Archive for the ‘LifeStinks®’ Category

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Lifestinks in the Blogosphere: The Succulent Wife

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

Thanks, Audrey, for your post on The Succulent Wife. We’re so glad you found lifestinks® for your mother-in-law.

“I had to try this.  My mother-in-law, Betty, is a breast cancer survivor and I knew I had to get her a LifeStinks kit. I told her the story and she confided in me that she’d always hated wearing store-bought deodorant but felt she had little choice because the natural stuff never worked for her.  She absolutely loved the Lifestinks product!  Not a big fragrance* fan, she still found the lavender very pleasant (I personally love it, but then I am a fan of essential oils).  She stayed with us for a month during Christmas and never looked back at her store bought deodorant again. In fact I found it in the bathroom waste basket after she had left. Now that is a testimonial!”

* Lots of people that are sensitive to fragrances really appreciate that lifestinks is made with essential oils. “Frangrance” is a term developed by the perfume industry to protect their top-secret concoctions. They don’t have to tell you what’s in it. Not so with lifestinks®. Duggan Sisters products are fragrance-free, and we only use the best Australian botanicals on the market.

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DUGGAN SISTERS TAKE ON “THE BIGGEST STINKER”: WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Friday, April 27th, 2012

I have resented having to write about this, but it seems I must. I think you, our treasured supporters, have a right to know why our products went from selling strong in Whole Foods Markets in a three-state radius (“flowing well” in WFM terminology) to being “discontinued and ineligible for reorder” on February 15, 2011.  Withdrawn under circumstances so mysterious that countless WFM staffers have turned to US for an explanation!

I wish I could say that the WFM decision was a shock, but it wasn’t. An all out offensive against the Duggan Sisters brand (and the Duggan Sisters personally) had been going so full throttle for so many months that it had felt inevitable for quite awhile. Of course, we wish we had beaten them to the punch; but what small family business in its right mind would close 18 accounts that it had dedicated itself to building for the better part of 17 months. Actually, the “better part” cannot be said of those months. Some of the worst experiences of verbal abuse, coordinated deceit, butt covering and all around misogynistic bull crap comes closer to the truth.

A neighbor who happens to be a lawyer and social worker who had her own experience with the WFM ethos when trying to defend the rights of a developmentally disabled WFM employee captured it spot on, we think, when she looked us straight in the eye and said, “They’re just a bunch of misogynistic PR*#%S, don’t you think?” We couldn’t agree more.

We would deeply appreciate you reading our account of our grassroots endeavor’s doomed encounter with Whole Foods. Please know that the Duggan Sisters are more committed than ever to bringing you the finest, healthiest, most environmentally responsible and lymphatically sound deodorant we know how to make. Whole Foods Market “doesn’t like us.” We believe you still do and so we continue to make our products and sell through the finest ethical retailers worldwide and direct from our little cottage, as well.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Stay tuned.

 

Mary Duggan  

Click here to read to the whole story of the Duggan Sisters doomed encounter with Whole Foods.

 

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Duggan Sisters Attacked by Whole Foods Thug

Friday, April 27th, 2012

By Mary Duggan

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

by William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, 1697

As a young woman I entered into a really sick marriage. Well educated, meaningfully employed and facing a red-hot future, I walked head long and innocent into an abyss that derailed me – heart and soul – for over 14 years.  I know from abuse. Exposure now to interpersonal toxins registers with me physically: a bitter, metallic taste fills my mouth; my solar plexus swells and painfully tightens. My reaction is visceral, insistent and king-sized. I have successfully healed on many levels from that experience and I have painstakingly steered clear of abusive relationships ever since. I never imagined that business partnerships could so easily replicate the abusive model I had so struggled to overcome. Boy, was I wrong.

Our first kiosk and a supportive team leader. High hopes on DAY ONE.

In March of 2011 the Duggan Sisters loaded our lifestinks® deodorant products into our first Whole Foods Market, led an inspiring and informative training session for the staff, and filled a kiosk with our treasured products; an environmentally responsible and lymphatically sound deodorant system that represented the combined efforts of the three of us for the better part of a decade. When the kiosk finally looked as perfect as we could possibly make it, I turned to a stunned Clare and said “I have to get out of here NOW. Please, get me out of here!” On what should have been one of the happiest and most fulfilling days of my career, I was having THE REACTION and I was having it strong.

I am so powerfully attuned to abusive energy that I knew in one day what it would take our company collectively 10 months and a lot of anguish to comprehend. Many the bride knows the feelings of doom I was experiencing. They know they are making a terrible mistake; but, for a myriad of reasons, they walk down the aisle anyways. My journey this time was down the grocery aisle; but surviving and recovering from marital abuse gave me the insights and frame of reference I needed to identify the same beast in a new role. (more…)

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Broski, I Love My Deodorant!

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Chicagoan Eric sent his brother, Mike, in San Francisco a holiday gift of lifestinks deodorant.  Wonder what kind of reaction the gift of deodorant brings? Mike’s enthusiastic thank you delighted us.  Click here to listen in on a bro-to-bro moment:  Broski, I’m So Thrilled with My Deodorant

Brothers Mike and Eric on top of The Grand Tetons in Wyoming! See – no pit stains!

