Natroma exfoliators and handcreams are back!

We're pleased to see the return of some old favourites to our Natroma line up. These include our lovely jojoba bead exfoliators and concentrated handcreams.

The exfoliators are now available in 3 varieties: Dry Sensitive (with rose, geranium and palmarosa), Normal Combination (with neroli, petitgrain and bergamot), and Sensitive (with German and Roman chamomiles and lavender). These are lovely light exfoliators that are packed with wonderful botanical oils - jojoba, papaya, evening primrose and comfrey, moisturising panthenol and skin calming sea buckthorn and calendula botanical extracts. They contain jojoba beads which are tiny spherical beads of jojoba which gently exfoliate the skin without any scratching or irritation. Don't be surprised by the colour of these, the cream is naturally yellow due to the presence of generous amounts of those botanical extracts. Further details on why we've selected these ingredients can be found on our Exfoliator page on the Natroma website.

We've made some changes to our hand creams and they now contain jojoba and coconut oils with organic shea butter, and are enriched with panthenol, glycerine and aloe vera. Customers will notice that this new version feels really silky, so we're really pleased with how these feel on the hands! More information on why we use these ingredients is on our Hand and Nails page on the Natroma website.

Regular customers will also notice that our hand creams have new packaging. The packaging was the reason why we temporarily withdrew our hand creams from sale. We had received feedback that the harder tube was difficult to use by customers with hand or joint problems. So we're very pleased to have found some new white tubes that are much softer than before, making the tubes much easier to squeeze.

Mothers day and Easter gift ideas

We've enjoyed some lovely weather during the last few days, and it's inspired us to create some lovely uplifting gift ideas for Mother's Day!

This year we've focussed on creating some luxurious botanical bathing hampers, designed to support the skin after a long, cold winter. Our fizzing bath melts are full of cocoa and shea butters, so will be perfect for Mums who like to enjoy long relaxing baths. These pretty hand rolled bath melts weigh a generous 40g, and have been formulated to gently fizz as they melt into the bath water releasing pretty petals and botanicals. They're naturally fragranced with essential oils blended by our Aromatherapist, and will leave the skin smelling gorgeous. It's best if you gently dry yourself after taking a bath, to allow the natural oils and butters to sink in and moisturise the skin.

We also have a sunny Springtime hamper this year, that's wrapped in a flowery gold and green organza ribbon. Our Springtime soap was a favourite from last year, so we've brought it back again as a special edition, palm-free goats milk soap. It has a gentle, but uplifting fragrance with a rich creamy lather. In this hamper we've also included 3 fizzing bath melts (a variety of fragrances are available), and an uplifting chill pill bath bomb. We hope that Mum's enjoy this sweet, but cheerful range of products and that they find the time to take a well earned rest!

These and other hampers are now available on our Mothers Day webpage, and we'll also have a wide selection of hampers available in our Ruskin shop in the coming weeks. We're accepting orders on Mother's Day hampers too, so will be happy to make specific items if you have a particular gift idea in mind. Local customers will also have the option to include Natroma Holistics treatment vouchers inside their hampers. So why not treat your Mum to a full body massage, or perhaps an Aromatherapy Facial or Foot Reflex treatment?

Dates for the diary for local customers are Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th March 2011. The Ruskin Glass Centre will be hosting a Spring Fair, with a range craft exhibitors showing handmade products that would be lovely as Mother's Day gifts.

Goats Milk Soap Offers!

We're reviewing our soap stocks at the moment, and this will give visitors to our Stourbridge Ruskin Glass Centre shop a soapy treat! We currently have a selection of cold process goats milk soaps for sale at reduced prices.

Sometimes these soap bars are slightly strange shapes, they may be under 100g in weight, or they may be a little older so will be losing some of their fragrance. But did you know, that older soap is actually better? This is because soap becomes harder and milder as it matures. We often compare it to the way that good cheese or wine has to be matured! This is why we like to mature our soaps for many weeks (or even months) to ensure they're at their best before they're presented for sale. Because all of our soaps are naturally fragranced with essential oils, they will gradually lose their smell on the outside of the bar. But rest assured some of the fragrance will reappear as the outer layer of soap is washed away.

Website customers should visit our Special Offers page, if they want to try some of these soaps with our Goats Milk Duo offer.

We reckon these older goats milk soaps will be lovely to use and will be especially good for troubled skin types. So grab a bargain while you can, we only have limited stocks!

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!

Christmas arrangements

Now as we enter the final week before Christmas, we'd like to thank all of our customers for their valued support and custom during this busy pre-Christmas time. Rest assurred, we'll still be opening our Ruskin shop during the coming week (Tuesday to Thursday), with a shorter day on Christmas Eve (please see the opening hours to the right). So there's still time for local customers to visit us for last minute natural skin care gift hampers!

The website is still accepting orders, but it is now so close to Christmas (and the weather isn't helping) that we cannot guarantee delivery before Christmas. But for lower value orders received before midnight on 21 December, we will automatically upgrade the normal postage to 1st class (by Royal Mail) in the hope the parcels will be delivered by Christmas Eve. On larger value orders (over £50) received before midnight 22 December we will automatically upgrade to a next day courier service which should arrive in time for Christmas provided someone is available to sign for the delivery.

This year (for the first time since the company began) we will be taking an extended break over Christmas. We've been so busy, that we need to re-charge our batteries! The Ruskin shop will close at 12.30pm on Christmas Eve (the Cone shop is now closed), and will re-open again on Tuesday 11th January 2011. Website orders received from 23 December will begin to be processed from 5 January 2011. (So there's no problems with placing orders over the Christmas break, and they will be dealt with in the order they arrived). Due to the UK VAT increases, we will be revising the websites over the Christmas break with new prices effective from 4 January 2011.

So from all at The Natural Soapworks and Natroma Holistics, we'd like to again say thanks to our customers for their valued and loyal support. The move to new premises put us under a great deal of pressure this year, so your patience and understanding has been wonderful. We hope that everyone has a peaceful and restful Christmas, and a Happy New Year in 2011. Have fun!

Christmas Shopping Evening

We'll be open this Wednesday 15th December between 11am and 9pm.

We thought it might be useful for customers to have a late night shopping evening at our Ruskin Glass Centre shop, to stock up on last minute Christmas gifts! We'll have a range of special offers, Secret Santa ideas, natural skincare hampers, Christmas candles, fragrant Christmas decorations and more. So we hope to see you all on Wednesday!

We've also taken the decision to close our Red House Glass Cone shop for the next few weeks. Most people are now visiting our larger shop at the Ruskin, so it makes sense to have all of the stock available from one location.