Category Archives: Other

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10-in-10: Wild Planet Lime & Bergamot Hand Wash

I’m sticking with my aromatherapy theme today because today’s 10-in-10 spotlight is shining on Wild Planet, a family-run business based in Kent who are devoted to sustainability, top quality organic ingredients and things that just smell lovely.

Founder Eileen Holford talks on her website about her passion for essential oils and I completely understand where she’s coming from. It never ceases to amaze me that one tiny dark bottle can pack such an olfactory punch and, if it’s a scent that means something to you personally, one whiff can unlock memories and emotions that you haven’t revisited in years. Combine that with their therapeutic potential and you have a raw ingredient that beats synthetic fragrances hands down.

I was sent the Wild Planet Lime & Bergamot Hand Wash to try and it’s brought a touch of summer to my otherwise wintry bathroom. It’s a real impact fragrance, fresh, zesty, sharp and penetrating. There’s not a hint of the artificial either; you really do feel like you’re smelling limes basking in the glow of a mediterranean sun.

It performs well as a handwash too, cutting through grease and dirt without drying out the skin. I don’t tend to use handcream that often – ironically for someone so passionate about natural oils, I get a bit squeamy about trying to go about my day with a thin film of cream or oil on my hands – so it matters to me that washes don’t leave your hands feeling tight and uncomfortable.

I also used the hand wash as a shower gel a couple of times and can confirm it’s non drying all over! Although I should point out that Wild Planet do sell a Lime & Bergamot Shower Gel too…..In fact, you could turn your entire home into a bergamot and lime grove by indulging in the other products in the range (body washes, body lotions, candles and home diffusers are all on offer). But there are other scents on offer, so if you’re more floral than citrus, there should be something for you too.

All in all, I reckon that workshop in the Kent countryside must be a pretty lovely place to be.

Wild Planet Lime & Bergamot Hand Wash, £11.95, available from the Wild Planet website and these stockists.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Potassium Cocoate (derived from Coconut oil*), Potassium Oleate (derived from Sunflower oil*), Lauryl Betaine, Glycerin*, Benzyl Alcohol, Potassium Palm Kernelate, Palm Kernel Acid, Decyl Glucoside, Potassium Citrate, Cymbopogon Flexuosus (Lemongrass*) oil, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime*) oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot*) oil, Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin*) oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary*) oil, Limonene**, Citral**, Linalool**, Geraniol**, Citronellol**, Eugenol**,  *certified organic, **occurs naturally in essential oils

Disclosure: Wild Planet were kind enough to send me a sample of the product trialled for this review. However, in keeping with my own policy, I’m writing about it here because I like it and would happily recommend it to others.

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Blitzing blemishes: Origins Super Spot remover

I don’t really get spots. But before you get all ‘oh well it’s alright for SOME’, I shall clarify that a bit.

I don’t get spots plural.

My skin tends to save itself up and every so often I’ll get one mammoth SPOT. The kind that looks like it might one day break free from my face and go on a rampage. One great big, red, shiny, painful spot.

When the spot arrives I know that I should completely ignore it. I know I shouldn’t under any circumstances pick at it or attempt to squeeze it but I do, I do and then it sticks around for days and days while I hate myself and swear I’ll never pick at my face again, until the next time.

This time, a completely unexpected thing happened after I picked a bit at the spot. Another spot grew. In another part of my face. Then a third one appeared on my chin. All just as big and red and shiny and painful as each other. Three spots at once was just too much to handle. My germ-infested hands were now spreading the spot around my face. So I went into full on action mode.

Firstly, I finally started doing all the things that I knew full well I should already be doing. Changing my muslin cloths once a day. Not touching my face at all. Definitely not squeezing the new spots. And I went out to the John Lewis beauty department and looked for something to help speed up the healing process.

I wanted to dry out the spots without drying my skin too much. Enter Origins Super Spot remover. It contains salicylic acid and witch hazel to help dry out the spot and promote healing. It also boasts caffeine and red algae, which it claims helps to reduce redness. And it seemed to work. Within a couple of days, the three musketeers were a little less red and a lot less painful. I could feel a tightness in the skin but that was mostly down to the little seal the gel formed over each spot, helping to keep the dirt out and encouraging me to keep my fingers well clear.

A couple more days down the line and all trace of the lumps was gone. Because my skin marks easily, you can still see where the spots were but that will fade in a few more days.

So Origins Super Spot Remover does what it says it will. Be careful not too apply too liberally. You only need a tiny bit and you should apply to the spot only, trying as best as you can to avoid the surrounding skin.

And next time I see a SPOT, I will dab a bit on and all will be well.

