” I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver”  Maya Angelou

This year was filled with a mixed bag of experiences.  Being a small business comes with many challenges especially for women entrepreneurs however, there’s so much joy in the journey that makes it all worthwhile.  I’ve always said that when you start with good intentions based on the principles of doing good, there’s no way you can fail.  This is where my confidence and joy comes from and draw upon that the possibilities are endless to what we can achieve.  I applaud all the women entrepreneurs out there and encourage those who dream of becoming one to follow their calling.

In looking back, I see and hear the hope from women being touched by what we do.  For many touched by our efforts, no matter what the amount of our financial contribution may be, to them it’s priceless.  Everything counts, even when you just show up to volunteer your time to tell someone they matter and that they are loved.  Most of the time, words and actions have the most impact in changing people’s lives.  This is what gives me and Four Truffles the drive to continue with our mission.  This mission is very much dependent on all of our partners, volunteers and supporters, which include the women cooperatives, every single friend,  family member, customer, the social media community and our retail partners.

We’re so grateful for all your continued support in our labor of love.  Blessings to you and yours in 2012!

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …

enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to…
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a youth she’s content to leave behind….
a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to
retelling it in her old age….
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra…
one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …….

a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family….
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..

a feeling of control over her destiny…..
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship…..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…..

when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
that her childhood may not have been perfect…but it’s over…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…..
how to live alone…. even if she doesn’t like it…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .

whom she can trust,
whom she can’t,
and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table..
or a charming Inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…

What she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…and a year…

Four Truffles - a Women 4 Women Journey

For those of you reading this blog right now, we encourage you to visit the Fred Jordan Mission website and learn more about how you can help.  Whether with volunteer service, donating food or even warm blankets, your efforts  will make a difference.  Help keep the Hope Alive.

We will continue our ongoing Do Good efforts to empower women and provide relief for orphans by way of financial aid and donation of personal care products throughout the year.  Although we don’t see much of Haiti in the news nowadays, please continue to keep them in your thoughts and help in anyway you can.  There’s still so much to be done.  Women and children are so vulnerable to violence.  Here’s an article on actress Nicole Kidman’s campaign to especially protect women and children.

We hope these photos give you hope and inspiration as you see their beautiful smiling faces, hard work and determination to re-build.  Let’s always be grateful for what we have and give to those who are not as fortunate.

With Love, Hope, Faith, Eternity,

the FourTruffles Team

Empowering Women Locally and Globally 

Organic skincare company Four Truffles may be a small business, but founder Ana Soriano has made a huge commitment to giving back. For starters, she buys eco-friendly argan oil and shea butter for her bodycare products from female-owned cooperatives in North and West Africa. “Cultivating these ingredients is a major source of income for women there,” says Soriano. And even though her Palos Verdes Peninsula, California-based company is a start-up, Soriano donates 10 percent of net sales to local and international charities that help disadvantaged women and children. “It’s definitely a financial challenge for us to do this but I’m a big believer in paying it forward,” she says.

GET INVOLVED

Four Truffles donates 10 percent of all product sales directly to women’s and children’s charities, you help every time you make a purchase. We also donate additional monies that we collect via promotional sales proceeds directly to a different charity every quarter.

We like to think of our Four Truffles customers as people who like to look good, do good and feel good.  We believe beauty is found inside and out and that you deserve products that perform for you inside and out.

Every dollar adds-up, especially internationally, so a little goes a long way. We like to imagine that with your support, we’re making someone’s life just a little better today than it was yesterday. We are eternal optimists and our beliefs are strong even when the world may seem bleak.

Palos Verdes Juniors Women’s Club

In the United States we are a major supporter of Palos Verdes Junior Women’s Club whose outreach to women and children in crisis is tied to the local community.

Ana, our Founder, has been a member and hands-on activist with Palos Verdes Junior Women’s Club for years. She was drawn to their hands-on support and dedication to helping women and children in her own backyard. Throughout the year, they hold multiple fundraising activities with two major events during the Holiday season and Spring. The local outreach, assistance and benefits provide community enrichment, critical needs, crisis prevention and intervention, support, public services and scholarships that make a huge impact.

Bridges of Hope, South Africa | Visit the Bridges of Hope Website

Since hope is one of the “four truffles” it is only fitting that we chose this powerful organization that has brought hope for the sick, hope for the dying, hope for orphans, hope for widows, hope for gang members, hope for the young, and hope for the elderly with a model of community transformation that works!

We love that Bridges of Hope offers long‐term, self‐sustaining solutions to at-risk women and children who are suffering. We specifically donate money to sponsor orphans to attend boarding school as we believe that providing an education helps opens the door to a child’s hope and increased odds for a better future.

NLC, Haiti | Visit the NLC Website

We first discovered New Life to Children on Imagine This! TV and felt a tug on our hearts after reading their story. NLC is a grass roots movement that helps rescue children at risk of starvation and enslavement near Port-au-Prince, Haiti and provides them with a safe house.

Don Skow heads up a team who has been doing incredible work with the Haitians for nearly a decade. We reached out to Don and offered a donation of body care products as part of the basic essentials needed for the women and children. In a country already plagued with the nations highest poverty rates we feel that every effort helps. Our goal is to raise funds to help build homes for the families by donating the proceeds from our “Make Your Mark” promotion.

She also posted a rave review of our Earth Apple Body Butter on her blog, Mint Green with Envy! “I love the creamy texture of this body butter. It absorbs quickly and did not leave my skin feeling greasy like some of the body butters I have tried in the past. The scent is deliciously fragrant and is a wonderful treat to the senses.”

