Category Archives: Supplements

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Winter survival kit

Finished_Bathroom_Image_SmallI keep thinking it’s the end of winter and I keep being proved wrong. I was SO COLD last weekend that I ended up with two hot water bottles and two blankets in my sofa nest of an evening. [We could put the heating on for a bit longer but we just got the ‘winter’ bill and have decided that ideally we’d never turn it on again…ever]

I thought I’d missed the boat on my planned ‘winter kit list’ but given winter’s set to go on indefinitely, I’ve decided to post it up. I’ve used all of the following this winter and included them here because I LOVE them. Many are products I’d continue using into the spring and summer months, but they are so good for delicate, sore winter skin.

Can’t-go-wrong skincare:

  • Antipodes Grapeseed Butter Cleanser – I raved about this a couple of weeks back. Have developed an unhealthy obsession with it – to the point where I’m probably only days away from anxiety dreams in which there are global shortages or – horrors – it is discontinued.
  • Spiezia Organic Facial Cleanser – I’ve been using this up alongside the new Antipodes one. It’s my morning shower option because the floral smell just suits mornings. I reviewed this here.
  • Antipodes Vanilla Pod Hydrating Day Cream – again, I love this. I’m not going to go on about it here because Antipodes deserves its own dedicated post and I’ll try and get to it soon.
  • REN Bio Retinoid Anti-Ageing Concentrate – featured in a rosehip update a few days back. Works beautifully under moisturiser. I’m not sure it would work alone on winter skin – I think you need a bit more nourishment. But oilier skins may find this is sufficient on its own during warmer months.
  • Original Sprout Face & Body Sunscreen – a new suncare discovery. I’ll feature it soon.
  • Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint – not strictly speaking skincare but my choice of winter SPF on days when I’m not outside a lot (or at all…). This is really moisturising and therefore soothing for dry or sore winter skin. I reviewed it here.

Happy bodies:

  • Yes to Carrots Hydrating shower gel and Yes to Cucumber Calming shower gel – lovely and soothing for the winter months, even if the fragrances are more spring-like…
  • Australian Organics Jojoba Oil Exfoliating body wash – it’s important to keep scrubbing throughout the winter but I usually opt for a less abrasive option if my skin is sensitive. This scrub is more of a body wash with added scrub so I can use it more often for a very little exfoliation each time. Smells heavenly too.
  • Barefoot Botanicals SOS Daily Rich body lotion – previously reviewed here and a must-buy for dry, scaly legs.
  • Dr Organics Skin Lotions – perfect lotions for use year-round and soon to feature in their very own review because they’ve become such staples for me. Richer options for winter skin include Coconut, Vitamin E, Olive oil and Argan oil.
  • Jojoba oil – while my skin needs a bit more moisturising in the winter months, I find it irritating to slather on something rich and heavy first thing if it means I have to wait 10-15 minutes to get dressed while it’s cold. Plus, if I had 10-15 minutes spare of a morning, I would actually be somebody else (someone who went to bed on time, got up immediately when their alarm went off and was eternally smug). I’m not. A super-quick option is to put a thin layer of body oil onto dry or damaged spots then layer your normal light moisturiser over the top. The moisturiser seals in the oil so you don’t have to wait out the tacky, when-will-it-sink-in stage. Jojoba oil is a good choice because it’s lightweight and closest in composition to the sebum found naturally on skin.

Resilient innards:

Ok, so listen up. I didn’t get ill this winter. Not once. I have been bug-free since about September of last year. This is UNHEARD of. I’m usually ill at least once and, more commonly, I get those Russian Doll illnesses where being run down and worn out from the first one leads to the second one and so on. I also have a bad habit of going to bed too late. Normally 3-4 late nights and I’m already feeling the early sniffles of some germ. But NOT THIS WINTER. And I’ve most certainly not been going virtuously to bed at 9pm every night.

I’ve been using three things consistently since September (and a bit before then too) and I would now never chance a winter without them.

