Oh dear…after all my  bleating on about loving your hair in previous posts, I saw some photos that a client had done for publicity for his business…what a sight.
I looked like Marge Simpson meets Miss Marple with my ageing updo. I was obviously delusional, thinking that for years I looked like funky boho….more like no no!
Hence got desperate last week and had a radical haircut which was supposed to be a 70’s Feathercut- that looked great on me in…er…the 70’s!
When I get up in the morning I look like a a chicken that has been crushed between two pillows..
Who am I   &%$#@***  kidding?
What was I thinking???
After considerable time consuming primping and narcissistic messing about with wax concoctions/experiments ( the very thing I was trying to avoid)I still look like a mutant cockatoo, and it certainly isn’t the cutting edge middle aged funkster I fondly hoped myself to be….now have to live with this for 3 months until it grow enough to be restyled into something vaguely acceptable.
One side effect is however that I now understand why clients LOVE our shampoo bars, and say that they last so long ( one guy buys one of our fabulous beer shampoo bar once a year!!) …all I need now is a one pass slick of  any of our truly natural shampoo bars in our new Shampoo Sampler pack, or the new Moroccan Mud Bar/Tasmanian Bush Leaves ( both fabulous new products by the way) over my minimally hirsute bonce  and I’m done!

Drying takes 1.5 minutes with a hairdryer (avoiding the pink scalpy bits!!) so I guess that’s a bonus.

As Australians say, “one day a rooster, next day a feather duster”, ain’t that the truth, baby!!

But hey it’ll grow back….pass me that head sized paper bag would you?

Just returned from a Girlie Roadtrip ( myself and Georgie the Diva Doggie) to the Beekeeper’s conference in sunny, seaside Ulverstone in the North West of the island. What never fails to amaze me is the fabulous moist red soil in that part of the island, and lush pastures, which produce some of the richest milk and tastiest vegetables ( and the purest natural honey skincare naturally! ) in Australia.

My first stop was to visit Robbie and Nicola Charles at Blue Hills Honey in Mawbanna, near Stanley  on the North West Coast.

They are right on the edge of the Tarkine Widerness area, which is one of the last remaining temperate rainforests in Australia, and is where they place the majority of their Leatherwood hives, but are now harvesting uniquely potent Tasmanian Manuka too.They were singularly hospitable, despite Nicola being virtually on her knees with the ‘flu,and accommodated us in their single men’s quarters ( no single men, sadly!!) which George excitedly inspected nose to the ground. Onto Stanley for a lovely meal, and a foray in the 4 wheel drive to see if there were any Fairy Penguins out patrolling the streets of the tiny township ( as is their wont apparently) but no luck….the beachside areas thick with browsing wallabies and it looked like Watership Down there were so many rabbits…!

Drove on to Mawbanna Dip Falls, a spectacular waterfall,the view is breathtaking- The water spills down over hexagonal ( spooky, just like a honeycomb cell!!)  basalt columns, formed in ancient times by cooling volcanic rock -and the Big Tree, which is …er….a VERY big tree, 62 metres (203 ft) tall Eucalyptus, with a 17 metre (55 ft) base- awe inspiring in fact, just a fantastic ancient forest survivor . And yes, ok ok, I did hug it.

Mawbanna Dip Falls

Stunningly gorgeous, eh?

I have to say that the cool, sepuchral silence deep off the road in the rainforest, amongst the 2 metre tall manferns is ever so slightly unnerving,broken only by bird calls echoing, and George (who was beside herself in sniffs heaven) excitedly snuffling about in the leaf litter.

The Beekeepers are by nature a reserved bunch, mostly older “bushies”who think a lot and say little, and find a loud, outspoken Londoner a bit confronting, but since I’ve been around for 20 years now they are unbending a bit! We have been telling people about their fabulous honey for 20 years now so I have a few runs on the board..

Shirley and Ian Stephens from R.Stephens Mole Creek, who supply all the beautiful Leatherwood Beeswax for our natural leatherwood honey skincare products were in their 50th year there I believe, beekeepers all their lives, and their families before them.

All the beekeepers have their stories but most importantly a proud  history of harvesting products from the forest in the most environmentally sensitive way, really the first environmentalists of all you may say.

We heard a meteorologist speak about the amazing computer modelling now available, actually pretty fascinating ( yeh, right, I am proudly a nerd!) when you consider that their entire livelihood- and the yield of honey- is driven by the weather, and on the Saturday I gather that an eminent scientist was talking about bee neurology…gasp! I thought you would need the Hubble telescope to see a little bee brain but obviously they is purty smart critters!

Oh well, back to the soap grindstone, watch this space for a fab new real, natural soap soon I feel all inspired, having “gone bush ”  Toodlepip!

Someone called me today and tipped me off to this book “Slow Death By Rubber Duck” which I feel sure is very interesting.

But most interesting of all is how these guys spell out clearly just exactly what those commercial personal care products containing repulsively strong sickly synthetic fragrances ( that we do NOT use in any of our TRULY natural skincare products!) that are heavily contaminated with phalates ( endocrine system disruptors, that we have been telling a disbelieving public about for 20 years, see previous posts) are doing to contaminate your body with just one or two applications!

