It’s spring….officially. But you wouldn’t know it in Hobart today which is blanketed in thick white rainclouds leaking a miserable steady rain- and very chilly to boot!

However having had such a dry winter, it is wonderful to see the plants, trees and grass burst out into a verdant carpet virtually overnight- little green buds on my quince ( oooer Missus, I’d get that seen to!)

I have to say that is one of the things that enchanted me when I first came to Tasmania on a motorbike all those years ago (seems like yesterday!) and one of the reasons that I like it here…the intense palette of greens that compose the landscape,the bush and paddocks- a million hues, which shift and change with the light.

What blew me away when I first saw them ( remember I was just newly arrived city gal rubbernecking at everything) and still does, was the incredible apple orchards in the Huon Valley, which, when massively laden with thick clots of glossy ruby apples in season, are simply mouthwatering, visually….the sheer fecundity of the soil, the colours, abundance…it looks like every apple has been individually airbrushed by Disney’s Pixar studios, too perfect to believe to believe that they had not been “Photoshopped”!

The cows in the malachite green spring paddocks are the same, so clean and white against the intense verbiage…amazing, and no, I have not been hitting the apple cider that the region produces in order to wax lyrical! We do get our fabulous natural apple cider for our Apple Cider and Herb Conditioning Rinse from here however, and apart from bringing gloss and shine to your hair after using our natural soap shampoo bars could make a very fine salad dressing too!

One of the endearing things too, in Tassie, is the roadside apple/veggie/jam stalls, or my favourite- the fridge at Lucaston Orchards filled with their mouthwatering cloudy fresh apple juice- relying on honesty boxes ( admittedly these days much sturdier in construction, and bolted down securely) from which you can claim your prize and drive off happy.

All this produce speaks of one root and branch activity ( forgive the pun) which is a mystery to me…gardening.

Tasmania has some of Australia’s most fabulous gardens I gather,but I’m afraid this arcane art form is lost on me..all I can produce is twitch ( couchgrass for northern hemisphere readers I believe) these days on my little quarter acre suburban plot, due to lack of activity/interest.

Unfortunate really, since my grandmother produced a massive crop of veggies that fed us all when I was little, and a remember hours pleasantly spent in a companionable silence shucking ( and surreptitiously eating) sweet, crunchy peas.

I began well, and upon buying the house 15 years ago, enthusiastically planted an apothecary garden, with a particular emphasis on bee attracting plants, an obvious choice given my interest in and use of herbs in the business, but soon found out that apart from the fact that weeds ALWAYS win, that constant maintainence was required.

Boring, boring boring.

I just don’t get it…all that backbreaking weeding, it is relentless, and quickly buggers your hands, if like me you have the beginnings of arthritis from screwing the lids onto a million jars of face cream!

I therefore only planted those things that I use a lot of like Kaffir lime, lemon savory ( DIVINE with fish/chicken) bay and rosemary, which are all very hardy and require NO attention.

My pomegranate tree has struggled in the cold, but produced small fruit despite the inattention, and I have to say I am just stunned by my quince tree, which produced a whole 12 ( count ‘em!) quinces last year ( WOW!)….I had never tried the fruit until I moved to Aus, but it is simply the most delicious thing in the whole world gently stewed in a slow cooker with star anise and cinnamon for 8 hours to a rose blush/ruby red succulent tenderness….and slathered with thick creamy Greek Yogurt topped with pistachios and sumac…Oh. My. Gawd.

I definitely enjoy looking at a well maintained garden, but just don’t want to engage with it physically ( too time poor) but can see that if you had time, it would be very rewarding, and also produce a fine crop of veggies…and luckily we produce a very fine range of Gardener’s products to erase the traces of your labour and soothe the dry scratched hands of those that enjoy it

Our Gardener’s balm has been reported to have myriad soothing uses, and many mechanics swear by our Gardener’s scrub to clean deep seated dirt. Have a look at our Gardener’s special on for spring right now, and treat yourself or someone you love!

Refugees are in the always in the news, usually being unfairly demonised by the appalling untalented shysters that pass for politicians ( particularly pertinent today before the election!) but we are noticing a different kind of refugee.. a definite and significant influx to our website and store of clients returning to quality,  having realised that most commercial skincare is all about packaging and has no substance!

We employ 12 women and they all started off ,when they joined the business thinking that- for example-one of the largest global “natural” beauty chains was a truly natural, authentic product, until we educated them on reading a label, and they realised the massively chemicalised, industrial nature of these products.

Indeed what we are always horrified by is the sickly, hugely overscented goo that passes for so called “natural” products, but unfortunately that is what people think is “natural” because they may have not encountered an authentic, subtly scented product such as ours.

