We always say that we only ever use ingredients in our skincare products that are nourishing to the skin and we stick to our mantra “if you can’t eat it don’t put it on your skin”. So of course, you can expect nothing other than lovely healing and moisturising, organic ingredients in our body butters. The main ingredient in our body butters is the miracle shea butter, from the karite shea tree. Packed full of vitamins E and A which ward off free radicals that can cause damage to your skin. Shea butter penetrates deep into the dermal layers of the skin and as its properties are so similar to those that your sebaceous glands produce naturally, your body lovingly absorbs it as if it were its own!
Here are a few of the amazing results we’ve had fed back to us from some of our customers:
1. A gentleman who had had a near fatal accident at work and had deep, red, scarring around his abdomen began using our body butter daily on his scar, morning and evening and within weeks he noticed that the scar was fading.
2. A lovely lady we met last year bought our body butter whilst having a day on the beach (we had a stall at the beach market) and unfortunately, that day she got sun burned. She put the body butter all over her burnt skin and she was amazed how much better her skin was just the next morning.
3. A customer who would sometimes get contact dermatitis on her hands as a reaction to all the flour she would be touching when making cakes. The body butter cleared up her skin within a day or two.
4. An elderly lady who had a skin condition on her legs and has been prescribed creams from her GP began using our body butter instead and finally the skin on her legs began to improve!
A lot of other skin creams contain harmful ingredients that actually dry out the skin, such as alcohol and ironically, that it probably one of the least worst ingredients! So many creams contain petroleum which actually suffocates the skin and dries it out underneath. As the largest organ of the body, it’s important that the skin can breathe and function as it needs to.
It continues to amaze me the ingredients that are in creams prescribed by GPs. I often say they should be illegal! The times I’ve had customers telling me that they’ve been given a cream by their doctor but it doesn’t work. They try our body butter and the skin begins to heal!
We first launched our body butters a few years ago in just Lavender and Unscented. A further few years on we now have a range of 6 different body butters to choose from and they are flying off the shelves!
I remember the days when I didn’t live an organic lifestyle and now I look back and shudder! Yes, there are times when I get excited about seeing a new vegan food that isn’t organic and I’ll try it and yes there are some items that you cannot get organically but on the whole I eat organic foods and of course use organic products! Friends and family joke with me and often throw out the now clichéd question “but is it organic?” about something I am eating.
I was introduced to organic living by a very dear friend of mine, about 9 years ago- thanks Charlie! I can remember going shopping with her for lunch when we worked together; I wanted to purchase the non-organic houmous (hummus, however you choose to spell it!) because of the cost saving (we didn’t!).
Charlie talked me through the benefits of eating organically and I gave it a go. Once I switched, I really haven’t looked back. I started by ordering a weekly organic veg box which is great value for money and the vegetables are grown locally.
Yes, organic food can be more expensive if you buy from supermarkets but without the nasty pesticides and who knows what other chemicals – all of which have a seriously detrimental effect on our health, I know which I choose. Some argue that there is no nutritional difference between organic and non-organic foods. Supposing this is true, my counter-argument is that by eating organic foods, your body isn’t fighting to process and protect itself from all the pesticides and is therefore able to absorb and digest all the nutrients far more easily. I often wonder how many ailments today are as a result of the toxicity levels in our bodies from all the chemical covered foods we as a society now consume.
We are lucky to live near a fantastic organic fruit ‘n’ veg shop that sells mainly local foods (shout out to The Carrot Cruncher, Newcastle Emlyn!). I believe buying our food this way is just a ‘cheap’ as buying at a supermarket but of course, far better for our health and the local economy. For me, shopping this way, I can select just the amount of fruit and vegetables that I want, without being forced to buy pre-packaged veg in plastic wrapping that I may end up wasting as there’s more than I need. I also get to have a lovely chat with the shop owner. The image below says far more than words can say. If you’re not as lucky as we are to have a fantastic shop like The Carrot Cruncher near you, why not have a search online as you may have an organic veg box scheme in your area that delivers to your door. There are lots of farmers’ and local produce markets all over the place too.
So when I started Heavenly Organics Skin Care, there was no question, it had to be organic. 60% of what you put on your skin enters the blood stream and becomes part of you – just like food does. Therefore, we only put goodness in our skincare. We use as few ingredients as possible in each of our products as we firmly believe this is the best way. I’ve noticed that many other brands will use several ingredients in products and there are often only a couple of the ingredients in that long list that are the actual beneficial ones. The rest are there to bulk the product out and to preserve it longer than 3 years. Virtually all of our products have a shelf life of 2 years and we only make in small batches to keep the products as fresh as possible. These are all made with no preservatives as most of the ingredients are naturally preserving anyway (salts, tree butters, essential oils).
