In a world of ingredients that sound more at home in a science fiction film it is satisfying to find natural simple wisdom from Ancient civilisations. 

The Ancient Egyptians valued health and beauty and created all sorts of concoctions in response to the dry sandy winds and hot sun. Elixers, ungents, oils and salves were brewed, blended, extracted and conjured up by royalty and slave alike.

Now we have drawn inspiration from the Ancient Egyptians to produce a truly magical hydrating mist and toner.

Egyptian Rose Hydrating Mist captures the essence of opulent trailing roses, sweet fresh geraniums with a hint of warm seductive vanilla.  It is created by harmoniously blending organic rose petal and geranium waters, vegetable glycerin and pure plant extracts of hibiscus, oats and frankincense to tone, soothe, nourish and hydrate the skin whilst instantly calming the mind. 

The Egyptian Rose Hydrating Mist is multi-functional and suits all skin types and skin conditions. It is so useful you will want one for your desk, in your drawer, make-up bag, locker and everywhere you go!

Just a few amazing benefits: hydrating, balancing, toning, helps refine pores, helps other products work better, calms irritated skin, soothes sunburn, can be used as a moisturiser for oily skin, treat razor burn and more.

Please read more about the wonderful benefits and uses on the website here: Egyptian Rose Hydrating Mist, 100mls Special Offer until end of June 2009 £13.57 (Usual price £16.95)

Basically the ingredient from France never turned up. Communication with the company has become difficult and we have decided to reformulate without the ingredient.

Funny how things happen though because the same week we ‘wrote off’ the consignment from France we discovered another wonderful ingredient and the good news is it is from a UK company!

I’ll let you know when the new improved lip balm is available.

I was sent a question today asking if our natural skincare products were vegan-friendly and cruelty-free.

The answer is YES and YES! All our natural beauty products are vegan-friendly and cruelty-free.

We do not use beeswax, honey or dairy product or any raw ingredient derived from animal origin.

Also none of our products are tested on animals or ever have been. We also source raw ingredients from ethical animal-friendly companies that do not perform animal testing either.

So bees and bunnies are safe with Maia Skin Care!

That is how I feel about the soon-to-be-launched Vegan-Friendly Bee-Friendly All Natural Lip Balm! What a mouthful!!

In fact that is usually how I feel about every product, and indeed the feeling I clearly remember experiencing the first day I packaged up our first Maia order.

Most things seem to take a lot longer than I initially anticipate, which can be very frustrating but nothing beats that feeling when everything comes together.

I won’t tell you too much about the lip balm yet except to say it will help soothe, soften and protect your lips, with a gorgeous all natural scent. Oh and I will say we are waiting on a special ingredient from France which I am very excited about!

Roses are the ultimate romantic flower. Timeless, sensual and opulent.

Roses signify love, romance, friendship and many more positive intentions. Instead of the ubiquitous bunch of roses, try giving a longer lasting luxurious rose petal gift to your loved one on Valentine’s Day. 

 You can also “Love Thyself”: don’t wait for a secret Valentine to bestow petals upon you, give them to yourself!

Rose Petal Bath Truffles

Choose the wonderfully indulgent Rose Petal Bath Truffles, enriched with organic cocoa and shea butters. What could be more luxurious than a nourishing, soothing bath surrounded by rose petals? (Don’t worry, if a bath full of petals isn’t your idea of heaven you can use the organza bag provided and still enjoy the amazing rose essential oil and skin-smoothing cocoa and shea butters).

Receive six luxury bath truffles in a gold presentation box for only £12.95 Buy Now!

 Rose and Hibiscus Ritual Bathing Salts

Or what about the aromatic Rose and Hibiscus Ritual Bathing Salts, with Himalayan salts and skin softening coconut oil. Turn your bath into an exotic relaxation experience with pristine Himalayan salts, sea salt, gorgeous deep red Hibiscus petals, romantic rose petals and an ethereal blend of organic essential oils.

You get 300g jar with wooden scoop and re usable jute bag for £11.47 Buy Now! 

Purity Gift Set

Or add a pure castile soap and choose the Purity Gift Set for a total of £14.97 Buy Now!  Our castile soap is handmade using traditional methods, and produces a wonderful luxurious lather whilst remaining mild and gentle.

Purity Gift Set shown below with Rose and Hibiscus Bathing Salts, wooden scoop, pure castile soap and jute bag:

Goddess Treatment Balm infused with rose

Lastly we have a rose infused rejuvenating and soothing Goddess Treatment Balm.

