Natroma Handmade Goat's Milk Soap Wins Best Buy Award!

Natroma - handmade aromatherapy organic goat's milk soap 

We’re delighted to announce that The Green Parent magazine has awarded a Best Buy award to our Natroma Carrot & Calendula organic goat’s milk soap in their 2016 Natural Beauty Awards!

Handmade with organic cruelty-free certified botanical oils and aromatherapy grade essential oils, our Carrot & Calendula has been a popular soap variety for a while.  So we were thrilled to hear that one of our handmade natural soaps beat off competition from much larger companies, to achieve the Best Buy award!

Our goat's milk soaps were developed especially for eczema, psoriasis and sensitive skin types, so we hope this award encourages more people to try using natural soaps as a more gentle and natural way of cleansing their skin.  We think the addition of the goat's milk really adds something to the way our aromatherapy soaps feel on the skin, helping sufferers of eczema and psoriasis who often struggle to find cosmetic products that don't cause skin irritation. 

Each year The Green Parent Magazine Beauty Awards search for the safest, cleanest, greenest and most effective natural products in a range of categories.  Each of the winning items in the 2016 awards has been carefully chosen and tested by an independent review panel.  The Award winners will appear in the 2016 Natural Beauty Bible which will be published later in July.

We decided to enter this year’s awards because of The Green Parent’s approach, they say:  “We insist on products free from petroleum-based chemicals, propylene glycol, parabens or sulphates and NO animal testing so you can be assured of their safety. We believe that beauty is more than skin deep. So we seek out those products that are made by passionate people; companies that we can trust; those who put care and love into their work”.

Thanks Green Parent - we're delighted with this win!

NEW! Palm Free Coconut Milk Soaps for Natroma

Phew...it's been a busy week! We attended the Attingham Park Summer Fair last weekend, and met lots of new customers who seemed to love our handmade skincare and soap products. It was lovely having a chat about the benefits of aromatherapy and natural skincare, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone again with our Christmas Gift Hampers at the Frost Fair at the end of the year.

We've also been busy with press interest in our Humane Cosmetics Standard accreditation from BUAV . It's been lovely to receive so much positive support for our efforts and we're very proud that our products now bear the Leaping Bunny logo, an internationally recognised symbol of cruelty free cosmetics. We'll continue to bring you news of the the valuable work that BUAV does to eradicate the practice of animal testing - which we feel is cruel and unnecessary.
So to celebrate a fantastic week, we're launching some new products - a new range of Natroma soaps! We've listened to customer requests and we think these are pretty special - formulated without palm oil (so they're environmentally friendly) and containing coconut milk (so they're perfect for vegan customers), with pretty natural colours and essential oil fragrances. We felt it was important to introduce this range, since quite a few vegan customers felt left out when we specialised in goats milk soaps. Well we think the Natroma soaps feel lovely on the skin, and have a really bubbly, creamy lather that's every bit as good as one of our goats milk varieties.

We've also specially formulated each of these soaps, enriching them with specific oils and botanicals to support the skin. There's an antibacterial soap (which we admit is a bit smelly!) that contains tea tree, rosemary, lavender and neem oils. We've included two very gentle soaps in the range - Carrot & Rhassoul (top of the soap pile in the picture) and Hemp & Oatmeal (bottom of the pile) both of which have gentle essential oil blends so they could be used as facial bars and will suit sensitive skin. For lovers of floral soaps, there's Exotic Rose which has a delicate blend of rose, geranium and ylang ylang essential oils (middle of the pile) and we've splurged with this one including evening primrose oil in the formulation.

Customers also asked us for simple recyclable soap wrappers, so these soaps are hand wrapped in recycled kraft paper but we couldn't resist adding a little organza ribbon trim! Better still, some of these soaps will be available with hand decorated tops, so they'll make perfect stand alone gifts too.

We hope you enjoy using these palm-free Natroma soaps.....and watch this space since we have several more of these soaps on the way!

What is aromatherapy?

These days, there are all manner of products on the market claiming to have aromatherapy benefits. The problem is that quite often cosmetics have names that make them sound like aromatherapy products, but they only contain minute amounts of essential oils or even have synthetic fragrances. These products may not even be formulated by a professional Aromatherapist, so how do you spot the genuine article? We hope the following information about essential oils and aromatherapy will be useful.

Aromatherapy is often defined as the careful, controlled use of essential oils, to enhance the well-being of the mind, body and spirit. Essential oils are highly concentrated, volatile, and fragrant substances that are extracted from flowers, berries, twigs, wood, seeds, fruits and leaves of many familiar plants. Essential oils have many different properties and research has shown that each oil contains a complex mixture of chemical components which contribute to essential oil therapeutic qualities. These could be stimulant, expectorant, anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, relaxant, calming, soothing or uplifting. The important thing to stress is that they need to be used with respect and knowledge, so aromatherapy is far more than just pretty smells!

A professional Aromatherapist will have extensive knowledge of the therapeutic qualities and the chemical components within each essential oil. This enables them to create synergistic blends that are personalized for their client, taking into account their needs and any existing health conditions. In the hands of a knowledgable professional Aromatherapist, this means that these plant essences can be therapeutically blended to assist with stress, enhance health and support the body’s own healing processes. Clinical aromatherapy focuses on achieving synergy within the essential oil blend, and usually employs massage to use essential oils in a holistic treatment. So while this is not a medical treatment, aromatherapy has been found to work psychologically and physiologically to improve well-being.