As a client, Jenna wrote to us recently “The difference the Beer and Honey shampoo has made to my hair is simply astounding – I do not get dandruff any more, and my scalp doesn’t get that dandruff itchiness either! I had never thought that I’d be free of either of those things! I’m fairly sure now that it was the chemicals in commercial shampoos, specifically the sulfate foamers and cleansers that have been irritating my scalp, as it simply doesn’t happen anymore. Paired with the apple cider vinegar rinse, this is the best shampoo/rinse combo I think I will ever find – no more itchiness, scabby piles of skin building up on my scalp, bad smelling shampoos, or that dreaded ’snowflakes’ covering my shoulders! I can’t really express in words the difference the Beer and Honey shampoo has made to my hair  - just thank you!!!! Also in Hobart, there is one other store that states it sells “fresh, safe “products. But if you merely walk past “Rush” ( you can guess who she means!)  you can smell that horrible, chemically stench wafting out the door. I love that when I open my drawer in the bathroom what I can smell is a light hint of honey, with a dash of rose geranium (that’s the scent I have in my moisturiser – heavenly!), and I’m not knocked off my feet by that obvious chemical smell.”

The new clients tell us that they are amazed by the quality and outstanding value for money ( which is very heartwarming, all say aaahhh) and the returning refugees from overpriced overpackaged mainstream products tell us that nothing works as well, and importantly in these straitened times, are very economical.

Indeed our Baby Bee Baby  products have been around for 20 years, long before chemical free baby care was thought of,and we are now seeing teenagers who were brought up on it, and have continued their love affair with our products, which is warm and fuzzy.

The way I look at it, and the reason I started the business, is simple- naively perhaps- I LOVE authenticity and honesty in all things- people, products, movies..and wanted to make something I was proud of.

It is a bit like eating handmade good bread, or beautiful locally grown neon green pungent olive oil, CWA rhubarb and rosepetal jam,homemade pesto with sun hot basil from the garden ( not that commercial crap filled with sawdust cheese, and in one brand, cabbage???!!!)  or a beautiful solid piece of handcrafted furniture glowing with effort, all are a pleasure to use or consume.

it is the realness of it, the untainted, unadulterated, unmessed with nature of things in the that I love….you can see that someone has carefully made it by hand, and you can taste the effort, and in our case feel it.

Luckily we have an abundance of all of the above in Tassie, which is in itself a very REAL place to live, indeed mainland refugees come here all the time seeking a refuge- quite literally- in a place that has a slower, quieter more authentic existence, where community is important, and the noisy external stimuli are exchanged for the tranquillity of nature- navel gazing!

A good example of REAL is one of our ingredients raw,direct expeller pressed ( cold pressed) coconut oil.

Remember frying yourself in the sun in your teens ( we all did it, even in sun starved Britain!) using coconut oil for suntan oil?

I LOVED the smell of that, of course all “coconut”mainstream skincare products are synthetically scented.

Most coconut oil such as copha, is deodorised for commercial use, but in recent years we have been proud to source the most fantastic, yummy intensely coconutty oil from the South Pacific, which has the most fantastic health benefits, externally and internally.

I would highly recommend the book on their site by Bruce Fife ” Saturated Fat May Save Your Life” which offers fascinating insights into the health benefits of coconut oil.

We use it in all our Moisture cream, Body Creams, Cream Cleanser  and Balm products, and the natural true coconut oil scent is just wonderful….I am currently making some delicious curries, muffins and laksas with it too!

Best of all these people have brought social and economic benefits directly to the island people, enabling them, by developing their Direct Expeller Method machinery, to press their own oil on site instead of having to take a poor price dictated by the multinationals that owned the giant pressing plants, and in addition preserving all the fabulous lipsmacking, skindrinking goodness of the oil.

Have a look at their site which is very informative..

It’s all good

When I was a little, nothing excited me more than packaging-texture, smell, colour, all of it, and as an adult, designing it for our range, I am still happily fascinated!!

My first (?) memory was when I was about 4 ( in 1960…gasp!!!) the fabulous slippery, crunchy, thick greaseproof paper with great retro typography ( yes I was a type nerd even then it seems!) around the blocks of salt that my grandmother bought, and stashed in a large earthenware jar, used for cooking and for the table. I was given a blunt kitchen knife and was allowed to spend hours carving shapes into the snowy white,curiously moist crystalline block before crumbling the satisfying mess into the jar.

Supermarket shopping didn’t really exist then, but I remember going to the Home and Colonial stores( forerunner of Sainsbury’s as it is now in the UK) where I was just level with the marble counter, and marvelled at the massive cheeses
( with real rinds) on display. All the tinned goods  sat in serried displays against  the wall…you asked for what you wanted cut and it was wrapped carefully in greaseproof paper and into my nan’s (woven material not plastic) shopping bag to be carried home.

