Reduce, Reuse, Polish, Change the Batteries

Last weekend I indulged in the ultimate eco-beauty activity – sprucing up all of the great accessories you own so that they are like new again.  This is the eco-fashionista’s version of recycling!  You actually recycle your own stuff!

The Gucci shoes that launched a thousand ships

When I was in my early 20s I came across the ultimate shopper’s (or spend-aholic if you are like me) shopping justification.  It’s a simple formula:

Cost Per Wear (CPW) = total price of item / number of times you use the item

What it means is that if you buy some cheap tee shirt for say $15 and you only wear it once (because it is really trendy, or it’s such poor quality that you don’t want to wear it again) the CPW = $15.  On the other hand let’s say you buy a long tweed Burberry coat (true story, I got it at an outlet store in Maine) for $750 and you wear it 150 times per year (every day between November and March), after 5 years the CPW will be $1.  Although at the time $750, even if a very good deal for a Burberry coat, seemed like an extortionate amount of money (think of the starving children!) but if you consider it as a lifelong investment (and I really should be able to wear it for at least the next 20-30 years) then isn’t it better to have 1 nice coat for much longer rather than buy a new crappy winter coat every couple of years?  I’m sure the children in the sweatshops and the workers at the recycling plants would agree.

Cataloguing stud earrings

You can thank me later for introducing you to the magical CPW.  So back to my weekend-  I was in a consignment shop where I picked up a fabulous pair of Gucci heals (£144 total–  anticipated CPW year 1= £7.20, year 2= £3.60) which I promptly took home and realised that I didn’t have any where to put them.  My shoes were bursting out of the seams of my wardrobe.  This seemed strange to me because I could have sworn I didn’t have any shoes.  I always seem to wear the same few pairs over and over again.  So I decided that I would take out all of the shoes I own and photograph them.  That way I would have a catalogue to remind myself so that I could rotate them more frequently (a great way to keep them lasting even longer thus reducing your CPW even further!)

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Sending Out a Beauty SOS

I’m pissed off.  Like really, really pissed off.  For about the last year my frustration with the low performance of natural beauty products has been mounting.  And I’m near breaking point.  Plus I feel guilty every time I choose performance over nature.  I just don't want to feel guilty anymore.  Here’s a bit of a rant, er I mean a list of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to natural beauty products: (Formulators take note!)

Sulphate-free shampoos that don’t wash my hair – whether I wash my hair with sulphates once every 5 days or without sulphates every single day, I don’t think that I’m creating a big toxic overload with the former option.  My scalp has never been irritated by using sulphates, in fact sulphates are what actually get it clean.  If anything, I have the reverse problem which is not getting the oil out in the first place.  And I’ve tried that whole stop washing your hair completely thing and you’ll re-program your sebum glands to have a naturally balanced oil production.  It didn’t work for me.

ineffective deodorant + silk = disaster

 Aluminium-free deodorants – ok, so switching from anti-perspirant to deodorant was already a step in the sticky/sweaty direction but then don’t add insult to injury by making completely ineffective “natural” deodorants.  I’m a lady.  I don’t want to smell.  I don’t enjoy smelling myself.  Others around me don’t enjoy smelling me.  I will take aluminium and "suspected" neurotoxicity any day over the shame of being “that” smelly person.  Seriously scientists besides torturing lab animals (which I'm not a big fan of) can we get something more conclusive on how aluminum affects human beings???  Please?!  Cultural note- I work with a lot of Europeans so I’m already in a culture where deodorant is socially accepted over antiperspirant.  But alas, all of the natural deodorants that I’ve tried:  Still.  Not.  Good.  Enough.

Petro-chemical-free lip glosses that are too liquidity and lack pigment – (I’m looking at you Burts Bees Super Glossy Lip Shine, Lavera Lip Gloss, Neals Yard Remedies, et al tsk tsk). Lipgloss and mascara are my beauty staples.  I don’t care about anything else.  If I’m going to leave my house, I at least need these two products.  Too bad with the exception of Bare Minerals Natural Lip gloss I haven’t found any decent petro-chemical free lip glosses.  In the last year I’ve been through 8 tubes of Bare Minerals and shelled out £112 ($180) for the privilege considering they are £14 a pop and last a few months (plus I have to have at least a few of them on the go for a variety of shades!)  That’s a hell of a lot of money just to keep a lady in her daily lipgloss.  Plus no matter how dark and red a shade I buy, it always winds up looking practically nude on my lips, or lasts all of 5 minutes.  Help me beauty formulators!  I can't exclusively buy just Bare Minerals (no matter how much they would love me to).