Suitable for all skin types, especially tired, dry, mature and sensitive skins, the Goddess Treatment Balm has been described as an all natural beauty flash balm.
It is highly concentrated and packed with active botanicals.

Enriched with Japanese camellia oil, rice bran, avocado butter and pure rose oil, you can use it as a moisturiser, intense treatment or creamy cleanser.

For more information on the all natural ingredients and for expert tips, see Goddess Treatment Balm on the Maia website. Available in two sizes, a cute 15g handbag size for £7.95 and glamourous 30g for £15.97

Helen Williams, the founder of the natural and organic toiletries resource website Fresholi recently reviewed Maia Skin Boosting Serum.  Thank you Helen for your lovely review!

THIS SERUM IS FANTASTIC!!! Very impressive presentation and it soaks right in… I really love it…

The Skin Boosting Serum is a 100% natural concentrated facial serum packed full of potent antioxidants, vitamins and omega oils for vibrant, healthy skin. It contains natural and organic ingredients such as passionflower oil, star flower oil, watermelon, frankincense, neroli and helichrysum to revitalise, regenerate and renew the skin. The Skin Boosting Serum is suitable for all skin types and also helps to balance, soothe and protect.

Helen from Fresholi says:

THIS SERUM IS FANTASTIC!!! Very impressive presentation and it soaks right in.

The aroma is just wonderful.

I love the delivery of those bottles, not too much comes out, just the right amount in one pump. That is really good value too as that tiny amount goes a very long way.

I have been putting it on at night and it really comforts my skin and my skin feels just lovely in the morning.

I would say it is probably light enough to wear in the day too but there is something about oil treatments and night times I really like. I think I am going to have this for some time because it goes such a long way.

I really love it and am very, very impressed with the performance (and that lil’ pump makes me feel all poshe).

How to Buy
Choose from two sizs, the luxe size Skin Boosting Serum 30mls £17.97 and the uber-cute Mini Skin Boosting Serum roll-on £6.97

Helen Williams runs Fresholi, a website resource for natural, organic and ethical handmade skin care and soapmaking.

Rice Bran Oil is obtained from the bran of the rice kernel. It is used for cooking and is said to be one of the healthiest oils available. 

As a skincare ingredient Rice Bran Oil is a powerful antioxidant and contains a high level of Vitamin E as well as many nutrients, fatty acids and essential oils. The oil is traditionally used as a beauty treatment in Japan, and offers many benefits to the skin when applied topically.

Benefits of Rice Bran Oil

• Nourishing, balancing and soothing for the skin.
• Cold pressed, natural oil obtained without the use of solvents.
• Light, mild oil easily absorbed into the skin.

Personally I love using rice bran oil as it is feels luxurious, is gentle and suitable for sensitive skin, and makes my skin feel very soft. It is extremely helpful for soothing and repairing dry skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis and skin irritations.

Where to Find Rice Bran Oil

Maia Goddess Treatment Balm, 30g and 15g Handbag size Goddess Treatment Balm is an intense rejuvenating and soothing rose balm that can be used as a moisturising facial balm, intensely nourishing treatment mask, rich nurturing cleanser and balm for eczema and dry skin conditions.

Maia Omni Balm 50g and 15g handbag size. Indispensable all natural balm for everywhere and everything. You won’t want to be without it! Use on dry chapped skin, cuts, scrapes, sore cracked lips, feet and hands, irritated skin, rashes, inflammation and more. Very soothing remedy for eczema.

Maia Revival Radiance Clay Activation Oil A hardworking 3-in-1 clay treatment to smooth, tone and improve skin’s appearance. Use the Clay powders with water or Activation Oil enriched with rice bran, jojoba and papaya oils for soft and smooth glowing skin!

This is following on from Part 1 yesterday. You’ll be pleased to know I am in a much calmer state of mind this morning!

My frustration, upset and sadness can be summed up by the two phrases “He Who Spins, Wins” and “A little knowldege is a Dangerous thing”.

1.“He Who Spins, Wins” The big, global companies with lots of marketing men, money and flashy websites. They seem to say the right things but behind all the gloss and glamour there no real heart and soul, no sense of pride or genuine care for the customer or their products. 

2. “A Little knowldege is a dangerous thing” One-man bands who don’t seem to really know what they are doing and seem to think just because they are using ‘only natural’ ingredients they can do no harm (salmonella, anyone? It’s all natural, after all ;)).

How Are We Different?

