Our Valentine's Gift to You - Massive Price Reductions

Move to new website means massive price reductions!

Because of continuing problems with our present website, we are soon moving to a new and improved site. There are lots of features we've wanted for a long time, so we hope you'll be pleased with the results.

In the meantime, while we prepare and test out the new website, we're giving you great reductions on almost everything - in fact, most things have £2 off with some up to £3 call it a valentines gift to you!

Whether its organic essential oils, soy candles or shampoo bars, just take a look here – all the reductions are live now!

Last orders for Valentine’s Day

If you still haven’t ordered your Valentine’s Day gifts, please make sure you do so by Monday 11^th February to ensure they get to your loved one on time. It’s always better to order early, especially with the bad weather we've been having.

Feedback, reviews or testimonials please!

We really would appreciate it if you could give us some feedback on our products and service. Even better, if you could write a review or testimonial, we will send you a little thank you gift. Much from our business is done through word of mouth, so it’s important that people new to our website hear views of our existing customers. You can email us, call, or write a review on the site itself.

With thanks.

Dennis.

Thoughts on Candlemas

Tomorrow, Saturday 2 February, is Candlemass. As we make candles I thought I'd do a bit of research on this religious day of celebration and came up with some surprises.

As with many Christian celebrations, Candlemas has its origins in the dim and distant past, in paganism, fertility rites, Ancient Roman and Celtic celebration. But what's the link with Groundhog Day? You can read the facts on www.wikipedia.org if you like, but I found a lovely blog article here: http://alistofsurprises.blogspot.co.uk/2010_02_01_archive.html

So for those of you foolish enough to have kept any vestiges of Christmas around until 2nd February, beware. For those of you looking forward to a milder winter next year, keep an eye on the badgers. And as for me? Well, talk of Candlemas makes me think about getting out our old candle dipping can to start making some soy and beeswax dinner candles for the spring. I wonder if I can persuade the rest of the staff to go with this idea?

Freeze until you need!

Did you know you can freeze some of our products until you need them?

As you know, we don't use any preservatives in our products. This is great for people allergic to preservatives, for those who suffer from cancer, or for those wanting the purest products they can get, but the downside is that the shelf life is reduced.

Many of the lotions, creams and other body care products you buy in the supermarket have enough preservatives in them to give them a shelf life of at least two, and possibly five, years.

It makes sense - especially at a time we have a sale on - to buy your moisturisers, for instance, and freeze until you need them.

Just pop them into the freezer for two hours and they'll be frozen solid.

When ready to use, take out, thaw slowly in a warm room, and use as required.

I would not recommend keeping in the freezer for more than 3-6 months, and once opened I would recommend using within a month.

Was this tip helpful? Please let us have your comments.

The death of aerosols

I wonder if any of you remember the horrific news stories about the damage that aerosols were doing to the ozone layer? I do. It may surprise you to learn that it was On 23 January 1978 that  Sweden banned aerosol sprays.  It  was the first country to do so and, I'm glad to say, things have moved on a fair bit since then.

But, although aerosols with their dangerous propellents have disappeared, the contents of the sprays rather than the carriers they use have not changed that much. I remember when no-one thought twice about zapping flies with ten-second bursts of fly spray, regardless of the insecticide, and even today insect sprays still contain damaging ingredients that can harm not only humans and animals that breathe them in but also the surfaces they touch.

In our field of work, it's the deodorants that concern me. Well-known brands of antiperspirants (still using the good old spray can) contain nasties like paragons and chemicals that stop the natural process of perspiring or sweating. Young people in particular seem to have a need to use mountains of the stuff and take no heed of the harm these antiperspirants do to their skin.

We all need to get rid of toxins, and sweating (perspiring) is the natural way for the skin to rid itself of toxins. Deodorants, however, seek not to stop the action of perspiring but to lessen the odour of the sweat which, in our modern civilisation, we regard as bad.

The use of essential oils in natural deodorants also should be viewed as a benefit. These essential oils act as anti-bacterials and anti-inflammatories, so helping to lessen the risk of harmful infection taking root under the arms or in other places.

So, when choosing a deodorant, consider the benefits to your skin and the fact that they are helping your odd perform what is, after all, a normal function.

Was this tip helpful? Please do let us have your comments.

Lots of interesting news again from the Soil Association

I make no apology for pointing readers to the Soil Assoiation's Daily News again. Lots to read about, all of interest.

bToday's news:

 

"The university has a history of achieving awards and playing a pioneering role in sustainable issues. Now students can be sure that food isn't just freshly
prepared using quality
ingredients, but is also supporting the local economy and higher standards of animal welfare."
Ian Macaulay, assistant director for catering at Edinburgh University
Scotsman online (22 Jan)

"The world has enough food so why do 870 million people go hungry?": 100 charities join forces to tackle world hunger
The launch of the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign, which is open to the public in several UK cities, will be attended by more than 1,000 campaign supporters.
The Mirror (23 Jan)
The Soil Association has joined the campaign. Find out why from Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association and add your voice here