  • Baobab fruit powder: for a turbo-charged hit of Vitamin C, amongst other goodies. Please don’t replace your 5-7 portions of fruit and veg a day with this. But feel free to take this when you need an extra hit. I don’t take it daily. I tend to reserve it for days when I’ve slept badly, eaten poorly the day before or am just feeling generally tired. I reckon it’s the last barrier between me and illness and it’s worked, more than once. Organic Burst do a great one. I reviewed them here.
  • Zinc supplements: recommended as a skin supplement by Liz Earle, zinc is actually an immune support. I initially started taking it for my eczema because a healthy immune system supports good skin in the same way that a healthy digestive system does (don’t you just love the glorious interconnectedness of bodies??). However, I reckon it’s also been a godsend for fending off winter bugs.
  • Vitamin D: I wrote about this here and swear by it for beating the lurgy. I’d take this for the 6 months of the year when I wasn’t getting enough vitamin D from the sun (Apr – Sept, if we’re lucky).

UPDATE (15.03): Thanks to a comment from the lovely Sarah at Sugarpuffish I realised there was a glaring omission from my winter skin kit – the Comfort and Nourish balms from Balmology. Currently there’s a pot of the Comfort balm on my bedside table and I use it for pretty much everything, from lips to hands to stubborn patches of eczema. It’s become such a part of my routine at night that I ironically forgot all about it. But that’s now been put right. If you haven’t already, check out balmology, particularly if you have dry or eczema-prone skin.

Photos © Natural Beauty Cabinet. Please do not reproduce without permission.

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If you’ve only got five minutes…check out Organic Burst

So I’m a sucker for the word ‘superfood’. And I’ve persisted in this despite repeated mocking by The Man With The Camera (or my husband for those new to the site…). I once made the mistake of trying to convince him to eat broccoli by telling him it was a superfood. Now any mention of a food being good for you is met with ‘Is it a superfood? IS it? A SUperfood? REally?’ in the kind of high-pitched voice usually reserved for those occasions when you’re trying to sound enthusiastic about a toddler’s artistic efforts.

But I still LOVE the idea of a superfood.

Partly because I am so passionate about the link between our diets and our health. But also because there are some foods that are a bit special and they deserve celebrating.

So when I stumbled across Organic Boost, providers of Soil Association-certified organic superfood supplements, I was a bit happy. I felt they fitted rather beautifully into my March detox (sick of hearing about that yet?? Oh, you wait!).

They provide a small range of carefully-selected supplements: Baobab powder to energise, Maca root powder for endurance, Wheatgrass powder for detoxing, Spirulina to nourish and Acai berry capsules, high in anti-oxidants, for anti-ageing.

I opted for Baobab and Wheatgrass, which I felt best supported what I wanted to get out of my body ‘spring-clean’.

Both powders can be mixed into water, juice or smoothies and they also suggest sprinkling the wheatgrass powder onto salads. The recommended dosage is 1-2 teaspoons per day (Baobab) and 1 teaspoon per day (wheatgrass). The baobab is rich in vitamin C (for energy and immune support), prebiotics (for a healthy digestive tract) and potassium (for a healthy nervous system). The wheatgrass is famed for its detoxifying properties, as well as being rich in Vitamin A and a potent alkaliser, helping to neutralise the effects of unhealthy acid-rich processed foods.

Crucially, they really don’t taste at all bad!

One teaspoon of baobab powder gives a normal-sized glass of water the slightest citrussy tang, with no unpleasant aftertaste. Even the wheatgrass powder – not really famed for its taste – is ok. A slight ‘green’, leafy taste that isn’t at all unpleasant.

I really like the idea of taking powders rather than just capsules. The ingredients are 100% crushed plant/fruit – you can’t get more straightforward than that. And I think I’ve noticed some effects. Coincidence or not, despite constant busyness and not quite enough sleep, I’ve kept going for the last few weeks and stayed bug free, despite coming into contact with some rather nasty colds. Which is enough to convince me to make the baobab powder a regular part of my diet. And I think I’ll come back to the wheatgrass powder a couple of times a year for an inner cleanse.