Once unwrapped all the paper wrapping was then carefully smoothed out for use in baking, or rewrapping, and the string reused in the garden, as we grew all our own vegetables. The salt paper was deemed to be a fabulously noisy crow scarer apparently, since I always saw it flapping in the wind over the pea patch, in strings along with washed out tin cans tinkling away.

How times have changed! Despite the move to chemical free and skincare which I am proud to say that we pioneered in Tasmania, being the very first brand established here 18 years ago, I must say I laugh like a drain when I see all the “organic” brands out there who claim to be whiter than white,totally pure with no petrochemicals in it…in…er….plastic packaging, which is made of – yep – petrochemicals!! I simply cannot grasp this ethical/environmental mismatch, and we yet are continually explaining our own choice of eco-friendly brown recycleable glass, paper and tin packaging, because it is seen as not as “user friendly and convenient” as plastic ( !!!) despite the myriad reports of country sized rafts of plastic bottles clogging the oceans, and plastic being massively publicised as the number one environmental curse.

Worse, plastic has been proven to leaks endocrine disrupting chemicals into products ( we were telling people this 10 years ago but people glazed over) but all of this is disregarded because the pack “looks good” or is convenient to squeeze.

Dealing with clients, we scratch our heads at the desire for squeaky clean products, yet the willingness to buy acres of plastic packaging that it comes in, can anyone out there explain this? I know that we buy with our eyes, but conscience override seems to come into play too I guess.

Australia is in fact the worst place in the world to be a small manufacturer, because it is the hardest place in the world to source ethically sound packaging, due to our small population and hence small consumer demand.

Indeed we took part in a webinar recently about going into the Asian marketplace, and the single most interesting point was that Australian skincare is regarded as some of the cleanest and safest in the world BUT that the packaging was very poor.

That comes back, once again, to the miniscule size of the market in Australia- packaging supply companies have to eat too, so will only bring in what they are guaranteed to sell, or you need to order 10,000 of one kind which is beyond the reach of the average small business….so the spiral is complete….the fabulous designer packaging can only be accessed by the massive multinationals, but even then, they still choose plastic, driven by consumers.

Confused? So are we.

We’ll just stick to our good old fashioned, eco friendly glass, recycled paper and cardboard, and get creative as we have for the last 18 years and make it look as good as we can…..but it’s funny, we are seeing everyone doing the same….so we must be doing something right!

It’s interesting that the oldies truly are goldies, and simplicity is the key in terms of caring for your skin naturally.
Exfoliation is one example- no-one knew that term until the cosmetic giants invented it and marketed something to consumers to do it with!
In the old days, a rough towel/face flannel ( known in Aus as a face washer) performed that task without anyone knowing what the action was called;it just gave you a glowing shiny face and felt good!
The benefits of exfoliating the skin are manyfold but principally, when you remove the layer of dulling dry flaky dead skin cells mechanically, by gently using our Seaweed Honey and Herb Polishing Scrub or  the fabulous German Riffi Beauty Care Mitt, your skin instantly looks more vibrant and feels smoother,encourages blood circulation and hence healthy skin cell growth, discourages the formulation of skin impurities such as black / whiteheads as the action also removes debris/sebum , unblocking pores before these have time to form, and, if present, gently coaxes them loose without destructive squeezing which can scar the skin.

Feedback tells us that spotty oily acne prone skin- indeed dry skin- is improved massively by regular exfoliation, and it is so simple!

Best bit is that your moisture cream is absorbed better and hence is FAR more effective-YAY, what’s not to like?

As I’ve detailed before, when I was growing up in the 60’s,we had no truck with anything but basic soap and water, and homemade remedies from the herb garden for healing and soothing the skin which worked a treat.
Interestingly, my grandmother passed on to me her love of oatmeal,both inside (starting the day with porridge -still hooked on that creamy, steaming goo!) and out- she used oatmeal as face powder and cleanser when young.

But there is much more to it than just breakfast,so when I began formulating my own products for my own use, and later for sale, oatmeal was the start point to build a great product, with the addition of almond meal ( vitamin rich) Tasmanian seaweed and other herbal goodies.

An excellent multi-purpose skin cleanser, it provides very gentle cleansing exfoliation, leaving skin smooth, soft, and clean, helps to relieve dryness, is naturally moisturising which helps to  heal minor irritations and soothe redness.

Our scrub makes a great soothing, deep cleansing facepack too!

