New Favourite Body-care Find

                     

                    

      

As much as I love nothing more than making my own bodycare products, sometimes due to time constraints and my love of trying new things I am lead to purchase some new delicious bodycare products. Recently I came across a range of products that caught my attention while I was purchasing some other bits and pieces. I was impressed not only by the product range centered around fruits and  vegetables but also the ethos of the company.

Enter the "yes to" range of products, according to their website and mission statements their products are at least 95% natural made from plant and mineral sources. Free from phthalates, parabens, silicones, SLS, nasty and unecessary harmful chemicals as well as being cruelty free, there is a lot to love about their products. I decided to start out with two choices of their body wash the lovely and invigorating "yes to grapefruits" and the hydrating and moisturising "yes to blueberries" body washes both in 500 ml. The bottle size contained quite a generous amount of product which will go a long way and were quite reasonably priced for the amount that you get.

So far I have been using the "yes to blueberries" hydrating body wash and I can definitely already see a difference in my skin. I had some pesky dry patches which are now slowly disappearing and my skin in general is soft, smooth and hydrated straight out of the shower, not surprising as the body wash contains yummy shea butter and anti-oxidant blueberries. I love using this product with my new loofah which I mentioned in a previous post here. One more thing I love about these body washes is that they can also double up as a bubble bath so in terms of versatility this is definitely a keeper.

Do you have any natural bodycare favourites that make you look forward to scrubbing up in  the shower or luxuriating in a lovely wam bath? do share.

                                                       ~E xx

Summer Blooms

It's finally June the sixth month of the year and summer is on the way!, well at least it's supposed to be I am not sure the British weather has got the memo yet and needs to catch up. One of my selfish reasons for wanting summer and this time of year is down to my favourite flower which comes into season and is part of the inspiration for my blog the Peony. Where I am it is notoriously difficult to get hold of my favourite bloom, so I had to look further afield and order some in. I managed to find a lovely little company called Bloom & Wild which sends you the flowers of your choice all packed in a box that fits through your letterbox, how ingenious! So even if you somehow popped out or missed the postman you are still guaranteed to receive your order. 

The flowers arrived in good condition and were all individually wrapped, as well as my favourite peonies, roses, limoneum and eucalyptus were all included. I managed to prepare the stems and they were a breeze to arrange following the instructions also included in the box. All in all I am very happy with my blooms and will enjoy them for some time, I would definitely consider ordering my flowers this way again. What flowers are your favourites or remind you of summer? There is nothing quite like buying yourself some of your fave blooms to lift your spirits and decorate your home with beauty and a wonderful scent too.

~E xx

Flowers; Bloom & Wild

Rosehip Rejuvenation

The weather here in England lately has been a bit unpredictable, sunny, windy, rainy and everything in between. I'll be honest the weather combined with central heating has yet again pushed my skin to the limit. My skin especially my face had become dry, flaky, blotchy and uneven in tone. As a lover of all things organic and natural in the skincare department, I was on the lookout for an oil that would nourish, protect and rejuvenate as well as provide much needed antioxidants and vitamins. Enter rosehip oil!,

 I was ordering some much needed beauty essentials when I came across a deal that was a steal for some certified organic rosehip oil from Trilogy. I was eager to try it out as soon as it arrived and I am glad to say it didn't disappoint. I use a couple of drops in the morning mixed with some sweet almond oil as a moisturiser and also at night during my skincare cleansing routine a couple of drops is all that is needed as a little goes a long way and this makes the oil cost effective. In terms of my poor skin, well in just three days I could definitely see and feel the difference, my face felt smooth and moisturised without a greasy feel as the oil works in harmony with the skin to penetrate into the areas most needed. My uneven skin tone and scarring has been gradually fading and I finally can appreciate the emerging blotch free and radiant complexion I am getting from using the rosehip oil.

All in all it is a lovely addition to my beauty arsenal and one oil I will be using for a long time to come.

