Fresh Bet Bits, Claire Burke Original Memories, Home Fragrance Product Updates and Commentary

Everyone is familiar with Reed or Stick type diffusers now; they have become incredibly popular. They add passive, subtle fragrance to any room and they look stylish as well. Reed diffusers work 24/7 as the fragrance oils travel up the reed and release the scent into the air.

For many years, Enchanted Meadow was the only company making Reed Diffuser Refills. They were very reasonably priced and we have sold many. When Claire Burke offered Reed Diffusers, they determined the cost would be too high to offer a refill. After all, the major expense is in the oils.

This year we have 2 other major lines now offering Reed Diffuser Refills…YAY! WoodWicks released their new sets last month and this month we have the new Reed Diffusers and Refills by Greenleaf.

This is Ellie, a beautiful gray and slate blue textured square ceramic vase.

As usual, Greenleaf has produced theirs in beautiful ceramic designs. Most brands of reed diffusers are in glass with various tops. Greenleaf has now released 9 stunning new diffuser styles that bear names. Mr. Bob is a whimsical fish! So cute. Each diffuser is $30 and includes one FREE bottle of diffuser oil (8 oz). They are also offering replacement reeds in straight or wavy style.

Below is Tortoise, a very sophisticated masculine vase.

Basically with a WoodWick oil refill set you receive new reeds and the oil for $20.00. With Greenleaf, your ceramic reed diffuser includes the reeds and the refill oil is separate. Currently, Greenleaf is only offering refills in their Spa Line scents: Blushing Tulips, Citrus Verbena, Classic Linen, Eucalyptus Mint, Fresh Blossoms, Ginger Tea, Lavender, Orange & Honey, Roses and Seaspray. These are $12.00 each and should last up to 4 months.

When you buy the Greenleaf Reed Diffuser, simply add the oil of your choice to your shopping basket and enter Coupon FRDO at checkout to receive the oil for FREE.

Click here for Greenleaf Reed Diffusers.

All home fragrance companies release new fragrances in Spring and Fall every year. Naturally, some less popular scents must be discontinued every year to make room for the new fragrances. Greenleaf has released only one new scent for 2008 Spring/Summer: Evening Twilight.

Deb loves this scent because it is fresh, clean and delicate. I tend to go for the heavier floral scents. Evening Twilight is a lovely blend of Tuberose and Lily of the Valley. The pastel blue color is very trendy for 2008 in keeping with the “green” movement.

This color and fragrance is a perfect “Spa” necessity for your bath. Greenleaf has also improved all of their hand lotions this year by adding Jojoba which makes the lotion ultra creamy and moisturizing.

We are starting out with Room Spray, Refresher Oil, Sachet, Diffuser Oil and Lotion in this fresh new scent. You can find Evening Twilight by clicking here.

We are also offering the new Jojoba lotion in Classic Linen and Lavender. Free samples are available in Lavender and Evening Twilight by request. Sachets are a great way to sample a new scent and they also add fragrance when placed in your bathroom.

Click here for all Greenleaf.

WOW, Wade & I had a hectic trip to Atlanta for 2 days to attend the huge January Gift Show to order new merchandise for Spring. Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we left. Here is a brief recap of what we have planned for Spring/Summer 2008:

* New WoodWick candles and Reed Diffusers.
* New Old Virginia Tarts.
* More new WoodWick car scents and Home Fragrance Oil scent choices.
* New WoodWick Fusion art-glass Candles & Reed Diffuser - simply stunning!
* New WoodWick Reed Diffuser oil refills w/new Reeds.
* NEW Olive Oil Organics in travel tin candles and large 22 oz clear glass. AWESOME scent!
* More new Hillhouse Farm Naturals tin candles and new Pomegranate Reed Diffuser.
* Hillhouse Good Dog Linen Spray and tin candle.
* NEW Greenleaf Reed Diffusers and refills. These are ceramic and so charming.
* Greenleaf has introduced a new scent called Evening Twilight which is a powdery soft scent that will be available in Aroma Decor Diffuser Oil.
* 2 New Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffusers: Yellow Vase, Shanghai
* Greenleaf has also reformulated their lotions to include Jojoba making them even better!
* Greenleaf has a new Spa line which we will be adding soon: Bath Salts, Scrub, etc.

We are optimistically guarded that we will soon be selected to become an Aromatique retailer. They gave me their new Peach Pizazz candle to burn and it is phenomenal! We are excited to report we have ordered:

* The Smell of Spring
* Summer Sorbet
* Fresh Fig
* Citrus Plum Berry
* Peach Pizazz

Thanks to the feedback from Sandy Wood who was kind enough to share her thoughts with me regarding Aromatique!

