Category Archives: News

by

FreeFrom Skincare Awards 2013 – the winners are announced

I wrote a little while back about the FreeFrom Skincare Awards and just recently, after a period of intensive judging, the winners were announced. I love events like this because they help bring the wealth of high-quality green and organic beauty options to the fore, as well as being one of the best ways to find out about great new brands and untried products from brands you might already be familiar with.

Now in their 2nd year, the FreeFrom Skincare Awards were established to recognise skincare brands that were ‘free from’ the allergens, chemicals, additives and artificial fragrances that cause so many issues with skin sensitivity, allergies and other health or skin concerns. They’re run by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson – editor of the FoodsMatter.com websites – and Alex Gazzola, deputy editor of SkinsMatter.com and a health writer specialising in allergies.

You can be pretty sure of the recommendations as well. The winners are chosen via a long, four-stage judging process culminating in a month-long review by independent testers recruited by the FreeFrom Skincare Awards associates, the Green Beauty Bible. These aren’t people with any affiliations to the brands. They’re just normal consumers who try the products for themselves and recommend what they love. The gongs were handed out at the Allergy + FreeFrom Show at Olympia this weekend. I’d love to have been at the Show but I was enjoying some incredible sunshine in the Peak District (I’m sure pictures will follow…).  Hopefully I’ll make it next year.

Here’s the list of winners. If you fancy giving any of them a go, let me know how you get on.

Overall Winner – Best ‘Free From’ Skincare Product

Barefoot SOS Face & Body Rescue Cream (for Hand and Body Care ‘Leave On’ Category)

Runners-up

Eve of St Agnes Nourishing Cleansing Cream

Gentle Green Soothing Cream

Suti Rejuvenate Organic Face Oil

Thea Age Revival Dream Crème Exfoliator

Best ‘Free From’ Skincare Brand

Gold: Neal’s Yard Remedies

Silver: Suti

Bronze: Green People / Botanicals

Category Winners

Babies, Kids and Mums

Gold: Neal’s Yard Remedies Mothers Balm

Silver: Green People Mother and Baby Rescue Balm

Bronze: Inner-Soul Organics Mum’s Special Breast Soothing Oil / Bentley Organic Mother & Baby Hand Sanitizer

Men’s Grooming

Gold: Live Native Head to Toe for Men Remedial Moisturiser

Silver: Bathing Beauty Up Close Men’s Shave Oil

Bronze: Spiezia Organics Nourishing Face Balm

Hair Care

Gold: Essential Care Gentle Herb Shampoo

Silver: Suncoat Natural Hair Calming Serum

Bronze: Fushi Wellbeing Really Good Hair Oil

Hand and Bodycare (‘Leave on’)

Gold: Barefoot SOS Face & Body Rescue Cream (Overall Winner)

Silver: Alison Claire Mango Body Butter / Blend Collective Unwinding Hand Cream / Organic Surge Lavender Meadow Hand & Nail Cream

Bronze: Elixirs of Life Gardeners Life Hand Cream / Mary Elizabeth Spearmint and Tea Tree Nurture Balm

Hand and Bodycare (‘Take Off’)

Gold: Le Belle Skincare Detoxifying Body Polish

Silver: Dr Bronner’s Magic 18-in-1 Hemp Almond Pure-Castile Soap

Bronze: Pevonia Ligne Tropicale De-Ageing Papaya-Pineapple Saltmousse / Buddha Beauty Lemongrass & Bergamot Organic Body Scrub

Oils and Oil Serums

Gold: Suti Rejuvenate Face Oil

Silver: Laidbare From Dusk til Dawn Vitamin C Serum / Neal’s Yard Remedies Rejuvenating Frankincense Facial Oil

Bronze: Green People Anti-Ageing Facial Oil / Inlight Daily Face Oil

Make-up

Gold: Herbfarmacy Nail and Cuticle Oil

Silver: NATorigin Pencil Eye Liner / Neal’s Yard Remedies Lipstick (Pomegranate)

Bronze: Jane Iredale Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain / NATorigin Lengthening Mascara

Face Care (‘Take Off’)

Gold: Eve of St Agnes Nourishing Cleansing Cream / Thea Age Revival Dream Crème Exfoliator