Can I get another lipgloss please?

Complete lack of any decent hair styling products – seriously, there is nothing in this category.  No styling gels, creams, hairsprays, serums that are nice to use and effective.  It’s like hair styling products play poor cousin to the sulphate-free shampoos.  I mostly wear my hair naturally wavy, sometimes blow it out straight, and sometimes put it in Velcro rollers for big, sexy curls.  I’m not trying to make my hair do something totally unrealistic that it wasn’t designed to do.  I’m just asking for some hair products to make it look a teensy-tiny bit shinier and to help hold it in place just a little longer.  Am I reaching for the stars here?

Loose mineral eye shadow – I love mineral makeup generally speaking.  However I hate loose eye shadow (as opposed to compact eye shadow).  In my bathroom I have no fewer than 15 pots of Bare Minerals loose.  Luckily as the reigning Queen of mineral makeup they have also launched Bare Minerals Ready 2.0 eyeshadow.   I really need to try this.  Jane Iredale do a decent mineral compact eye shadow but I’m greedy.  I want more selection please!

So, am I angry?  You betcha!  Have I given up completely on natural beauty products?  Not entirely.  I still in my heart of hearts think that beauty companies can keep doing better.  It's up to us as consumers to tell them what we want through what we buy!  So, I'll keep buying and testing the most naturally formulated products and reporting on them here.  I would love to hear your views too!  What natural beauty products have you tried?  What have you loved?  What have you hated?

Rose 31 Products, Fairmont Southampton Bermuda Spa, and Kerstin Florian Products

Hotels should really advertise the brand of personal care products they have in their rooms because it would certainly influence which hotel I choose to stay at.  For the record, the Balmoral in Edinburgh has REN products and both Carlton in Cannes and Four Seasons in Nevis supply L'Occitane en Provence.  Definitely worth booking a room for!  

I was really pleased to discover a new range of products Rose 31 by Le Labo at a recent stay at the Fairmont Southampton Bermuda Resort.  This is really a gorgeous fragrance inside of personal care products rather than personal care products that smell nice (does that make sense?)  Normally I’m not at all a fan of rose but this fragrance they’ve managed to create both genderless and timeless, a musky floral with woody tones.  Your grandma never smelled like this!

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Sienna X Spray Tan

Today I indulged myself in the weirdest of beauty rituals - it was my first ever spray tan.  I don’t know what actually possessed me.  I’m getting married next year and I think the first signs of bridezilla are starting to emerge.  I have had other female friends go through the wedding ritual before me so I’ve seen some pretty bizarre behavior - from botox to orthodontia so I think my case is on the mild side.  (Note - seriously where does all of this pressure on brides to look their most amazing bridal selves come from???  Is this an internal pressure manifesting itself to have a picture perfect exterior, or is it society/family/keeping-up-with-the-Joneses???)

So back to me and my spray tan - I didn’t even try to research finding a “natural” spray tan.  I mean come on, there is absolutely nothing natural about spraying oneself with chemicals to make your skin pigment 8% darker than your own natural skin.  At least 8% is what I was offered at the Salon House in Clerkenwell, London.  I was told that this will just give me a light and healthy look, nothing orange about it.Wow! Guess I did get really tan

The process of getting a spray tan is hilarious, I kept giggling through the entire thing.  The only other beauty treatment that has surpassed this level of humiliation was the brazilian bikini wax I had last year which I will never, ever, EVER do again.  First you strip down to the buff, then you don your shower cap and paper thong thingy and step into a little booth specially designed to contain the errant spray of your beauty therapist’s spray gun.  I was given sticky pads to put on the bottom of my feet (so they didn’t get stained).  Then my beauty therapist adeptly cleaned my armpits to remove any deodorant residue and rubbed moisturizer onto my knees, elbows, hands and fingernails to ensure a smooth application on those areas that tend to crack.

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Neal's Yard Brightening Products

Following the lovely treatment that I had at Neal’s Yard Spa on the King’s Road earlier this year, I impulse purchased a load of products.  Because I am a sucker.  But that’s my lot in life to buy lots of natural beauty products and then report back to you all what I think!   I’ll be honest, my reaction was a bit ho-hum to the products.  I have been obsessed for more than a year now tackling the problem I have with sun spots on my face.  I swear nothing ages a woman more than sun spots, except maybe wrinkles, but fortunately those aren’t an issue for me yet (please, don’t hate me.)  So I will continue to be obsessed with those pesky little brown pigmentations on my face.  Let’s face it every generation has their own worries!

