^[8]
Tea tree oil is active against Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA.^[9] Tea tree oil is less successful for application in the nose.^[10] Also, there is clinical evidence that topical dermatological preparations containing tea tree oil may be more effective than conventional antibiotics in preventing transmission of CA-MRSA.^[11]
Recent studies support a role for the topical application of tea tree oil in skin care and for the treatment of various diseases and conditions. Tea tree oil appears to be effective against bacteria, viruses, fungal infections, mites such as scabies, and lice such as head lice. A 2008 study of in vitro toxicity showed a tea tree oil preparation was more effective against head lice than permethrin, a popular pharmaceutical remedy.^[12]
In the treatment of moderate common acne, topical application of 5% tea tree oil has shown an effect comparable to 5%. benzoyl peroxide Albeit with slower onset of action, patients who use tea tree oil experience less side effects than those that use benzoyl peroxide treatments. ^[13]

Hottest Product to start 2012

The Hot New Product for us this start of 2012 is an item that can find it's roots at the dawn of time..Face Paint-or as my high schoolers call it..WAR PAINT.  March Madness Approaches, put your game face on!

 Prehistoric Body Decorations

The existence of identifiable body decorations on some Neanderthal humans from as early as 75,000 b.c.e. provides intriguing evidence of the first human use of adornment or decoration, and thus the first incidence of fashion. In the Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq, remains of Neanderthal man, an early subspecies of Homo sapiens, were found alongside lumps of red iron oxide and rubbed manganese. Archeologists, scientists who study the physical remains of past cultures, believe that these items were used to draw designs on the body. The red material is thought to symbolize blood, but it is not known whether the decorations were meant to attract or frighten. Cro-Magnon (another prehistoric ancestor of modern humans) burial sites dating back as far as 33,000 b.c.e. in the southwest of modern-day France also showed evidence of the use of red dyes on the body.
Some of the best direct evidence of early human body decoration comes from the rock paintings of the Sahara desert of northern Africa. The oldest of these paintings dates to about 7000 b.c.e., with other paintings dating to as late as 1500 b.c.e. The earliest and most famous of these paintings, found in the country of Algeria in northern Africa, shows a woman with parallel rows of dots running down her legs, arms, and torso. Another example of early body painting comes from headless stone female figurines found by archeologists near Ain Ghazal, Jordan. The figurines, which are believed to date back to 8000 b.c.e., featured indented patterns around the buttocks and belly. Later examples of body decoration among early humans include figurines from c. 5000 b.c.e. Mesopotamia (the region centered in present-day Iraq near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and 3000 b.c.e. Romania that show evidence of similar markings on the legs, arms, and breasts. Scientists believe that these markings signal a woman's fertility or ability to bear children and made women more appealing to potential mates. The use of decoration to draw attention to a woman's sexual qualities would become one of the primary functions of fashion throughout human history.
Evidence of male body decoration is more elusive, but it seems very likely that early man also decorated his body. Given the examples of primitive peoples who survived into the modern era, including the Aborigines in Australia and Native Americans in North America, who use elaborate patterns of decoration for many occasions, scientists believe that it is likely that early man did so as well. The body was likely painted in order to provide camouflage while hunting or for ritual or social occasions. They may also have used other forms of decoration such as tattooing or scarification, in which small cuts are made in the skin to create permanent scars in patterns.
In addition to body painting and decoration, it is also clear that beginning with Neanderthal man, early humans did enjoy wearing decorative objects. The gravesites of Neanderthals indicate that both men and women liked to ornament themselves with bracelets and necklaces that consisted of a length of animal hide strung with beads, shells, teeth, bones, or other small objects.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Gröning, Karl. Body Decoration: A World Survey of Body Art. New York: Vendome Press, 1998.

Cold and the Common Man

I arrived at work to -2 degree temperatures and prepared for the 4 inches of snow expected today.  Then I thought about our friend Eric Larsen, Polar Explorer.  ( http://www.savethepoles.com/ ) only to find out he had been thinking of another Polar Explorer Robert F Scott.  Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott wrote, 'The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. We have had a horrible day‹add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a temperature -22°, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.'

Scott and his four companions had successfully reached the South Pole, but only to find that the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, and his team had beaten him by five weeks.

100 years ago this month, the Scott Expedition reach the South Pole.  Read the story of that fated expedition and you will appreciate the technological advances we have made.

Eric is a big fan of our SPF 15 lip balms.  We are a big fan of Eric's work to save the poles. So we are preparing to go to retail with a new "polar formula" SPF lip balm and donate 5% of sales to the save the poles efforts.  Go Eric!

The right lubricant can take a painful situation...

and make everything glide and slide with ease.  That is why our all purpose silicone lubricant is so special.  Wood, metal and many other substrates are the destination points for our lubricant.  In the old days

you got what was available.  Today you can use WD-40 ( not a lubricant but a dissolving solution), shop oil or our true blue American made home and shop lubricant.  A little silicone, mineral oil, paraffin and petro.  It is simple clean and effective.  Stops squeaks, makes drawers slide smooth, helps rollers roll, all of which allow you to reduce your stress, find your center and enter the land of calm. Ours is small and handy.

A little dab will do ya!

The Pied Piper