My grandmother also used to add soothing oatmeal to my bathwater, to relieve  the itching of my childhood eczema- using an old sock filled with oatmeal ( left hanging under the tap whilst water running) and squeezed out the milky goodness into the water.

I discovered as I grow older that the towel trick is not enough, that exfoliating regularly is really necessary for healthy glowing skin.

Have a look at our web special at the moment where you can try our Riffi mitts at up to half price!

There is apparently an old Australian ad with the catchphrase”Oils ain’t oils” used to sell a particular brand of engine oil I gather, whose general point I would imagine ( not having seen it, being a Brit) was that not all oils function the same, or indeed are of the same quality.

How true that is when you look at the criminal deception perpetrated on the female population in terms of the cosmetic creams made by multinationals….at least 99% of the product is bulldust and the rest is (free)water!!

Perhaps I should recap…I started this business because I had really bad eczema, and was in a sales job with a lot of exposure to the public which was really mortifying with red, sore incredibly sensitive dry skin, so I tried every product on the planet to fix it.

Unfortunately, all of them without exception made the condition worse, because the synthetic scents, mineral oil  and (possibly)toxic paraben preservatives( derived from petroleum) made my skin break out, sore and red  and the lack of any real substance ( good natural plant oils) in them offered no protection whatsoever left on my skin to keep my skin’s own moisture in.

The anatomy of a commercially made, profit focussed moisture cream is very  simple- pump in as much water, suspended in the cheapest fats available ( in the past mineral oil,  but now mostly chemically derived emulsifiers) designed to hold as much water as possible ( “oil in water formulas”lots of water with a small amount of cheap oil …water is free) and offer a cream that is “easily absorbed ” which is what consumers have been led to believe happens.

In fact as you spread this water based confection onto your skin, the water evaporates and leaves nothing of any value behind( no good quality waxes are used because that pushes up production costs and decreases profits) to actually “absorb” but as the cream has seemingly disappeared …voila! Another trick!

Indeed your skin dries out nicely with every application, you use more and buy more…great for the manufacturer/brand!

I personally think that this is criminal- a double whammy rip-off for consumers-because the poor consumer, exhorted to buy the product by multi million dollar ad budgets in the media, gets a hugely overpriced product that simply does nothing but-often- irritate the skin and dry it our further!

What I was seeking was a thick, rich, luscious ( 100% natural, truly chemical free moisture cream) that would remain on the skin for 12 hours or more, and really do its job, but more REALLY soothe and leave all the good stuff in it behind on your skin to genuinely protect it, and stop moisture loss …oh, and fix my poor eczema and dry skin!

To do this, I discovered, I needed to make my own, based on the superb quality that I wanted, that simply is not available commercially,not based on cost.

So I returned to my grandmother’s old beeswax ( leaves a microfine protective, moisture trapping film on the skin)and honey ( moisturising, soothing, draws moisture to the skin) super rich formulae which are quite the opposite to commercial creams- water in oil, which means a lot of skin friendly easily absorbed super fine plant oils- and REALLY work – the incredible feedback we get on the independant review site WOWMOW says it all.

We also used fabulous old staple, used for thousands of years, superb extra virgin olive oil and of course our signature healing herb Calendula,that grows wild in almost every garden, and was my Grnadmother’s favourite skin herb.

Within weeks my skin was healed, moist and dry skin was history….and this is the feedback we get time and again from clients.

BUT, this of course presented a dilemma when attempting to make the product for sale,because all these ingredients cost FAR more than water and petroleum based ingredients, hence our products cost more, but you, our clients agree that they are well worth it, and indeed incredible value for money- take a look at the excellent external site  WOWMOW which offers independant reviews of businesses posted by happy customers, it appears that we are not the only ones who-rather immodestly perhaps-think that we are doing a great job.

Read for yourself what they think, and please add your own thoughts should you wish to, we love reading it, makes us feel good, and tells others that we don’t tell porkies like all the rest!

Essentially we are making a handmade, “homemade” quality ( mum’s yummy cake with butter instead of the cheap supermarket cake with margarine or trans fats, if you will) just like all the artisan growers and makers at the now widespread Farmer’s Markets…and that is why quality costs money!

I remember that one client once said “If your skincare were food it would be caviar!”

It is very gratitying to see such great product feedback and reviews because unlike commercial multinationals,we cannot spend multi millions of dollars on promoting an illusion..  we  reinvest all of our revenue in the quality of the products, paying Australian staff , supporting our local suppliers,and quality  ingredients, all of which you can see and feel in our products.

Now winter is upon us ( and the snow is down to the 700 metre mark on the mountain in Hobart today) it is even more important to have a super rich protective cream to knock the dry skin ( face and hands)on the head this chilly season, so we have a great cream special on -buy one cream get a second ( of equal or lesser value) at HALF PRICE!  Enjoy!!