Here’s the list of products that I tested below.  I used up every last drop of all of them before I felt qualified to give my opinion.

Brightening Serum Treatment - After cleansing I applied the treatment to my “problem” areas, near the corners of my cheeks where sun spots abound (which is totally bizarre because you’d think they’d be more on my nose and cheeks where the sun has a better chance of getting to my skin!)  The product was easy to use although the smell was a little too crunchy granola for my taste.  Although being in a glass bottle, the top was easy to open and close and easily packed without leaking.

Daily Brightening Moisturizer - I used this too twice daily after I applied the Brightening Serum treatment.  I liked the smell of this a little bit better.  Packed with African Star grass, Tara, and vitamin C this moisturizer contains 95% organic ingredients.  That’s as high a ratio as you’ll ever see so kudos to the formulation team!

Wild Rose Daily Moisture SPF 30 - What’s the point in trying to attack sun spots if you’re just going to go out into the world without SPF?!  As far as this mineral sunscreen goes, it was the first to be certified by the Soil Association and I actually quite liked using it.  It glides on nicely and doesn’t feel chalky or like you’re wearing a mask.  I applied it a few times a day when I was on a beach holiday and I didn’t get burned on my face.  The color is just a little off-white so it helps you to not look like Caspar the Ghost when you apply it.

All in all I felt that while my skin tone was a little more even, no noticeable difference was made on the sun spots that plague me the most.  I’m starting to wonder if “natural” products have the power to really tackle things like sunspots.  But then again I think that I should be kinder to myself and not obsess so much over vain things like sun spots.  On another impulse I bought 4 products from the Comvita Olive White Brighteningrange.  I’ll let you know whether I see any more improvements in my complexion from these products.

Shampoo-free experiment disaster

Lots of sulphates, lots of silicones

This blog is about 2 years over due and it’s also probably the most narcissistic blog post I will ever write.  I’m ashamed to admit that I have been thinking about the status of my hair almost daily ever since I gave up sulphates.  (You know sulphates those evil things that also clean the inside of cars?  They over-strip your hair to within an inch of its life?)  I first wrote about the dreaded sulphates over on Nadine Jolie even before this Natural Beautee blog’s inception.  That was back in 2009.  So yes it’s been along time coming!

Ever since I saw Alexandra Sput's beautiful locks on No More Dirty Looks I've been toying with this idea of quitting shampoo entirely. (Did you know she hasn't used shampoo in years?)  The theory goes like this: apparently our scalps are over producing sebum like crazy because we're over-stripping them like crazy with harsh sulphate laden synthetic shampoos. Therefore (so the theory continues) we can retrain our pores to produce less sebum overtime by removing the offending shampoo.  Now this theory requires a little faith that mother nature does actually program our pores to produce the correct amount of sebum. We've certainly been socially programed to believe the opposite. Seems we're always trying to fight against her.

So two years ago I set out to quit shampoo for 1 whole month. However there always seemed some good not reason to go the whole month poo-less. I mean I HAD to get my hair done in a salon for the company Christmas party. Then I HAD to get my hair cut while I was in Italy. The ladies at Le Due Gemelli in Bratto are the only ones who consistently cut my wavy locks into the perfect shape. Plus trying to explain to them in Italian why I had brought my own sulphate-free shampoo with me to the salon instead of using their own products just seemed like too much work.  So all in all I completely failed what I set out to do.  I never made it a whole month poo-free and I’ve been stewing over it ever since.  

No poo for about a week, or makeup for that matter

Have you ever tried quitting shampoo?  How have you found making the switch to sulphate free products?  Are you still using silicones?  Help I’m having a natural beauty hair meltdown!

Berkshire Mountain Mamas' Wicked Body Butter

I first came across Berkshire Mountain Mamas’ wonderful Wicked Body Butters in the gift shop of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  My mom bought a jar and I kept nicking fistfuls of it while I was at the Kripalu Yoga R&R retreat one weekend back in January.  This stuff is great!  I wrote to the lovely ladies over at Mountain Mamas’ and they sent me 4 different scents to try out – Egyptian Goddess,  Patchouli, Wild Flower, and October Girl.  You know when something is homemade (in this case by Candice – owner, scent designer, and head butter churner) because no 2 pots are the same.  All have a slightly different consistency.  Some are more fluffy, some are more dense, some require a little rolling around between your fingers to warm them up so that you can spread them nicely more than others. 

