Power (brow) dressing

It's not often that men wear makeup, in public, anyway. Except in Brighton of course; good for them! Certainly it's rare in the Cotswolds, but there is a new trend which is creeping in and that is fuelled by Dr Hauschka's new Brow and Lash gel. 


Anyone with a chap at home knows that they tend to be hairier than most girls, not just the beard, but all over, and as they age, their eyebrows can often become quite fearsome. These monsters need taming, and that's not always easy, because they can be a bit wussy about tweezers and waxing. 

Dr Hauschka's Brow & Lash gel

The best solution, and the most fragrant, is to use Dr Hauschka's new Brow and Lash Gel! Not only does it keep those scary male eyebrows in the right place, but it conditions them too. 

It's a transparent gel with a handy mascara brush, which fixes unruly eyebrows in place, invisibly. This is a gentle option, which also smells nice, but not too girly, and has nourishing botanical extracts which also condition the beasties: neem and eyebright are just a couple. It's not totally magic, of course, they still might need a little trimming...

Having said that the chaps like it, so do the ladies. One of them said that you just don't feel dressed unless your brows are groomed, and this also applies to the boys, it seems. 

www.theorganicbeautician.com

Dr Hauschka's new Makeup range

The new Dr Hauschka makeup launched officially on 30th March, and it was well worth the wait, as it contains wonderful new products which are just what every woman needs: 


First up is the Brow and Lash gel

This gently keeps lashes and eyebrows in order as well as nurturing them with a wealth of healing ingredients like seaweed, Neem, tea extract and eyebright. As well as silk, to keep your lashes silky soft. It's also great for women who don't want to wear heavy mascara, but like a little definition. Rumour has it that chaps like it too, and considering some of their eyebrows, that can only be a good thing!



Another great product is the new clear Lip Line Definer. 

Initially, it seems odd to have a clear lip pencil, but this is not your regular lip liner, as it's specially designed to stop lipstick bleeding into the little lines around your mouth. (If you are under 35, you may not have this problem, of course!) This transparent pencil forms an invisible, moisturising barrier that prevents lipstick and lip glosses from smudging and running.
The moisturising formulation includes nourishing botanicals like jojoba oil, shea butter, carnauba wax and rose wax to moisturise the skin around the lips, as well as forming a lipstick proof barrier. So far, it seems to do the job brilliantly. It's a dandy makeup bag addition!

 Then there is a nude Eyeliner pencil 

Why would you want a nude Eyeliner? is what you might be wondering. Fair point, but you use it on the water line and it makes the whites look whiter and the eyes look larger. An optical illusion in both senses!
As usual, it contains healing herbs like Witch hazel and Anthyllis, botanical extracts like Black tea and Quince as well as precious oils and waxes, including Marula Oil, Jojoba Oil and Shea butter. This is far more sophisticated than putting a couple of tea bags over the eyes and I think will be very useful as barrier to pollen for hayfever sufferers.

My new Favourite: Colour correcting powder 

This silky smooth powder is a mixture of colours which help to tone down any redness and even out skin tone with a light veil of blended colour. This has already been the best seller for me, with some clients ordering before they even tried it out, so this must be filling a long felt need. It does what it says on the packet, as far as I'm concerned. Plus, it smells of roses and contains the now familiar list of lovelies including Tea extract, Anthyllis, and Witch hazel. Part of the reason it feels silky is that it actually contains silk, which is very protective and soothing for the skin.



My next new favourite is the Light Reflecting Concealer

A wondrous product, this, similar to Touche Éclat concealer, but with the addition of curative ingredients such as silk, witch hazel and anthyllis, a healing herb, which, you might have noticed, is found in most of the Dr Hauschka skin care products as well as the cosmetics. This also contains carrot seed oil and soothing calendula extract. 

Now, this little beauty is great for dark circles around the eyes, as it brightens the skin and helps to soften dark shadows, because of the mineral pigments in its formulation. You can also use it in the inner corner of the eyes and as a highlighter over the lips, in the cupid's bow. 