In the coming months, we’ll be featuring a number of essential oils to explain their qualities and why we use them in our handmade natural skincare products. In the meantime, you can see more about our natural ingredients on our websites.

The Natural Soapworks and Natroma product ranges are formulated in-house by a professionally qualified Clinical Aromatherapist, and member of the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists (IFPA).

Mother's Day Natural Soap Hampers

We've just uploaded some new goats milk soap gift hampers on to The Natural Soapworks website, which would make perfect Mother's Day gifts. Our new contemporary soap range will be added to the website in the coming weeks, and we're very pleased with them!

The botancial mini soaps, will be available in 2 sizes: 25g (these are the cute mini soaps which have been featured in our natural skincare gift sets for a while), and 40g (a new larger mini soap). These look fantastic in our elegant, hamper boxes.

We're particularly proud of our new contemporary soap slices, since they look beautiful but are also handmade using our new goats milk palm-free soap formulation. We first introduced this soap recipe when we launched 'Orang 2' (our charity soap, which supports Borneo Orangutan Survival - BOS UK). It will be the base formulation for our contemporary soap range, so is particularly suitable for anyone who wants to avoid using products which contain palm oil. This soap range will introduce several new soap fragrances, and the first six are: Springtime (a refreshing and uplifting blend with herbal and citrus notes), Rosebud (delicate, sweet rose notes), Hippy Rosie (rose geranium with patchouli), Exotic Flowers (rich sensual notes of ylang ylang and jasmine), Marigold (with lavender and chamomile), and an old favourite, Lavender.

These are being previewed in our Mother's Day hampers page on the website, and will soon be available as individual soaps. We hope you like them!

Last chance to purchase Natural Soapworks Christmas skincare gift hampers!

We're relieved to be able to say that the last of our Christmas gift hamper items have now been manufactured! It's been a very busy few weeks for everyone at The Natural Soapworks, so once again a big thank you to all of our customers who popped in to collect their orders and wish us a Merry Christmas!!

But it's not over yet! There's still one more weekend before Christmas, and we know how frustrating it can be when you can't find a suitable gift for someone.

That's why we're going to open up Studio 12 again during this last weekend of the year, and we'll have a range of Natroma skincare products, goat's milk soap mini soaps, botanical bath melts and other lovely fragrant goodies available to purchase. We still have a few of our special £5 Secret Santa hampers too, but they'll be selling out soon!

On Saturday and Sunday we'll be offering our popular 'while you wait' hamper wrapping service, so remember to pop in and see us if you're in need of some final gift inspiration!

Our final opening hours for 2009 will be:

Thursday (17th) from 1pm-4pm

Friday (18th) from 11am - 4pm

Saturday (19th) from 11am-4pm

Sunday (20th) from 11am - 4pm

Monday (21st) 10am-1pm

Tuesday (22nd) 11am - 4pm

Looking after your lips the natural way

In the second of our articles on Autumn Skincare, we're focussing on the lips...

Colder weather will affect your lips, making them more prone to chapping and soreness. Unfortunately the wind and cold temperatures can cause the lips to flake, usually due to dehydration. So it's important to remember to drink lots of fluids, and use a lip balm to moisturise and protect the lips, ensuring they stay soft and in condition.

Our Lips Silk lip balm is rich in unrefined cocoa and shea butters, and is enriched with avocado oil and Vitamin E. It has no added flavour (but definitely smells of chocolate), since we think it's better that you aren’t encouraged to lick your lips. If your lips become sore or chapped, then it's Lips Soothe to the rescue! This is an enriched version of our lip balm, which is bright yellow in colour (but don't worry, it doesn't stain the lips). The colour comes from the Sea Buckthorn botanical extract we've added to the formulation, and together with some comfrey oil it really does calm things down when your lips are feeling uncomfortable.

PS: We know that many people like to use a flavoured/fragranced lip balm, so we're finally giving in to customer requests. Later in October we'll be launching a new range of lip balms which contain subtle organic aromas/flavours so watch this space!

Soap making classes are fun!

At times when you make soap commercially it can feel like it’s all work and no play. Part of this is because soap is a cosmetic product, so here in the UK it’s governed by the EU Cosmetics Directive. Every soap has to be cosmetically safety tested and commercial batches have to consistently use this approved formulation. There’s also a mountain of admin to track ingredients and batch references before the soap can even be presented for sale.

So today was fun! We ran one of our all day soap making courses and met up with 4 lovely “beginners”, to pass on our pearls of wisdom about how to make cold process soap. We love these days since it gives us a chance to share our passion for handmade soap and natural skincare ingredients. Today’s group asked some fantastic questions, and the class over-ran because we were covering so much ground. But it was lovely to have the chance to play again, and it’s resulted in some lovely new soap fragrances. To everyone who attended – it was a real pleasure to meet you all and we hope you had an enjoyable day!

There are now two places left on our April soap making class (Saturday 25th April), and then we’re fully booked. So if you fancy learning a new skill, visit our soap making page http://www.naturalsoapworks.co.uk/Classes.aspx for more details.

After this, our last soap making class of the year will be held at The Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Saturday 27th June. To join this larger class, you’ll need to enrol at the Gardens’ Reception during normal opening hours or enrol over the telephone on 0121 454 1860.