We have also ordered several other new lines which will be arriving over the next few months:
* Baekgaard leather purse accessories in bright colors.
* Scentier Parfum Fragrance Lampes and Oils
* Lastly, we are expanding our Caswell-Massey lines due to your comments and strong interest to include: Men’s Verbena & Tricorn, Ladies: Almond & Aloe, English Lavender.

I also visited the Enchanted Meadow showroom and will be ordering a few of their new lines as well. So, it was a busy market and we expect Spring to be very busy at Freshbet. As always, if you have comments or suggestions, please email Bet.

Sadly with today’s high fuel prices UPS is raising our costs by 5% for 2008 for all ground shipments. These new rates will go into effect on December 31, 2007 for calendar year 2008. Below is an excerpt from their notification:
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As 2008 approaches, all of us at UPS would like to express our appreciation for your continued business. To help you plan for the coming year, we want you to know about new UPS rates and services that will take effect December 31, 2007.

UPS published small package Daily Rates will change as follows*: UPS Ground and UPS Standard to Canada services will increase 4.9%. Air and International express services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in rates and a 2% reduction in the air and international fuel surcharge.

Changes will also be made to accessorial charges. Delivery Area Surcharges and Residential Surcharges will increase by $0.10. The Additional Handling charge will increase by $0.50 and the charge for Address Corrections for UPS Ground packages will increase by $1.00. The charge for Declared Value will increase by $0.05 per $100 of Declared Value, with a minimum charge of $1.80, and you, as the shipper, will have the option to bill Declared Value charges for Freight Collect shipments to your account. To see the complete list of accessorial changes, please visit ups.com/rates.
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Please know that I absolutely HATE having to raise our shipping costs to our customers. But, we are a small business and we try to keep our rates evenly matched to our actual costs. Therefore, we will most like have to increase our shipping costs as well.

Fresh Bet will continue to shop between the US Postal Service, UPS & FedEx to try to find the best shipping rate for our customers. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this area.

We had a Rebate Program in 2006 that was so well received, I thought we should repeat it again for 2008! The basics are the same. The result is essentially a 10% rebate for our loyal customers who choose to make Fresh Bet their home fragrance retailer of choice.

Here’s how it works:

* You will receive a postcard with your next shipment that explains the program on the front of the card.
* On the back of the card you simply record each purchase by Sale # and dollar amount.
* When you reach the desired level, simply mail it to us and we will mail or email you a rebate coupon. Simple enough!
* The program will end in the 4th quarter of 2008, so be sure to mail your postcards back to us by November 2008.

Now you can accumulate your purchases with Fresh Bet Home Fragrances over the next 6-12 months and use your Rebate Coupon towards FREE Stuff!

Here are the rebate levels:

* $200.00 - $249.99 - $20.00 off Coupon
* $250.00 - $349.99 - $25.00 off Coupon
* $350.00 - $449.99 - $35.00 off Coupon
* $450.00 - $549.99 - $45.00 off Coupon
* $550.00 or more - $55.00 off Coupon

So keep an eye out for the lavender Rebate Postcard in your next order! As always, thanks for shopping with Freshbet.com.

Bet

Here is an email I received from Rick Grimes on Friday 26 October 2007 7:29:03 PM:

I have been advised by local retailers here in FL that Claire Burke is going out of business. Can you recommend something similar to Christmas Memories oil. I saw you carry a couple of other companies such as Greenleaf. I have been using the Christmas Memories potpourri refresher oil for years and years, I will miss it…it was a Christmas must here.
**************
My response:
Hi Rick - Thank you for your inquiry. Claire Burke has recently been bought
out by new management. They have cancelled many Christmas items for this
year. Typically, all the new Claire Burke refresher oils come in a spray format which
doesn’t work for lamp rings. We will be getting some Christmas Memories bag
potpourri with refresher oil included sometime in the next few weeks. For Christmas Memories Potpourri with Oil, click here.

Because of these cancellations, we have decided to offer other alternatives
to our customers. We have Enchanted Meadow Spirit of Christmas Refresher Oil
with dropper. Click here for Enchanted Meadow Spirit of Christmas.

We will also have Greenleaf Christmas Traditions Refresher Oil in the next
few weeks. This item is not yet uploaded to our site; however, you can
easily pre-order it by calling us. Simply ask the ladies for GL941473, these
are $5.40 each and also include a dropper. Click here for Greenleaf Christmas Traditions.

I hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to email us whenever we may be of
further assistance.

Kind Regards,

Mrs. Bet Haugen Law
Fresh Bet Home Fragrances
Central, SC
1-800-322-0525 (9-6 EST M-F)
www.freshbet.com
www.freshbetbits.com
www.homeandbathscents.com

It’s been such a whirlwind around here for the past month that I have gotten a bit behind in blogging. We love our Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffuser Oils. I personally use them all the time in my kitchen at night after cooking supper.