I love Bali…having been there about 6 times in the past 20 years- it used to be on the way to and from the UK when it was a regular stopover for the major airlines, pre-Bali Bombing-I have always admired the beauty and positive nature of the people.
It is very interesting how- despite the massive onslaught of tourism- their Hindu-Animist culture survives and even thrives, beyond the gamelan driven tourist shows, in a deeply superstitious and ritual bound society…a ritual for everything performed with grace and beauty, from the delicate woven offerings with rice and tropical flowers to the seemingly endless full on colour and noise temple ceremonies.
The people are gentle, positive and and friendly, and their island paradise green and beautiful too- but lately the bulldozers and rapacious building are starting to nibble away at the very thing that visitors come to see…the tranquillity shattered by jackhammers and building traffic.
There is still beauty to be found though if you move into the deep countryside, with delightful snapshot moments of ducks in a row being herded through the fluorescent green lush rice paddies, and of course the myriad iridescent rainbows of dragonflies.
It is interesting and very sad to see that there is a flip side to this postcard of paradise though, in the appalling abuse and malreatment of the mentally ill who are often chained in isolation by their relatives very simply, not out of deliberate cruelty, but simply having no medical options available to treat them.
I watched an SBS television documentary on this recently ,I have to say it broke my heart to see this,and I resolved to try and help in some way, primarily by supporting those to care enough to be active, and DO something on the ground, such as the wonderful Indonesian psychiatrist, Dr. Luh Ketut Suryani ,who is working in a desperately underfunded ( self funded actually) programme to help these people that society- and the government who has recently cut their meagre funding- has no room for. Have a look at her website, it is fantastic, and we strongly encourage you to directly donate should you wish to.

We as a business we have locally supported Breast Cancer, Cancer Council, Lifeline, Brightside Sanctuary and other animal charities, but  resolved some time ago to also support external causes that primarily help women, for obvious reasons really- we are lucky enough to have the freedom and money to use disposable income to buy ethical, environmentally sound products, but most of the world’s poor women in developing countries do not have clean water, or enough food, let alone the kind of financial/educational freedoms that we take for granted.

We are so very lucky in Australia- having been to Vietnam, India, and South East Asia over the years the hard life that women lead in these cultures leave you feeling very privileged, and slightly ashamed of complaining about our daily perceived  ”hardships”- but the joy that these women share with you, despite their circumstance, just makes your heart swell with pride at the resourcefulness, persistence and ingenuity of womankind.

The primary focus for me in terms of intent has always been the Fistula Hospital in Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia) which was established by the incredible Australian Dr Catherine Hamlin in 1959, to help women who have developed a fistula due to tearing during childbirth- rather than going into detail, click on the the link to find about this appalling condition, that is eminently fixable.

What struck me like a fist in the chest is that these women, who leak urine/faeces through no fault of their own, are totally ostracised within their communities- often days walk from the nearest bus, who in any case will not carry the women because of the involuntary smell and mess….some have lived apart from their communities for years.

My friend S ( to protect her confidentiality) who has volunteered recently with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Ethiopia ( amongst other nations) has said that it was one of her hardest assignments simply due to the general malnourishment of the population, particularly of course the women who as a result of this lack of nutrition are not able to develop a strong enough pelvic girdle to birth successfully without this complication ( fistula)in many cases.

The decider for me was reading in one of the Australian weekend newspapers about a woman who begged for 7 years in a local bus station to just get the bus fare to distant Addis Abbaba and the potential salvation of the hospital.

I think I cried for a week when I read that.

I am not religious but…Thank God for Dr Catherine Hamlin.

So…we are going to do something about making real and concrete donations from the sale of the products that you love, to help these two organisations concretely and directly.

YOU CAN HELP- WE CAN DO IT!! We will keep you informed as to how is going, with more detail soon, probably linked to our Facebook page so that you can see directly what is happening.

Soap. I’ve absolutely been in love with it since I can remember…. the sensuous pleasure of washing with it, passing it through your hands to create the silky lather, the texture and varied scent of it, the feeling of the fabulous lather on my skin, and just how clean and fresh you feel after an encounter with it.

My encounters with soap have been many and varied, starting as a child with the all- purpose carbolic Lifebuoy with it’s nasty reddish raw meat colour and curiously addictive, harsh medicinal,no-nonsense antiseptic scent, which I can recall as if yesterday, conjured as smells are, direct into our consciousness straight from the emotional brain centre, the amygdyla.

I think it is a curiously British phenomena, Lifebuoy….I have seen it only in the old colonial outposts like India, in recent times, but it is not the same any more.