Origins Super Spot Remover, £12 from the Origins website, Boots and John Lewis stores.

Ingredients: aqua, alcohol denat, acrylates/c10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, salicylic acid, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel), eugenia caryophyllus (clove) bud oil, origanum heracleoticum flower oil, eugenol, limonene, cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract, malus (apple) fruit extract, scutellaria baicalensis root extract, algae extract, poria cocos sclerotium extract, laminaria saccharina extract, lactobacillus ferment, glycerin, caffeine, butylene glycol, tocopheryl acetate, magnesium ascorbyl phosphate, sodium hydroxide, phenoxyethanol

 

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The pits

The armpits, to be precise.

Deodorant is boring. It’s a purely functional product, particularly if you’re like me. I don’t do fragranced deodorants. If you can smell my armpits, even if they smell all perfumey, then something’s gone wrong. I want incognito pits. No one should ever be noticing them.

A while back, armpits got all exciting. There was a whole great debate about aluminium in underarm deodorants and whether or not it blocked pores or led to breast cancer. A quick flick through the current research reveals that the jury is still largely out. But it seems pointless to take the risk, particularly with a product that I wear every single day. Just because I want low profile pits, doesn’t mean I take any less of a stringent, natural-focused approach to the products I pick.

I’ve experimented in the past but I now swear by just one deodorant. I’ve used it for years. Literally forever. It’s actually – for something so very uninspiring – probably the most repurchased item in my bathroom (if you discount loo roll).

Pitrok. Stick or spray – although I’m currently favouring the spray. It’s based on natural mineral salts, although the spray also contains aloe vera and grapefruit. It has NO smell (although I’ve noticed they have just brought out a fragranced version, if you really do want pits that smell of flowers). It works ALL day (even in the warmer weather). And I can’t see myself ever using anything else.

One small caveat. It’s not an antiperspirant. It won’t stop you sweating. What it will do, is prevent you from smelling when you do sweat. The sweat glands under your arms are apocrine glands. Unlike the eccrine glands found in abundance all over your body, apocrine glands release oils and fats in the sweat they produce. These substances then react with bacteria on the surface of the skin and start to smell. Deodorant kills the bacteria. No bacteria, no reaction, no smell.

And if you like a little more pizzazz from your deodorant, Pitrok have just revamped their packaging. The new look is a bit less clinical and a bit more fun.

Available from Boots, Superdrug and most supermarkets. Spray approx £4.95, Stick approx £6.35.

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Quash it!

Anti-bacterial hand gel has become a bit of a fact of life now. I remember when Swine flu was in the news every day and industrial-sized containers of the stuff appeared in our work toilets accompanied by strongly worded notices reminding us that our hands were germy playgrounds.

It’s definitely the case that the odd squirt of the stuff can help to keep some of the winter bugs at bay and if you’re venturing into a hospital it really should be enshrined in law that you de-bug your hands before you start touching everything in sight.

But what do you do if your hands are already a bit dry, chapped or sore? Many conventional hand gels are mostly alcohol, which makes them uber-drying (as well as eye-searingly pungent). I find that my winter hands just can’t cope with lots of washing with detergents or regular dowsing in alcohol. Which is a particular problem for my massage practice as it’s more important than ever that my hands are clean when I’m working.

Then I discovered Quash via Twitter and it has solved all my problems. It’s a hand sanitiser but it’s also alcohol-free and 100% ‘natural’. Natural is a tricky word as there’s no common definition, but there’s not much on the ingredients list that I don’t recognise. Like anything, don’t overuse it. Any ingredient, even a natural one like an essential oil, can become an irritant or sensitiser if your skin is over-exposed. But if you want to de-bug your hands without leaching all the moisture out of them, then Quash is most definitely your answer.

It’s a spray solution, not a gel and the bottle indicates that two ‘squirts’ will be enough each time. My 50ml bottle contains 250 ‘squirts’ so if you used it twice a day, you should have enough for about two months. At £3.56 that’s pricer than many hand sanitisers but pretty reasonable. You can also buy 15ml handbag-sized bottles for £2.03, or you can save a bit by buying bundles on the Quash website.

It doesn’t smell amAZing but equally it doesn’t smell strongly at all and is certainly a lot less noticeable than that solventy smell you get from the alcohol-based gels.

All-in-all, a new handbag must-have.

Quash: from £2.03, available at Waitrose, Sainsburys, Planet Organic, Whole foods and the Quash website.

Ingredients: Aqua, Manuka honey +20, Aloe vera,  Zinc PCA, White willow bark extract, Radish root filtrate, Stay C50 (liquid vitamin C), White tea solubiliser, Lavender essential oil, Lime essential oil