Christmas is coming!

We've been a little quite on the blog in the last few week - it's because we've been so busy! We're settling into the Ruskin workshop very nicely, and visitors may well have noticed a certain Christmassy smell in the air. Yes, we've been blending our Christmas Spice essential oil blend again, and our natural Christmas decorations are now smelling wonderful and will be hung on the Christmas tree very soon!

So we've finally managed to upload some of our Christmas gift ideas onto the Natural Soapworks website. This year, we've expanded our range of naturally decorated recycled gift hampers - and they look very pretty without causing problems for the environment.

Mindful that times are still tough, we've also done everything we can to keep prices down so website customers will find a great range of hampers containing pretty hand decorated goats milk soap slices and botanical fizzing bath melts - all for under £10.

We're expecting the next few weeks to be very busy, as we prepare for a number of Christmas craft events. So website orders are currently being processed on a 2 day turnaround, and we will continue to post out hampers until the Christmas postal deadline is reached....or we run out of soap!!

Visitors to the Workshop, are advised to place their Christmas orders as soon as possible now - we're expecting to have to close our Stourbridge order book within the next week or so. We hope to see you soon!

Natroma and Miron violet glass refill service

Since the beginning of glass production (during the time of the Egyptian pharaohs), violet glass or golden containers were used to preserve precious oils, salves, and alternative medicines. These containers worked because the sun emits both visible and invisible light. We can see the visible spectrum (as a rainbow of colours), when white light is channeled through a glass prism, but there is also light that is invisible to our eyes – the infra red and UV-A part of the spectrum.

Sunlight is vital for plants to grow, but if they are over exposed to the sun after reaching maturity, the light accelerates the process of decay. This means that products that are packaged in traditional coloured glass packaging (clear, amber, blue and green) allow visible light to pass through so do not offer the same protection as violet glass. Miron violet glass is made in Switzerland and works like a natural filter, since it blocks most of the visible light with the exception of the violet part of the spectrum but remains permeable to UV-A and infra red light. This unique combination protects against the aging processes of visible light, and lengthens shelf life and potency of products contained within violet glass.

Over the last few years, several scientific tests have been carried out on spirulina, rose water, drinking water, oils, cereals, honey, fruits and other substances to prove the protective quality of violet glass. (The picture right shows an example of what happened to a cherry tomato left in clear glass compared to the protection offered by the violet glass).

Chemical analysis by gas chromatography of rosewater, (stored for two months in either violet or amber glass) showed that within 2 months the amount of several important aromatic compounds had decreased significantly following storage in amber glass. No change was observed in the sample stored in violet glass showing the protection against decomposition by visible light.

This is why this very special glass was chosen for the Natroma range, where it protects our Hydrolat Toners and Oil Serums. We have to import these bottles to the UK, but we felt it was important to offer superior packaging that naturally increases shelf life, and protects the natural potency of our organic natural ingredients. The bottles are also very attractive too!

Refill service now available on the Natroma website!

We've always offered a studio refill service for products packaged in Miron glass (just bring your empty bottle back into the studio and we'll re-fill it with the same product again). So we’re very pleased to announce that we’re now offering refills on our Natroma website too! So when you purchase full sizes of Natroma products packaged in Miron bottles, don’t throw the valuable violet glass away when the bottles are empty. Instead, order a refill from our website (packaged in recyclable plastic) so you can top up your bottle and re-use it again. In this way, you’ll be helping the environment since the plastic bottle will be lighter for mail order and there will be no need to recycle the violet glass. To encourage you to recycle we’re pleased to offer refills at a cheaper price, that reflects their ‘no frills’ packaging.

NEW! Natural Shaving Kits

We've just updated our Natural Soapworks Pamper Hamper page with a range of new natural skincare hampers which would be perfect for birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas. By popular request, we've included some new natural shaving items which would be great for Father's Day.

Our Natural Shaving Kit (left) contains some our our luxurious Forest Spice shaving soap. It's a specially formulated goats milk soap, that contains a lovely blend of woody essential oils (with skin caring properties), and rhassoul clay which is a fabulous clay that's usually used in spa treatments. This gives the soap a really lovely feeling on the skin, with a rich creamy lather (without lots of foam) which keeps the razor close to the skin so it glides and reduces razor burn. Teamed with the shaving soap, we've added a natural bristle wooden shaving brush and one of our Natroma Shaving Oils.

The Shaving Oil is presented in a Miron violet glass bottle with a pipette attachment, so you can measure out the correct amount of oil for a pre-shave mini massage. This helps the facial hair to lift and soften, so the razor will glide more easily and cause less irritation. The oil is packed with skin-kind botanical oils and herbal extracts - all formulated to calm and nourish the skin.

Our larger Shaving Hamper (contents shown right) also contains a black stone soap dish to stylishly drain the shaving soap between uses, and a new Natroma After Shave Balm. This is a lovely completely natural balm, for use after shaving to naturally condition and moisturise the skin with botanical butters, oils and herbal extracts. In this hamper we also include a fact sheet on shaving, with a recommended routine for obtaining the perfect shave!

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!