The Organic Pharmacy Deodorant Spray, £15, 50ml

Stockists: The Organic Pharmacy, 396 Kings Road, 169 High Street Kensington, 23 Great Marlborough Street, 36 Neal Street and selected retailers, call 020 7351 2232 for stockists or to order by mail. www.theorganicpharmacy.com.

A natural deodorant that really seems to work. I’ve never tested it to the absolute limit (ie I’ve not run a marathon in it), but it worked great for me, living and working every day in London and having to travel on stuffy tubes. It contains sage, bergamot, lavender and sage, all of which are said to be natural deodorises. It’s completely free from any artifical preservatives, colourants, fragrances or petrochemicals. It comes in a small glass bottle, so whilst the latter isn’t great for travelling, the fact that it’s a fairly small container, and compact, makes it the best natural deodorant so far tested for travelling/to the gym. It works by natural pump that seemed to get every last drop out, useful when you see the price. But as it’s organic and handmade I guess we can’t complain. Plus it lasts about 2/3 months so when you think about the price per day, it’s not so bad. The Organic Pharmacy should think about a refill service, which is currently not available.

Ingredients:

Lemon, sage, water, Witchhazel, lavender, rosemary, Rose water, Organic Rye Alcohol, Neroli, Bergamot, Vegetable Glycerin.

www.newstatesman.com - Organic Pharmacy Deodorant Spray

Price: £3.50 for six, available unscented or with essential oils.

Stockists: www.sheabliss.com

An absolutely brilliant idea. These look like tiny white-chocolate chocolates, and the idea is that you peel off the wrapper and put them in the bath.

Children adore them and they moisturise the water, ergo your skin, beautifully; particularly if you live in a hard water area. Your skin comes out feeling really soft and moisturised and (at least, in my experience, I live in a very hard water area but we do have a water softener) there’s no need to apply moisturiser unless you want to. They strike me as super useful if you suffer from very dry skin, have eczema or your child does, or you just want an extra bit of dewiness to your skin, particularly in winter time when the heating goes on and your skin gets parched.

Be careful: these can make the bath very slippery after use.

www.newstatesman.com - Shea Bliss Butter Bath Melts

Method Squeaky Green body wash, £4.99 in fuzzy peach or crisp apple, for 295ml.

Stockists: Method Kid is available from Boots and boots.com exclusively.

Method is a relatively new label on the market that primarily makes household cleaning products. Their children’s range – Method Kid - launched in July 2008 and consists of this body wash and the 3-in-1 shampoo. They’re made up of 99 per cent natural and plant derived products.

The packaging is very clever (if you look carefully it’s meant to be, I think, a cat…), no caps to unscrew or lift up but with a non-return valve that squirts the product out when you squeeze the plastic bottle (this does mean it’s hard to control and you do tend to use more than you’d planned to, but small complaint). My extremely crafty five year old daughter couldn’t manage to squeeze any out, although has great fun sticking her finger up the valve. So it seems to work; I love the simplicity of them. The smell isn’t overwhelming, but nice and fresh and the product offers good value for money. I recommend.

Ingredients:

Water
Sodium Lauroamphoaceate
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate
Olea Europaea (olive) fruit oil
Olivoyl Glutamate
Coco Glucose
Glyceryl Oleate
Glycol Distearate
Glyceryl Stearate
Oryza Sativa (rice) Germ Oil
Oryza Sativa (rice) Bran Extract
Althaea Officinalis Extract
Dehydroacetic Acid
Benzyl Alcohol
Phenoxyethanol
Fragrance (parfum)

www.newstatesman.com - Method Squeaky Green body wash

Price: £12.25 for the 100ml starter kit with two cloths; 100ml on its own, £10.75, travel size, 30ml: £4.50

Tested: 2004 and January 2008

One of the best cleansers there is. I love it. You use it in three stages: massage it all over face, even your eyes. It cleanses your face of dirt and make up. Massage is very good for the skin and it’s almost impossible to overdo if you just use your own fingers (i.e. no brushes or other scrubby devices). Then you rinse out the linen face cloth that comes with the cleanser in hand hot water and use it to remove the product – that’s your exfoliation done. Then you splash with cool water. This last bit is the only bit I disagree with in that I wouldn’t, personally, change the temperature of the water because I think it can lead to broken veins if you’re a bit sensitive. But it’s up to you. The cool water feels nice. Skin is left feeling soft, clean but never dry. The plastic pump bottle is great for travel.