At Maia Skin Care we do not have any marketing men (or women) spinning the spiel. We describe our company, products and ethos as eloquently as we can but equally we strive to be honest and real at all times.

We approach the business of creating all natural skin care and beauty products with passion, rigour and diligence from formulating new recipes to sourcing raw ingredients right through to packaging your orders and replying to queries.

You can be assued that when you buy from us you will receive a special artisan all natural beauty product that does what it says it does and usually more!

Be a True Natural Beauty with Maia Skin Care.

The reason I feel sad and disillusioned is that there seems to be an awful lot of marketing-speak, green-washing, wild irresponsible claims, empty promises and downright lies, and not enough authenticity and genuine care for the customers and natural skin care industry.

So the following are my thoughts based on some of those green, natural, eco, ethical, luxury and organic beauty companies I’ve seen today.

• Just because you say something is luxury, natural or scientific, it doesn’t make it so! .
• Perhaps it was a typo but how can you say you are100% natural if you are using synthetic preservatives? Even if they are not parabens, it just doesn’t add up!
• How can you say your skincare is made with soul when it is mass produced in a manufacturing plant and packaged in plastic? I don’t understand but it feels like marketing-speak.
• Where is the peer reviewed scientific proof that 60% of what we apply topically ends up in our bloodstream? The internet is rife with this one and variations of it, yet all the research I’ve done (asking experts who have done the actual research) shows that there is absolutely no proof for this theory, and no one seems to know where it came from!
• Oh and a big bugbear, If formulations include water and hydrous ingredients such as aloe vera and honey, they need a tried and tested preservative system! No one wants nasties and that includes nasty surprises such as infections from microbes living in insufficiently preserved natural creams and lotions.

And breathe….Ok, let’s start with the last one first.

Preservatives in Skincare

Water is necessary for all of life, and life will grow and flourish in water.

Preservatives prevent contamination from bacteria, fungi and mould.

As yet, there is no safe, proven effective natural preservative available that is approved for use by the EU. And products that contain water, including floral waters, need protection from contamination.

This is why we at Maia Skin Care do not formulate with water. We know our customers want safe, all natural products and we do not want to compromise the safety of the products or have to resort to lying to you. So we produce anhydrous (meaning without water) balms, serums and butters that are 100% natural and safe from the real nasties! One day we may include a water-based spray but we will be honest and up front about the need for and use of a good preservative.

Now that I’ve got that biggie off my chest I realise I’ve not really touched on the original statement of disillusionment. As I’ve got a delivery of new oils and butters to unpack and play with  put away and I’m sure you’ve got other things to do, I will come back to this again tomorrow.  Don’t forget your mug and comfy chair!

I thought I would share some of the results with you, and also try to address some of the points raised.

Results
Favourite Product: Tie between Skin Boosting Serum and Mango and Shea Butter Balm

Suggested products for 2009: Intense anti-ageing products, Body butters, lip balms, bath oils.

Half of you are happy with mulit-use products, and the other half would like to see products for hands, mature skin and individual skin types.

The majority of you want 100% natural skin care products so it is good to know we are on the right track there!

The ratings for the products, website, service, newsletter etc were mostly 4-5, although I do appreciate that a few people may have experienced problems or difficulties for which I do apologize and hope we can make amends in the future.

Problems
Someone mentioned a problem with the website, where they are returned to the homepage when trying to view more details. This has been raised once before by a customer. I am really very sorry for the inconvenience, in fact I can imagine it is a complete PITA. I sent the details of the problem to the web developer but he was unable to replicate the issue or offer any solution. I thought perhaps it was a one-off but obviously not. If you get in touch and let me know the browser you are using (eg Internet explorer 7) I can try and get it fixed. In the mean time if there is any product information you need, email me and I will send a pdf with product details.

 The issue of chemical-free sunscreen is quite complicated and costly although I appreciate the need for it. The main costs involved are tests required to prove any sunscreen claims, however we will continue to keep it open as an option and hope to incorporate various oils proven to offer sunscreen benefits (but we will not be able to make specific claims!)

The Turkish Delight Bath melts will be returning in another form! The moulds did stand up to the battering we gave them leading up to Xmas so we are sourcing new and exciting moulds for 2009. Also the Skin friendly mini bath bombs will be back as well.

Lastly it was mentioned that the blog is not updated enough, for which I sincerely apologize! I actually really enjoy writing so will endeavour to update the blog more frequently.

If you have any suggestions as to topics you’d like to see covered, or if you have any questions I can answer for future blog posts please leave a comment here.