Silver: Botanicals Rose and Camellia Cleansing Melt / MuLondon Organic Fragrance-Free Foaming Face Wash / Saaf Pure Face Cleanser / Suti Cleanse Facial Cleansing Balm

Bronze: AEOS Cleansing Oil de-Maq / A’kin Rose & Geranium Pure Creamy Cleanser & Toner in One / Angela Langford Clean Sweep Cleansing Balm / Circaroma Skin Gentle Cleansing Drops Rose Otto and Aloe Leaf

Face Care (‘Leave On’)

Gold: Barefoot SOS Face & Body Rescue Cream

Silver: Antipodes Natural Avocado Pear Nourishing Night Cream / Green People Scent Free 24-Hour Cream

Bronze: Sukin Sensitive Facial Moisturiser

Problem Skin

Gold: Gentle Green Soothing Cream

Silver: Botanicals Lavender and Camomile Botanical Balm / Herbfarmacy Skin Rescue Balm

Bronze: Live Native Everybody Every Day Low-allergenic Moisturiser

A full list of winners, shortlisted and commended products is available on the SkinsMatter.com site:
http://www.freefromskincareawards.co.uk

by

BIG NEWS…

…I MOVED HOUSE!!

(I promise not to write the rest of this post in capitals, even though I reeeeeeally want to.)

After 18 fairly gruelling months trying to sell our house and buy another (sounds simple on paper right?), we finally did it. There’s boxes everywhere, my underwear drawer is currently in the conservatory, I am constantly losing my keys in the jumble and my entire shoe collection was living in the boot of my car until yesterday evening, but I’m loving every second.

Home is now a cottagey-feeling 2-bed in Wallingford, with light streaming through the windows and red kites spiralling overhead.

I learned a lot about what’s important to me in my home during this process. I know everyone says that once you close the door, it doesn’t matter what’s outside. But it turns out I’m an outside-in kind of home-maker. Shutting the world out makes me feel a bit oppressed after a while. I need to see green and light, and ideally distance. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been staring at a screen all day and you just need to see the horizon to create a bit of space in your head? It’s like that. I’m so lucky to be in a place where all three are possible and it’s felt transformative (even while scrubbing the accumulated muck of a 1000 dog walks out of the kitchen floor on moving day).

Ages ago, The Man with the Camera sent me this.

We’d just put the old house on the market and were experiencing an emotional wobble at not knowing quite what was coming next. It’s one man’s heartfelt plea to his buyer to look beyond the bricks and mortar that’s for sale, to the big thumping heart in the walls and under the floors. I thought it was really lovely.

It sounds horribly corny (sorry about this…) but it feels like I never fully unpacked my heart and soul in our previous house. It just wasn’t that house. It was the ‘it’ll do for now’ house that just ended up sticking a bit longer than planned. THIS house feels like that house. The one that you love and look after and put down roots in. The one that you put your heart in, for the good, bad and the inbetween stuff.

Now, if I could just find my keys…

house_5

by

Happy Easter! A giveaway and some more rosehippy love

I appreciate that it’s still trying very hard to be winter. Yesterday I drove up to the midlands through flurries of sleet, admiring the occasional snow drift piled up on the hard shoulder of the M40. I’ve had to stop torturing myself by looking at photos of myself from this time last year, wearing short sleeves (SHORT SLEEVES!) and looking all like I’m NOT suffering from chillblains.

BUT Happy Easter! all the same. To help us soldier through – and to give our winter-ravaged skin some much needed love – the kind people at Rio Rosa Mosqueta have given me a bottle of their rosehip oil to give away. My love for rosehip permeates the NBC so I won’t repeat myself here. But if you’d like to know more, have a look here and here.

And if you’d like to be entered into the draw for the bottle of Rio Rosa Mosqueta Rosehip Oil, it’s ever so simple.