Here’s what I thought of the different scents:

Egyptian Goddess – light and musky, this is the first one that I tried.  I was drawn in by the name and found the scent delightful.  I think Cleopatra would have approved!

Patchouli – full disclosure: I hate patchouli, I absolutely hate it.  However surprisingly I liked the scent of this product.  I think that the creamy smell of the Shea butter helps balance out the raw patchouli smell because the end result is a subtle unisex fragrance.  (I made my fiancé try it to get a man’s opinion and he liked it so that’s two happy customers!)

Wild Flower – a blend of daffodil, dandelion, lily of the valley and a touch of green grass this butter smells like a nature walk on a warm summer’s day.  This was probably my least favorite scent only because I’m not a big floral fan.  The jar accidently got crushed in my luggage when I took it on a trip so do be careful to wrap the jar carefully in your clothes when you travel!

October Girl – I love, love, loved this scent.  My favorite by far!  I have no idea what an October Girl is, I just know that I want to be one, probably even more than I want to be an Egyptian Goddess!  The scent is comprised of lavender, litsea cubela, peppermint and witches brew (seriously?)  For me I think it’s the peppermint that makes this scent.  It plays and contrasts wonderfully with the flowers.

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Passion for Essence of Vali's Passion Products

I was so excited to receive a parcel from Essence of Vali filled with Passion products just in time for Valentine’s Day!  I love, love love Essence of Vali products.  This love affair began a few years ago when I reviewed some of their other products for the first time.  I find it really challenging to blend my own products with essential oils.  The knack is getting a scent at the end which doesn’t smell too crunchy granola, or too fruity, or too medicinal.  Essence of Vali manages to turn out 100% natural beautiful-smelling aromatherapy products that can compete with the main stream cheaters using toxic “fragrance” to mask evil smelling chemicals. 

The formula for the Massage and Bath Oil was simple – 100% pure golden jojoba carrier oil and essential oils of orange zest, ylang ylang petals, patchouli leaves and ginger root.  So simple, yet so sensually awakening.  Both men and women will enjoy using this product, either in the bath or for working the tension out of tired muscles.  The Love Mist is a great spray to freshen up the air or to create a romantic environment.  You can also spray it on bed linen and pillow cases for a more concentrated effect.

I really enjoyed using these products.  They were indulgent yet guilt-free (no risk to your health!) 

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health plus Kat's Travel blog

Hi everyone! I've been quite busy the last month so the natural beauty blogging has been sporadic (I know, excuses, excuses). So I wanted to update you all of the things I’ve been up to. Firstly, last summer I launched a travel blog called Kat's Travel. I've written posts here on Natural Beautee about French and Italian natural beauty products as well as let you what products I'm using when I go on holiday. So you've probably already gathered I'm a keen traveler!

I recently posted on Kat's Travel about my lovely experience at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Western Massachusetts. I was thinking of editing it and posting it here on Natural Beautee but then I figured that I was doing you the reader a discredit. You're all internet savvy and know how links work!
Click here to read about my amazing R&R Retreat at Kripalu.

Now for everything else I've been up to, here's a update in Beauty Schooled Pretty Price Check style (which is now by the way Virginia Sole-Smith’s fabulous all-encompassing blog):

500: the number of hours that I've already put into my Aromatherapy qualification at ITHMA attending classes, massaging, writing assignments, and studying for exams

60: the mark I got my anatomy and physiology exam which coincidently was also the passing mark (I mean why put in any more effort than absolutely necessary? Of course I'm kidding. I was relieved to pass but gosh it was too close!)

44: the number of remaining massages I have to complete to become a qualified aromatherapist.

38: the number of trails in the ski area of Madonna di Campiglio, Italy where I went skiing over New Years

Too many to count - the number of products I have to review but I will review them soon!  Promise.

Neal's Yard Spa Detox and Glow Treatment - Kings Road, London

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you’ve all had a relaxing and enriching end to 2011 and beginning of 2012.  Back in early December it occurred to me that I had massaged about 30 people in 2011 but no one had reciprocated on me. I felt that I gave myself a little TLC.  To top it off my back and neck had so many knots in it that I could barely lift an arm (I'm only a wee bit exaggerating here).  It was definitely time for me to get my own treatment.