If you'd like more information, you can sign up for my emails by clicking here Jane's Emails You'll get hints, tricks & tips and the occasional bizarre factoid, and you can unsubscribe at any point, and I won't mind. (Well, I will sit in a corner weeping, but don't let that concern you!) You can also contact me by email - jane@theorganicbeautician.com 
I have all the new makeup in stock, and as I'm currently the only Dr Hauschka Trained Makeup Artist in the UK, I am uniquely placed to help you discover the colours which will best enhance your own individual beauty.  

New makeup coming soon from Dr Hauschka

New looks and colours are always exciting and the Dr Hauschka makeup range has been extensively updated as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations.

I can't post any pictures as yet, but I have seen and tried some of the products and am very excited about the new range. There are new additions and tools as well, which are worth waiting for!  

This means, of course, that the old makeup range will be phased out soon, so I am offering all that I have left at 20% off while stocks last. 

This is a great opportunity to bag yourself a bargain 

or stock up on a favourite.

Watch out for more news, or sign up to my newsletters for further info!

The Shepherds’ Supper

Christmas is not just about commercialism, but also about enjoying memorable moments, and something that we have done as a family, for several decades now, seems to have aroused some interest, so to save my breath, I’ve decided to write it down.

On Christmas Eve, we have a shepherds’ supper, which initially, at least, when the children were smaller, consisted of what we thought the shepherds would have eaten on Bethlehem Plain, on the very first Christmas Eve, while sitting around their camp fire. I’m not sure where we got this idea, but it stuck, and over the years, became the children’s favourite part of Christmas. Occasionally, when they were smaller, we had it outside, around a fire in the garden, and once, our eldest daughter dressed up as an angel and sung to her four year old baby sister, who commented that “the angel looks just like Georgie.” (Unsurprisingly.)

As the children grew up, it has become more of a “Brian Aldridge School of Shepherding” feast, with champagne, but it is still eaten in front of the fire, with candles and we always light the tree candles* for the first time, sing a few carols, and read “the Night before Christmas”.  Some years, when we have had one child or another singing Midnight Mass, at Gloucester Cathedral, we’ve had to go easy on the bubbly.

Because it was something different, it was quite a calming way to get small children into bed on Christmas Eve: candle- and fire-light is far more soporific than electricity and the flickering Television screen, so we didn’t have trouble with them staying up for hours, waiting for poor, exhausted Father Christmas to fill the stockings. (We used to leave some brandy for FC and a few carrots for the reindeer, but they’re a bit old for that now, and more inclined to drink the brandy themselves.)

The menu is a godsend for busy "caterers" at this hectic time of year, as it consists of bread, crackers, cheeses and salami, a few olives and pickles, with bunches of grapes for pudding. This means NO COOKING! Fab idea!  Now that they do their own shopping and cooking, the children bring a contribution to the feast, so that we get a variety of cheese and salami which nobody in Bethlehem would ever have dreamed of, but the theme remains the same.

As we no longer have small children, we thought that the popularity would have waned, but it is still their favourite Christmas tradition, and even if they can’t be with us on Christmas Day, they will drive miles to come to the shepherds’ supper, which is rather touching!

*Safety Note: 

We've been lighting candles on our Christmas trees for over 30 years, and only once has the tree caught alight, and was quickly put out. But we put our tree up a day or so before Christmas Eve, so it hasn't had time to dry out, and we never leave lighted candles unattended. We now use these candle holders which are much safer than the old clip on types, and have - fingers crossed - not had a problem since. (Though, actually, the children really enjoyed the little conflagration!)

Lips don't lie!

The thing with lips is that they don't have any natural oil of their own, and we will keep doing things that are detrimental, such as licking them or biting them. I know that heroines in 18th century novels used to bite their lips to redden them, but we don't need to do that now; that's what lipstick is for! So here is some info for you:

Dry lips can be caused by your lip balm or lipstick

Check out the ingredient list! If it says petrolatum and most of them do, then you may as well use Vaseline, it's cheaper and will be just as useless. (Did you know that some people are addicted to their lip balm?) This won't moisturise your lips, it will create a barrier on them. Use something moisturising.

