One Hand Washes The Other Review

I, Rebecca, will be reviewing things, from time to time, that are not dog-related.
I happen to LOVE smell-good things.  Perfume oils, lotions, etc.  Some girly things that I am very fond of.  I am a huge supporter of indie companies of most kinds, especially when it comes to the things listed above.
I have more perfume oils on my dresser and in my bathroom than most people could wrap their heads around.  But it's my vice.

So, after I was introduced to an indie company called One Hand Washes the Other, I was excited to place my order.  I tend to start out with small orders with new companies, just so I can get an idea for the basics of what they offer.  I placed a small order with OHWTO.com.  Then once I fell in love with the scents I ordered, I placed a larger order.

Let me just get to this, the big order, the important stuff!
While I order perfume oils with ease, usually, I am more picky about things I put on my face.  I am a red head with sensitive skin.  I have had sensitive skin my entire life.  But I kept reading about this soap that OHWTO offers called "Black Magic".  I was real hesitant to order it at first because my face tends to freak out easily.  But I simply had to!  I had to order because people were simply swearing by this soap.  I started out ordering just a small bar of it.
Last Saturday, my larger order arrived.

LOOK AT THAT HAUL!!!! CLICK ON IT!!

ALLLL those smell-goods!  From solid sticks (in lip balm tubes!), to bottles and sample containers!

Everything smells delicious!
As you can see, my Black Magic bar was beautifully wrapped in a bag and tied off with a red ribbon and an adorable white skull ribbon.  GORGEOUS packaging.

Let's start off with the soap itself which smells of tasty, clean lemon.
I was anxious, but excited to use Black Magic, and putting off my hesitation, I gave it a-go.  It tingles in a good clean way, and makes my skin feel sooo fresh!
Here is my current, well-used and loved bar of Black Magic:

The bar comes with artwork!!!
That little bar is not going to last me long, and my face has fallen in love with Black Magic, so I placed another order for ALLL the Black Magic Things.
Check out Black Magic here.
Via that link, you can checkout the various forms of Black Magic.  I ordered, I believe, at least one of each form.  I ordered a body-safe unscented bar that I can use on the rest of my body.
Let me just say: I had acne as a teenager and young adult.  As previously stated, my face freaks out EASILY to this day.  I no longer suffer from acne, but I still get the occasional loner pimple or two, and when I do, they stick around FOREVER.  I have had this pimple that comes and goes, under my chin, for MONTHS now.  But, within 1-2 days of washing with Black Magic, that pimple is FINALLY leaving.  YAY!  The rest of my face feels soft and looks smooth. I cannot say enough fabulous things about Black Magic.

I started this post as a draft, and oh my! I have been sooo busy the past month that I am just now able to get back to it.  Plus, I wanted to wait for my latest order to arrive so that I could blog ALL THE THINGS.

I wanted to review each scent I had received from One Hand Washes the Other. But in all honesty: I have yet to be disappointed with ANY of the scents I've received from OHWTO.  There are some that I may not wear everyday, or even every week (but as if that is saying much since I probably have over 50 perfume oils), but I appreciate ALL of the scents I've got.
My faves are:
*I Smell Like a Witch (and you will.  Like a rosey, bubbling GOOD witch.  Check out the story behind I Smell Like a Witch)

*Pretty Undead (If the Walking Dead Smelled good, it'd smell like this, seriously)

*1605 (muskets, gunfire, sweet tobacco, and love make this blend AMAZING)

*Frankincense & Mirth (my catholic church smell.  I LOVE IT)

*Carnivale (cotton candy and lemon. If you've never been to a circus or carnival, at least you can smell like one!)

*Maura Mae (this is only offered on her etsy site, I believe, but it's probably my favorite. Maybe)

*Dirty (fresh grass and earth.  This is a very earthy smell on me.  So unique and sexy)

*Toxid Lotus (flowers and awesomeness! YES. Just like the lovely lady it was named after)

*Veritas (Oh LAWDY.  Sean Patrick Flanery.  Dirty Catholicism that is not dangerous, but it's definitely NOT safe catholicism either.)

