Thinking about Going Green??

It seems as though more and more people are looking in the direction of going green. Going green in your every day life isn’t always an easy task. Sometimes it means that you have to rethink the way you live. To others, its as simple as turning off a light that would have been left on otherwise.

So, how do you go green with your everyday products that you use on your skin or hair? It’s easy once you know what your looking for. 

How can Skincare be green?

Skin care is something that should be on the top of everyone’s list when it comes to caring for themselves. It should be right up there with emotional balance and eating healthy. Taking care of your skin is just as important as taking care of your inside, considering the skin is the largest organ that we have. It is what protects the rest of us. So why wouldn’t one want to take care of their skin in a way that would make it more vibrant looking, without the use of make-up.

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Tags: Skin Care, Vitamin B, Vitamin D

Women continuously research skin care and how to make their skin look and feel younger. What a lot of them don’t understand is that many of the products they are using are actually more damaging to their skin than it is helping. Natural ingredients have a lot to do with which product is the better choice. Products with natural and organic ingredients are better for your skin and are overall better for the environment.

If you are one who likes to use body wash, be careful which brand you use. Many are under the false impression that the more bubbles, the more clean you get. In reality, these bubbles tend to leave a residue on your skin which causes your skin to age at a quicker rate. The same goes for soap. Natural soap and natural body wash eliminate the extra bubbles and clean your skin better and more efficiently.

Tags: body wash, Keep your skin looking young, natural ingrediants, Natural skin care, natural spa products, organic, Skin Care, Skin care products

Bath and Body products are important to one’s skin care routine. What is even more important are the ingredients. let’s take Olive Oil for example- such as Olive Oil Natural Soap…Did you know, Olive oil conditions your skin in a natural way… both inside and out! Which is why the olive is chosen by those living around the Mediterranean. Not only does it to enhance natural beauty and maintain youthfulness but it is nutritional in every way.

The appearance or condition of your skin has a very significant impact on how people regard you and assess your age. Somebody with wrinkled skin appears older than somebody with clear smooth skin, even though they might be of the same chronological age.

Your skin degrades for a large number of reasons, not the least of which is the effect of free radicals generated by strong sunlight, excessive smoking and atmospheric pollution. 

As you will shortly learn, olive oil skin care products can destroy these free radicals before they can do any damage.

Free radicals are small oxygenated molecules that attack and destroy the cells of your body including your skin cells, where they rupture the cell membranes and so destroy them. Traffic fumes, pesticides, tobacco smoke, industrial emissions and the UV portion of sunlight all generate these free radicals in your skin. You might have heard of them.

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Tags: Keep your skin looking young, Olive oil

 When choosing a Spa gift basket a lot depends on who it is for:  yourself or as a gift for somebody else. Many people pamper themselves by purchasing gift baskets for themselves, but whether it is for you, somebody special to you or just a friend, you have a good choice available at Castle Baths.

For example, you can give your tired feet a treat, and be sure of a restful sleep, by using the power of lavender with a Lavender Foot Bath Gift Basket set.  This offers you not just soothing lavender foot salts but also ylang ylang salts and mineral foot cream along with a pack of candy foot scrubs. You get these packed into an old-fashioned ice bucket, with lavender bath salts in a champagne bottle!  Lavender is known to help you get a restful sleep, and you will awaken totally refreshed with your feet feeling fabulous.

That’s just one example of how to choose the best spa gift basket, but there are many more available to meet different needs.  For example, the Spa Bath gift set offers you everything you need for a lovely refreshing bath, including natural soap, bath salts, body wash and body lotion together with a sponge and massage tool to make best use of this practical gift set.

Check out our range of Spa Gift Baskets here:
http://www.castlebaths.com/spa-gift-baskets.html

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Tags: foot bath salts, Lavender, Skin care products, Spa gift baskets

At one time, castor oil was the natural home remedy of choice that young mothers would use for any digestive problem, such as sore tummies to sickness, diarrhea and constipation. Woe betide you if you failed to fill your diaper or nappy. Your reward was a spoonful of castor oil – yuck! It was enough to keep you off the potty!