Weekend Pampering

You can always count on there being a grey day or several with the notorious British weather. Today was such a day and all I wanted to do was stay indoors keeping warm and get some jobs done as well treating myself. Usually something as small as giving yourself a manicure can do wonders as you feel taken care of and ready to seize the day. When it comes to my nails I am pretty much straightforward I usually wear my nails au naturelle and a manageable length as a busy mother so prettying up my nails is a treat for me. My requirements for some good nail polish is that it should give good coverage, be easy to apply, long wearing, as natural / organic as you can possibly get with a nail polish product and cruelty free. Sounds like mission impossible but I managed to find a product that  ticked all my boxes!

Korres is a long standing Greek homoeopathic company, they produce a range of clean products and I have been a long term user of the products for a few years. Their nail polish range is definitely one to try, with it being free from a whopping eleven harmful and toxic ingredients including; parabens,silicones, acetone, formaldehyde to name a few. It actually helps the nails by providing myrrh and oligoelements, it is reasonably priced and has one of the cleanest formulas I've come across recently. I am definitely sticking with this cleaner choice for prettying up my nails without compromising my health.

sweater ~ cashmere and silk Mango

watch ~ Daniel Wellington

Nail polish ~ Light grey #94 Korres

Self love Saturday Soak

With the world marking valentines day, it is so easy to forget to take some time out for loving ourselves. By taking care of and nourishing yourself we give ourselves a gift as we relearn self appreciation which makes us feel good and in turn set us up for passing this good feeling on to others by being in a better position to take care of others in our lives. Valentines day isn't just about remembering to love and spoil others but also a day when we can stop and take stock of how we can love ourselves more. In honour of valentines day, I created a super simple foot soak, great for treating the most hard working part of the body, feet! It feels lovely to treat your tootsies to a lovely long luxurious soak with the added benefit of the salt acting as an antioxidant and cleanser after a long week or day. Happy day of love

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of coarse pink himalayan salt

2 Tbsp sweet almond oil

Essential oil of choice (I used peppermint)

METHOD

In a clean non metal bowl combine the pink himalayan salt and sweet almond oil

Mix until all of the oil is absorbed by the salt

Add 3 to 6 drops of essential oil and mix

Transfer to a clean glass container and store in a cool dry place

To use add a couple of scoops to some warm water and soak feet for 30 minutes.

Luxuriate ~ E xx

Friday Face Time

It's Friday and there has been very little sunlight today, the blustery wind is ice cold reminding us that indeed winter is upon us. With the harsh winter cold weather outside and the equally as harsh central heating indoors, my facial skin has been protesting. Both extremes have left my face with some dry patches this in turn lead me to trying out a simple recipe for a facial moisturiser, it was time to pencil in some quality face time and nourish my face. My requirements for a facial cream were straightforward it had to be of course moisturising, nourishing, toning and be made with very simple natural organic ingredients that I may already have in my kitchen cupboards. It had to be easy to make and most importantly actually work. I was quite happy with the results I achieved both in the simplicity of the cream and being able to soothe my dry skin.

INGREDIENTS

1 heaped tbsp of extra virgin organic coconut oil

1 tsp of manuka honey (with an activity (UMF) level of 10+ or higher)

Half a cup or about 3 and a half tbsps of sweet almond oil

6 drops of essential oil of choice (optional, check personal suitability first. I used lemon oil for a lovely fresh uplifting citrus scent.)

 3 drops or one capsule of Vitamin E oil (optional)

METHOD

In a non metallic mixing bowl add the coconut oil and manuka honey and whisk with a handheld electric whisk until smooth.

 Stop whisking and add the sweet almond oil followed by essential oil of choice if you opt for it as well as the vitamin E oil.

Whisk the mixture thoroughly until it is really smooth and creamy.

Scoop the resulting cream into to a small container with a lid, mine was around 250ml when finished.

store in the fridge or a cool dry place and use as required.

Luxuriate...