Ingredients:

Aqua
Caprylic / capric triglyceride
Theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter
Cetearyl alcohol
Cettyl esters
Sorbitan stearate
Polysorbate 60
Glycerine
Cera alba (beeswax)
Propylene glycol
Humulus lupulus(hops) extract
Panthenol
Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) extract
Anthemis nobilis (chamomile) extract
Prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) extract
Eucalyptus globules (eucalyptus) oil
Limonene
Citric acid
Sodium hydroxide
Phenoxyethanol
Benzoic acid
Ethylhexylglycerin
Dehydroacetic acid
Polyaminopropyl biguanide

www.newstatesman.com - Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser

£64, 50ml
£105, 100ml

This compound is made to be used your regular daily or nightly moisturizer, or on its own. But really over the age of 25 or so it won’t, very probably, be enough on its own.

The idea of it is that it protects your skin from environmental factors: pollution, stress, wind, that bitchy girl who works opposite you…

It’s said to boost the performance of any cream you lay on top of it (it also boosts collagen production).

I have no idea if it does, what I do know is that I struggle not to use this every day. Even when I’m meant to be using other serums (that go under moisturisers) I reach for it. It is one of my top five products and I’m rarely without it.

Try this if you suffer from fragile skin, are prone to thread veins or a reddened complexion, coincidence or not but since using this any slight thread veins I had didn’t get any worse and, miraculously (although I’m not claiming this product did it) one particularly visible one disappeared. It comes in a glass bottle which isn’t ideal for light traveling, but you only really need a squirt a day, so it lasts ages. Highly recommended.

www.newstatesman.com - Ecological Compound by Sisley

£16 for 40ml

This is an “instant brightening and illuminating” face mask that comes in a glass jar. It’s an excellent product, it’s thick, and a satisfyingly white and opaque; just the sort of face mask you want when you’re having a beautifying evening in. It doesn’t dry or crack, there’s nothing uncomfortable about wearing it (you could put it on and get carried away on the phone and still not end up unable to move your face).

It does make you look perkier, although I’m not sure it would redress the ravages of no sleep and excess drinking; but it is gently moisturising and works with even a dry, mature skin. You apply it to dry skin and leave on for 15 mins before rinsing off. It fails to go into these more detailed instructions on the actual jar which is annoying.

Ingredients:

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), C.I. 77891, Glycerin, Behenyl Alcohol, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), C12-13 Alkyl Lactate, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Dicaprylyl Ether, Rosa Canina Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Beeswax,
Mannitol, Ceteth-20 Phosphate, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Allantoin, Arginine, Ascorbic Acid, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Caprylyl Glycol, Citric Acid, Citronellol, Dextrin, Dicetyl Phosphate, Eugenol, Ferulic Acid, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde, Isohexadecane,
Alpha- Isomethyl Ionone, Panthenol, Parfum (Fragrance), PEG-8, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil Unsaponifiables,
Phenoxyethanol, Polysorbate-80, Sodium Acrylate/Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Gluconate,
Sodium Phytate, Tocopherol, Waltheria Indica Leaf Extract.
 

www.newstatesman.com - Korres Wild Rose Mask

Price: £460
Launched: Autumn 2006
Tested: throughout 2007 and 2008

Stockists: Space NK, www.spacenk.com, tel: 0208 740 208

If you read through this website long enough, you’ll see it’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Natura Bissé. I love that it never advertises and, to be frank, most people have never heard of it. This was one of the first ‘wrinkle reducers’ I ever tried and because of this I had no idea how good it was. I had no idea of the price either; I knew NB wasn’t cheap, but I think if I’d have known the price I would have stopped myself getting so addicted to it.