Thankfully, these days are behind those of us old enough to remember them, and castor oil now has other uses, one of the more unlikely being skin care. It’s unlikely it tastes any better when used as a skin care product as it did when used for its medicinal purposes, for but at least we are no longer forced to drink it. In fact, castor oil is a surprisingly effective skin care product and is used to treat burns, cuts and abrasions, sunburn, acne and any condition caused by excessively oily skin in addition to using it to maintain a hydrated, smooth and healthy-looking skin.

Although the castor oil itself is an oily substance, it can be used to prevent your skin from the effects of the skin oil that causes acne. That is because it can penetrate deep into the skin along with the isostearate succinate it contains, and exert a highly antioxidant effect. Isostearate succinate is used as an ingredient in many commercial skin care preparations such as lipstick and lip balm, and helps to keep the skin smooth and hydrated.

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Tags: Castor oil, Natural home remedy, Skin Care

Summer is the time when closets are opened and sandals, flip-flops, and strappy little heels become the footwear of choice. Since feet have been ignored all Winter, tsk, tsk….There is some work to be done to make them look fabulous for that summer footwear. Don’t worry, it won’t take long or be painful.. All you have to do is indulge yourself and your senses with some of these All Natural foot care products by Castle Baths (www.castlebaths.com).

Keep in mind that all seasons have that something special that gives you a reason to indulge yourself; whether it be a birthday, a holiday, a marriage or just because. I’m sure you can consider a few reasons to treat those extremities.

To experience feeling like a Queen, These products are named after a Queen, so pamper yourself like the Queen you are.

Bathsheba Dead Sea Mineral Foot Bath Salts- Great for women who are on their feet all day whether it be an office or chasing those small ones’ around the house. Infused with oil-enriched Rosewood that has a spicy floral scent and a small splash of Peppermint, those weary swollen feet will say “ahhh”.

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Tags: Anti-inflammatory, foot bath salts, foot care, foot creams, Skin care products

Olive butter is a hydrogenated form of olive oil, but don’t let the term hydrogenated put you off. Although hydrogenated fats are not always good to eat they can work wonders on your skin, and that is precisely what olive butter does. It is yet another product of the wonderful oil tree that has provided us with olive oil and olive squalene among other health-giving products that are good for your skin.

What is special about olive butter that it should be so prized as a skin care product? The answer is that it is packed full of antioxidants that destroy the free radicals that damage your skin. Free radicals are small oxygenated molecules such as superoxide and peroxides that are produced by the action of the UV portion of sunlight, and also by exposure to such pollutants as traffic and industrial fumes and pesticides. They are also generated by your body’s natural metabolism, so there is no way of keeping away from them.

One of the properties that free radicals possess is to disrupt the membranes of your skin cells and effectively kill them. This leads to wrinkles and other forms of premature aging of your skin. Olive butter contains substances known as antioxidants that destroy these free radicals and so helps to prevent this form of skin damage. While not exactly an elixir of youth, it can certainly help you to maintain youthful skin.

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Tags: Antioxidants, Maintain youthful skin, Olive butter, Skin care products

Sunflower oil is used for more than just cooking: it is also an excellent product for use as a natural skin care oil that imparts many benefits when rubbed into your skin. For a start, it retains moisture, and in preventing your skin from drying out it helps to keep wrinkles at bay and your skin looking youthful and vibrantly healthy right from birth.

Yes, from birth, because it is used in hospitals on the skin of premature babies to protect it from infections to which young children are susceptible when in hospital, particular those born pre-term. How’s that for an indication of how safe it is to use and how gentle it is on your skin? Yet it is extremely powerful at keeping away bacteria and maintaining youthful skin, and contains a rich mixture of vitamins and other natural substances that have a healthy effect on your skin and its pores.
There is a lot more to sunflower oil than just that however. It is what is referred to as non-comedogenic, meaning that, unlike many other oily substances, it will not cause spots or pimples to form when you rub it into your skin. It is very good for acne sufferers, especially if the traditional acne remedies have failed. It is very high in antioxidants, particularly the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E, which prevent free radicals from damaging your skin and creating wrinkles and the appearance of premature aging.

