Dates for your diary

Apologies for being off the radar! I’ve been really busy trying to catch up with the season upon us…

So this is a quick post just to tell you not to miss out on the sales and pampering events.

Pin these dates on your diaries now!

14 Nov, 6pm – The New Inn, 62 St. Mary’s Rd, W5 5EX – Ealing
Christmas gifts for sale, 15% off and no p&p!

16 & 17 Nov – Pampering days at Things British (Carnaby St). If you show up between 3-8pm on the 17th, you get a massive 20% discount on most (if not ALL) shop products.

19 Nov, 2:30-4:30pm – Making natural beauty products with I made it myself (Chiswick).

So you have no excuse to get to know Skin Bistro better… Come along and benefit from these offers and our outstanding handcrafted products.

See you around!

Making natural gorgeous perfume

I absolutely love perfume… But hate the sneezing fit, watering eyes and running nose that ensue after spraying a bottle of a fine synthetic fragrance onto my skin. I just can’t do strong smells, be it bleach or Channel no. 5!

So, I got really excited when I found out that Karen Gilbert was teaching a natural perfume course just ‘down the road’ from me. I had to take it!

Discovering scents

I have asthma and allergic rhinitis (all year long), my nose and my skin are quite sensitive and get irritated very easily – one of the reasons why I’ve turned to essential oils and aromatherapy, a more ‘natural’ way of keeping my skin healthy and glowing.

Don’t get me wrong, essential oils are very potent and they too may irritate my nose and throat! When I’m making products, I usually wear a mask just to avoid unnecessary exposure.

First impressions

So I dragged my poor foot along (yes, it’s still broken) and had a blasting day! The class was very structured and a lot of fun. Karen has a wealth of knowledge about perfumery and a vast experience in hands-on training, the perfect recipe for an outstanding practical workshop. The best part is that you make your own natural perfume!!!

We started with a bit of background but it wasn’t long until we started smelling strips and identifying the scents we liked to build our perfume from. All ingredients were natural, basically essential oils or absolutes diluted in perfumer’s alcohol base. It makes it a lot easier to work with.

We started with top notes, followed by middle and base. We ‘built’ each of these mixes separately first, and at the end, mixed them together to create the final fragrance.

Fine tuning

My creation included:
- top notes: grapefruit, green mandarin and black pepper;
- middle: litsea, wild rose and linden blossom;
- base: vanilla, patchouli, vetiver.
I’m totally in love with my natural perfume! It’s quite heady, dense, warm and involving, just perfect for winter time. It left its scent on the bag I used when I went to the course, and my notes are all fragranced too.

Final fragrance, the long-awaited prize!

Despite its obvious impregnating power, I didn’t sneeze, not even once. So guess what I will be getting my hands into more often?!

Breast cancer awareness month

It’s ‘Pink October’!

The Breast Cancer Campaign ‘was established in 1988 with the aim of researching the cure for breast cancer’, as stated on their website, http://www.breastcancercampaign.org/page.aspx?pid=434.

There are many ways to participate in the campaign and donate.

Bed of Pink Roses Home Spa Soak

This year, Skin Bistro is donating a prize, the Pink Bed of Roses Home Spa Soak (100g) to Nicoletta’s big charity event.

Please go to her website to find out why she’s taking such an active role in raising money for this campaign, and of course, also find out which fabulous prizes you can win if you donate too!

If you feel like helping even more, let everyone you know about it!!!

Thanks for supporting and sharing the pink love!

I’m at Things British in Carnaby Street!

Yay, my goodies are now on offer at Carnaby Street! This is where Things British first shop has opened.
I heard about Things British through UK Handmade, and thought it would be a great opportunity to ‘exhibit’ my products. They offer a new retail concept, where British designers rent shelf space to showcase their handmade goods.

What grabbed my interest was the fact that they would only be selling crafts by British makers. I’ve been avoiding retailing for a number of reasons, the main one being that I don’t really want to be selling my products where there’s only mass produced products without character or where retailers have little appreciation of or knowledge about my crafted skincare range.

So, I’m thrilled to have my products retailing at Things British. I think their idea and support are highly appreciated by fellow crafters like me. Having just recently expanded my skincare range, it will be an excellent opportunity for people to feel and smell my products before choosing what to buy.

Skin Bistro’s products are the first (and only so far) organic skincare range available at Things British. To celebrate this partnership, I’m planning a few tester and demonstration days at the shop. For more information on events dates, please check the events page on the website or subscribe to Skin Bistro’s newsletter:
http://www.skinbistro.co.uk/.

Support British crafters by visiting Things British, located at Unit 1.11 Kingly Court, 49 Carnaby Street, W1B 5PW, Mondays to Saturdays between 10:30am and 7pm or Sundays between 12pm and 6pm.
Hope to see you there!

Facial treats, bespoke skincare

These last few weeks have been frantic, lots of bespoke orders! As I’m off to Berlin tomorrow, this is a quick post just to show you my latest creations.

My clients trust me well… Often they ask me to put a gift box together for XX amount – and it’s up to me to come up with the contents!

Most of the ingredients I use are organic and fairtrade. I always chose the right oils for your skin type and season. Hydrolats (water by-product of essential oil distillation) are used rather than just water (‘aqua’). Essential oils are only added if needed, as we’re overloaded with fragrances and perfume far too much on a daily basis.