University lands top food award
Edinburgh University has landed a prestigious award for food served to students at its main halls of residence. It has become the first Scottish university to land the bronze Food for Life Catering Mark for the quality of the 24,000 meals dished up to 2000 students every week at Pollock Halls.
Scotsman online (22 Jan)
Find out more about Food For Life in Scotland here

Four out of five people have not heard of green deal, poll finds
Four out of five people have not heard of the UK government's flagship programme to transform the energy efficiency of 14m homes, just days before it launches, according to a YouGov poll.
The Guardian (23 Jan)

Europe 'has failed to learn from environmental disasters'
Europe has failed to learn the lessons from many environmental and health disasters like Chernobyl, leaded petrol and DDT insecticides, and is now ignoring warnings about bee deaths, GM food and nanotechnology, according to an 800-page report by the European Environment Agency.
The Guardian online (23 Jan)

UN and partners launch global campaign to reduce food waste
Consumers, food retailers and governments can take simple actions to dramatically reduce some 1.3 million tons of food waste every year, according to a new campaign launched today by the United Nations and its partners.
United Nations News Centre (22 Jan)

Forestry Commission appoints planning and infrastructure chief as its new director
Ian Gambles, former director of national infrastructure at the Planning Inspectorate, said he would champion a stronger woodland culture and ensure his team would ramp up its emphasis on the green economy.
Horticulture Week (16 Jan)

French stench hits southern England after gas leak
Households in Kent awoke to the stench of rotten eggs, cabbage and garlic wafting across the channel yesterday after the accidental release of a cloud of mercaptan gas from a factory in Rouen.
The Telegraph (22 Jan)

Landslide blamed on 'river of fat' leaves dozens of homes at risk
Dozens of cliff-top homes are at risk after a landslide that residents have blamed on leaks from a pipe carrying waste from a frozen food factory.
The Telegraph (22 Jan)

'Cow power' turning turns manure and food waste into electricity in England
Waste from the cows and food products are used to produce gas to power electric generators in a city in England, it has been revealed.
NewsTrackIndia.com (23 Jan)

Compost Moves Up in NYC
Half-eaten salads tossed out by Midtown office workers these days can end up being carted to an upstate compost farm and then returned to Midtown buildings for use as fertilizer on green rooftops.
The Wall Street Journal (22 Jan)

Environment Agency's flood management under fire
The Environment Agency has pledged to look at ways of making it easier for farmers to maintain watercourses and flood defences on their land.
Farmers Weekly (22 Jan)

UK farming 'better off in EU' despite PM's referendum pledge
Union chiefs have claimed UK farming is 'better off inside the EU', despite Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge to hold a referendum on the country's role in Europe.
Farmers Guardian (23 Jan)

Farming Today 
The Government is bringing in tighter controls over plant imports into the UK.
BBC Radio 4 (23 Jan)

And Finally… An interactive map on how to choose sustainable fish
The Guardian online (22 Jan)

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you can sign-up to the Soial Association Daily News for free here. 

Preparing for Valentine's Day?

Preparing for Valentine's Day

If you are not wining and dining your beloved at a local restaurant (Italian, perhaps?), and if you haven't the time to nip into town and face the crush of shoppers all buying their last-minute gifts, you need to buy now if you're ordering online for that special day.

We at Essentially Natural are busy putting together our featured  products this year, all, of course, organic and handmade by us in the Rossendale Valley in Lancashire.

And if you've forgotten or wondered about the reason we celebrate 14th February, you can read about it here.

So what are your views on Valentine's Day?

Commercial? Yes, I think so. Worth celebrating? Definitely, if you want to be on speaking terms with your partner for the rest of the year.

But for those of you who are still young and/or unattached, why not do what we always used to do with cards when we were at primary school -  send a gift unsigned and perhaps with a little something to make someone think it's actually from someone else -rather than you. From an admirer, rather than their boy- or girlfriend, to keep them guessing.

Put a bit of fun back into Valentine's Day!

Competition - Popcorn Day

When I asked our IT apprentice, Matthew, to 'populate our work calendar with upcoming events' so I could write about them in our blog or on Facebook, I never imagined he would find that tomorrow, 19th January, is 'National Popcorn Day'. No, not in the States but here in the UK calendar of events.

I have desperately researched this morning, and can find no relevance to Essentially Natural or what we do to write about. Apart from an evening watching a 'soap' on TV with a bag of popcorn, or having a romantic (soy) candlelit night in with a loved one and, yes, you've guessed it, a bag of popcorn.

So can anyone tell me why we in the UK would even think about celebrating popcorn with a day of - what, eating popcorn? Making popcorn? Scattering popcorn outside for the birds (I would have thought this rather dangerous given the hard husk, unless you cook them first, in which case your kids would eat them anyway)?

So, here's what I propose. Anyone who can come up with a reason that will make me accept that tomorrow is a day of national importance, and convince me that the celebration of popcorn will lead towards planetary harmony and environmental change, I will send them our Soap & Candle Club goodies for free at the end of the month.

Come on, guys, share this with your friends, and please try to make me smile on this cold and frosty Friday.