Here is a photo of most of my perfume oils and solids from OHWTO.

 

And I received my other order of Black Magic today.  I am all stocked up on Black Magic, Unscented Black Magic (for my body), Black Magic in a Jar, Black Magic Exfoliating Scrub, and Black Magic Break Away Bar.

But not only are Becca's products fantastic, so is her customer service.  She is great to communicate with; promptly answering questions and emails in a timely fashion.  I will definitely be a customer for life.  My only regret is that she doesn't sell time machines so I could go back to my teenage years and purchase Black Magic back then.  It would have seriously helped my skin.

So, go, now, to www.ohwto.com and look at all the things and buy all (or some) of the things!!

All Things Cool and Gifted.

If any of you have seen our collars, taken a thorough look at our website or our facebook, you would know that we are die hard "The Walking Dead" fans.
You would also know that not only do we love the show, but our favorite character is Daryl Dixon.  You would know that this character has inspired our "I HUNT WALKERS" collar.

If you have noticed all of these things, you would have noticed (most likely) that we are also big "Boondock Saints" fans as well.

We love Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery.  They are two faves of ours.

Last weekend, a close friend and customer of ours went to a convention in Ohio where Norman Reedus was making an appearance.  She had ordered some custom embroidered bracelets from us that had his Big Bald Head company logo on it, and the other had the Misfits skull on it.  Both were digitized by us and embroidered onto some of the highest quality leather available.
Here are the bracelets:

 

Our "Boris" collar was inspired by Norman's own dog, so it only was fitting that we send the demo collar with her bracelets so that she could gift him that.

While at the convention, our friend and customer was lucky enough that her, her sister, and her daughter were able to video Norman opening his gifts made by us. <3

Not only that, but she was able to freeze frames of it for us to get photos from it.

With her permission, I made a photo collage of it:

 

We will have our chance to meet Norman in the near future.  AND WE CANNOT WAIT.  But the video, the photos, and the story of meeting him from our friends-it all sounds so perfect.  He's so down to earth, and they said you feel like you're the only one in the room with him.  

So attentive.  So awesome!

We'll have to see in August, when we get to meet him.

Sean Patrick Flanery, that we mentioned earlier?  Well, he's damn special, too.  He's getting his OWN entry tomorrow. <3

Review Share Love

What company doesn't love it when a customer is so satisfied with their product that they actually post up a GOOD blog review about it?

We ALL love it.  It's a rush to see that a customer has put an awesome review, in detail, of a product that you've put your time and love into. 

In this FANTASTIC blog post, you can see that Natty J. Photography has not only put up a great review that, as a company, fills our hearts with warm fuzzies, but it's also a useful review on Ella's Lead.
She also adds her wonderful pictures to the review which also makes it quite useful, we think.

Thank you Natty J.! We are ecstatic to know you are pleased with our products!

P.S.-
Piglet and Niko are too adorable!

Natty J. is a photographer in Jackson, Michigan.  She is almost ready to graduate with a degree in graphic design.  She is owned by two adopted dogs, Piglet and Niko.

Natty J.'s Website


Natty J.'s Blog

Natty J.'s Facebook

The Walking Dead Collars

Today is the season finale of season 2 of The Walking Dead.  What a season it has been!  One cannot possibly say enough about this show. 
We at Ella's Lead often get inspired by other works of art, and this show is one of our inspirations.
I'm sure you are asking yourself "What do dog collars and The Walking Dead have in common?!?!"
Well, not much of a damn thing, actually.
Until you realize that it doesn't take much.  Art is inspiration, and inspiration is art.
And, so, we have brought to you our "I HUNT WALKERS" and our "WALKER BAIT" collars.

