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.

Oh the inside of skin- the Vitamins within!

Vitamins are always a good start when it comes to working from the inside out. Vitamins help supplement the body and give our bodies the overall health it needs to survive.

Vitamin D helps the stomach absorb calcium. You can give a good source of vitamin d by simply being out in the sun on a daily basis. When it comes to the sun and it’s rays, the two opposites can be equally damaging. Too much sun can be damaging to your skin through burns or cancer, and too little sun can be damaging if you aren’t getting enough vitamin d. So finding a happy medium is always the best route when it comes to the sun. If you are one that doesn’t go out into the sun often or can’t find the time, taking a vitamin d supplement may just be your thing.

Vitamin B is a water soluble that helps the brain work in a normal and healthy function. It also gives your body energy that can greatly help in staying active and keeping fit. It is the natural substitute to weight loss medicine. If you are looking to lose weight so that you can feel better about your appearance, take some B vitamins and feel your body move.

Morning Shower- good or cancer causing?

The products you use on your skin determines how your skin breathes. It starts from the moment you wake up and turn on the water for a bath or shower. The water that is filtered into your pipes and into your tub and sinks can have an effect on your skin. Be mindful of any chemicals that may be in your water. The best way to find these numbers is to contact the water service department in your town or city. Also, using hot water can cause your skin to dry out, causing you to become itchy or have irritated skin.

Before you ever enter the shower, you should be aware of the products you have to use and what they contain. Using a product simply because it smells good isn’t always the best suit. Good smells are always nice, but it shouldn’t be the sole reason you buy them. Natural ingredients and natural products are better on your skin and help give it a natural glow. Be sure to look into the products you are using. A great source for looking deeper is the Cosmetics Database. It allows you to research the product and scores it according to the research that has been done on each individual ingredient.

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.

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.

Fortunately, there are substances that can destroy them, known as antioxidants, and highly colored foods including green and purple /black olives are excellent sources of these antioxidants. They, too, are chemicals, but they are beneficial chemicals, and olive oil skin care products are packed full of them.

They contain polyphenols, flavanoids and catechins, all of which possess antioxidant properties, and destroy free radicals as soon as they are formed.

By consuming olive oil in your diet you can destroy free radicals in your bloodstream and prevent them from damaging your heart and cardiovascular system. However, that doesn’t protect your skin.  Using olive oil bath and spa products into your skin does!  The antioxidants it contains can destroy the free radicals that are formed in your skin before they can damage any of your skin cells, and you can therefore maintain a youthful-looking skin even as you age.

Not only that, but as new skin cells are developed in order to replace those that are damaged and shed, they too are attacked by free radicals, but olive oil skin care products can prevent that from happening so your wrinkled skin has a chance to heal itself, and you can begin to look young again. 

This is no pipe dream or exaggerated advert, but scientific fact. Free radicals cause premature aging by destroying your skin cells and antioxidants destroy the free radicals:  proven and well known scientific fact. It is also proven scientific fact that olive oil is rich in antioxidants, and that it will destroy free radicals that try to attack your skin cells.

However, olive oil is best combined with other oils, such as hemp seed and shea oil, each of complements it to offer you completely natural substances that combine to offer you a comprehensive skin-care solution.

Hemp oil provides Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids with their own specific antioxidant properties, and shea oil is soothing for dry skin and sunburn, and packed full of vitamins and minerals to make your skin simply glow!

The ancients were not stupid, as their advanced civilizations prove, and if it was good enough for them then it should be good enough for you. Why pay fortunes for expensive chemical-rich skin preparations when olive oil skin products will have the same effect? If you have hard skin on your hands and feet they will keep it soft and pliable.

Not only do they keep your skin looking beautiful and young, and also help repair damaged skin, but it is also hydrating, and will keep your nails soft and your hands, and can therefore be used as an effective chemical-free hand lotion. The oil can be used to help remove stretch marks and if you mix it with natural clay it makes a very effective face mask with a sound scientific basis. Not all face preparations have to smell great – in fact many that do contain harmful perfumes.

Olive oil is a very useful substance, and is used for a lot more than just cooking, Its use in olive oil skin care products enables you to maintain your tan without the tough leathery skin that many Californians and Australians develop, and to live longer with smooth, beautiful skin while holding back the years and the normal signs of aging. You will not find it as 100% olive oil, but when mixed with hemp seed and shea oil it offers you the opportunity of maintaining youthful skin.

If you want to keep looking young as you age, then check out Laura’s website at Castle Baths Spa Products and for olive oil skin care products in particular, including those incorporating shea and hemp seed oils, visit Olive Oil Skin Care.