~ E xx

Self love Saturday

It has been  another grey and chilly Saturday here as we near the end of this month. Can you believe that December is only a few days away, I'm not even going to mention the "C" word!.... how time flies.
As much as I love this time of year and the opportunity to layer up in cosy knits, I cannot deny that sometimes the grey days and early dark nights do get to me. Okay so I won't complain too much about the weather as I really do appreciate the seasons really. Sometimes the simplest of things can help you lift your mood, love yourself more so that you are in a position to pass it on and love those around you. In my case today my chosen self love treat was a D.I.Y mini manicure, this really was a treat for me at least as I am a busy mother who never has the time to "do" my nails most times and usually prefer the au naturel look. Taking a cue from seasonal colours that remind me of warm cosiness, I chose a matte nail polish in the yummy shade of mocha to remind me of warm hot chocolate !mmm,....
An important requirement of mine is that if I am to pretty up any part of my body in any way it has to be with products that have Low/No toxicity and are as near to natural /organic as possible. Now with nail polish it is near on difficult to find a product not laden with chemical and toxic ingredients Luckily things are changing and there are now a few companies with safer options free from three, five and even eleven toxic ingredients. As I only wanted a quick D.I.Y polish and was quite taken by the look of matte nails, I settled on a polish from a UK company Barry.M in matte mocha. I found it went on easily, was just the shade that I was looking for, lifted my mood and more importantly although not the cleanest of polishes it is at least free from the three big known carcinogenic and neuro-toxic culprits namely; Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP (Dibutylphthalate). The company does not test on animals and best of all the range of nail polishes are definitely not budget busting at £3.99 a pop, this definitely was an autumn / winter pick me up!

Super Simple Lip Scrub

Well what can I say?!, the weather and decreasing temperatures are already wreaking havoc on my skin. This is the time of year when people have their chapsticks and lip balms at the ready for those dry and cracked lips that we sometimes get. I thought of a way I could make a lip scrub using items that I already had in my kitchen cupboard.

 I am a great believer of "If it is good enough to eat then it is definitely good enough to go on my skin". I also like to keep things really simple when it comes to body care, less is definitely more. This lip scrub only took me less than five minutes to make, I also made a little bit too much for my little tin so I ended up using the little bit left over to exfoliate my hands and lets just say my hands were thanking me for the treat as it left them so soft! but hand care is a topic I'll save for a later post perhaps. I am yet to use it on my lips and saving it for the morning but I am sure judging by my hands it will work a treat. Recipe below

INGREDIENTS

One tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil 

One teaspoon of honey (Preferably raw honey although I used regular honey as I wanted to use it up)

One tablespoon of organic raw fair trade brown sugar.

Half a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil (Optional)

Two drops of lemon essential oil (Optional)

METHOD

In a bowl place coconut oil (solid when cool at room temperature,but melts when warmed), Honey and brown sugar. Mix the ingredients with a non metallic spoon until all the sugar is mixed into the coconut oil. Voilà! you now have a lip scrub that you can use on your lips, I went a bit further and added some olive oil for more moisture and conditioning and you can add the lemon oil to this before adding it to the mix in the bowl. 

I loved the resulting scrub as it is all natural, the honey provides moisture, the coconut and olive oils provide conditioning and the sugar helps get rid of pesky dry and dead skin. All this serves to keep lips flake and chap free for the autumn / winter season.

Keep It Simple Sweeties! K.I.S.S

xx

Tuesday Treat

I try to set some time aside on Tuesdays which I have nicknamed Treat-day to basically treat myself. Today is the first official day of Autumn and with that in mind the change in the season seems to evoke in me a need to wrap up warm and moisturise my skin. I like to keep it really simple when it comes to skin care as I really do believe that less is more. I recently made some body scrub with only three ingredients pink Himalayan salt which contains a host of trace minerals beneficial for body and mind, sweet almond oil and a citrus essential oil. It felt and smelled delicious and definitely got my skin ready for fall, sometimes a little bit of self love goes a long way in making you feel amazing.