With the Neal's Yard Kings Road Spa being a 25-minute walk from my flat (and whose products I was familiar with since they contain a high percentage of organic ingredients) I decided to see what they had on offer. I booked a Detox and Glow package with Aya. Perfect! And it was, about 98% perfect.

The treatment started with a full body brush to stimulate lymphatic drainage and help remove the toxins from my body, of which I imagined there was a lot.  Aya brushed my skin very gently, much more gently than I brush my own skin, not soft enough to be ticklish, but soft enough to be distracting. But maybe I'm not being too kind to my skin if I'm brushing it too hard?

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Anti-Aging Soothing Emulsion by Bio Beaute by Nuxe Product Review

 

Whenever I review a skincare product I make sure to use it for at least a month. Your skin renews itself every 28 days or so to know the real deal you have to use a product at least that long.  After the month is up I choose to blog about the product after one of the following three triggers:

1)      I’m so excited about it that I have to blog about it straight away

2)      I’ve used up the entire bottle and want to blog about it while it’s still fresh in my mind

3)      I’ve decided to stop using it because I don’t really like it that much

The Anti-Aging Soothing Emulsion for sensitive normal, or combination skin by Bio Beauté by Nuxe fell into the 3^rd scenario for me.  I bought it in the summer at Monoprix in Avignon, France.  The summer months are so nice for dehydrated skin.  Hydration takes a back seat to sun protection worries.  This is why I picked a lighter product than normal .  The emulsion is a bit watery and it separates easily which I guess is why it was called an emulsion and not a cream.  However by definition creams are an emulsion (binding water and oil and getting them to stay together) so I’m not really sure what the marketers were trying to achieve there.  Plus if there is water in the product then you’ll need preservatives which will hopefully be of the naturally-derived, more expensive, non-paraben kind.

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Acorelle 100% Natural Oriental Wax Product Review

courtesy of Echemist

For a while now (almost a year) I’ve been working on my own natural hair remover recipe but I haven’t quite nailed it yet.  It’s extremely infuriating as the ingredient list is so short and simple: water, sugar, lemon juice and a few drops of essential oil if you’re feeling like it.  The reason why it’s so difficult to make a natural hair remover at home is because to get the perfect consistency (sticky enough and soft enough that it spreads well after the mixture cools down) it’s a matter of the perfect temperature and the perfect timing.  So when I don’t have the luxury of the time to experiment and my body hair is getting out of control then desperate times call for desperate measures.  I go out and buy something.

Enter stage left Acorelle 100% Natural Oriental Wax for face and body.  I’m not sure what makes it “oriental” per say.  Ingredients are simply sugar, water, and lemon juice.  The sugar and lemon juice are organic and the product carries the ECOCERT label.  I couldn’t find information on the Acorelle website specifically about the “oriental” wax that I used so I suspect it might have been replaced by a newer product “royal wax” which uses natural pine resin, organic beeswax, and white lily extract.  I’ll be sure to try that next, although hopefully I’ll have mastered my own recipe before then!

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Latte di Pulizia per il Viso al Cetriolo e all'Amamelide

My skin has been having a bit of a ho-hum time over the last month.  It’s always my belief that where there is bad skin, there is something else bad going on (e.g. stress, poor eating, dehydration, illness, etc).  I’ll admit I’ve been way too busy to even think about what my skin is trying to tell me and I think all of the above external factors are probably at play.  I’ve had a few bad breakouts, and overall my skin has looked dull, and maybe even a touch grey.  So that’s my disclaimer as I launch into my review of Latte di Pulizia per il Viso al Cetriolo e all’Amamelide by L’Erbolario.  I picked up a bottle of the facial cleanser in an erboristeria in Italy last Christmas because I had forgotten to pack a cleanser. 

About the product:

Loosely translated the name of the product means “Cleansing milk for the face with cucumber and witch hazel” and below the picture on the front of the bottle is the specification that the product is a skin purifier for oily and combination skin.  Unfortunately there is no ingredient list.  The instructions state to apply the milk to face and neck in the morning and at night in a uniform and careful way.   Remove it with a cotton pad spritzed with toner.  Then take a second pass with another cotton pad but this time with it soaked with toner.  Also the back of the bottle says that the active ingredients are: triglycerides, witch hazel, cucumber extract, and hydrating complex “NMF.”  Nice.