Considerably less than 5 minutes, one glass of water and a big, virtuous glug of goodness.

Organic Burst, Baobab £6.80 for 70g, Wheatgrass £5.50 for 60g.

[If you want to see more from 'If you've only got 5 minutes...', check out the menu on the right-hand side.]

 

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If you’ve only got 5 minutes…pop a pill

Hmmm, that sounds dodgy, doesn’t it??

But I’m actually talking about supplements.

Even with a reasonably healthy diet, it can be quite difficult to get all the things that you need on a daily basis. If you’ve got particular health concerns – the compromised skin barrier that can lead to problems like eczema, psoriasis or contact dermatitis, for example – it can be even harder.

Back in December, I went looking for something to support my skin through the cold months (and the seemingly inevitable eczema flare-ups I get every winter) and discovered Viridian. Their website is a great place to start. They organise their products by health priorities (like Skin, Bones, Brain, Heart, Digestion, etc) so you can get straight to what’s right for you. And eventually I decided on their Organic Beauty Oil and Ultimate Beauty Complex.

The oil is a balanced blend of the Omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids that are so important for many functions in the body, including a healthy skin. You take one or two tablespoons a day and you can drizzle it over your salad or a bowl of pasta. The Ultimate Beauty Complex is a more traditional capsule supplement comprised of the key vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that you need for optimum skin health, including selenium, copper, calcium and MSM.

And how did I get on? Well, I wouldn’t say that I’ve been a vision of loveliness throughout winter but that wasn’t the point. I did still get the chapped bits and the blotchy complexion when temperatures plummeted. But I didn’t get the eczema flare-ups. My skin was still dry, it just never reached that point where it was inflamed or infected. For the first winter in quite some time. And that is all the results I need.

But not all supplements are created equal and this is where Viridian score maximum points in my book. If you’re taking something for the health benefits it brings, you don’t want to be taking in any undesirables that you wouldn’t otherwise be consuming.

Some tablets and capsules contain glues or binders, just to hold them together. Others might contain magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide, stearic acid, shellac, talc or colourings. If we wouldn’t include them in our diets, we don’t want them in our supplements. So it’s important to buy from companies who apply the same rigor to their supplements as we’d expect from organic skincare producers.

Viridian, who style themselves as ‘the leading brand of ethical vitamins’ promise that their supplements are free from those undesirable additives above, so there’s plenty of room for the organic active ingredients we’re paying for. They’re also against animal testing and GM ingredients. But they go a step beyond that, making them a truly ethical supplier.

Their fresh tinctures and ointments are grown and made here in the UK, while the capsules and oils are manufactured here. They use minimal packaging, all of which is made from recycled or recyclable materials. And they’re also active with charities that support children and the environment having, to date, donated over £125,0o0 to charities such as Friends of the Earth, the NSPCC, Childline, The Woodland Trust and Save the Children.

All of which is a rather virtuous pill to be popping.

Viridian products are available from their website and selected health food stores. The Ultimate Beauty Oil costs from £9.50 for 200ml and the Ultimate Beauty Complex from £9.50 for 30 caps. UK delivery is free on orders over £30.

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Forever Living Aloe Vera

Today’s post is long overdue. Way back at the end of May, I met up with Amy Blakeman who is a distributor for Forever Living, a company who make a range of skincare and make-up products based on renowned skin healer aloe vera, and whose USP is their use of a patented stabilisation process to extract the aloe vera gel.

Many products contain aloe vera, often amongst many other ingredients. What Forever Living claim makes them special is that they start with the pure aloe vera gel, adding minimal additional ingredients as required. The aloe vera is not an afterthought. It’s the core of their products, in almost every case.