1. Leave me a comment below.

2. Remember to tell me how you follow the blog – email or twitter.

I’ll leave the giveaway open till next weekend and then I’ll announce the winner.

c49eb70c-240f-4fa0-bc48-6e55069e51b8-1

NBC x

by

NEWS: Snippets and morsels

I’ve been accumulating some news-related bits and pieces and realised that I really needed to get them up on the blog before they were consigned to fish and chip wrappings… So in no particular order:

The EU is going to ban animal testing (snippet courtesy of thetruthaboutbeauty)

From 11th March, the import and sale of animal-tested cosmetic products and – crucially – ingredients is to be banned inside the EU. This doesn’t just mean that animal testing is banned inside the EU. It means that companies wishing to sell products, covering beauty products through to basics like toothpaste and soap, can’t test them on animals anywhere else in the world either. This result is the culmination of many years of hard work by non-profit organisation Cruelty Free International and The Body Shop. While it’s sad that you still need to hit some organisations in the bank account to effect ethical change, this legislative decision will hopefully put pressure on those countries that still support the testing of cosmetic products on animals to rethink their approach.

And the Award goes to…..

The entertainment industry is gearing up for the Oscars but there’s plenty planned for the world of Natural and Organic beauty as well. In the same way that you can get film tips from the Oscars and reading tips from the Booker, the list of winners from Beauty awards can be a great place to get inspiration for new brands to try and new developments in natural and organic products.

  • Freefrom Skincare Awards – If you make freefrom skincare, you can enter your products until the deadline on the 15th February. The awards will be announced at the Allergy & Freefrom Show at London Olympia in early June. Previous winners (see more here) include brands I’ve featured like Spiezia, Barefoot Botanicals and Faith in Nature, as well as my new passion Antipodes. (snippet courtesy of sugarpuffish)
  • Natural & Organic products, Europe – Hosted in association with the Soil Association and Natural Products Magazine, the Natural & Organic Awards take place on the 7-8th April at London’s Olympia. You can find out more about the categories and 2012′s winners (including Pukka and one of my personal favourites Sophyto) here.
  • Natural Health Beauty Awards – Launched 6 years ago, these awards cover 50 categories. For the first time since they launched, the awards will have a dedicated presentation at the The Organic & Natural Beauty Show on the 2nd June at Excel London. Find out more about the categories and the show here.

Awareness saves lives

There are many events to promote breast cancer awareness and most of us are aware of the importance of regular self-examination and how to recognise significant changes in our bodies. Ovarian cancer, like all cancers, has a better prognosis if it’s caught early but I’m not sure as many people know what they should be aware of. I certainly don’t; I struggled to list the signs and symptoms with any confidence.

March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and one of the challenges set by Target Ovarian Cancer is to let 50 women know about the symptoms of ovarian cancer. Below are the signs and symptoms taken directly from Target Ovarian Cancer’s information leaflet (which you can download here). I’m conscious that almost all are common things many of us will experience without having cancer and it’s all too easy to be anxious about these things. So I’ve also included a list of useful and reputable links for further information. And above all else, if you’re ever concerned about your health don’t waste valuable time and energy worrying alone. Just see your GP.

“Ovarian cancer symptoms are:

  • frequent – they usually happen more than 12 times a month
  • persistent – they don’t go away
  • new– they are not normal for you and may have started in the last year

Symptoms:

  • persistent pelvic or abdominal pain (that’s your tummy and below)
  • increased abdominal size
  • persistent bloating – not bloating that comes and goes
  • difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
  • urinary symptoms (needing to wee more urgently or more often than usual)

Occasionally there are other symptoms:

  • changes in bowel habit
  • extreme fatigue (feeling very tired)
  • unexplained weight loss”

For information on Ovarian Cancer, see:

If you’d like to take part in activities to raise awareness in March, get some inspiration on Target Ovarian Cancer’s website and start planning!

by

NEWS: Bargain lovelies

In 2013, I’m going to introduce a series of ‘NEWS’ posts. The plan is that they’ll cover the snippets I pick up on a daily basis, new product launches, new brands, sales, developments in product labelling and law, events, aromatherapy stuff, interesting news items with an environmental or beauty twist. That sort of thing. To be honest, that’s as much of a plan as I’ve got at the moment. If they end up being about what I had for breakfast, I apologise.

Don’t know how often they’ll come along. I guess when I’ve got something interesting to say.

And on that note……it’s SALE TIME! I actually don’t get too excited about the sales at this time of year. We live in a world of perma-sales online. There’s always a bargain to be had somewhere. But a few extra bargains isn’t a bad thing, so here’s a few to check out.