Our business will always continue with the same ethics and beliefs. We are also continually striving to improve things. We have changed our facial, shaving and body oils over to glass bottles. Our shampoos, hand and foot balms are in delightful aluminium tins and we intend to move our butters and scrubs over to glass tubs as soon as we can. We also offer refills where possible to further reduce packaging. We now print our labels in house using recycled labels. It is not just about organic ingredients, the packaging is important too!
Keep it organic and thank you for reading!
I absolutely adore body oils! I love them for the way they feed and nourish my body, how easy they are to apply, how little you need and also how extremely versatile they are! Here’s a few different ways you can use body oils:
As a moisturiser. But even within this there are different ways to use it. You can dry yourself off after washing then apply OR you can apply it straight after a bath or shower whilst you’re still wet and massage in. Then gently pat your skin dry and you’re good to go. This method is far quicker than applying to dry skin.
In the bath: Put a generous few dollops into your bath and soak – aaaaaaaaaarrgh. Need I say anymore?
To massage with: We have therapists that use our body oils in their massage treatments so why don’t you too!!
Here’s a quick run down as to why we consider facial oils incredible:
• Our facial oils are made with sunflower seed and jojoba oils which are naturally packed full of vitamin E making it naturally anti-ageing.
• You only need a few drops so a little goes a very long way
• The oil absorbs into your skin very quickly without leaving an oily residue
• Many people think oil means oily skin – NOT TRUE. Certain oils are in fact excellent for oily skin
• Our facial oils do not clog up the pores like some creams can, which can cause breakouts
• We offer an unscented facial oil for those who may be sensitive to some essential oils but here are the scented ones we do & a list of their individual benefits:
• Tea Tree: Excellent for acne prone skin with its antiseptic & anti-bacterial
• Orange & Grapefruit. Firstly Orange is anti-inflammatory; antiseptic; a general tonic; sedative; great for skin conditions such as acne and dermatitis. Grapefruit is anti-microbial; anti-viral; anti-septic, it boosts lymphatic system so can help with freeing the body of toxins; good for oily skin and acne. It has astringent properties too. A wonderful combination of essential oils!
• Lavender is anti-inflammatory as well as antibacterial and is soothing so great for stressed & irritated skin. Excellent for acne & rosacea as well as countless other conditions! An all-round good’un!
• Rose Geranium – it has a balancing effect on the body’s hormones, it has antiseptic & astringent properties, great for acne & dermatitis, is anti-inflammatory, great for rosacea too.
• Cedarwood – our newest arrival – it is anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and an astringent.
• The list of the benefits of the essential oils is by no means exhaustive. Essential oils have such a wonderful array of benefits.
Blackheads – something most of us are unfortunately familiar with, some more than others. Let’s deal with the facts and what we can do to combat these unsightly beasts. Blackheads are open pores or comedones that are plugged at the surface (also known as the pilosebaceous unit) with excess sebum (natural oil produced in the skin). This sebum reacts with the air (oxidises) and turns black. Blackheads are not caused by dirt and whilst it is not possible to banish blackheads from our lives forever, we can keep them at bay with regular maintenance.
Firstly, here’s what NOT to do: don’t squeeze them. This can inflame the skin and create localised infection. Don’t scrub vigorously and harshly at the blackheads as you don’t want to tear the skin.
Should you search on the internet you’ll find a whole array of solutions to help combat blackheads. Some, in my opinion, are far too harsh, whilst others involve the use of animal ingredients, which of course, I am wholeheartedly against. Luckily, there are several ways we can fight this battle the kind and natural way.
I highly recommend STEAMING your face to help the pores sweat, soften the pores and encourage the blackheads out. Be careful not to get too close to the steam so as not to burn your face. Immediately after steaming, wipe your face with a muslin cleansing cloth paying particular attention to the blackheads area. Then rinse your face with warm water and pat skin dry with a clean towel. Whilst you won’t want to use this method every day, wiping your face with a muslin cleansing cloth whilst in a hot shower or bath will also help to cleanse away the blackheads and keep the pores clean. This you can do easily every day.
EXFOLIATING – this is something that should be done once or twice a week – no more. This is extremely important but equally should not be overdone. Exfoliating will slough off the dead skin cells that you certainly don’t need to be hanging around clogging up those pores, adding to the problem!
FACE MASKS. Not all face masks are created equally!! Our mask contains 80% bentonite clay . Bentonite clay is the mother of all clays! It has a unique quality in that once it is combined with water, the molecules in the clay reacts to extract and absorb toxins and excess oils. A truly detoxifying clay! This amazing clay also contains a multitude of minerals, including calcium, magnesium, silica, sodium, copper, iron and potassium. Therefore, this clay takes out the bad guys and puts in the good guys! Again, this mask need only be used once a week (twice at most) but with incredible benefits. We have had excellent feedback on how effective it is for getting rid of blackheads.