As a child we were pretty broke, and hence had no truck with the “luxury” of new fangled detergents, just good ‘ol Lifebuoy soap in the boiler with the clothes and then through the mangle ( lots of broken butttons) and onto the line, and I loved the faint antiseptic scent in the wind dried sheets and clothes….maybe I missed my calling and should have been a nurse!
We used it for everything, laundry, slapped on burns,washed gravel out of the inevitable childhood skinned knees,on ourselves, the floors…
I “graduated” at aged 8 or thereabouts to Camay, a cheap lurid pink synthetic bar that was suitably glamorised in early 60’s TV commercials by a cheesecake actress called Katie Boyle who slathered the lather theatrically over her face whilst gushing the benefits, hilarious looking back now.

I took a very long time in the bath imitating the screen goddess and managed to work my way through far too many bars to be accommodated by my weekly sixpence pocketmoney so had to cut back on my major Camay habit.

Then I moved on to Pears soap, miraculously transparent, with it’s fantastic history as one of the earliest soaps made in Britain. but mostly for it’s curious spicy smell…..then came Cuticura another interesting black antiseptic bar (I had major zits by now in adolescence)  and along with my Grandmothers herbal formulas was trying anything to look like a 70’s rock chick ( too fat, not hip enough, what’s changed?!)

The twenties saw various soapy fads but my fave was Coty’s Aqua Manda,an early 70’s invention heavy on mandarin and patchouli, and the beginning of the revival of all things natural, and a move to rediscover natural herbal formulae.

To my total delight I found a crumbling but largely intact bar or this at a garage sale last year and once again a sniff takes me straight back to shopping at Biba  in Kensington High st in my nasty smelly afghan coat reeking of patchouli oil…..sigh.

When I began to redicover my granny’s old concoctions and make the early BB products, first on the list was rediscovering the pleasures of those soapy days of delight, and a range of fabulous traditional olive oil and herb soaps was first on the list- very adult and a far cry from those early bars that made your skin dry and stingy.

There is no comparison between a synthetic detergent bar ( commonly called syndets) that is now the most commonly available mass market “soap”- in fact it is no longer real soap at all, just a compacted, boiled, extruded and moulded  mixture of sodium laureth sulphate ( a synthetic foaming agent)anti-oxidants,hardeners, opacifiers and a sickly throat catching synthetic scent that can be smelt at 100 yards away- revolting, and hugely drying to the skin of course.

When I read magazine articles relentlessly and universally saying ” do not use soap on your skin” I want to shout-YES, NOT THE SYNTHETIC “soap!” Clearly they have never experienced the skin moisturising, gentle cleansing pleasure of a real soap bar handmade with olive and coconut oils and only gentle subtle essential oils from plants as a scent.

Our bars have always been skin friendly as a first priority, carefully formulated with rich nut and plant oils such as hemp, mango butter, and jojoba,and a low concentration of essential oils that do not shout at you- are subtle, and hence do not irritate. You can smell their delightful scents up close, unlike the various national “natural” beauty chains where the sickly synthetic scent ( claiming to be natural???)can often be detected well down the street.

Real Soap of course has been around since Roman times, and palm oil ( click on our front page link 100% palm oil free) has been used since the early 1900’s to contribute to the lather and most importantly provide hardness to a fine bar of soap, and all was fine and dandy until the fast food industry kicked in, when massive amounts of palm oil was required to fuel it, AND the personal care industry.

Hence we have deforestation in the primary palm oil production centres of Indonesia and Borneo, and mass planting of palm oil plantations, with countless species of wildlife displaced or killed-primarily the orangutan.

We decide to act over a year ago and replaced palm in all our products, and in our soap bars by upping the coconut oil content, which is more costly, and leads to a bar that performs beautifully as always, but does not last necessarily as long without palm to add hardness.

Hence we are now trialling the addition of soy wax which will add hardness to the bar and make it as long lasting as palm oil once did, but without the environmental cost,  being one of the major crops grown in the USA, and non GMO to boot.

That is why our bars cost more than the average natural soap- being palm oil free actually increased our costs- as well as our bar size which is, at 125 gms, 25% larger than the average natural soap bars around.
Why not rediscover the absolute skin loving pleasure of soap and water with our soap specials on right now?

Ahhhh…Beer, Doncha just love it?

….especially  the beautiful slightly petillant superbly flavourful creations nursed into being by the tender mercies of boutique brewers throughout the nation.

I emigrated 18 years ago from Britain, home to ( arguably) some of the finest cask conditioned, live ales on the planet….cooled in a cellar ( if the publican is good at his job, and you have to be as real beer is a living breathing thing) and as all good beer deserves good treatment and proper pouring- brought up through a gleaming beer engine, to pour in creamy bursts into the waiting pint pot.

