Face Oils of a Bespoke Nature

Bespoke face oils made to order

Luxury brand Inner-Soul Organics launches its bespoke service, offering customers the chance to have a unique face oil designed and created in London

Brand founder, former aromatherapist Emma Coleman, developed the idea of making personalised facial products following a bespoke skincare competition the company ran in 2012. Entrants had to submit their skin type before being drawn at random to have a product designed for them.

Emma says: “ I was astounded by the response. Women and men were e-mailing in on a daily basis with some very complex skin issues, and were tearing their hair out because there was no particular product on the market to suit their needs.”

Using her expertise in blends and essential oils, Emma is able to design face products for all sorts of problems, including Eczema, dryness, ageing and hyperpigmentation to name a few. She is confident that skin can be balanced using natural ingredients.

All face oils are 100% organic and natural. The products are made in London and the service costs £75. This can be purchased at www.inner-soul.co.uk. For further info please contact emma@inner-soul.co.uk

Things to do with your empty gift boxes

As founder of an organic skincare company, I have this great opportunity to be really careful about how I use packaging with my products and am feeling uncertain about how things may be in 20 years on our planet. We owe it to our trees to take care of them - after all, they give us oxygen. 

Inner-Soul Organics does not feel the need to individually box each product. We do however offer organic beauty boxes for sale to make gifting easier for our customers. 

Here are some ideas about how you could re-use your empty gift box:

1. Re-gift the box - it's up to you whether you put anything else in it!!

2. Rescue a creature from the garden and re-house it in the box. This could be a snail, an ant or even a slug in peril. Just make sure you have lots of grass lining the box.

3. Collapse the box down and use it to store things which you don't want to get bent, like the bottom of your trousers.

4. Put the box into your cupboard and use it as a tidy for all those cooking spices which you never, ever use in your food preparation.

5. Jazz up those curtains by cutting off the box ribbons and using them as attractive tie-backs. You could use the box itself to store the ribbons after closing the curtains.

6. Don't squander your money on yet more gadgets; make your own telescope by cutting one hole at the front and back of the box, then taping a lens over each hole. Note: you will only be able to see things upside down, but hey, they'll still be closer.

If you have any other ideas we would love to hear them.

The Inner-Soul Organics team.

Things to do on a rainy Saturday - the non-Nigella version

1) Browse the Next summer catalogue, ignore the inappropriate faux-shirts and pretend you are in the Bahamas and that the sun always shines in England between May and August.
2) Think about that patch of garden which needs weeding before we have our amazing summer.
3) Bath the guinea pig, blow dry his fur and clip his nails.
4) Make baked beans and potato waffles.
5) Watch episodes of recorded 'You've Been Framed'. Over and over, (not my personal favourite).
6) Look at places you could all visit online, like the Horniman's Museum then sit around in your pj's some more to think about it.
7) Nip the drip-dry problem in the bud and replenish the bog roll.

Well I am waiting this week to see if 3 of my products have been shortlisted for the FreeFrom Skin Care awards. We are up against some big boys but I have faith that we are still in with a chance.

I have also been using a lot of Manuka honey in the home lately. When I was a nurse we had special 'medical grade' tubes of the stuff which we had prescribed for patients with particularly nasty (read infected and / or stubborn), wounds. See - the NHS isn't all fuddy-duddy. I must say, I did take great pleasure in wound dressings, seeing something improve however long it might take, and quite miss this. Anyway we had some brilliant results with the Manuka, so I always keep a jar indoors. It's not cheap, and obviously the more money you pay, the better it will be in acting as an antiseptic. I pop some of this onto new, open wounds under a plaster, (which come often with 3 boys in the house), as an alternative to iodine. It is also known to promote digestive health due to its powerful antibacterial qualities. I often use it on my skin, in particular dotting onto my under eye area to smooth out fine lines. I find it really works - is this because I have wrinkle-forming bacteria here? Who knows. I have also been eating it to reduce soreness in my tonsils and it is very soothing.

This has given me lots of ideas for future skin care products. If only some money would float down from the sky, like in my middle son's new reading book. Sigh. Mind you, A has had some positive meetings and has been doing some work on Pilgrim's Choice cheese which has been going really well, so perhaps he will be the floating business angel I dream about.  We also have a fridge full of the stuff. Happy days.

Boxes or no?

I haven't been here since January. Have had a bout of tonsillitis, mouth ulcers and a tooth abscess. I am run down; I have literally run myself over and then reversed back over myself. Every morning I must scrape myself off the mattress to make sandwiches with eyes still closed, fumbling for the tuna spread because I can't be bothered to fiddle with and then re-aluminium foil the ham. Oh dear. Then at 9.30pm it's back to bed wearing a track suit and beanie hat to dribble in front of another episode of Peep Show on 4OD. 

Anyway, enough about me. I would love to pick your brains and hear about where you stand on boxes for products. I'm talking individually boxed beauty products - are they something you agree with / oppose? If you buy a boxed skincare product, do you keep or discard the box? I am wrestling with this because as much as I am trying to build an ethical and eco-conscious company, the skin care industry as a whole is still using boxes relentlessly and women are investing in these products. It would be great to receive some individual views on this.

Any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Emma x

Keeping in touch

True to my blog title, I have stepped into January determined to promote myself, with my Romance Me  Skin Oil taking the natural lead in preparation for valentine's. So far, I have managed to receive an unsent e-mail back into my own inbox, and no other replies. Maybe I should call instead?

I have also finished designing a new product to add to the Mother's Beauty range. It is 100% organic, natural and unscented and I consulted midwives and baby feeding specialists before designing this as I wanted it to be safe to use immediately pre and post breast-feeding. Am very excited about this product because it has ingredients to nourish, soothe and enhance the look of skin in this area, stretched and deflated as it can be. I remember over-using the breast pump with my third child, ( I followed the Gina Ford book to the letter ), looking in the mirror at my unrecognisable assets and realising that there was every chance they could end up resembling a pair of my neighbour's tea coloured tights, (I'm talking about the wrinkly toe bit which stuck out of her open sandal.) Anyway, my new product is packaged in a lovely way to give any mum a treat and so I shall be targeting parenting mags in the near future for further PR-ing activities.

On Saturday, I had the great honour of meeting Mr. Ed Burstell of Liberty London. He is a lovely fellow with lots of knowledge; was great to get some feedback about my skincare range and will definitely be keeping in touch with him. I'm thinking pen friend; whatever happened to those? I had one growing up called Joel Buggy and kept a pic of him next to my bed between the ages of around 10 and 12, within which he was holding a parrot. Odd.

Routine missing

Still ill. This time it's stomach cramps, so have had to forego my daily latte and chocolate biscuits. Boo.

Boys and me are beginning to grate on each other. They go back to school on Tuesday and sadly, like many, I think we are all desperate for the return of our big routine. Frankly I haven't got the cash to keep entertaining them and timing them on the Ipad they all share has long become tiresome.  'A' locks himself in his spare room office before it gets light and comes out again when the last bit of pink sun has disappeared. Has he become a mole?

Next Saturday is a big day for me and my little skincare business. I have entered into the Liberty London British designers showcase, where I will basically get 3 minutes to pitch my products to buyers before being told whether they like them.....or not. If they do, another more formal meeting will ensue. I am feeling brave and positive and have started to make some notes today and look at my format. Must wear comfy shoes though, as queueing is all part of the big day apparently - well, as a nation, we are known for our love of standing in lines.

Will keep you posted on how it goes and good luck to all thee in your first working weeks of the year.