Miessence celebrates its 9th birthday during the month of February.

If you have a passion for certified organic products and would like to enjoy special members only pricing, then join us this month for a discounted membership fee and the chance to receive on-going discounts, free shipping and gifts exclusively for members.

To find out more about Miessence and its commitment to certified organic products for health, home care and body care, then contact us today.

Date Effective: July 29, 2011 (Australian Eastern Time)
Regions Effected: All

Due to an issue with our telephone company, our Support phone lines are not functioning properly. You may experience difficulties reaching us at our normal number. We have contacted our service provider, and hope to have the issue remedied with urgency. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Our New Members Area has finally arrived! Seven months of gestation, significant amounts of time creating a heart - an infrastructure - that ensures future updates will be easily integrated without disruptive changes, similar functionality with easier navigation... We’re excited about our newest addition!

While we have invested numerous days into development and testing, our new Members Area will require some stabilising, and you may experience minor problems. If you find anything that isn’t working up to par, please contact us at support@miessence.com. We appreciate your patience and understanding and will work to promptly resolve all issues.

And Remember: One Member Account = One Unique Email Address
If you have only one member account with a valid email address, you do not need to do anything to login to your new Members Area. However, if you have multiple member accounts that share the same email address, your logins will fail. You will need to email support@miessence.com to resolve this issue after you have created a new email address for each account. We recommend creating either Gmail or Yahoo email accounts as we have experienced excellent results in delivering emails to these domains. Both Gmail and Yahoo email accounts are free to set up.

Please contact us at support@miessence.com if you have questions or comments relating to this notice.

Region Affected: Australia

Special 60 Minutes Ninemsn.com story

Fruit and veges are supposed to be the healthy option. But what if we were to tell you that Australia's fruit and vegetables are sprayed with chemicals that are considered so dangerous they're banned around the world?

Liz Hayes spent a hellish few weeks, witnessing the effects of these poisons in other countries. And it's a horror show.

Liz met a young man with no eyes, saw fish with two heads and trekked to a village full of horribly deformed children. And visited a farm on Queensland's Sunshine Coast where the animals are dying.

Worst of all, the people who are supposed to be protecting us are pretending it's not happening.

View the entire story at http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/1029050/poisoned

The story you have been waiting for...brought to you by The Story of Stuff Project and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Miessence is a signer of the Compact for Safe Cosmetics with over 100 products in the EWG SKin Deep Database with scored from "0" to "2".

Take a look when you get the chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq000AF1i8

The Safe Cosmetics Act introduced earlier this week in the U.S. House of Representatives will change the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) role and current federal cosmetics law as established more than 70 years ago in the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938. All kinds of personal care products from shampoo to lipstick would be affected, and a number of reforms introduced. This is what green companies (not greenwash companies) - those concerned about the toll of toxic chemicals on our bodies and planet - have been waiting for. Read the complete article below.

Cosmetics Bill Seeks Full Ingredient Disclosure, FDA Oversight By GreenerDesign Staff Published July 22, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC —
The cosmetics industry would no longer be self-regulating and would have to disclose all product ingredients under the proposed Safe Cosmetics Act, introduced earlier this week in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill, which would affect all kinds of personal care products from shampoo to lipstick, would change the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) role and current federal cosmetics law as established more than 70 years ago in the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1938. Cosmetics companies are currently the ones who determine if their products are safe, with practically no federal oversight, and they do not need to disclose all product ingredients.

The Safe Cosmetics Act would introduce a number of reforms and require companies to provide testing and safety data on their ingredients, list all ingredients on product labels and their websites, pay fees to support the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors (this would only apply to companies with $1 million or more in annual gross receipts or sales), and register with the FDA annually, providing details on their products and suppliers, among other information.

"The cosmetics industry says the amounts of potentially toxic chemicals in their products are so small that they carry no risk, but we know that for some chemicals small doses can have big effects,” Dr. Maryann Donovan of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute said in a statement. “We need to better understand the short- and long-term health effects resulting from small doses of toxic chemicals, repeated daily exposures, exposures during fetal or infant development, and exposures to mixtures of chemicals in personal care products.”

As part of listing all ingredients, companies would need to reveal details of fragrances, which companies have generally held as trade secrets and been averse to disclosing. Some companies are already ahead of the bill's requirements, as about 100 companies have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, an agreement to disclose all ingredients.

The FDA would be charged with creating lists of ingredients that are prohibited, restricted or "safe without limits" within two years of the bill's passage. It would also create list of chemicals that are not on those lists and that need to be assessed because there is not enough information available on their safety.

The bill would also empower the FDA to request voluntary recalls, order companies to stop distributing products or require recalls if companies use unsafe ingredients. The FDA can currently only request recalls.

If companies do not provide information to the FDA as required by the bill or use prohibited ingredients, they could be prevented from manufacturing, importing, distributing or marketing cosmetics and their ingredients.

Lastly, the FDA would publish a list of chemical and product testing methods that do not involve the use of animals.

Earlier this month, the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC), the cosmetics industry's trade group, advocated for changes to the FDA's cosmetics oversight by throwing its support behind a different bill, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009.

The PCPC said it feels the Safe Cosmetics Act would put too much of a burden on the FDA and create too large of a regulatory system. The group is in support of changing the FDA's oversight to require companies to register their manufacturing facilities with the FDA, disclose all ingredients to the FDA and report serious adverse effects that consumers experience to the FDA.

The PCPC also supports having the FDA require safety reviews of ingredients and set levels for trace materials in products, whether requested by the public and stakeholders or if the FDA itself determines action is needed; issue "Good Manufacturing Practices;" and review findings by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/07/22/cosmetics-bill-seeks-full-ingredient-disclosure-fda-oversight?utm_source=Vertical+Newletters&utm_campaign=4b5fc4ab85-DesignNL-2010-08-03&utm_medium=email#ixzz0wtjmYZ1H