Every time I go back to the UK, I head for my favourite Free House ( not tied to one brewer so can stock all celestial brews) and just sit quietly in front of a pint of Greene King Abbot Ale, looking at it’s golden glow reverentially.

The first greedy glug releases a heady burst of hoppy base notes followed by a yeasty body and finally the glorious flowery top note of the hop finish…..OH.MY..GOD.

And it just goes on and on to the bottom of the glass…better have another just in case that was a fluke.

You gotta dig those hep cats the Babylonians for blessing us with the old amber fluid. I think I have loved beer from the age of 3 when my grandfather

And your point is??

Is it possible to actually, really truly be in love with an animal? I am with my darling George.

Full name Georgie Princess Diva  Saunders ( they say that dogs resemble their owners-or is it the other way around??) and she sure lives up to every aspect of her name! Especially the diva bit, and HOW. Jack Russell and Fox Terrier is the best guess of her lineage, but like any little “mutt “who knows?

Having never been fond if children ( as I am fond of saying to those who ask,”surely you like babies?”- “yes but I couldn’t eat a whole one…” and I AM joking folks) I remained solo until the age of 44 when I thought, hmmm, this pet thing might have something to it. I thought about it for a very long time and began tentatively asking around….

She came into my life as with all the best things( sometimes) by accident.

One day at Salamanca market whilst packing up the stall our neighbouring stallholder introduced his new puppy, an brown little wiry bundle called Scooter…who apparently had an unclaimed sister awaiting a home. I was fixated on a boy for some reason but thought why not, let’s take a look?

Arriving at the house , we were shown into the loungeroom where a tiny,  6 inch,6 week old scrap of black and white fur was toasting her tummy in front of the woodheater- hogging it all- the human occupants relegated to the cold zone of the sofa ( this tells you why you need to get a heat pump folks). Did I get the message at this point?

Taking her home in the car, I don’t know who was more scared, she or me.

Me, for sure, as I popped through the Wormhole into Doggie World..

Little did I know what a lot she had to teach me about love, compassion, care, pain and a million other things! Nobody told me how much fun we would have,how funny she would be, and how incredibly fortunate I would feel to be “chosen” somehow to have her! I had no idea that such a deep spirituality and intelligence could exist in a furry coat!

The exercise is a big bonus too- she is my number one priority, and her walk is paramount in the schedule, although now 11 years old she is slowing down a lot….aren’t we all! as a former couch potato the benefits have been incredible, although I never thought that I’d give my last bite of sourdough,free range ham sandwich to anyone!

From the start she has a big, vocal super intelligent personality ( naturally!)who communicated her moods in no uncertain terms- hurry up with that treat, already!! She wakes me with a tentative low growl to say “are you awake” from the bottom of the bed, and we begin a call and response dialogue that never fails to end in a silly wuffing playfight under the doona…Oh Gahdd.. isn’t it sickening??

The beginning of the downward spiral into a large collection of designer sparkly collars, and this was 10 years before all this was “fashionable!” and her very own pet soap but more of that later.

At best I am treated with disdain from the other end of the sofa, she is incredibly jealous and monsters dogs like Dobermans without a thought, or fear. She radiated innate disgust for everybody from a month old which was hilarious.

We circled each other like gunslingers in the OK Corral for the first few months-not knowing hoe to “be” with each other.. Puppy Preschool was a nightmare, as I had no idea what  doggies did or how I was supposed to behave…just like a new mother I guess although it pains me to say it!

I was determined to “feed her right”, with no synthetic congealed slop from cans, or dried rancid pellets flavoured with tallow and laced with antioxidants… none of that for my little girl! I have turned into one of those hideous people I derided who are totally NUTS about their pet, who feeds them tidbits ( yep, including her own cup of tea with Leatherwood honey blown until cool enough to drink) lets them sleep in the bed ( yep, you bet, it’s snuggly gorgeous) and are perennially covered in dog hair ( badge of honour, mate!)

Just as I fought the good fight for chemical free skincare for 20 years ( 15 years being told I was nuts but the world has come to see that what I ranted on about has been widely accepted, very gratifying) I investigated pet food very carefully- and the truth about it is, of course awful, but hey, this is supposed to be cheery!!!

So.. since she began solids she has had nothing but raw wild food-minced kangaroo, cooked barley, vegetables, seaweed, flax seed oil  or raw organic coconut oil ( a labour of love once a month,made into burgers and frozen individually) or chicken necks….and does she look good! The oils add gloss and shine, and coconut oil is a health story all on it’s own.