  • The new M&S beauty halls launched in 2012 have a few more natural offerings (many of which are on my to try list for next year). The M&S sale started online at noon on Christmas Eve and is in stores from Boxing Day. Not sure if it’ll include Beauty but it’s well worth a look. Check out Acca Kappa, Apivita, Skyn Iceland, I Coloniali and Australian Native Botanicals
  • The online sale at spacenk.com starts just after midnight on Boxing Day. They stock Aromatherapy Associates, which will definitely be in the sale according to Beauty Mouth.
  • Beautiful skincare and wellbeing site CONTENT has a sale page.
  • Lovelula has an awesome sale page. At the time of writing (lunchtime on the 23rd) there were products from brands like Bodhi, Madara and Barefoot Botanicals at over 55% off and Korres at more than 75% off.
  • It’s always worth looking at the sale page at my regular haunt, Naturisimo.
  • ASOS isn’t always the first site I think of for beauty but they will DEFINITELY have a sale on (the 50% off sale is on now…) and they stock Bareminerals, Cowshed, Dr Bronner, Elemental Herbology, John Masters, Jurlique, Korres, Neal’s Yard, REN, Steamcream and Yes to Carrots. Much more than I expected. Hopefully at least some of it will be discounted.

I bet there’s lots more and I’ll update with any new ones I hear about. Add your suggestions to the comments!

Update: Get 20% off at Amarya while stocks last (includes Trilogy, Santaverde, Neal’s Yard and Madara).

Update (14.01.13): Get up to 50% off at Aromatherapy Associates while stocks last.

by

A good cause…Think Pink

Seems that I blinked and another few weeks snuck by without any blogging. I’m so sorry for my repeated awols recently. It probably won’t surprise regular readers to know that I had another exam and descended into the usual fug of oblivion.

But I’m going to gradually get back on it. No more exams (AHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!! that was just a snippet of my inner glee…). Just the small matter of 57 case study hours still to log before I’m a fully qualified aroma- and massage therapist.

But still. Should be a bit more time for blogging. I hope so anyway because I haven’t stopped noting down ideas so I’ve loads of things stored up.

I wanted to start with a subject close to the hearts of many of us and something that’s popping up a lot at the moment. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there’s a whole host of things going on. If you want to find out more about Breast Cancer Care, including how to make a donation or organise an event, do have a look at the website:
http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk/

You can also find the usual pink products out there helping to raise money for the cause. I know some people have strong feelings about the commodification of breast cancer and it’s always a bit alarming to see the speed at which a positive initiative becomes a profit-driven enterprise. But I do think the key is picking your products carefully. Don’t compromise your principles because it’s got a pink label. In much the same way as greenwashing, there are some companies doing a fair amount of ‘pinkwashing’. Not all tie-in products are created equal and I personally share British Beauty Blogger’s feelings about companies who produce ‘pink’ products with no info about the proportion of the retail price that’s going to the charity. Some products deliver a nice whack to the charity, others come in a little bit lower. Those that don’t give any figures? I can only assume it’s an embarassingly small amount.

Anyways. I started wondering about what was out there this year and how many green options might be on offer.

Here’s a quick run down of the ‘pinky-greens’ I found.

For those who, like me, justify eating chocolate by buying the really good stuff check out ethical chocolatiers Organic Seed & Bean. They’re donating 10% of the price of each Rich Milk Chocolate Bar (RRP £2.29) to Andi’s Fund for Breast Cancer Campaign.

Origins have produced a nifty little key ring attachment containing mini tubes of two of their  best-selling products: a hand-hydrating treatment (Make a Difference) and a reviving pulse point balm. Interestingly the latter is called ‘Peace of Mind On the Spot’, which initially made me think of acne. Not quite what they intend based on the blurb. Anyways, it’s £10 with £2 going to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Aveda’s Hand Relief is available in a larger size with £2 of the £19 RRP going to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Aveda don’t post ingredients lists on their website (which is always annoying) but I’ve tried a couple of their body products in the past and they have always smelled wonderful and been clear of the usual nasties.