Out of all the wrinkle reducers I’ve ever tried it’s by far the best (as, you’d argue, it should be for the price but you’d be surprised at how often price doesn’t mean satisfying results). Because you need such a tiny amount - you dab it on each line – this can easily last a year, in which case it works out at just over £1 a day (can you see how I’m trying to make this better?).

I do however have one major gripe with the product. It comes in a pump action bottle and toward the end (but when a good 10per cent of the cream is left) it becomes very difficult to get the product out of the container by using the pump alone, you have to unscrew the top and dab it on that way. This, for the price, is pretty crap going. That said, it’s important to note that the few lines I have were completely kept in check by this product, when I stopped using it they became more pronounced. And thus the addiction continues…

www.newstatesman.com - Natura Bisse Inhibit-Tensolift

£6.30, 30ml
£11, 60ml
£16.50, 120ml (£14.50 if you buy three jars or more)

* produced under organic standards
 
*Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Beeswax,
*Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil,
*Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) Seed Oil,
Aqua (Water), Alcohol (from tinctures),
*Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract,
*Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract,
*Stellaria Media (Chickweed) Extract,
*Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract

I use this every day on my daughter’s now, mercifully, diminishing patches of eczema. It’s a steroid free salve, extremely rich and easy to apply. By that I mean it’s already soft (but, crucially when you’re dealing with children, manageable) and it doesn’t sting on application; it’s instantly soothing. This is important because there are some natural eczema creams out there that do help, but they sting when you first put them on, and this just causes more stress for babies and children. Skin Salve can be applied on any sort skin patch: elbows, knees etc, but it really excels in treating eczema.

I’m not going to pretend it cures eczema, because so far no one knows what causes it, let alone what can cure it. But it really helps soothe, and we use it every day in conjunction with the very occasional use of hydrocortisone cream for when the eczema gets too itchy.

www.newstatesman.com - Pure potions skin salvation

Price £47.50 for 15ml purse spray
£60, 30ml
£87, 50ml
£125, 100ml

Date of launch: 1990

Date of testing: 2000 - 2003

Stockists: 020 7591 6380

Ingredients: manufacturer would not supply saying they are listed on product.

Very probably what stops this scent from having become world famous, is the truly hideous bottle that it comes in. This is both a blessing – who wants a perfume everyone else wears? – and a shame. It is a great perfume and more people should wear it instead of some of the crap they spray themselves with. It’s difficult to describe a perfume without descending into picking out from a press release. And I don’t want to do that. Suffice to say this is imbues a warm, sexy smell that will make someone want to burrow deeper into your neck. And possibly kiss you. Unfortunately, like Chanel Coco and Dolce e Gabbana’s original red-topped scent before it, I got very very drunk whilst wearing this and can now no longer use it, as the smell association makes me queasy. But lucky you if you have still to discover it. It’s definitely an evening perfume, and not one for teenage girls, either

www.newstatesman.com - Eau du Soir by Sisley

£179, 50ml

Launched: 2005
Tested: throughout 2007 and 2008
Stockists: 020 7591 6380.

Ingredients

This day cream is aimed at those over the age of 25. The premise is that it provides protection (SPF 8) from UVA and UVB, but not 100% (in fact, 90%). The idea being that 100% protection eventually leaves the skin unable to defend itself. This protection also lasts for eight hours, hence the All Day part of the name. The All Year bit refers to the fact that even in winter our skin needs protecting from sun, wind, pollution.

When I was handed this cream to test, I knew it was expensive (at the time I think it was ‘only’ £150) so I hesitated. If creams are so expensive I have no hope of ever buying them, it makes me nervous. Who wants to fall in love with the unattainable? Unfortunately, this cream is excellent. To really know if it works of course, one would have to do a more scientific test: one half of the face wears it the other doesn’t. What I can tell you is that it made a significant different to the texture and condition of my skin almost immediately, and in secondary testing (on a separate person) the results were visible. I love the fact that you don’t have to worry about sunscreen, you just put this on of a morning but sadly the cost is such that it’s out of the reach of most people, me included. However: highly recommended.

www.newstatesman.com - All Day All Year by Sisley