She has been to the vet twice in 10 years, both for slight injuries, and is the picture of health- no fleas whatever, as she is not laden with sugar in her blood from the canned chemical slop.

And the best bit was that, to avoid besmirching her perfect body ( !) with foaming chemical detergent pet “washes” I could also give her her own 100% chemical free Pet Shampoo Bar, Gorgeous Georgie’s Gloss Bar for Glamour girls, with the very best ingredients, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, and flea chasing Oils such as Neem and Pennyroyal.

Buster’s Bonza Beauty Bar was made with the same ingredients in honour of an ex boyfriends grizzled boofy mutt too.

This fabulous bar gives a rich creamy lather, and leaves the fur glossy and super soft…moisturises the skin and rinses out beautifully leaving her clean and fresh, with no obvious scent…she smells like her little self, as she should, not of sickly synthetics, which offend me and her delicate doggie nose.

A tip for tip top condition as well is to add a tablespoon of Tasmanian Applecider and Herb  Conditioning rinse the last rinsewater, which removes any remaining soap, and is incredibly moisturising and conditioning.

She is, as a result of this combo, the proud possessor of a glossy sleek lush coat( Coco Chanel was right, black and white are classic chic) and frankly the best tail EVER…like a lush, white boofy Fleur de Lis plume that sashays with her feathered bottom when she walks, and curls tightly to her back with rage when investigating another dog on the beach.

Treat your doggie today!

comfort and joy

“Doth not nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her. wrote Saint Paul to the people of Corinth (I Corinthians 11:14-15)”

This is what I found when I banged “symbolism of hair” into Google musing on this bloggy thing I am now writing- forget which site so a credit to wherever it is found- and first up I am an atheist, so am not quoting that for religious reasons.
Interesting though!
Obligatory short hair in middle age…what IS that all about?

As soon as you hit middle age, and the catalogues for weird beige clothing, and useless items like toeclippers used by those that cannot bend start to plop on to your doormat unbidden.
How do these people get your details? Is there a list for old fogeys that you somehow have ( wrongly!) been placed on?

The oddest thing is the pressure to cut your hair, or as a hissy queen of my aquaintance told me “get something modern!!” and, in my eyes, conform to the stereotype of a sexless middleaged invisible woman- just oblige society would you, and get neutered.
This is not to say that there aren’t some incredibly sexy women with very short spiky white/blonde hair ( you know who you are Tamara!) who look just sensational…

But I do not want to look like a suburban matron ( mutton dressed as lamb) or a woman who wears sensible shoes….which is how I feel I would look if I went the same way.
I cling to my shoulder length hair ( formerly shorter and permed relentlessly for 40 years can you believe it!) like a limpet to a rock, resisting multiple cries to get with the program..fondly thinking that I can still coquettishly toss my tresses with the best of the girls in the hilarious shampoo ads.
We all know older women who still have LONG beautiful salt and pepper grey hair but society definitely dislikes it- why do you think that is?

I am a totally low maintainance gal which is half the issue really- roll out of the shower, on with the BB moisture cream, hair upswept up into a ( stylishly bohemian I like to think) topknot, on with the eyebrows ( Joan Crawford has got nothing on me!!) and out of the door.
I am repelled by all the slimy synthetic silicon gunk that would be required to sculpt and give shape ( mostly like an electrocuted chicken from what I see on the street) to a short style, and being a rotund individual I need height, baby! to balance my chubby little face.
And it has to be said, I grew my hair, and stopped the hated “perming” 2 years ago especially to experience the sensual joy of hairbrushing again, and to finally own a Mason Pearson hairbrush at long last.
Having fondled them in Harrods years ago, I thought, I’m worth it, and I DESERVE a Rolls Royce hairbrush now, I’ve earned it- so I introduced them to our range!
And they are expensive, no doubt about it, but worth every penny for how it feels, and what it does to your hair.
This is the ultimate brush that you can pass on as an heirloom to your daughter- indeed such is the quality that the company will recondition the brush and “service” it so that it will last virtually forever, something you never see in our throwaway plastic society.
If you look at Mason Pearson’s website www.masonpearson.com all the benefits are there, but the experience isn’t and that is what makes it so special.
It is SOOOOOOO relaxing- a nightly ritual that Victorian era women espoused as the secret to healthy glossy hair ( 100 strokes from root to tip with the head hung down to improve blood flow) and I am living proof that it works- AMAZING, and I swear helps me to sleep better, scalp tingling and feeling all glowy ( but let’s not go there)

My hair is growing faster, and is the best that it has ever been, so hairbrushing with a beautiful brush,combined with our BB shampoo bars and Applecider and Herb Conditioning Rinse, is the ultimate combo treat for naturally healthy hair.