 

And finally, worth a mention because it generously pledges 100% of the £55 retail price (less VAT) to the charity, is Evelyn Lauder’s Dream Compact from Estee Lauder. It’s a translucent pressed powder in a beautifully designed compact case. I haven’t tried it, I don’t know anything about the green credentials of Estee Lauder. It’s just a really good donation.

And don’t forget. Ladies and blokes. Give yours a regular squeeze.

by

AWOL

Wow, it’s been a long time since I was on here. I thought it was ‘a couple of weeks’ and turns out it’s nearer a month. I have various excuses for you if you’re interested…

  • Excuse 1 – my laptop charger broke, leaving me with a fully functioning laptop and no way of charging it for over a week. Not the best excuse in the world given it started working again out of the blue nearly 2 weeks ago now…
  • Excuse 2 – THE OLYMPICS!! Go TEAM GB!!! We’re all distracted by that right?
  • Excuse 3 – I had a massive post-exam eczema flare up which was clearly triggered by a higher than normal, sustained period of stress. Don’t believe in the links between stress and the skin? They are real. Believe me (poor itchy scratchy me). Having said that, this isn’t a good excuse either. Instead of using the issue as a good way to test out some new natural remedies I just got all grumpy and decided that the only real way to cure it was to watch entire series of Downton Abbey on DVD. It’s not, btw. Although Downton is truly stupendous and I may well not rest entirely easily until series 3 starts later in the year.
  • Excuse 4 – I worked really really hard for 10 months and it turns out 2 weeks wasn’t enough time to get myself back on track. This is probably the real excuse. You know that feeling of tiredness that is more emotional and intellectual than physical? I haven’t been sleepy, as such. I’ve just not had any energy. The kind of energy that gets you up and going, and keeps you motivated and focused. It just hasn’t been there. It’s coming back a bit now though. Not before time really, given it’s 6 weeks till my final exam…
  • Excuse 5 – I am lazy. Sometimes. But I strive to be better.

 

by

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATURAL BEAUTY CABINET!

It snuck up on me a bit and I very nearly missed it, but today – 8th April – is the first birthday of the Natural Beauty Cabinet!

One year ago today, it was gloriously sunny and I decided to do something I’d been thinking about for a while.

Now it’s a whole year later and this will be my 120th post.

I’ve learned some things, found some things, been some places and discovered how satisfying it is to build something out of nothing. So I thought I’d do a little retrospective of some of the bits I like the most.

Like one of my favourite gardens.

Like the fact that I’m now MUCH more aware of just what’s in the bottles I use.

Like making a bit of a mess of my bathroom. Twice.

Like learning about some of the great small businesses out there and the lovely people behind them.

Discovering some real hero products I probably wouldn’t otherwise have found: like this one, this one, this one and this one.

Like doing my research.

Like getting hitched. And my first few days as a married lady.

Starting my aromatherapy course and learning things like this, and this.

Like my first guest post!

Like changing the way I think. About a few things.

Like being a lot more productive.

Like focusing on my insides as well as my outsides.

The most significant change in the last year though, is you guys. A year ago, I didn’t have any readers at all. Unless you count my nearest and dearest – thanks mum! thanks sis! and thanks lovely mates who I’ll leave to their anonymity! But fortunately, a few people have stopped by since. One of the nicest bits of the blogging process has been the people who come to visit the site to read, to comment and to browse. To my absolute joy, some of them come back and some have subscribed. If someone had explained how warm and fuzzy it would make me, just to know that far-away people are reading my words, I’d have started doing this long before I did.

So now it’s over to you. For those of you who’ve been reading for a while and those who are here for the first time – what do you want to read about? I’ve had a look back over some of my favourite bits, but I’d love to know what you think. And, where possible, I’ll try and give you a bit more of what you want.

Unless what you want is a detailed treatise on the interspecific courtship rituals of the male fruit fly. If you do, I suspect there are other blogs out there for you.

Thanks for reading, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you. x

Photo(s): ©Natural Beauty Cabinet

by

22nd March – National ‘No make-up’ day

Yesterday was National ‘No make-up’ Day and I found out about it earlier in the week in an email about the Vitality Show (on this weekend at Earl’s Court in London – click here for details).

