Archive for the ‘Talk To Us’ Category

Win A FREE Giftset for Your Mom!

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on May 2nd, 2013
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She birthed you, fed you, taught you, cradled you. She’s carted you and your stuff to the rink and the pool, cleaned up after you and been your number one fan your whole life long. She knows your favourite food and the weird veggies you’ve just never liked. She is your champion. Chances are she also knows how to push your buttons and you hers, but at the heart of it, is there anyone who loves you more than your dearest mother? Submit your story on our Facebook page telling us why you love your mom. We’ll send a giftset full of 100% natural bath and body goodies directly to winners mom’s door for Mother’s Day. We’ll announce two winners on May 1 and two winners on May 8. First place prize is a Gratitude Gift set and second place is a lovely Lavender Gift set. You don’t have to lift a finger, we’ll ship it right to your mom!

Don’t you love your mother nature?

Who’s Da Man?

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on July 5th, 2010
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We’re finally developing a line of products especially for MEN.  We can practically hear you saying “it’s about time”.   However, we’re a bit stuck in the mud.  As we’re in need of guidance about our beloved customers needs and desires, we thought we’d check in with our most important resource and fountain of information – you.

We’re trying to create a picture of the “Rocky Mountain Soap Man” and we think it could be your man, or if you are a man then it could be YOU.   We know this picture will help us develop products that you’ll really love, whether you’re buying it for a man in your life, or you’re a man shopping for your own body care products. If you have 5 minutes and fancy the chance to win a rocky mountain of soap, then have a crack at the following questions and we’ll be forever in your debt.

So without further ado, here’s the link to our Rocky Mountain Soap Man survey.  Enjoy!

Financial Wizard Wanted

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on March 26th, 2010
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meal analysisWe’re looking for a Controller to lead our Finance and Admin team.  They’re a wonderful group of gals so you need to be an excellent manager to ensure they’re well looked after.  Oh, and you need to be qualified at the finance stuff too, ideally with a professional qualification and/or relevant experience.

Along with the usual financial control responsibilities some of the other big things you’ll be doing are:

Financial analysis of new retail store opportunities

Product costing analysis and pricing recommendations

Development of business metrics and integration/implementations of business systems

If you have fantastic finance skills and you’re an awesome person who’d be a great addition to the Rocky management team then zap a cover letter explaining why the job should be yours along with your resume to jules@rockymountainsoap.com.

We’re Looking for a Calgary Manager!

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on March 23rd, 2010
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As you know (cause we only blogged about it half a dozen times) we opened our redesigned Calgary store in December.  Well now we’re looking for a customer service dynamo to fill the roll of Calgary Manager and we’re excepting applications right now.

We’re growing fast and we’re on a journey to be Canada’s leading 100% natural bath & body company. If you’re passionate about natural and believe that natural matters because your skin absorbs what you put on it, you’re excited by the prospect of  joining a fast-paced Canadian company with a warm and quirky corporate culture, and you enjoy providing amazing customer service and building local business relationships, please send your resume and cover letter to jane@rockymountainsoap.com.

Best of luck and don’t hesitate to pass this along to anyone you think might be interested!

Do You Have Fragile Nails?

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on March 1st, 2010
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cuticlebutter I came back from lunch to a very quiet office, Red and I were the only two people clacking away on our keyboards.  Out of the blue I hear her say, ‘Do you want a story for your website?’

It would be nice if you could hear her tell it yourself, she’s from Ireland and has the loveliest accent (and red hair, hence the nickname), but the story is the important part.  She enthusiastically explained that she has had soft nails that tear really easily for pretty much her whole life.  She started using our Cuticle Butter two weeks ago and her nails are firm, long and healthy looking.  I know, I saw and felt em’!

So  for those of you who suffer from soft nails that rip and tear easily, Red has been using it for only two weeks and already she’s “so impressed”.  She dabs the butter, which is quite soft, at the base of each nail.  Then rubs it into her cuticle, and then massages each finger out from the base to bring blood and nutrients towards her fingertips.  The blend of Vitamin E, comfrey oil, and myrrh keep nails supple but strong.

I love when people from our staff  tell me about successes they’ve had with our products.  Everyone seems to have at least one that made a difference in their lives.  Please feel free to share yours too!

Being Nicely Unexpected, is so…nicely unexpected.

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on February 8th, 2010
Posted in Staff & Culture, Talk To Us with the tags , , , ,
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Ribbons & Bookmarks 009Most people spend their weekends, sleeping, reading, watching movies, eating, or obliterated.  Kimmie, in shipping, took it upon herself to make bookmarks and pencil holders from the leftover Christmas box walls and bases.  Each bookmark has a colour coordinated ribbon, which she lovingly ironed and tied to perfection.  This is the same woman who took our new reusable bag and sewed a fabric insert, complete with cell phone pocket inside it.  Gad zooks!

Andrea Bauer, our Assistant Manager in Southgate Centre (Edmonton) took it upon herself to research and write an internal ‘Green Newsletter’ with tips on things you can do at home to lighten your footprint. I’ll share some of them in blogs to come.

Sachiko, from our Admin team, sewed curtains for the windows in the garage doors in our Production bays because the light was shining in the eyes of our Production team.

I think there is something in the air here besides the smell of lavender and grapefruit.  The workshop and our stores are full of people who continually go above and beyond, and being our resident blogger – I think I’m entitled to brag about them.