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I Love Lavender

There’s a reason why lavender is considered the panacea of essential oils and why lavender is synonymous with aromatherapy.  That’s because lavender (lavandula angustifolia) has the most therapeutic properties of any other essential oil.  Lavender may not always be the best essential oil for every condition, but you can be assured that it will provide some level of benefit.  Also, it’s not contraindicated for anything.  (Note- there are other types of lavender which are contraindicated in pregnancy e.g. lavandula stoechas, lavandula latifolia, and lavandula x intermedia the common names of which are French lavender, spike lavender, and lavandin so it’s important to read labels and know which lavender you are buying!)

For the natural beauty or aromatherapy expert out there, you may note that there is a factually incorrect statement in my video.  Clue – I got the wrong burn victim who stuck his hand in a vat of lavender oil and was miraculously healed!  I’ll send a lavender sleepy time roller ball oil to the first person who can correctly name the person I’m referring to.

Lush Duck and Burts Bees Super Shiny Shampoo and Conditioner

Thanks to Amanda and Daniel from Lush Duck for sending me some Burts Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit and Sugar Beet Shampoo and Conditioner to try.  Lush Duck is a new UK online natural and organic beauty retailer which sells some of my favorite brands: Akin, Pai Skin Care, and Lavera.  New customers get 10% of their first order and you get free second class shipping in the UK.  Who says natural beauty has to cost a lot?!

I really enjoyed using the shampoo and conditioner.  The grapefruit has a nice zingy scent which is uplifting and clears the mind.  The shampoo made my hair really soft and manageable and the conditioner allowed me get a comb through my tangled locks after my shower.

Shampoo ingredients as follows:

aqua, decyl glucoside, sucrose laurate, betaine, coco-glucoside, glycerin, glyceryl oleate, sodium cocoyl hydrolyzed soy protein, coco-betaine, lauryl glucoside, parfum (fragrance), citrus grandis (grapefruit) seed oil, citrus aurantium dulcis (sweet orange) peel oil, citrus nobilis (tangerine) oil, citrus medica limonum (lemon) oil, citrus aurantium amara (petitgrain) oil, hydroxypropyltrimonium honey, glucose, citric acid, xanthan gum, sodium chloride, glucose oxidase, lactoperoxidase, limonene

Conditioner ingredients as follows:

aqua, cetearyl alcohol, betaine, glycerin, cetrimonium bromide, sucrose polystearate, sucrose stearate, citrus grandis (grapefruit) seed oil, citrus aurantium dulcis (sweet orange) peel oil, citrus nobilis (tangerine) oil, citrus medica limonum (lemon) oil, citrus aurantium amara (petitgrain) oil, sclerocarya birrea oil, glucose, polysorbate 60, hydroxypropyltrimonium honey, parfum (fragrance), sodium chloride, glucose oxidase, lactoperoxidase, limonene

The Environmental Working Group rates these products 4/10 for toxicity which is the good side of average.  Looking up each ingredient individually, most ingredients came in 0 or 1/10.  Parfum was the biggest offender.  All in all, both solid products.  I would buy them myself if I was perusing the nearest Whole Foods store.

Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate fruit and seed oil blend with vitamin E

Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate fruit and seed oil blend with vitamin E is a nourishing facial oil packed with the omegas (3,6,7, and 9).  With a very simple formulation - rosa canina (rosehip) seed extract and rosa canina (rosehip) fruit extract both of which are organically produced and 99% organic certified with the Soil Association seal.  Plus some added mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) and you can’t go wrong!

My skin easily absorbed the golden amber oil which gets its color because of the caretonoids (which makes carrots orange in color too!)  I used 3-4 drops per night for almost 3 months and occasionally applied it under makeup if I was having a particularly dry day.  I found that if I waited about 10 minutes then I could easily apply makeup on top.  At the point of starting to use this product my skin was in pretty good shape.  It was clear and hydrated for the most part and this facial oil fitted in nice and neatly without disturbing the good state that I had achieved for my skin.  I can’t say that I noticed any improvements in terms of the sunspots I have on my cheeks which I was a little bit hoping for but then again I’ve never noticed a difference in my sun spots after using any product so this is a very tall order!  For me the smell was a little off putting.  It’s very seedy and earthy smelling.  But it smells like it’s very good and doing very nice things for your skin (which it is).