For further information on how to maintain youthful skin and hold back the years visit Laura’s site at http://www.castlebaths.com, and for information on olive oil and olive oil skin care products in particular click on http://www.castlebaths.com/olive-oil.html.

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

The items chosen for Castle Baths spa gift baskets have been selected not only for their herbal properties, and their ability to refresh and reinvigorate you, but also for their practicality. Hence, we not only provide herbal and aromatherapy mixtures, but also cleansing lotions and the means of applying them to enable them to work on your skin and body with maximum effect.

Perhaps you just want beautifully scented handmade soap, such as a selection of soap cookies containing a variety of herbs and aromas so that you can choose which suits your mood best each bath night. These are chosen to smell wonderful without harming your skin, as many synthetic aromas can do.  Not so those from Castle Baths that are 100% natural aromas that will invigorate you and make you smell great without harming your skin.

There are no doubts in the minds of our customers that what Castle Baths have to offer in our spa gift basket sets more than meets your needs, and that you are certain to find a delightful gift set within our range whether it is intended as a treat for yourself or a gift for another.

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.

Castor oil skin care products also contain ricinoleic acid, a strong anti-inflammatory that helps to reduce the skin eruptions of acne and eczema. The antioxidant properties of the oil protect your skin from the damage cause by free radicals generated by the action of strong sunlight on your skin, and also of pollutants such as traffic fumes and tobacco smoke. Free radicals can kill off your skin cells, accelerating the appearance of aging, and without the strong antioxidant effects of natural skin care products, your skin would age prematurely and turn dry and leathery.

The oil helps your skin to feel silky and smooth because of its humectants properties: it absorbs moisture and passed that into to your skin. The oil itself does not leave your skin feeling sticky as many other oils do because it is easily washed off with soap water. Its moisturizing effect supports the antioxidants castor oil contains to help to prevent wrinkles developing, and also helps to maintain a good circulation of blood that keeps it supplied with the nutrients and the oxygen needed to maintain a healthy supply of new skin growth.

Although many find its effects on their skin surprising, there are very good medical and chemical reasons why castor oil should offer a high degree of skin care through its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and moisturizing properties. It is a more effective natural moisturiser for your skin than the vast majority of synthetic moisturizing preparations on the market today, and is in fact one of the best natural substances that nature can provide to care for your skin.

Castor oil skin care preparations can help to maintain well-hydrated healthy skin, and if used in conjunction with a healthy diet should enable you to maintain your youthful looks for many years to come while others around you are becoming old and wrinkled.

For further information on natural skin care products visit Laura’s site at Castle Baths where you will also find out more on the properties of Castor Oil in protecting your skin.

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”.

Once you’re done soaking those tired tootsies, who says you have to quit?

Follow that soak with some Bathsheba Certified Organic Shea Butter Mineral Foot Cream. The velvety feel of Shea butter, the natural anti-inflammatory Ylang Ylang to help reduce swelling, combined with the spicy floral scent of Rosewood, and that splash of Peppermint will keep your feet with that “ahhh” feeling.

Can’t soak your feet first? No problem, put Bathsheba Certified Organic Shea Butter Mineral Foot Cream on your feet just to give them an extra boost of relief, your feet will say “thank you” if they could.

Want to feel even more like a Queen or make someone else feel like Royalty?

Spoil the soul with Bathsheba Massage Oil, infused with the spicy floral scent of Rosewood Oil combined with organic Sweet Almond Oil, you’ll feel renewed, uplifted, confident and well pampered.

It’s possible to continue feeling like a Queen with other Castle Baths products in the Bathsheba Bath and Body collection.

• Bathsheba Body Lotion Mist Spray
• Bathsheba Dead Sea Salts for the Soul
• Bathsheba Hand and Body Lotion with Organic Shea Butter
• Bathsheba Rosewood Natural Body Wash with Certified Organic Shea Butter
• Bathsheba Rosewood Rose Natural Body Mist

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.

Unlike many other similar substances, such as shea butter, few people are sensitive to olive butter, and it can be used safely by those with the most sensitive of skins. If you are sensitive to shea butter or any other skin preparation, try olive butter because it is gentle on your skin but a killer to free radicals.

Olive oil and olive butter are very similar chemically: it is just their form that is different. Hydrogenation causes the oil to become more spreadable, and is therefore more easily applied to your skin than the runny olive oil. Both are packed full of antioxidants, but the butter tends to stay on your skin longer and have a less oily feel to it.