These nicely unexpected actions occur so frequently that we invented NURP’s.  Which stands for Nicely Unexpected Rewards Program.  Every quarter we submit nominations and the NURP’s team votes on the winner.

If you – as a customer – experience Nicely Unexpected treatment from one of our staff members at any of our stores – please don’t hesitate to write to me about it at blog@rockymountainsoap.com.  I’ll be happy to nominate them on your behalf.

Is it any wonder I love what I do?

Olympic Torch Passes By the Workshop

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on January 20th, 2010
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Kimi&Akiko.jpgWith only 24 days left until the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (but who’s counting?) we were pretty excited and lucky to have the Olympic Torch Relay pass right by our workshop in Canmore as it made its way to the Nordic Centre.  It couldn’t have been a nicer day, the sun is shining and the weather is sweet.  We all ran up the street to greet the Torchbearers as they passed off the flame that was lit in Olympia, Greece.  How cool is that?  I’m not sure who this Torchbearer is with Akiko (right) and Kimi (left) but I left my Sherlock Holmes hat at home so here is your chance to wear the checked deerstalker:  can anyone ID this gentleman Torchbearer?  You might need a microscope.

A Little Goes a Long Way

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on January 8th, 2010
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qinsmallQin Shi Huang (of terra-cotta army fame) was Emperor of the Qin Dynasty in China between 221-210 BCE.  What does he have to do with bath and body products?  There is a lesson in his life and death that I found had an interesting correlation to why we do what we do here at this giant pile of soap.

Qin was obsessed with finding the secret to immortality (aren’t we all).  He sent oodles of people on quests to find the elixir of youth.  They didn’t return. Coming back empty handed meant execution (rumour has it that those intelligent peoples went on to colonize Japan).  Qin’s doctors and scientists, men on the cutting edge of their profession, believed mercury to be the secret to everlasting life and advised him to take mercury pills everyday.  He started with a tiny dosage, but he did eventually die of mercury poisoning (though not before he went mad).

My point?  I have two.  First – what happened to Qin is called bio-accumulation: even tiny amounts of something toxic everyday can add up.  He is an extreme example, and yes ok I’m a drama queen, but he does illustrate the point.  Now I know you’re not ingesting mercury pills everyday, but you ARE ingesting what you put on your body.  What is in your lotions and perfumes?

Second – not everything that is touted to be good for you actually is.  Does it promise to erase your wrinkles?  Puff up your lips?  Maybe it will – great!  Is there a trade off?  Some chemicals that sound benign, aren’t. I would rather kiss and hug poisonous snakes than slather them on my body day after day.  Alternately, some chemicals that are unpronounceable may be completely natural and good for you. (PS, just because something is natural, doesn’t mean it’s good for you either.  See hemlock.)

Take a look at the ingredient labels that populate your bathroom.  Don’t know what something is?  It might be on our wallet card.  Or post it here and I’ll type back in a flurry.

Happy New Year!

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on January 5th, 2010
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newyearssmall.bmpJust a quick nod to say Happy New Year!  We wish you much health, happiness, prosperity and bathing for 2010.

As we move into a new year and look over the lessons and accomplishments of 2009, I relish the highlights and important memories such as: no one at the workshop can throw a frisbee to save their life, Andre’s hair stands completely on end if there is enough dust in it (as revealed during Calgary store’s reno), and if you chirp arrogant trash-talk at Cam enough you can persuade him to ‘jai-ho’ into the gnarliest, cruddiest, tree and cliff filled back-country culvert at Sunshine Village.  Part two of that lesson: he will kick your butt anyway.

We’re very excited about the next year of life at RMSC.  The doors have just opened for the Calgary store  and the bell has already rung for round two; a  store located in Whistler!  We’ll keep you posted on the progress there.  Our preparations will be happening during one of the busiest, most popular and high security events known to modern civilization.  The 2010 Olympics!

We’ve got a few other plans up our sleeve for this year so consider this your official invitation to be a part of the evolution.  We’re gonna ask you a lot of important questions like: what don’t we make that you’d like us to make?  Or, what corrosive alkaline substance commonly known as potassium hydroxide is saponified (the hydrolysis of an ester under basic conditions) with fats and oils to create soap?  Or, what colour are your pyjamas?

Big year. 2010.

Why We Committed to 100% Natural

This blog post was written by Abby-Lynn Knorr and posted on November 19th, 2009
Posted in Talk To Us with the tags , , , ,
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greeneryOur old school Rocky fans will remember our popular vanilla products.  We had a body butter and a bar soap that were star performers.  When we found out that the vanilla extract we had sourced was only 99.99% natural.  This sparked the debate that ended when we made the commitment to produce only 100% natural products. We stopped making the vanilla products, even though they were best sellers, and many customers were disappointed at their discontinuation.

Our logic was this:  What was to differentiate us from the other nearly-natural products on the market if we didn’t commit wholly to being 100% natural?  There is much noise in the marketplace about ‘all-natural’, ‘organic’, ‘naturally-derived’, and ‘botanically-based’ which, lets face it, live in a huge gray area and don’t really mean anything specific.  Even something that is labeled as organic only has to use 95% organic ingredients, the other 5% could be any synthetic chemical they want it to be. 100% Natural was as specific as we could get.  We defined what 100% natural means to us on our website for those who need more details, since all kinds of sustainability and nature-identical questions could arise from this.

What are your thoughts on this debate?  Is it important to you that your personal care products are 100% natural?  Why or why not?