Have a look at this You Tube clip

Something I have never understood is why people actually think that the smell that hits you like a physical force when you pass those international “natural” body/skin care stores is actually natural!

Worse, when you look at the millions of so called “natural” skincare businesses that claim integrity by the yard, yet still offer synthetic Raspberry and Cream, Frangipani, Summer Rain  ( make a name up as you go along) which are ALL chemical fragrance mixes but claimed as “natural!”, blatantly misleading the consumer.

We have tried to spell this out on our website ad nauseam but cannot get people to understand this concept..

rant over…!

Yep, gazing out of the window at the “weathervane” of Hobart -the wonderfully picturesque and majestic Mount Wellington in Hobart (have a look here live on this local school webcam which has some fab live images of our little city) the winter is really here at last. We hang on to the last balmy Autumn days here with a tight grip, hoping that they will not be the last, because we know that reluctant hibernation looms.

I discovered when I emigrated from the Big Smoke of London that Tasmanians, just like furry little animals in their pre prepared cosy burrows hibernate for a long time over winter, emerging for vital supplies such as natural honey skincare, beer and food!

Being a nation that quite literally lives outdoors ,having fine weather most of the time, there is a sense of resignation that the fire has to be lit, fleecy garments dug out of the back of the wardrobe, along with the Slow Cooker for all those fab stews, tagines and soups.

I recently discovered the joys of sensuously plump, gelatinously tender,Beef cheeks, from Mundy’s Meat supply in Lindisfarne-one of the last real butchers in Hobart who actually selects his steers from the sale yards himself-and REALLY knows his stuff -after 40 years as a country butcher he should! The enticing aroma of a Beef Madras with coriander is just too sexy!!!

Am missing my Kaffir lime ( one of the essential oils that we use in our delicious Lavender citrus twist real soaps) tree like mad ( for my curry pastes)having recently moved house and, whilst I dug it up and transplanted it lovingly to a pot on the balcony, the woody stump of it is glaring balefully at me whilst being blasted  by icy souwester wind gusts…7 degrees today so survival is unlikely.

We are lucky enough in Hobart ( and Tassie in general!) to be within 10 mins of fabulous wild windswept deserted beaches, and one of the other signs of winter are the wild seas which throw up large quantities of kelp seaweed, from the deep sea kelp forests on the Peninsula of Tasmania- Georgie, resident Doggie Diva, loves investigating the fabulously glossy, tangled kelp thickets of beached weed – I’m always amazed at how big it is, and how massive the roots are!

Such pongy explorations mean that a bath once home with her very own Gorgeous Georgie’s Gloss Pet Shampoo bar is a must ..

Not only does kelp taste great- I just love it in all it’s forms, sushi,tastes great in soups too- it has the most fabulous qualities for the skin- moisturising, firming, silkening- and having a great local source at Marrawah on the North West Coast who harvest it from the beaches there and supply it to us.

We use seaweed – just one of the food ingredients we use in our edible skincare products- in, for example,  Seaweed Honey and Herb Polishing scrub ( which, we are told, also makes great scones by the way) Seaweed, Green Tea Scrub Soap and it is included in all of our Natural Soap Shampoo Bars and real handmade soap bars, to which it lends an unparallelled  silkiness and moisturising quality, and creamy slippery lather….Jeez ( throws bucket of cold water over self, narrowly avoiding Mac keyboard) I should take up writing erotic fiction!!!

By the way, happy clients on the independant web feedback site  WOWMOW are posting some fabulous about our products, particularly the Leatherwood Honey Moisture creams…. “This cream is an absolutely amazing product.  I don’t think I knew what actually feeling ‘moisturised’ was until I used this cream “( Leatherwood Honey and Olive Ultrarich Moisture cream)  Hina B which is particularly pertinent as winter arrives- providing your wind buffeted skin with a rich nourishing moisture retaining barrier- ours is quite simply the best around so our clients tell us.

Wrap up tight and watch this space for some new products soon!

Hey Folks

Addendum to last post and Jon Entine’s “Silent Spring”- like article Greenwashing…Really interesting talk on Radio national this morning (on “Life Matters”) about chemicals in personal care products and cleaners ( yuk, the hideous synthetic stench of the detergent and personal “care “(?) product aisles…apart from selling cruelly farmed pork…. another reason why I avoid the monstrous conglomerate supermarkets and actively support small family grocers in Hobart!)

Very interesting ..the focus is on endocrine disrupting pthalates and other formational chemicals in plastics, hmm, we’ve we have been telling people about the need for skincare safe enough to eat for 20 years ( we only use recycleable glass, paper or tin packaging with plastic caps or inserts if no other alternative is available) but will not use plastic packaging as such ( as I have ranted about before) but the issue of poisons in plastics is still ( unsurprisingly!) hidden by big industries.

We think the girl talking about her chemical free shampoo was talking about our products as she mentioned a how she had found a truly natural shampoo and the joys of a blissfully clean and pure hair conditioner -Apple cider vinegar rinse!

Thanks Sonia, we know who you are and whilst you could not mention our brand by name, “onya” as Aussies say!

Definitely worth a listen!