In a study commissioned by the Vitality Show it turns out that the majority of women (62%) wear make-up every day to work compared to just 20% who only wear make-up at weekends.

Now I don’t think this study is interesting because it’s about women wearing make-up. Many, many women wear make-up and we know that already. A few can’t leave the house without it. Some women even get up extra early to put on make-up so they can ‘wake up’ next to their other half looking flawless.

I think the study is interesting because of what it says about when we wear make-up. My hunch is that weekend make-up is probably glamming up for an evening out. Whereas, week make-up is that professional face, for work, like a uniform. At the weekend, no one has too many expectations of you. But in the week, it’s a whole different story.

I would describe my make-up as the ‘No make-up look’. I wear relatively little but the idea of a day at the office with no make-up on was weirdly difficult to imagine. Which, of course, meant I had to give it a go. The rules? Absolutely not a scrap at all. Just moisturiser and lip balm. Untinted.

Interestingly, it changed my routine almost from the moment I woke up. I soaked my muslin cleansing cloth in cold not warm water. Couldn’t risk patchy redness. I used my L’Occitane Shea Butter moisturiser (to be reviewed soon…). Intensely moisturising but with quite a matt finish. Couldn’t risk the shininess. Then I actually used the cold spoon trick on my eyes to try and reduce that just-woken-up puffiness. I have NEVER used the cold spoon. I’m not convinced it worked.

I wasn’t feeling brilliant when I left for the office. I’d actually had a decent night’s sleep but I felt I looked tired and perhaps a bit peaky. My eyes looked little. Littler than normal, and I very often skip eye make-up all together anyway. If the aim was to find out what product I couldn’t live without? Turns out it’s all about the skin: primer, base (usually tinted moisturiser – Laura Mercier or Liz Earle) and blusher. Most days, that’s all I use. But without it, I felt all blotchy, uneven and drawn.

When I got to work, it was like I’d turned up without brushing my hair or my teeth. I didn’t feel unclean as such, just unfinished in a slightly unsettling way. I ran into a colleague on my way into the building and was a bit horrified to find that, while chatting, I was thinking more about whether they’d think I was ill or just a bit lazy, rather than really listening to what they were saying. Terrible, shallow person, my brain muttered.

Then an interesting thing happened. I just kind of forgot. Stuff happened, I got busy, I was chatting and working and flitting around. And I didn’t really give it much of a thought. On a trip to the bathroom, I’d looked twice before I remembered I was bare-faced. And when I looked closely at my skin, it looked a bit fresher than normal – when you’ve got dry skin, it’s quite rare to find a base that doesn’t dry it out just the tiniest bit over the course of the day.

I really wasn’t that bothered. I really wasn’t that self-conscious after all.

Would I do it again? Perhaps. On a day when I know I’m meeting free, confined to my desk and wanting to give my skin the chance to breathe a bit. I never want to be controlled by cosmetics. I’m quite happy that I can leave the house without make-up and I don’t rely on it for my self-esteem. But I learned that make-up for the office serves a completely different purpose to weekend make-up. It’s not just about being self-conscious; it’s about identity. My make-up for work, while pretty basic, is as much a part of my professional persona as my clothes, tone of voice or body language. Turning up with a bare (slightly shiny) face felt like the cosmetics equivalent of wearing jeans to an important meeting.

Make-up for work is so much more than just covering up the odd blemish or trying to fake an 8-hour sleep the night before. Paying a little attention to your face, much like your clothes, demonstrates a level of polish, commitment and care. It makes me feel like I’m in ‘work mode’. A bit like brushing my hair.

Or very occasionally using an iron. After all, there is a line.

by

Happy Christmas from The Natural Beauty Cabinet…x

Just a little note to say that the Natural Beauty Cabinet and I are going to be off until 4th January having a well-earned break and eating a mince pie (or 10).

I hope you all have truly wonderful Christmases and thank you so much for reading this year. Having regular visitors to the site is like a Christmas present all year round!

Don’t forget that I’ve got a competition running over the Christmas period. Enter and you could win a Barefoot Botanicals Soothing Face & Body Wash. Just click here for details.

Do come back to visit in the New Year. I’ve got lots lined up for 2012!

Photo(s): ©Natural Beauty Cabinet