I’ve been using a facial oil as the last step in my nightly skin routine for at least 5 years now.  I highly recommend that you do too.  When I compare this facial oil with others it stacks up in terms of performance but purely for smell reasons I can’t rate it as my absolute favorite.  A few drops of essential oil could have made this facial oil more pleasant or indulgent-feeling to use but then again some people with really sensitive skin can’t use products with essential oils.  The pure gentleness  and simple formulation of the oil will mean that anyone anywhere with any skin type or condition can use it.

Interesting to note is on the shelves at Whole Foods this product is placed both in the beauty section and first aid sections of the store, or at least it was in the Kensington, London branch where I shop!  I was sent this product by a PR person so I didn’t have to purchase it myself but I could see how the oil could be used in first aid on damaged skin.  Overall this is a good product that I would recommend for those with really sensitive skin.  For me I would have liked a little more bells and whistles so I’ll probably add a few drops of lavender and geranium essential oils to the rest of my bottle.  If you want to have a go at making your own customized facial oil I would recommend the Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate as the carrier oil and then spruce it up with some essential oils according to your skin type.

Liz Earle Colour Sheer Skin Tint SPF15

This lucky blogger was invited to attend a sneak peak of a new Liz Earle product range launching in September called Liz Earle Colour.  This new product range is a departure from Naturally Active Skincare and is the first Liz Earle foray into makeup!  I am so excited, words can not express.  I decided to put the Liz Earle Colour Sheer Skin Tint SPF15 in beige 02 (it comes in 3 colors) to the test against my Bare Minerals Fairly Light SPF15 Foundation to see how they compared.  See for yourself!

One of the advantages of having a mineral makeup in liquid format rather than solid form (e.g. “powder” form although it’s not really powder) is that you can add some nice skin goodies like borage and avocado oils and essential fatty acids (e.g. the omegas).  When I asked Liz why they went with a liquid skin tint rather than solid she told me that the liquid form was better suited to all skin types. She herself has dry skin and solid mineral makeup can be drying or cakey for her.  Liz Earle Colour Sheer Skin Tint has only one formula for all skin types.  I was a bit worried that my oily-side-of-normal skin would look a bit greasy with the skin tint on but it doesn’t, it looks absolutely radiant.  Plus it feels absolutely gorgeous going on.  Although the skin tint sits on top of the skin (like all mineral makeup) and feels great to touch, it stood up well to the napkin test.  It stays put.  Liz herself wore it for 24 hours straight on a QVC show and didn’t need to reapply once (normally she does a full face 3 times for that kind of show!)  Speaking of Liz’s face, when she met with us bloggers she was sporting a full face of test makeup that she’s currently working on.  I’m very hopeful for future products because she looked fabulous, not at all like a make-up guinea pig!

You can be the first to know when this exciting product is going on sale by clicking here and filling in a form.  When you can finally order the product you’ll be sent your bottle of Liz Earle Colour Skin Tint along with a sample of each of the 3 shades.  That way you can try all 3 to make sure that you ordered the right shade.  In case that you didn’t, you can swap out your unopened bottle for the right shade which will help cut down on wastage, not to mention the fact that it comes in a recyclable bottle, yeah for the environment and for customers!  The 3 shades should be suitable for 90% of skin tones out there.  I found that the middle color – beige blended well with my own skin tone.  I would say that it provides a medium coverage.  It didn’t quite make my sun spots disappear even after 3 layers, but it did enhance my complexion and give me a dewy finish.

Another noteworthy thing about the Liz Earle Colour Skin Tint is that it’s cruelty-free.  That’s quite a feat not to use carmine (crushed up beetles) in a makeup range.  It’s a pretty standard practice among main stream beauty companies.  So there you have it, Liz Earle Colour Skin Tint SPF15 is good for customers, good for the environment, and good for the beetles.  Everyone wins!

Ren Products at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh

When you roll with Nadine Jolie, you roll in style.  So when Nadine came to visit the UK earlier this year, I was happy to accompany her (read tag along with her) to Edinburgh.  We stayed in a suite at the amazing Balmoral Hotel where JK Rowling finished her last Harry Potter book in 2007 in room 652.  See Nadine’s video of our suite at the Balmoral here.

Apart from being a gorgeous hotel steeped in history, I was very impressed with the complimentary bath and shower products from REN.  Glad to see a luxury hotel embrace natural beauty products!

Here's the list of what Ren products don't contain: Petrochemicals, sulphates, parabens, synthetic fragrance, synthetic colours, TEA, DEA, Glycols, silicones, PEGs, et al.  The lack of these synthetic nasties makes me very happy.