 

And Mike was so grateful for finding a healthy deodorant that actually works, he took the time to thank us as well:

“My Bro Eric had given me your lavender can and lav stink stick as a gift for Christmas. It took a few months for me to start using it and when I finally did – I was super excited. It works. I thought it might just cover up the BO smell a bit and was worried about the lavender maybe being a little too girlie. Wrong! My BO was gone gone gone. Out of 45 days, I maybe have had 2-3 days where at night I would get that ripe whiff but even then it was super faint.

I have tried Tom’s Lemongrass, Anthony’s, Alba Tea Tree and some others. All of them were natural deo but they also went on wet and were sticky for a while after applying AND simply didn’t do the job. By the end of the day, I was ripe. My poor wife – she put up with the stink because she wanted me to quit using Aluminum anti-perspirant. I had been a life long user of Dry-Idea, well at least since high school or early college I think. So that is about 20 years of putting aluminum on my skin. Thank you for letting my finally move away from that and doing it without any regrets!

THANK YOU!

Mike

SanFrancisco, California”

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A Cautionary Tale About Laundry

Friday, October 21st, 2011

A call came through today that is prompting this seasonal word of advice. Long-time lifestinks® user Michelle retrieved a treasured silk blouse from the bottom of the laundry hamper where it had resided unlaundered (or dry cleaned) for many months and her pits were ruined! Of course, in her anger, she lashed out at the Duggan Sisters and while we feel her pain, and the pain of every gal (or guy, for that matter) who has made the same mistake and suffered the same bitter consequences, there ain’t a whole lot we can do. We remain your best chance for stain free clothing; but we cannot stand up to the cavalcade of consequences present in this all too common ocurrence. (more…)

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Enjoy our new in-store presence!

Monday, October 17th, 2011

We hope those of you who purchase our products at a local store will enjoy our fun, new in-store poster!

Annie, Mary & Clare

Click to view full-size

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We Mean Business.

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

lifestinks® deodorantWe knew when we stood up to the $17 Billion chemically-based deodorant industry that we were taking on a David and Goliath sized challenge. We were prepared for a fight and protected ourselves, our products and our Duggan Sisters® brand in every way possible. What we didn’t expect was to be undermined in our efforts by those who say they want green businesses, want women-owned companies, want healthy products for their family, want jobs for Americans.

Yet, some of those very folks have been spreading the most damaging misinformation about us.  Read on to hear Mary’s response to this ethical dilemma and to learn more about why WE MEAN BUSINESS.

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Dear Jenn,

Guess what popped up on a Google search of bloggers talking about lifestinks® deodorant? You! Hey, I remember meeting you at one of our retail spa partners. You were getting a manicure while I was there working and I took quite a bit of time with you, explaining how our deodorant works. You identified yourself as a blogger and you promised me that if you decided to write about the Duggan Sisters you would let me know. Hey, you didn’t. No problem. I guess. I have read what you had to say and despite the compliments and links to our site you have given us a not quite fair shake. So, here’s some setting the record straight for your readers. (more…)

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From #11 to #11: I need your voice!

Friday, July 29th, 2011

I don’t often play the baby sister card, but being the 11th of 11 children makes me a member of an elite group of big babies. Another card-carrying member of this Irish Catholic Last in a Long Line of Siblings Club is the imagesinimitable Stephen Colbert. So, in this post Duggan #11 is asking Colbert #11 to give the Duggan Sisters’ message some much appreciated attention.

Isn’t attention getting what baby sisters are supposedly all about?

Mr. Colbert, are you listening?

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Dear Mr. Colbert,

This past spring I watched as you impaled the Dove/Unilever body image damage machine. It was brilliant and I thank you. I implore you to use your acclaimed voice to take it one step further.

Please consider the story of two sisters on the South Side of Chicago fed up with corporate greed and ineptitude who started making natural deodorant by hand in their basement and selling it to their neighbors. Hear their remarkable story of an endeavor that has captured the imagination (more…)

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What’s with the name already?

Friday, July 1st, 2011

By Mary Duggan

The Duggan Sisters have had a ball with the name of our deodorant. For folks who don’t get it, perhaps a bit of history behind the naming of our lifestinks® deodorant would help. Here’s the first layer of the story. In 2006 we pooled all of our available resources to have a sophisticated website built to support the work of our home based healing center – The Rose Cottage in Beverly. We were amongst a handful of people trained in a very unusual system of Manual Lymphatic Drainage and we had lots of other healing techniques in our bag of goodies – from Raindrop Therapy and Far Infrared Sauna to Transformational Reiki and Forrest Yoga. Business was pretty good, but ever the worrier, Mary, was looking at a flagging economy and wondering how long we would survive the looming cash crunch; a website had gone from being a possibility to an essential. So, we gave a reputable designer our last resources (more…)

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Lots to be said about armpits!

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

The wonderful Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune opened a conversation about women and their armpits in her Friday article.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-01/news/ct-met-schmich-0401-20110401_1_underarm-armpits-unilever opened a conversationAs the Duggan Sisters, we clearly have lots to say about armpits!  We implore you – our lifestinks deodorant users – to reach out to Mary Schmich at mschmich@tribune.com  with your armpit stories!  You’ve shared so many of them with us, please share them with her!  We’ve shared Mary Duggan’s response below…

(more…)

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