What to look for in a Soap

Everyone uses soap and most people use it at least one to two times a day - if not more. It's used on the face, your hands, and your whole body.

Yet so many soaps available are bad for your skin. As I have mentioned before the Glycerine is stripped out of them leaving them drying on the skin (yet occasionally you will see glycerine listed as an added ingredient!).

Most aren’t made with sodium hydroxide - the thing which converts oil into soap (meaning what you are using is not really a soap but a detergent!) and the ones which advertise their inclusion of essential oils most often contain a minimal amount and their effects are totally wiped out by the rest of the ingredients.

On top of this most types of soap are made on a base of Palm Oil - as some of you may know this is fast becoming one of the most destructive ingredients to use in a product. A few contain salt which in this case just adds to the extra drawing of moisture from your skin.

We are currently creating a range of soaps which we believe to be much better for your skin - here is one of our ingredients list for a new soap to give you an idea of what a good ingredients list should look like:

INGREDIENTS: Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Lavender and Alkanet Infusion, Sodium Hydroxide, Rosehip Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Lavender Oil, Rosemary Oil, Vetiver Oil.

Apart from Sodium Hydroxide which as said is required to produce soap all of the ingredients are natural and good for your skin.

I hope this has helped - check back soon for more!

Breathe Beauty Bath & Body

We'll be your Valentine!

If your feeling lonely this valentines day,
Come to us and shout,
We'll comfort you in a loving way,
aww - thats what its all about!

Happy valentines day everybody!

Website of the Week!

We have decided that it would be cool to share some of our best finds on the net so here it is *drum roll* the FIRST website of the week!

http://www.ethicalproducts.org.uk/

We got listed by this site at the begining of the week and the ammount of information available is great - loads of categories for ethical products ranging from Arts and Crafts to Wholesale and a whole bunch of articles including how to remove stains the environmentally friendly way!

OK we just couldn't resist a second best website of the week so here it is!If you love chocolate check out http://www.cocoaloco.co.uk/ . Some seriously good stuff that is to die for from such a friendly and loving company in Sussex, UK.

Have fun checking these sites out and check back soon for our next website of the week!

New Site

Our new site is up and running! Be sure to check out our new wedding services section for bespoke wedding favours filled with mini bath and body products!

Missed you all and rest assured our normal presence here will return shortly!

Ciao belli x x x

Some Skincare Tips and an Old Wives Tale . .

Clear healthy skin is the perfect canvas for makeup. To cleanse, tone and moisturize daily is a good way to achieve clear healthy skin (unless you are one of those very frustrating people with perfect skin all year round!)

For excessively oily/blemished skin use a tea tree or seaweed based product as these are great for drawing out oil and build up whilst keeping your skin nice and soft. A good way to choose a skin product is to look at the ingredients list. Never buy products with chemicals in (most common in products aimed toward people with oily skin), as these dry out your skin and leaves you with a horrible tight feeling to your face. REMEMBER some oil is good for your skin.

If you have excessively dry skin, aim toward a Kinetin, Jojoba or Vitamin C based product. As these are very rich, they are also good for more mature skin types as they help smooth out any fine lines and wrinkles.

For combination skin (some parts oily some parts dry). Go for a Vitamin E or Aloe Vera based product. These are also very good for sensitive skin as they are low on perfume. For those oilier areas (commonly the nose and forehead) use a little less product than you would use on the drier areas.
A common misconception in skin care is spots, DO NOT POP THEM! Believe it or not what you think is clearing your skin of dirt and impurities is actually making it worse. By doing this you are spreading more Germs and bacteria causing more spots to form. If you do feel you have to pop the spot make sure you clean the area as soon as you have finished and wash your hands.

Finally an old wives tale of getting rid of and reducing spots is to put a tomato or a small dab of aftershave on the area. This will reduce swelling, redness and will stop the spot from surfacing. Once again though remember to keep the tomato or aftershave to a limited area and not to do it too often as it will dry out your skin.

I will be posting some more skincare and makeup tips over the next few weeks so make sure you check back here soon!

Warmest wishes, Stacie Groom x x x

Did you have a good one?

Just checking you all had a great weekend!

We had a meeting today about launching a trial advert throughout our local shopping centre today - so if your in Lakeside, Essex anytime soon check out the big screens - we may even be running a special promotional offer alongside them *wink wink*

See you soon x x x

Climate Change

I have just finished writing an article on climate change and thought i would share a few snippets from it here for discussion.

"We are going to all have to take action soon, maybe wilfully or not so. My biggest concern is how it has become a fad and a marketing gimmick for the corporate world. The big companies have the power to influence our perception and unfortunately they have for the worse – climate change has fallen in the same bag as organic products and fair-trade practices, we see them as boring or fake maybe? Or maybe we see them as a way for companies to slap extra money onto their products and make more profits?"

Do you agree? How do you perceive these words - organic, fairtrade and eco-friendly?

I also included a great site which I will mention here - it offsets your carbon emissions through various projects set up.

"A big problem is transport – a very big pollution cause. It’s too much to ask to stop flying and driving as everyone needs to get places and wants to go on holiday every now and again. There are companies around that will offset your emissions such as www.carbonfootprint.com . Just go through your figures and at the end you will be able to see the amount of C02 you release each year in tonnes and then select which of your activities you would like to offset. You then get to choose how you would like the offset to be made such as reforestation in the UK."

The full article is going to be added to our website soon along with others which we can discuss here and I hope you benefit something from reading them!

Bye Bye for now! x x x