Happy Mothers Day

Adidas and Pharrell

I love Pharrell and his Vivienne Westwood hat and this very interesting concept of turning plastic from the oceans into fabric.

Adidas has announced its long term partnership with musician and music producer Pharrell Williams, and his textile company The Vortex Project; an initiative to turn plastic debris from the oceans into Bionic Yarn and fabric. The collaboration, launching in the summer, with see the first adidas Originals x Pharrell Williams products.

Twitter: @adidasoriginals / @adidas / @pharrell

Hooray Its Friday

Nutrition and weight management

On route to becoming a nutrition and weight management adviser

Bare Minerals BB Cream Launch

As Primers go Bare Minerals is a good one with added sun protection and tint a definite must try for all

Mineral make-up brand bareMinerals has announced the launch of Prime Time BB Primer Cream Daily Defense SPF 30. The new product introduces a triple-action, all-in-one tinted formula which diminishes the look of discolouration and imperfections, provides sun protection and primes skin. Available in shades Fair, Light, Medium and Tan, the cream can be worn alone or under foundation.

Launch date: April (Light & Medium) & September (Fair and Tan)
Prices: £23
Stockists: nationwide
Twitter: @bareMineralsUK

Health Motivation

We all need motivation to keep us on the straight and narrow. Remember diet does not mean denial, it is the word that describes what we eat and how we choose to eat it.The right food choices will help keep us healthy and exercise will give us strength, form, energy and help to maintain a healthy weight.

Keep moving

Beauty Good Enough to Eat- Accidents

Still on my series of Beauty Good Enough to Eat I am interested in remedies that have come about by accident so please share  any you may have.

I will share mine.

This is more of a healing story but shows the power of the plant. I was lucky to be on an amazing holiday to Barbados and had laryngitis and had lost my voice completely. While lazily sunny myself  a beach comber happened by selling his wears.  holding a fresh picked Aloe Vera plant. He was carrying a rather filthy knife and dodgy looking bottles of aloe gel. After many attempts of trying to convince him I was not interested he heard my squeaky voice and before I knew it the aloe gel was removed from the plant with that knife and dropped in my orange juice. Strongly encouraged to drink

holding my nose I did and to be honest it was like swallowing snot errrrrr!! Amazingly I started to talk completely normally. Weird! From that day I am a complete convert to the Plant Aloe Vera.

 

My next accident: 

After stupidly running out of my expensive massage oil and needing oil for my next client that was about to arrive I grabbed the olive oil. Finding the oil was a thick texture and glided on beautifully leaving the skin soft and silky.

 

Another slightly strange accident :

Looking for something to soften and treat toe nails all I could find was the Vicks vapour rub with the

Camphor and eucalyptus oil it seemed the obvious choice and you guest it a brilliant toe ointment.

 

 

Happy St Patricks Day

 

So is it good for you?

 

Apparently Guinness had to remove their claims that it is good for you,

but a  Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease.

They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager

    

They believe that "antioxidant compounds" in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3266819.stm

So all you St Patrick's Day revellers can enjoy your Guinness hopefully with a healthy Heart.

Give Me Strength

 

Keep Fit, Keep Strong, keep Healthy.
Love this image, but please make sure you use the correct body position when lifting heavy weight.

Massage cushion

Just read an article in Vitality magazine about Carol May's Comfy Client cushion. The ergonomically designed cushion is used for post op breast care and ophthalmic clinics as well for comfort while on the massage coach.


http://www.thecomfyclient.co.uk/

Spirit of Well Being

Good Wednesday Morning

Beauty Good Enough to eat - Acne

Acne, Spots and Blemishes

Continuing on with my series of Beauty Good Enough to Eat I have been looking at many different
natural treatments associated with Acne and blemished skin. My teenage son is my tester and very keen to find something that will help clear his teenage spots. 
Firstly I must stress that it is important to keep your skin clean, eat plenty of whole food including fresh fruit and veg and drink water. Life style will impact on your skin, lack of sleep, stress and poor diet will leave it's mark and is important factors when treating any skin condition. The next thing to think about is what are using now. Often spots can be a result of an allergy or intolerance to a product or food. Also for boys shaving rash can produce infected hair follicles that will manifest like acne.
So bearing all this in mind the best remedies we tried are:

Honey speared on the face did have a calming affect.
Honey and oatmeal makes a good face mask sticky, but skin felt softer and less angry.
Fullers earth mixed with water is a good one as it reduces the oil and draws the spots out
(maybe not good enough to eat but natural)




 

Fullers earth mask

 



Bicarbonate of Soda mixed into a paste with water This is used as a mask once or twice a week and  probably gave the best result. However you need to be careful as it is reactive and can be quite harsh.
The spots although red at first seem to be noticeably calmer after use,




You need to be careful not to dry out the skin too as it is much more problematic to treat a dry skin with spots. I suggest if your skin is very greasy to massage your skin gently without cream so using the natural oil of your skin and stimulate the blood circulation before cleansing in the morning.
If your skin is feeling  dry after any remedy or cleanse then lightly massage an oil with healing properties like Aloe or Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil.

Other things I would suggest 'natural but not good enough to eat '

If your skin is very oily there is nothing like soap and water use a perfume free soap and moisture after use.
A light moisturiser Elemis FreshSkin skin clear Mattifying moisturiser is very good.
 
 

If your spots look angry and infected dab a little surgical spirit directly on to the spot with cotton wool or cotton bud. This may sting, but as good as any expensive spot treatment. Don't use all over face though. It is very drying.

We are also looking at the affects of Sulfur ointment 10% by De La Cruz and the Jury is still in and will report back when can give a verdict.

Please let me know if this helps or if you can suggest any other remedies you have tried 'Good Enough to Eat'

 

 

Its Friday!

Health and wellbeing @ work

Just got back from Birmingham NEC where I attended the wellbeing @ work show.
This is the first time I have been to this show and not as manic as the Beauty shows I have worked at or attended over the years. Of course it had its fair share of gimmicky fitness products and posture aiding devises. For me though, it gave a good incite into the world of Wellbeing and
a couple of paths I am very interested in following.
The best part of the show is the many lectures that are given by leading experts in their field. I managed to sit in several, some definitely better speakers than others, but because this is a new
direction for me they were all educational and all helps to widen the mind, which can't be a bad thing.
Professor Dame Carol Black, Expert advisor on Health and work spoke on Well Being in the work place. Getting people back to work after absence ,the ageing population at work and obesity all well being issues that need attention.
Dr Bill Gunnyeon CBE Chief medical advisor, Department for work pensions. Spoke on The Health and Work Service which should come into effect by March 2015 and will be a unified service nationwide which will provide Wellbeing services with national standards.
Dr Sajid Kahn Occupational Health Physician gave a very entertaining talk on trigger points which reassured my knowledge that working on trigger points(Area in muscle that elicits pain) with massage can relieve localised and referred pain, which can in turn can relieve Headaches, Neck pain, shoulder pain, Sciatica, muscle fatigue and aid sleep.
Christopher Packham Dermatological Engineer, EnviroDerm Services. The subject of skin exposure in the work place is a definite interest to me, having worked on skin all my working life I would like to learn a lot more about skin analysis in relation to intolerance, product and exposure.So I found this lecture the most interesting.
I attended several other lectures on Mindfulness and stress and there were many more lectures over 2 days.

Well Being Show

Heading to Birmingham today for Health and Well Being Show.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon