Romance is in the air!

Yes it's that time of year again....Valentine's Day is nearly here!

So this year we've developed a new aromatherapy blend that should appeal to both men and women. It's called Romance and is a complex blend of the aphrodisiac essential oils, including ylang ylang, cedarwood, frankincense and patchouli. Romance smells initially quite sweet, but there's a lovely woody depth to it too. Because it contains cedarwood, it's not recommended during pregnancy, but that's not problem since we'll be happy to make any of our Valentine's products with our Sensual blend (which is safe to use thoughout pregnancy).

We have a wide variety of Valentine's gift ideas available in our Ruskin shop, including heart shaped bath bombs (with or without rose petals), bathing salts (a special edition version that contains pink Himalayan salts), fizzing bath melts (hand rolled in rose petals), heart shaped soaps, lantern candles, aroma teddys, sensual incense and crystal heart necklaces. Romance is also available to purchase as a 10ml essential oil blend - perfect for diffusing in an oil burner.

We also have a selection of Romance items to purchase from our Valentines Day web page. We'll accept website orders until 10th February, to allow time for them to be delivered.

Support the campaign to end cruel animal tests

This week saw the launch of an important campaign by BUAV. As you know, BUAV operate the internationally recognised scheme which enables consumers to identify cruelty-free cosmetics. The Natural Soapworks and Natroma aromatherapy skincare are part of this scheme, and that's why our products display the Leaping Bunny on their packaging. We are strongly opposed to any form of animal testing.

On 11th March 2009, all animal testing of cosmetics in the EU was stopped (largely due to two decades of campaigning by the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments - ECEAE). But this ban had a catch since it's currently still permitted for three types of animal tests to be carried out in non-EU countries for cosmetics sold in Europe. This arrangement is permitted until March 2013, to to allow non-animal tests (‘alternatives’) to be developed and approved.

However EU officials are currently considering whether to extend the ban for another 10 years, due to pressure from some cosmetics companies. If this is agreed it could mean 10 more years of animal cruelty, where animals are needlessly injected, gassed, force-fed and killed worldwide for cosmetics products sold in the EU.

So we're supporting BUAV's campaign to try to ensure this doesn't happen. We'd encourage all of our customers to visit the campaign website and sign the petition to say NO to cruel cosmetics in Europe! We hope you visit the campaign website, read the facts and show your opposition too.

PS: A belated Happy New Year everyone! (We've had a busy start to the year, so unfortunately there hasn't been enough time to add to the blog until now). More soon!