Oat and Bay Conditioning Shampoo left my hair very soft the first few times I used it although over time the effect faded.  The smell is light, fresh, and citrusy.  Towards the end of the bottle I started washing my hair twice with it to make sure it was really getting clean.  I was fine with this though because I really enjoyed using the shampoo.

Pro-Vitamin Hair Conditioner works well as a conditioner and also as a natural shaving cream.  Leaves hair and skin moisturized without silicon or petrochemical build up!

Neroli and Grapefruit Body Wash although I've long detested the way neroli smells, this body wash changed my mind. The pairing of neroli and grapefruit zest is a match made in heaven.  It's light and refreshing and a delight to use in the shower.  Afterwards I felt invigorated!

Liz Earle Mineral Sun Cream SPF 20

Liz Earle Mineral Sun Cream SPF20 has saved my skin from the scorching sun on my last 3 holiday (well except for in Tenerife where there was so sun in April but you can still get burnt on a cloudy/rainy day!) My favorite part is the sun cream's usabilty. It's tan in color rather than white so it doesn't look chalky on the skin. And I think I've mastered the best application technique. First smear on a glob. After a few strokes to get it spread around the surface area, then pat the remainder into the skin. Your skin will feel a bit tacky but you won't have any more obvious splotches. This helps to keep the minerals on top of the skin where they can reflect the sun. Unlike chemical sunscreens which work from inside out and take lots of chemicals into the skin with them!

Ingredient list:

Caprylic/capric triglyceride, citrus aurantium amara (orange) flower water, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, aqua, glycerin, polyhydroxstearic acid, vitellaria paradoxa (shea butter), cetearyl alcohol, cetearyl glucoside, lactic acid, tocopherol (vitamin E), panthenol, punica granatum (pomegranate) seed extract, camellia sinesis (green tea) leaf extract, sorbitan olivate, sorbitan palmitate, p-anisic acid, phenoxyethanol, glyceryl caprylate, sodium lactate, alumina, aluminum stearate, xanthan gum, isostearic acid, methylisothiazolinone, benzoic acid, dehydroacetic acid, ethylhexlglycerin, polyaminopropyl biguanide.

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Confessions from an Armpit

Strangest thing, I got this letter in the post the other day:

Dear Katherine,
It's been a long time since I last wrote you a letter. For that I apologize. However there are some issues that I need to raise with you. Firstly, and most importantly, I stink! How could you not notice?! I said nothing of this the last few summers but I really can't take it anymore! Now that it's warm again in London every time you get on the hot tube I instantly fill up with sweat and while most of the time that's ok, once I get past a certain thresh hold, then I well and truly stink. Secondly, I'm really a shy armpit. I get very uncomfortable when people stare at me. Ever since you ditched the antiperspirant it's all anyone ever does is stare at the big circles of sweat that dampen your top! Fine in the winter when you can cover up with a jacket but in the summer it's impossible. Don't think I haven't noticed that you've stopped wearing certain tops just because you know you'll immediately get sweat stains when you put them on. It seems to me like it's a waste to only wear half your wardrobe.

There, I've finally said it. So can I request that just for the summer you use some alum on me????

Yours sincerely,
Your armpit

This is the photo that sparked my underarm to write to me

Ok I had a little bit of fun with that one but unfortunately everything my armpit is saying is true.  I’m well and truly tired of having sweat stains on my clothes all of the time, and then when it’s too hot, when I get nervous, or when I work out I start to smell.  So recently I purchased a main stream anti-perspirant with the active ingredient aluminum chlorohydrate which is a complex inorganic salt.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that that aluminum chlorohydrate is only rated a 4 in the EWG cosmetics database.  That doesn’t mean that all the other ingredients were squeaky clean but it was a bit of a load off my mind.

The problem with aluminum salts (which can be listed as chlorhide, chlorohydrate, hydroxybromide, or zirconium) is that when tested on lab animals they are a neurotoxin and have bad effects.  At one point there was thought there was a link with aluminum and Alzheimer’s although that thought has passed.  Some scientists think that there is a link with the increase in anti-perspirant use with the rise in breast cancer, but other scientists disagree.  As usual, these things are never straight forward.

So for the summer only I’ve decided to live life on the edge and embrace aluminum. So although 75% of the year I’m still hopefully reducing my exposure to harmful aluminum, I’m upping the ante a little bit for the remaining part of the year.  Overall it’s still a decrease.  You can’t win them all.