The patented stabilisation process allows them to extract the gel in a way that ensures it retains maximum purity. It is then cold-pressed to avoid the loss of efficacy through heating. Forever Living claim their unique process ensures the purest form of the gel, leaving it as close as possible to the natural sap taken straight from the plant.

Amy now represents the company because she believes in the products and their effects. She has strong ideas about healthcare – much like me! – and was well-informed and keen to help.

Forever Living sell a range of products covering the more traditional face and body care (moisturisers, lotions, gels, masks and creams). Some of these products combine the aloe with bee propolis, renowned for its anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and healing properties. I tried a sample of the Aloe Propolis Creme which combines aloe vera, bee propolis, chamomile and vitamins A and E. The cream has a very light fragrance that is reminiscent of honey but creamier. It is quite sweet and might not be to everyone’s taste but I quite liked its powdery hints of marshmallow (and The Man With The Camera told me I smelt nice as he walked through the door shortly after I tested it!).

Forever Living’s product info mentions that the cream creates a protective barrier on the skin and this is exactly what I can feel after applying. It’s quite a thick waxy cream but rubs in very easily and leaves a non-greasy film on the skin that would act as an effective barrier against dry weather. Even more important, I can’t rub off this layer: many products that leave that protective film can be rubbed off in little rolls if you try hard enough. Which I hate. This didn’t happen with the Aloe Propolis Creme, and I tried!

There’s no suggestion that the Aloe Propolis Creme is designed exclusively for face or body and I can see so many uses for it. It would be great for persistent dry patches, wherever they occur. I very much want to try it on the rosacea patches either side of my nose, particularly when they’re flaky as well as red. It would also be brilliant for mild eczema where my skin loses moisture really quickly and can get itchy and bumpy.

My one criticism is the price. I’d actually love to lather it from top to toe for a week or so, to really test out its effects but at £14.56 for just over 110g, that could prove quite expensive. Instead, I’ll use it more sparingly where it’s really needed.

While it’s quite common to find aloe vera in skin lotions, I’m really drawn to Forever Living’s more unusual uses of aloe.  There’s a fluoride-free tooth gel, aloe deodorant sticks and lastly, aloe gel drinks.

When I asked Amy what one product she would recommend starting with, she mentioned the aloe vera drinks. Taken as a supplement, aloe gel aids digestion, supports the immune system and protects the skin. It’s high in many essential vitamins and amino acids. Amy recommends a daily dose, taken first thing, of between 30 and 60ml. While it doesn’t taste great, it can be mixed with fruit juice or yoghurt to hide the bitterness. Apparently you can expect to see results (improved digestion, healthier skin) in 4-6 weeks.

I’m intrigued enough by the gel to want to give it a go so will take it for the next few weeks and report back.

In the meantime, you can find out more about Forever Living via Amy’s site here.

Ingredients: Stabilised aloe vera gel, glyceryl stearate, propylene glycol, cetyl alcohol, PEG-100 stearate, lanolin, sorbitol, dioctyl adipate, octyl stearate, octyl palmitate, allantoin, bee propolis extract, lanolin alcohol, dimethicone, tocopherol (vitamin E natural), beta carotene (provitamin A), disodium EDTA, camomile (anthemis nobulis) extract, triethanolamine, ascorbic acid, diazolidinyl urea, methylparaben, propylparaben, fragrance.

 

 

 

Ingredients: Stabilised aloe vera gel, sorbitol, antioxidant: ascorbic acid (antioxidant), citric acid, potassium sorbate (to help protect flavour), sodium benzoate (to help protect flavour), xanthan gum, antioxidant: tocopherol (antioxidant).

A quick note: while bee propolis can be very beneficial for people with congenital or allergic skin conditions, don’t use it if you’re allergic to bee stings or bee products. Some of Forever Living’s products also contain lanolin (including the Aloe Propolis Creme). While pure lanolin is unlikely to be an irritant, some allergic reactions have been recorded.