I think we are now stocking every scent available by Greenleaf in the diffuser oils. Remember, these can be used in any Lampeberger, Aroma Decor Diffuser or similar type burner. They are alcohol-based for burning, so we are not allowed to ship them via US Postal Service or by Air. These are NOT intended for stick or reed diffusers.

Our newest scents:

* Timberleaf
* Christmas Traditions
* American Harvest
* Apple Spice & Cinnamon
* Frosty
* Holiday Fruit
* Hospitality
* Pumpkin Patch
* Tuscan Vineyard


Sadly, they did not bring back Flurries which was a top-seller for us last year. The only truly new scent is Timberleaf. All of the other scents were available last Winter. They are considered seasonal though and as such are not available year-round. So, if you like them, stock up because they will not be available again after December.

Next month we will have several new Aroma Decor Diffuser styles:

* Present
* Frosty Snowman
* Ellipse
* Garnet
* Triangle
* Pumpkin - due this week!

Click here for Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffuser Oils.

Greenleaf is a fine old company established in 1975 here in the Upstate of South Carolina. They produce great fragrances at value prices and are very agreeable. We have seen our sales of Greenleaf products continue to increase over the past few years. Thus, it only made sense for me to widen the breadth of product we carry by Greenleaf.

Our storefront customers have enthusiastically requested more Eucalyptus Mint products. Leia & Pamela love this fragrance, so I am happy to oblige. Thus, we are pleased to annouce we have expanded this fragrance offering to now include: Candle, Room Spray, Sachets, Potpourri, Refresher Oil, Hand Lotion, Hand Wash and Linen Spray. Click here for Eucalyptus Mint.

It is worth noting that if you have tried Greenleaf candles in the past, you should try them again. Previously I was not impressed with their candles and we dropped them. However, the Factory has reformulated them with a new blend of natural soy and vegetable wax. Now these puppies burn great! The fragrance is strong and true and they burn super-clean for a very long time!

We are now stocking more Greenleaf candles in the hourglass shape container; especially since they are now more environmental friendly and totally biodegrable. You will also see more Greenleaf Potpourri being offered since they bought out a lovely little company called “Natures Own” Potpourri. Their new potpourri’s are very fragrant and much improved.

There will be a complete offering of Greenleaf Apple Spice & Cinnamon, Pumpkin Patch, Christmas Traditions and Timberleaf - their newest yummy scent. If you want to have a free sniff, just call us with your next order and request a FREE Sachet. Be sure to tell Leia, Pamela or Deb that you read about here on our blog site!

The folks who subscribe to our Newsletter already know about these, so if you haven’t yet signed up, here are our current Clearance Savings:

Hillhouse Naturals 10-50% off
Enchanted Meadow bodycare 10-30% off
Enchanted Meadow Home Fragrances 10% off
Enchanted Meadow Candles 40-50% off
Terra Nova Bodycare 15% off
Claire Burke 10-50% off
Greenleaf Bodycare, Diffusers 15% off
Isola Luce Diffusers, Candles 10-40% off
Sonoma Eucalyptus 10-30% off
Sonoma Lavender 10-30% off

Summer vacation season will soon be ending as the students prepare to return to school this month. It’s time for an “End of Summer Sale” as we start thinking about moving into Fall. This is a great time to indulge in summer fragrance mark-downs as we make room for lots of great new Fall merchandise. We have several bodycare lines by Enchanted Meadow that are on Clearance. Many of our Claire Burke summer fragrances are on Sale. All of our Summer WoodWick Candles and Old Virginia Wax Tarts summer scents have also been marked down.

Later this month we’ll be receiving the new WoodWick Car Gel Scents. Claire Burke will be shipping The Haunted Home and Pomegranate Plum to us by Labor Day. In September we will have new Eternal Flame Eclipse Lamps from Enchanted Meadow and new Autumn Reed Diffusers and Refills.

* Claire Burke on sale: Citrus Blush, Wisteria, Simply Jasmine
* Summer WoodWick Candles now 10% off
* Summer Old Virginia Wax Tarts now 20% off
* Terra Nova Gardenia, Rain & Water Petals bodycare - 15% off
* Selected Organic Sonoma Lavender Sachets - 30% off
* Selected Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffusers, Bath & Body - 15% off
* Selected Kama Sutra - 10% off
* Simple Scents Body Butters - selected scents 10% off

Treat summer skin to lots of moisturizing and save money on our great sale pricing! Just Arrived: New Badger Sun Care. Whether you’re starting your holiday shopping early or just stocking up on some end of summer scents at great savings; don’t delay as our clearance prices are limited to stock on hand.

Click here to shop our Clearance Sale!