Botanicals Organic Body Balms

Winter is the perfect time to treat your body to some serious TLC.

There’s something about cold, dark days and long, dark evenings that make you want to snuggle down and pamper yourself- or is that just me?!

Either way there’s no better time to look after your skin as the winter months are usually when it could do with a little extra help.

Perfect timing then that Botanicals have launched four beautiful aromatic body balms.

Designed to do more than just nourish your skin these naturally fragranced balms have been created to stimulate your senses by restoring and recharging tired minds or creating warm feelings of contentment, peace and calm.

Hand made in small batches using active plant-derived active ingredients you get a real sense of bespoke luxury and the love that has been poured into every single one of these wonder balms is practically palpable.

There are four gorgeous balms to choose from, each one highly concentrated yet gentle and suitable for even sensitive skin.

You’ve got a Neroli Softening Body Balm, a Wild Rose Nourishing Body Balm, the Award-winning Lavender & Chamomile Soothing Salve and my favourite, the Lemongrass Revitalising Body Balm (£20).

This rich, nourishing and calming balm is infused with zesty, toning lemongrass and balancing mandarin for a beautiful citrus scent.

Packed full of active ingredients, essential fatty acids and shea butter the balm is wonderfully thick and nourishing.

A little goes a long way with this balm and when warmed between your finger-tips it transforms into a wonderfully light oil which is easy to apply to your whole body, cocooning it in moisture and enveloping your senses in a beautifully light, citrusy scent.

Calming, relaxing and comforting the fragrance lingers on your skin all evening and your skin is left feeling soft and nourished without a hint of greasiness.

I adore this balm and am looking forward to trying the other three!

Botanicals Lemongrass Body Balm is available now and costs £20 for 60g.

Soap for Sensitive Skin

Like a huge proportion of people in the UK I suffer with eczema and have done for as long as I can remember. I am lucky that it is not so severe that I have been unable to cope with the symptoms such as sore, itchy, sensitive skin- but it does make bathing and showering much more of an ordeal.

Often I find myself seduced by the wonderfully packaged, seductive smelling, well known brands in the shops. I am after all, a beauty maniac and relish the opportunity to try new brands and different products. My skin however, rarely appreciates this addiction and often lets me know just that by turning my legs and arms into scales a snake would be proud of. Nice.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many products out there for sensitive, problematic and dry skin- ive tried lots of them, but sadly with artificial colouring free, fragrance free, paraben free and SLS free often results in bland, lackluster products which leave me feeling a little cheated and excluded from the world of wonderful, exciting, fragrant products.

I was recently contacted by the Sedbergh Soap Company, a family run business developed by Dorothe Pratt, a long time eczema sufferer herself. She had found that a large amount of products available and marketed as 'natural' and either made from or containing an amount of organic or natural ingredients, made them just that. It didn’t mean they were suitable for her skin, so she decided to create her own- and every item has been tested on her skin!

I jumped at the chance to try a selection of these products, especially as they are all free of artificial colourings, perfume, fragrance, parabens, SLES, SLS, Propylene Glycol, Triclosan and Phthalates to name only a few! I was assured that I would not be disappointed with the results.

I could smell the contents of the package before I opened it- an incredible aroma of lemongrass, wafted across the office with one colleague remarking that it smelt like ‘the south of France in here’.

I was sent the selection of five soaps- lemongrass, rosemary, lavender, sweet orange and peppermint, a lemongrass and lavender dead sea bath soak as well as a Calorie free geranium rose soap bar.

I rushed home on the hottest day of the year to jump into the shower with my lemongrass soap which contains essential oils and dry lemongrass within it. The smell was encapsulating and I found myself 20 minutes later still in the shower.

The lavender bath soak was equally wonderful. Containing 100% dead sea salt with essential lavender oil and pure lavender buds, I quickly drifted off into a land surrounded by rolling lavender fields!

My skin felt clean, refreshed and soft- not dry and scaly as it would do had I used regular soap or bath salts made with sodium chloride. Sedbergh Soap Company is a gem of a find and if their fab products weren’t enough to sway you, they are also between 70%-89.98% organic and are packaged in biodegradable and recyclable material, so they are great for the environment as well as your skin!

You can get your hands on an array of their products from soap to shampoo, salts to body lotion, as well as gifts, products for babies and toddlers and even wedding favours on their website Sedbergh Soap Company.