You are not drinking enough water

Your lips will be dry, if you are. Set a timer to go off every hour and drink more water. It's free and it's great for your lips, your skin and you. Just do it! (As someone says...)

Lip-smackingly good...?

They might taste nice, but don't lick them, it will dry them out more. Bad idea, don't do it. Stopping this appalling habit is hindered if you use flavoured or scented lip balms, which encourage you to lick them! This is plain silly. Stop doing it now, please, and drink some more water.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Which means that it's probably warmer inside, and that lovely, cosy, central heating is wreaking havoc with your rosy lips. Talking of roses, you want them fresh and bud-like, rather than dehydrated petals, don't you? Look after them, then.

My prescription

Obviously, I use Dr Hauschka Lip Care Stick. It’s highly moisturising, and the beeswax part helps form an occlusive layer, to keep the moisturising Shea butter and almond oil on the lips. It even works for skiers. (Well, it needed testing, and, obviously, it was a hard job, but someone had to do it! I take my research very seriously.) 

If your lips are in a totally parlous state, then try this DIY method 

(as long as no-one else is around).

Put a layer of Manuka, or other honey on your lips. Rip off a piece of cling-film* big enough to cover your lips, not your entire face, because breathing is a good thing to do, generally speaking. Leave this for a while and your lips will look and feel much softer. Don’t be tempted to lick them though!

In the meantime, I have some Dr Hauschka Lip Care Sticks available free, with any order over £45, while stocks last! The normal RRP is £9.25, just for reference. So, if you need to stock up, why not get a freebie?

*Please note: I only use cling film for beauty purposes, never for food!

For regular updates, why not sign up to my emails?

http://www.theorganicbeautician.com/organic-beautician-newsletter

The trial of the century

Of recent months, I have been aware of a strange phenomenon: my husband, normally a mild-mannered, wouldn't-say-boo-to-a-goose sort of chap has been shouting at the radio, on a fairly regular basis. Normally this only happens occasionally when he listens to Any Questions, but I know that's not on every evening. It turns out that he has been listening to the Archers again.

I used to listen regularly, from a child in fact, because my mother was an Archers addict and my childhood was one of sacred silence at 7.05 for the fifteen minute duration. (Woe betide you if you spoke or even breathed loudly!) However, when the evil Vanessa Witchburn sent lovely Nigel falling from the roof of his ancestral pile, thinking that this would be a good start to the year, in 2011, I stopped in protest.

It's not that I disagree with them killing off characters; indeed, this can become a necessity when they want to leave, like John Archer, who fell under a tractor, so that he could pursue his career elsewhere. It's just that Nigel was sweet; unfailingly pleasant and jolly, with a penchant for dressing up in a gorilla suit and driving an ice cream van, and I feel that we could do with more people like that. There were plenty of characters I would have been happy to see the end of: snobby Susan Carter, Peggy Archer, Kate Aldridge, (the spoilt-brat hippy-child), or her equally irritating, carefully-enunciating mother Jennifer. Also Elizabeth, wife of the lovely Nigel, or her unbearably annoying sister, Saint Shula of Ambridge, or Tony Archer, who was a bit wet, or the incredibly joyless and exasperating Helen Archer. However, in reality, as someone wrote recently, awful things do happen to annoying people and Helen simply doesn't deserve what has been going on in her life recently, which is coercion and bullying by her despicable husband the allegedly charming RobTitchner. (The reason for my husband's increasingly loud invective.)

If you have been in a hut on an island for the last few weeks, Helen has just spent the last few months of her pregnancy and childbirth in prison, because she finally snapped and stabbed her utterly vile husband Rob. (He handed her the knife, I might add, and told her to kill herself. Charming chap.) Anyway, because Rob is a cunning and clever psychopath, most people have thought that he is just a caring and loving husband. He patently isn't, obviously, he's a manipulative swine, but that is only apparent if you are a listener.

