Green Options

There are three advantages to making your own cosmetics: the cost is often a fraction of the shop price, the ingredients tend to be simpler and you know exactly what they are, and you can tailor the product to meet the needs of your own skin.

Roses are abundant this time of year, with many lucky ladies receiving gorgeous bouquets for Valentine’s Day.  Roses are loved for their beauty, scent and many can even be eaten.  This perfect posy is also a hard working ingredient when used in skin care and beauty products.

Rose hip oil is extracted from the seeds of the rose bush.  This vegetable oil contains retinol (Vitamin A) and is high in Vitamin C and omega-3 making it highly effective for diminishing signs of aging, reducing sun damage and softening the skin.  It is also used to treat dermatitis, acne and eczema.

Rose oil (rose otto or rose absolute) is the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of roses and is commonly used in perfumes and other beauty products.

Advertising is full of suggestions that getting older is a bad thing, and that it must be fought with every weapon at our disposal: chemical, physical and surgical.

The truth is that most women in their forties, fifties and sixties experience a greater sense of self-esteem and self-fulfilment than those in their twenties and thirties. Age is something to be celebrated, wherever we are on its path. But there are things you can do to ensure that you age with beauty, confidence and power, and they don’t require you to go under the knife, or surrender your weekends to colonic irrigation or sadistic gym routines. Here are five ways to lose years and gain beauty:

With green living, homeopathy and natural alternatives growing in popularity, soap makers are springing up around the world, concocting magical creations of coconut and lime in gleaming, glycerin-infused goodness that cleanse the body, mind and soul. 

Oh, and your hands too!

Growing up in my house, ‘handmade’ soap consisted of my mother gathering up all the remaining bits of bar soap from the shower and bathtubs, tossing them into a container with some water and shaking it up.  “Voila, hand soap!” she would state proudly.  But her objectives were to save money, not create a luxurious lather to soothe and soften the skin.  And, trust me, an acrid amalgum of Dial and Irish Spring was anything but soothing! 

But today’s handmade soaps are a beneficial blend of nourishing nutrients, rich with essential oils and alleviating aromatherapy that care for the skin and calm the senses.  And because they’re chemical-free, they’re an eco-friendly alternative to their caustic counterparts, making them a great way to indulge yourself and the earth.

It could be that I’ve just returned from a holiday in the tropics but I LOVE these organic & natural Spray Lotion Mists from Ola Hawaii. The sweet, zingy, fresh smell of pineapple + lime is super delish but there are all kinds of scents to choose from if citrus isn’t your thing.

Keep it stashed in your bag during Summer heat to spritz

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Beauty in all forms has been a lifelong passion for me. With an appreciation for killer aesthetic combined with substance, it doesn’t matter to me if I’m looking at something vast and humbling as the ocean; the way someone’s face lights up when they smile; the solid, magnificent way in which a great tree anchors itself to the ground and stoically provides enough oxygen for two humans for a lifetime; or it could be the incredible lines of wear and character on the face of an old Tibetan woman, totally ravaged and laid bare as a proud road map of her lifetime and how she’s lived in it.

There isn’t an ideal or perfect beauty. We are all so completely and utterly different. You can have someone drop dead gorgeous who is shallow and mean and she’ll seem like the most unattractive person on the planet. Conversely, you might meet someone not so physically attractive but with a beautiful personality and radiance that can take your breath away. Beauty can’t be separated from the personality no matter how much spritzing, spraying, waxing and killing yourself on the treadmill you think will make you beautiful.