Skin Spring Clean with Natroma

Now that the days are lengthening in the UK, it's lovely to see some very welcome sunshine! Spring is on the way and we'll soon be baring more skin again, so it's a good time to review your skincare regime. During the colder months it's easy to neglect the skin, and it can become damaged by being exposed to the elements and the dry air from central heating systems.

Therefore we'd recommend using a cream cleanser and a muslin cloth each day, to gently cleanse and exfoliate away dry patches, and brighten the complexion. Our gentle facial approach, involves a 3 stage process which takes only a couple of minutes each day - it's no fuss and can be built into even the busiest of mornings and evenings.

First of all you massage our rich cream cleanser across the face, allowing it to draw out skin impurities. We formulated this to harness the deep cleansing power of organic caster oil and white clay, with the moisturising benefits of nilotica shea butter and D-panthenol, and the wonderful skin soothing properties of calendula and chamomile botanical extracts. These are gentle cleansers, fragranced only with organic hydrolats (flower waters), making them well suited to sensitive skin types, safe to use around the eyes and perfect for removing make up.

Our Natroma cleanser works best when used with a muslin cloth. You simply rinse a muslin cloth in hand-hot water and wring out so the cloth is warm and moist. Use the cloth to gently remove the cleanser cream, make-up and skin impurities - and it will lightly exfoliate the skin to leave it feeling refreshed, brighter and clean.

We'd then suggest using some hydrolat toner to ensure all traces of cleanser are gone and to further refresh the skin. Hydrolats are produced during the steam distillation of essential oils, so contain dissolved plant extracts which are kind and soothing to the skin. Ours are presented in a Miron glass, a special violet glass which protects the hydrolat from light.

The final stage of our mini facial, is to smooth on some moisturiser. Like the rest of our range, Natroma's moisturisers are handmade and contain a blend of flower waters, botanical oils (including jojoba oil), natural plant extracts (rosehip seed and arctic cranberry seed), and are lightly fragranced with Neroli and Rose essential oils. We're proud of these lovely moisturisers since they feel light on the skin and sink in quickly to provide lasting skin hydration without any greasiness.

Make up can be applied after moisturising, making this a quick but enjoyable mini pampering session at the start and end to every day!

To encourage everyone to try out the Natroma range, we have a special Spring Offer on the Natroma website. We're offering the facial starter kit (includes a 30ml cleanser and moisturiser in airless pumps with a 50ml hydrolat and a muslin cloth). This kit should last for around 4-6 weeks and normally costs £15.25, but our special Spring Offer saves you 15% and is just £12.95 These are available in 3 varieties - Chamomile (unscented), Rose and Orange blossom (Neroli). We hope you enjoy!

Hydrolats, Hydrosols, Flower Waters

This is the first in a series of articles covering our cosmetic ingredients. This week, we're focussing upon hydrolats (sometimes called hydrosols or flower waters).

Hydrolats are a by-product from the production of essential oils from botanical materials, via a steam distillation process. During distillation the essential oil is separated from the water or condensed steam. This pure water is collected and contains the water soluble parts of the plant. Many hydrolats have a light aroma and are mild and cooling, making them ideal to use as ingredients in cosmetic products or as natural skin toners or compresses. The most well-known one is traditional rose water, but there are a great many hydrolats available. They each have their own charicteristics, but all are soothing, refreshing and help to balance the skin.

We have carefully selected a small range of organic hydrolats (from a Soil Association accredited producer) and they smell gorgeous! It took us a while to find these lovely floral waters, since a great many have added preservatives and are not produced organically. You'll find them in all of our Natroma cream products, and they alone provide the subtle aroma in our Facial Cleansers and Rhassoul Clay Masks.

Our Chamomile variety has a very subtle fragrance so is perfect for sensitive skin. Rose has a rich, sweet note and is great on all skin-types. Orange Blossom comes from the distillation of neroli essential oil, and has a light, sophisticated note (and is definitely our favorite!) After finding such a lovely product we thought they deserved special packaging, so we chose some elegant violet glass bottles. This special heavy glass looks almost black and protects them from daylight so they do not need any added preservative. These bottles have a fabulous spray attachment which produces the finest of mists - so you can spray them directly onto the face. Our tip is to keep a bottle in the fridge during hot weather, and use it to spritz the neck when you're feeling too warm. This also works wonderfully, for anyone suffering from hot flushes.

We love organic hydrolats, and would definitely recommend using them as a natural alternative to commercial toner products. They leave the skin feeling soft and hydrated and are an essential part of our skincare range. More information can be found on the Natroma website: http://www.natroma.co.uk/store/d2-hydrolat-skin-toners/