She loved our product so much she is offering 2 Earth Apple Body Butters as a giveaway!  See her site for the delish details.

Support Four Truffles, NLC in Haiti, and Bridget by participating in our “Make Your Mark” fundraiser too!  The more awareness we get, the more Haitian women & children we can help!

Four Truffles is a woman owned, women-run skin care brand created by women, for women and their families.   We believe that women are born with an innate sense of family, community and unity.  We strive to tie those elements together to help unify the world from the inside out – with the bonds of love, hope, faith and eternity.

Four Truffles works directly with women-owned Argan Forest collectives in Morocco and Shea processing collectives in western Africa to get the best ingredients possible while simultaneously helping improve the social and economic status of rural women.  All our products are natural, organic, 100% vegetarian, paraben free, dermatologist tested, never tested on animals, hypoallergenic, ideal for sensitive skin, made in U.S.A, eco-centric, contain indigenous ingredients that support women4women and tribunity.

“Love yourself and Love others”,  says Amy…    Thanks for sharing and Thanks for helping!

Join us in Celebrating Women Helping Women!

Gianna has been one of our supporters and we sooo appreciate her support in providing help to the women and children in NLC!

So… does Coby indulge in the body butter…. hmmmm?  SEND IN YOUR VOTES VIA COMMENTS SECTION!!!!   WINNER GETS OUR ECO-CHIC COSMETIC BAG!

Get the chance to show off your handiwork while we donate $4 of the proceeds of each sale directly to women and children in Haiti. Solicit your friends and family for votes. We believe the more awareness we create, the more funds and products we can donate. The top 3 Passion Pouches with the most votes win, and one chosen at random for good measure, and most importantly- the women & children of Haiti win too!

Buy any full-sized product to get a Truffle Jar in the Passion Pouch for only $4 or simply buy the Truffle Jar in the Passion Pouch. Decorate and email to make-your-mark@fourtruffles.com by June 15 for your chance to help women and children in Haiti and to win the eco-chic bag!  We’ll upload photos to our blog daily where you can direct your friends and family to vote by commenting for your passionate creation.

PRIZE DETAILS

The top 3 pouches to get the most votes win plus one additional entry chosen by random drawing.
Winners will receive a Four Truffles eco-chic cosmetic bag comprised of paper derived from recycled and repurposed rice with a Moroccan-inspired cotton lining so it’s sustainable, functional and fashionable.
(Retail Value – $8.50)

PROMOTIONAL PERIOD

March 17 – April 17, 2010

PRIZE ELIGIBILITY

Only persons residing in United States.

ABOUT NLC?

New Life to Children is a grass roots movement that helps rescue children at risk of starvation and enslavement near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and provides them with a safe house.  Read more about NLC.

Background

Did you know there are more slaves today than at any time in human history? Haiti, being the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, is especially vulnerable. Orphaned and impoverished children often fall into the hands of exploiters. They find themselves picked up and sold to serve as “restaveks”. The word in Creole literally means “stay with”. They may be promised a home, food and school but usually find themselves enslaved with little to eat, long hours of tedious labor, physical, emotional, sexual abuse and no hope of an education.

A number of years ago a modest Haitian brick layer, living in the slums of Port-au-Prince, and his wife (NLC calls her ‘Momma)’ began aiding destitute children in the neighborhoods by feeding and giving them a safe place to live. Their own family living in extreme poverty used any extra money they could come up with to buy food for these children; housing them within their own small house and worked out a system whereby the children could get an education. After he died, “Momma” carried on the work by getting her sons and daughters, neighborhood widows, churches of the slums and anyone who would to help. What they called “New life to the Children” was born. However with Caribbean storms destroying housing; the needs of destitute children eventually out stripped the ability of this community of family and friends to provide shelter for all the children.

How did Four Truffles connect with NLC?

We first discovered NLC on Imagine This! TV and felt a tug on our hearts after reading about their story.   We then started corresponding with Don Skow, of Holister Christian Fellowship (HCF).  He heads up a team who has been doing incredible work with the Haitians for quite some time now.  We reached out to Don and offered a donation of body care products as part of the basic essentials needed for the women and children.   We’re also gathering other personal care items from various companies in the beauty industry and we plan on sending care packages as often as we can.   We empathize with Haitians and long to help during this tragic natural catastrophe.  In a country already plagued with the nations highest poverty rates we feel that every effort helps.  Our goal is to raise funds to help build homes for the families by donating the proceeds from our Make Your Mark promotion.

How can you help?

Decorate your Passion Pouch and email to make-your-mark@fourtruffles.com.  We will proudly post within our blog so you may solicit your friends and family for votes and comments.  Your purchase helps NLC provide for at-risk Haitian children. We donate $4 of every promotional sale to NLC to help support this worthy cause and we couldn’t do it without you!

NEED MORE DETAILS?

• Promotion is offered only in the United States.
• Four prizes will be awarded. Three to the entrants who receive the most votes, one to the winner as determined by random drawing.
• To participate in the promotion, email your handcrafted ‘passion pouch’ to make-your-mark@fourtruffles.com  and get the most votes in the Blog section of the Four Truffles website.
• Limit one registration per person. By entering, you acknowledge compliance with these Official Rules, including eligibility requirements, and you agree to all decisions of Sponsor and judges, which are final. Sponsor is not responsible for any computer, online, telephone or technical malfunctions or delays that may occur, or for telecommunications, network, electronic, technical or computer failures of any kind, including any damage to a user’s computer equipment, or for the incorrect or inaccurate capture of any entry information, or for failure of any e-mail or entry to be received by Sponsor for any reason. Incomplete, garbled or unintelligible entries will be disqualified.
• Odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received.