Having walked through the kitchen, on various occasions, to see what the shouting was about, I found it too uncomfortably chilling to listen to the way that Rob's control has built up over hapless Helen, and her son Henry (who is currently in Rob's custody; someone go and fetch that child sharpish, please). Apparently I was not alone. There have been complaints about this, but also praise, because the portrayal of the recently criminalised coercive control that Rob has been exhibiting, has been advised on by women's groups, and they said that what happened in the end can happen in real life, "when Henry was threatened Helen did an ‘exploding doormat’ ". (It is unusual though, because, sadly, most women are the injured ones, rather than the stabber, which is what Helen became.)

We listened to the trial last night, which was mainly the jurors deliberating (and squabbling) and the jurors were a shocking blend of pleasantness and prejudice, including re-incarnated "Nigel", as Dennis, a rather prejudiced man, the not-so-lovely-this-time Nigel Havers, the self elected chairman, on a mission to get Helen banged up for good, (because these women are all unstable), Catherine Tate, who initially wasn't bothered, and the indomitable Eileen Atkins who singlehandedly fought Helen's corner, and talked the men round. (There were only 11 jurors, because one idiot tweeted about the case. Seriously!) Husband did have a grumble because he thought the men were all awful and he even got cross with Catherine Tate's Lisa, who thought Helen was making a fuss about nothing (turns out her chap was a total swine as well).

Anyway, Helen did walk free at the end, but this storyline could run and run, because psycho Rob still has Henry and I expect she'll will want her son back, but I'm not sure I can take any more of this emotional rollercoaster. (I had to anoint myself with Moor Lavender oil before going to bed, as I felt totally shattered.If I had any withers, they were wrung!) Still, it was an hour long episode, and it's available on Listen Again, if you can bear it...

Let's hope this story has helped many women in similar situations to recognise that they are not mad, and that coercive behaviour is not part of a loving relationship. In fact, the real hero of the hour is a chap called Paul Trueman on Twitter, who started the Helen Titchner Rescue Fund and has also caused an amazing sum of money to be raised for hospices in Helen's name. It stood at about £150,000, last night! 

I hope they go back to lambing and worrying about the wheat yield soon, though, because I'm not sure that I can cope with any more emotional distress at supper time!

One easy thing that will change your skin for GOOD!

Compressing your complexion for radiant skin

Compressing is an old fashioned remedy for many problems, and can help your skin immensely. It is used to great effect during the Dr Hauschka treatment, but can also be done at home to keep up the good work! All you need is a large muslin cloth and some warm water. Adding something sweet-smelling to the water does make the whole process more pleasurable and more effective, though! Herb tea bags or loose herbs can be used for their scent and healing properties, but I tend to use Dr Hauschka's Bath Essences.

How to compress

Use your large muslin cloth folded into a strip. Soak it in a sink of warm water, with a little something added to make it smell gorgeous and enhance the effect and general pleasurableness. Never underestimate the pleasure principle - if you make an activity enjoyable, you are more likely to repeat it.

I generally use Lemon or Spruce in the morning and Lavender in the evening.

For oily skin choose Sage or Lemon,

Sensitive skin will benefit from the soothing and water-softening properties of Lavender, which is also wonderful for any skin types in the evening, to facilitate a good night’s sleep.

Rose Bath is good for sensitive skin and general use

Sage is great for balancing those pesky female hormones and also for oily skin in men.

Spruce is particularly great if you have a cold or hay-fever, and is only available during the winter months.

Apply the wrung-out compress to your face, covering the whole of the face, with your little fingers beside the nose. It’s important to compress particularly the nose and chin, as this is where there is often more congestion.

Take a moment to breathe in and enjoy inhaling the gorgeous smell!

Then repeat this just below the chin, covering the neck, and once more, take the time to breathe deeply (which helps oxygenate the blood, and kick-starts the lymph).

Repeat on the face and neck.

Tailor the water to your skin condition; if you have oily skin you can use hotter water, if you have delicate, dry skin or rosacea, then you should use water which is just warm, not hot, although as your skin gets stronger, you will be able to use warmer water.

Please bear in mind that it takes considerably longer to describe how to do this than it does to do it. I spend longer cleaning my teeth than my face, and I am a beautician. 

You can read more about my approach to skin care by signing up to my regular newsletters here.

These instructions are part of the SkinCredible Journey, a month-long coaching programme for your best skin ever: The Skincredible Journey