The term antioxidant refers to substances that destroy oxidizing agents such as free radicals. Chemically an antioxidant is a reducing agent, and it neutralizes free radicals as soon as they are formed. It has to, because free radicals attack skin cells, or any other body cell for that matter, as soon as they are formed, and unless there are antioxidants in the vicinity at the time of their generation, they will rupture the skin cell membranes.

By rubbing olive butter into your skin you will make sure that it is there ready for action as soon as free radicals are formed, and destroy them before they can do your skin any harm. If you want an example of what free radicals do to your skin, think of those fair-skinned people that live in hot climates and think of their tough leathery skin after a while in the sun.
That could be you, but olive butter will prevent it, and make sure that your skin remains soft and smooth even in the hottest sun and after exposure to the foulest pollution. You should try to avoid pollution and hot sun without a sun blocker, but olive butter will make sure that you are protected – just in case.

Laura’s website Castle Baths Spa Products offers a large number of natural skin care products, and for more information on how olive butter keeps your skin young visit Castle Baths Olive Butter.

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.

You can find sunflower oil in the ingredients list of many expensive skin care products, including body washes, lotions and soaps, and although the natural oil itself is just as good as any of these expensive commercial products, it is better to use it in a purified form or along with other natural oils in mixtures designed to complement each other and make the best use of the skin care properties of each.

Visit Laura’s website Castle Baths Spa Products for details of a large number of natural skin care products, and for further information on how sunflower oil Sunflower Oil maintains a healthy looking skin. Visit Laura’s website http://www.castlebaths.com for details of a large number of natural skin care products, and for further information on how sunflower oil maintains a healthy looking skin visit http://www.castlebaths.com/olive-butter.html. Sunflower oil is packed full of fatty acids and vitamins that not only keeps your skin fresh and young looking, but also helps to remove the symptoms of acne and enables the rapid healing of damage to your skin.

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!

Antioxidants destroy these free radicals as soon as they are generated and so prevent the damage that can make your skin look tough and leathery well before its time. In order to protect your skin effectively in this way you have to use a lot of aloe vera, so skin care preparations containing small amounts will have little effect. The extract also contains the antioxidant minerals zinc and selenium, and others such as polysaccharides and flavanoids, all working together in different ways to maintain a healthy, smooth and youthful looking skin.

This natural chemical broth protects you even under the hottest sun, although you should still use sun blocker to prevent other damaging effects of the UV radiation that hot sun contains. Of all the natural skin care products available today, aloe vera is likely the best known and is certainly one of the most powerful. If you want to stay looking younger for longer then use nature’s own antioxidants, although if you are pregnant check with your doctor first because it has been known to initiate uterine contractions.

Laura’s website Castle Baths Spa Products offers details of many more natural skin care products, and provides further information on how to use Aloe Vera to maintain a healthy looking skin.

Check out Laura’s website at http://www.castlebaths.com/aloe-vera.html for further information on how to use Aloe Vera to maintain a healthy looking skin, and also for details of many more natural skin care products.

Aloe vera is one nature’s most powerful skin care products, containing a rich mixture of a variety of different antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and antibacterial components. It can be used, not only to keep your sin looking young and healthy, but also to heal the damage caused by conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis.

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.

In the same way, many vitamins and minerals are well known for their beneficial effects, but there is no point in taking a calcium supplement if the couriers – magnesium and vitamins C and D – are missing! They are the substances that actually take the calcium into your bone structure. That is why natural sources are better:  they have the courier and the secretary provided in the one package, just as they should be. That is also why avocado butter is a far superior skin care substance than any synthetic product.

It contains the antioxidant vitamins A, E and D that kill of the free radicals that age your skin. A very scientific and comforting explanation of how it works, unlike that of the synthetic emulsified oils, containing surfactants that can damage your skin, rather than help it, and other even more toxic substances. It contains a natural sunscreen that protects your skin and hair from the damaging effects of the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

Avocado butter also contains lecithin and unsaturated fatty acids that are beneficial to your skin, and it melts at only 30C – 35C making it very easy to apply tom your skin.

It can be used to moisturize dry skin ad it can also help to reduce the appearance of age spots, sometimes referred to as liver spots, caused by the oxidation of fatty deposits just under your skin.

So, don’t use these potentially toxic artificial labeled products, but try pure avocado oil next time you are looking for a skin care product.  You won’t regret it, and will likely be hooked on it for life: your skin certainly will!

For more information on the benefits of avocado butter visit Laura’s website Castle Baths Avocado Butter, and also her site Castle Baths Spa Products if you are interested in other natural skin care products to help you remain looking young and beautiful.