These collars are not brand new to our site, but I mention them now because we are running a sale on them.  For today, you can get 15% off either of those collars with the code: walkersale15

Go ahead and admit it: These collars are COOL.  And, yes, they WILL be part of a new zombie/walker-inspired collar line called "Walking The Dead".

Leather Samples and the dog who loves them.

Yesterday was like Christmas.  We were expecting two hides of our lovely black leather to arrive, and with that leather, I was expecting some new leather samples.

We always get excited by the thought of leather samples.  I suppose one could equate it to a house wife/house husband who gets in new swatches of flooring or wall paper.

But even more so for us because we don't just get swatches.  We get hand cut pieces that are big enough to hold, bend, and feel.

It is important for us to get these samples because we need to be able to feel the leather before committing to an entire hide.

So, the leather arrived, and I (Rebecca) skipped around with the excitement of a child getting ready to tear into birthday presents.

Opening the package, the puppies hear the commotion and decided that I must really need their assistance.  So, they decide to investigate the activity (hey, that's a job, right?  That's help, right?), and they ultimately just get in the way.

Luke is the worst.  He finds leather to be one of the tastiest gifts on earth, and he'd gladly eat it ALL if left to his own devices.
So, when snapping a shot of a new leather sample that I fell in love with, Luke tried to express his equal love for the new leather sample as well.

"Les get thees one.  Is mai favoreeet!"

And when he cannot get a hold of leather, paper will do.  He stole the invoice that came with our order yesterday before I was able to unpack all the leather samples.  Here you can see a tiny piece of paper in his mouth that was evidence of his theft:

But Ophie, Ophie had grown tired of the activity and decided to crash on the couch as I struggled with Luke to keep the leather sample away so that I could snap a photo of it:

Luke only gets away with things because of his super cuteness:

The sample above is a new leather that we'll be ordering in about a week.  It is very similar to our black and burgundy leathers, and we're quite excited to be adding it to our leather inventory soon!

The dogs?  Well, Luke would eat ALLLL the leather inventory if allowed.  But he wants you all to know that the new leather is Lukey approved.

Collar Mania Review

Yes, we make collars.  But there are also other companies out there who make them as well.  And one of our favorite collar makers is Collar Mania.

As collar makers, our dogs have more collars than I have pairs of shoes, I believe.  We sometimes test leathers, designs, and decorations out on them before offering them to the public.  This also allows customers to see what the collar will look like on a dog.

But with as many collars as our two have that are made by us, they have just about as many made by Collar Mania.

We have been buying Collar Mania collars since before we started making our own.

Lisa sells fabric, nylon, and ribbon collars.  And they are of the HIGHEST quality.  Lisa also has the best customer service.  She goes beyond the call of duty to make sure her customers are satisfied with her products.  She has been making them for 6-7 years now.

When Ella was alive, she was not always the easiest dog to walk.  She was prey-driven, and NOT friendly with other dogs (but she loved people!).  We were paranoid nuts about the equipment we used on her.  Before making collars,  we KNEW we could trust Collar Mania collars on her.  We knew we were not going to experience any unfortunate equipment failures while walking Ella.

Not only did we trust the quality and customer service of Collar Mania, Lisa offers the biggest selection of fabrics, nylons, and ribbons for her collars.
And she will help you pick out the best one to meet your collar needs.

The collars are adorable and custom.  She will make sure that any collar you buy is going to fit your dog exactly, as long as you give her a correct neck size.

Here's Luke and Ophie in some of their Collar Mania collars:

As you can see, we are VERY happy with our Collar Mania collars!!!

If you are interested in the highest quality ribbon, nylon, or fabric collars, please feel free to visit www.collarmania.com
You will NOT be disappointed in the quality, craftsmanship, and customer service of Collar Mania.
We promise.

Ella's Lead Review: New stones added!

We're adding new stones!
We took this photo of all of our colored stone colors a few months back, and I just occasionally update it as we get in new colors.
Just added are blue and teal.
And my thoughts are they're going to go strikingly well with any of our leather colors.