Nobody likes having tough leathery skin that looks decades older than they really are, but that’s what can happen to people who live in hot climates because of the action of ultra-violet light in strong sunlight on their skin. UV generates small oxygenated molecules known as free radicals that destroy your skin cell membranes. That makes your skin old looking and wrinkled, and even causes these ugly brown liver spots. Sunflower oil destroys these free radicals as soon as they are formed and offers a high degree of protection against sunlight and the other causes of free radical generation such as air pollution, tobacco smoke and pesticides.

Sunflower oil also contains fatty acids that kill off damaging bacteria on your skin, and the Vitamin D it contains supports your immune system to help prevent inflammatory conditions such as acne. In addition to their antioxidant properties, Vitamins C and E promote the growth of healthy new skin, and can rapidly repair and damage any blemishes from which your skin is prone to suffer, particularly during the cold winter months, again helping to keep it looking youthful and fresh.

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Tags: Healthy skin, Maintain youthful skin, Skin Care, Skin care products, Sunflower oil

Aloe Vera has been used in skin care products for thousands of years, being mentioned not only in the New Testament of the Bible, but also in ancient Egyptian and Chinese medicine. Most ancient applications appear to be connected with skin care and the treatment of burns, although it is also recorded as having found applications in the easing of constipation and the treatment of conditions connected with the immune system and the cardiovascular system.

However, it is for its use in skin care products that we are concerned with aloe vera here, and among its many properties it is a powerful antioxidant that destroys the free radicals that cause a great deal of damage to skin cells, effectively destroying them. It also aids in the healing of skin damage by supporting the growth of new skin tissue, and finds application on the treatment of such conditions as eczema and psoriasis.

Extensive research and analysis has been carried out on aloe vera in an attempt to establish the nature of the active ingredients, and it is evident that there is no single substance responsible for its wide range of skin care properties. In fact, over 150 different active substances have been found in the extract, including the antioxidant anthraquinones, also possessing antibacterial and antiviral properties, plant sterols that reduce the inflammation of acne and other inflammatory skin conditions, most of the B vitamins, salicylic acid, saponins and a number of other phytochemicals that not only help to maintain the health of your skin, but also of your entire body.

In common with several other components of aloe vera, Vitamins A, E and C are strong antioxidants that help to keep your skin looking young in spite of the pollution to which modern living exposes it. It’s not only the UV light in sunlight that generates the free radicals that destroys your skin cells, but also pollution from tobacco smoke, traffic and industrial emissions and modern pesticides used to keep your fruit and vegetables blemish free – but not your skin!

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Tags: Aloe vera, Natural skin care, Protect your skin, Skin care products

There are many benefits to using avocado butter, not the least of them that it makes your skin look alive, vibrant and full of health. Add to that the fact that it is completely natural, and it becomes a very attractive choice as an addition to your range of preferred skin care products.

There are several synthetic alternatives you could choose, each of which claims the same benefits as avocado butter, but have you really considered their benefits and the truth of what they claim?  Do you understand the meaning of that large ingredients list?  Let’s digress for just a short while and discuss the vitamin and supplement industry.

Supplements are available in almost any shape and form:  vitamins, minerals and even complex mixtures known as athletic supplements are marketed as being effective in improving fitness, stamina and just about any other health benefit you can imagine. Yet the experts are still out on the difference between the actual benefits claimed for these and those realized in practice.  They are not necessarily the same, and there are some real biochemical reasons for that.

The reason is synergy.  That word relates to different substances working better together than either could apart. Take the example of a secretary and the guy that delivers her letters by courier.  To outsiders, the secretary is great at getting these letters and invoices delivered on time. However, that is meaningless if the courier is not on duty – it gets delivered a day late.

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Tags: Avocado butter, Natural skin care