After using any of the above mentioned regimes, do moisturise the skin afterwards. But this comes with a few words of WARNING. With blackheads being caused by excess oil/sebum production, we want to ensure this is minimised in the first place. Some moisturisers are ‘comedogenic’ AKA pore clogging. This is of course, what we want to avoid. As per our last blog on facial oils, we only make facial oils as we believe they are closest to what the skin produces itself. Therefore the skin will readily accept the oil as own of its own and not try to fight it by producing even more oil. BUT, we hear about many people using coconut oil on the face. Yes, coconut oil is a wonderful and highly versatile oil but we do not recommend it for use on the face as it can cause the pores to clog up. I know of several people who use coconut oil on the face successfully but I’ve also met many people who have experienced some breakouts on their face as a result of using it. Best to avoid!
So there it is, steam, exfoliate, use a muslin cleansing cloth and use our mask! These are our recommendations for the fight against blackheads! Good luck and remember, fight a clean fight!
The welfare of our planet means so much to us at Heavenly Organics Skin Care.
That’s why we only use glass and aluminium containers.
Whilst PET uses less energy in their production than glass, we still believe glass (or even our aluminium jars) is the way forward. Glass can easily be washed, sterilised and reused as good as new whereas, washing plastic jars out tends to leave them looking misty and therefore not reusable.
SAVE MONEY
So we’re offering £2 off your next order with us when you return your glass jars or bottles to us. Returning them to us may prove difficult for some of you, so why not use them for storing something else in? Why not use the bottles as a tiny vase?!
Don’t forget that we offer refills – in compostable bags! These will save packaging and will save you money too!
Alternatively, as some of our customers do, why not visit us at one of our events and hand them to us in person. We love to meet our customers!
Other ways in which we try to make a difference is by making sure that all of the following items we use are RECYCLED:
Labels
Paper
Paper packaging tape
Cardboard boxes
We occasionally receive emails from people asking about our animal testing policy and whether or not we sell to China. You will see on our home page and throughout our website that we are a vegan business & are Vegan Society registered. This means that our products do not contain any animal ingredients & are never tested on animals. We would simply not be allowed to hold this registration otherwise. The business is owned and run by me, Mary-Anne. I have been vegan for over 10 years and started this business because of my veganism and organic lifestyle.
NEVER!!!
Products sold within the European Union are not allowed to be tested on animals. However, if a company chooses to sell their products to China as well, then they are required to test the products on animals. For this reason alone, we will NEVER sell to China. In addition, some businesses may not test on animals themselves but they may be owned by a company who does test on animals. This will NEVER happen to us!
So, please be assured, we take veganism very seriously! We are here to be kind to all beings.
We only hold the Vegan Society registration and not any others because to us, this covers it all. Some companies may hold a registration that shows their products are not tested on animals yet the products contain animal ingredients. In our world, this is incongruous to kindness. Our products are all made with kindness.
Thank you.
For more information on switching to a vegan lifestyle, this article contains lots of useful tips and advice.
I’ve changed a great deal over the five odd years that I’ve been trading as Heavenly Organics Skin Care.
When I first begun, I wanted my first ever products, body scrubs, to be in glass kilner jars. During my research, I was informed that the production of glass causes more CO2 emissions than that of plastic PET containers. I therefore decided to opt for PET. Over the years, as I increased the product range, so I introduced more plastic packaging.
One day I made the connection; this is not right!
So for approximately a year and a half we’ve been using more glass jars and bottles and aluminium jars.
I believe that there’s a natural inclination to reuse glass than plastic, which tends to end up in the recycling bin…..and then where does it really go to from there?
At Heavenly Organics HQ we sterilise used glass jars and bottles & reuse them. We cannot do this with plastic, the plastic ends up looking misty and scratched.
So, to offer an incentive for customers, we’re now offering customers £2 off their next order when they return glass containers to us. Of course we also sell refills of products where possible and we have a whole section dedicated to refills on our webshop.
My other journey has been more personal but it inevitably merges with my business.
It began when my lovely friend Katy, of Little Miss Meat Free told me about Minimalism, the documentary. I watched in on Netflix and absolutely loved it. I already live a fairly minimalistic lifestyle and don’t feel that I am caught up in consumerism. Yet I learnt a lot from this documentary and promptly gave more of my clothes and belongings to charity ( I may have overdone it actually!). It has helped me look at other aspects of my life and see where I can make changes and consequently appreciate life that bit more. As one of the guys says at the end of the documentary “love people and use things because the opposite never works”. Minimalism is available on Netflix.
That was it – my mind was off whirring away. For a while I had been wondering that by making and selling my own products, was I a cog in the wheel of consumption? However, I also know that my products are different to many others. As you will see when you look at any of our product ingredients, we only use, pure, organic, natural & vegan products. Never anything else. This, we believe is our unique selling point. We truly care about the whole process. When someone purchases our products the oceans aren’t being polluted, the ground and plants used to grow the ingredients aren’t being pumped full of pesticides.
This can only be beneficial to our planet, of which there is no spare one in reserve. So my conclusion is that NO! I am not a cog in the wheel of consumption. We are here to make the world a kinder, cleaner and happier place!