So, this time, here is what I made (two sets, 1x sensitive & dry skin, 1x oily skin):

Surprise, surprise

- Cream cleanser, packed with nourishing & cleansing oils to remove even make-up; use with organic muslin cloth

- ‘Traditional’ moisturiser for dry & sensitive skin (with gorgeous plum kernel oil that smells like heaven!), or gel moisturiser (very light, ideal for summer) for oily skin

- Night serum with organic rosehip & meadowfoam oils

- Body butter scented with rose or tuberose wax.

So, would you trust me too?!

Wheat- and dairy-free coconut pancakes

I absolutely love desiccated coconut in food, especially ‘sweet’ food.  In Brazil, coconut trees grow everywhere and we consume coconut in various ways.

Fresh coconut water is what I miss most! It’s delicious and packed with potassium and some other electrolytes, fat- and cholesterol-free.  It’s the perfect drink to cure hangovers or for a day on the beach, as it keeps your body hydrated.

So, when I read John Limpus’ (www.urbanvitality.com) post promoting desiccated coconut pancakes as an elimination diet friendly breakfast, I decided I had to try it.

Let me just warn you, these are highly addictive! But they’re healthy too, so, who cares?!

Here’s my recipe.  It makes 4 medium crepes (thinner and lighter than pancakes):

Mouth-watering pancakes

2/3 cup of spelt flour

1/3 cup of desiccated coconut

1 tsp of dark brown sugar (optional)

1 egg

approx 1/3 cup of rice milk (just to make the batter liquid enough for cooking)

I mix everything together and use raw coconut oil and a non-stick frying pan to cook the crepes, and I usually have them with a bit of honey (therefore the optional sugar).

You can use other types of flour or ‘milk’. I choose these ingredients to make the pancakes as healthy as possible, alkaline diet friendly and also dairy-free.

Thanks, John, for pointing me in this direction!

And if you guys try these or other ingredients, let me know how it works, I’d love to hear from you!

From a drooling blogger…

Want a skin care product made for yourself only and nobody else?

Well then, BESPOKE is the way to go!

I’ve been working behind the scenes to revamp my website, and whilst gathering opinions and expert advice on dos and don’ts, I realised quite a lot of people think when I’m talking bespoke skin care, I mean wholesale – which is something I don’t do.

Ok, so how do bespoke skin care orders work?

According to the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, ‘Pharmacy compounding is the customized preparation of a medicine that is not otherwise commercially available.’  So, the main advantage of using a compounding medicine is to customise it for you according to your needs and requirements.

Compounding medicine is an ancient tradition. It works so well and patients are so satisfied with the results (and benefits) that, in Brazil, where I come from, compounding pharmacies have become increasingly popular.

Although my products are not medicinal, my bespoke skin care products are developed under similar principles to compounding medicine.  It’s not an ‘off-the-shelf’ product, it has to be made – for you.

Deo Balms for Sharon

Step by step, basically:

1)   We discuss your requirements,

2)   I come up with a formula,

3)   I send you a quote (we can agree on a sample size product to be made and tested),

4)   You pay, if you agree with the quote and product suggested,

5)   I make it and ship it to you as soon as it’s ready.

Bespoke products are a total challenge and that’s why I enjoy making them so much! When I get it right (and so far, I’ve had 100% approval of my bespoke orders), it’s such a reward…

I recently created a bespoke deodorant balm (picture) for Sharon, with added moisturising properties, and an ‘uplifting fresh citrus smell’ which she loves. She wanted both a big and a small version of the deodorant so that she could keep one in her bag at all times.

I made her a small sample to try before making the ‘full’ order. When asking her for feedback, she wrote: ‘I’m so pleased with it. I would definitely recommend your bespoke service and I think it’s good value for money.’

Not every client is the same, though…  Molly was my first customer for whom I created 3 bespoke soaps.  She wanted something ‘fresh, detoxing and positive’.  When I received her email saying how much she loved the soaps, I asked if I could quote her for a testimonial.  She didn’t reply back and I felt almost uncomfortable, unsure whether she really liked the soaps, agonising over what I could have done wrong.

Well, one day later, I found out!

http://www.finchsquarterly.com/7901/the-perfect-soap/

On the pipeline, bespoke wedding favours – watch this space!

Don’t get caught by the winter bugs

Although I’ve joined Twitter a while ago, only recently I became more (inter)active on this social media platform.  Working from home can be quite a solitary task, so Twitter kind of fill in the space of office chit-chat – and I am completely hooked now!

Just like in a real office, lots of tweets over the past few weeks talked about cold, flu, sore throats and other undesirable symptoms caused by nasty winter bugs.  Here’s some of the advice and information I shared on Twitter… And a little more!

1) Eat healthily, making sure you include lots of citrus fruits and berries as well as green vegetables and garlic in your diet.  These are source of vitamins A and C, and zinc, all of which boost the immune system.

2) Wash your hands regularly. In public places, like the tube, try not to touch anything and steer clear from the sneezing and coughing types. I always pull my scarf up to my nose when I go on public transport.  If you touch things, do not touch your mouth or nose until you have washed your hands.

3) Echinacea – particularly, I don’t take it, but if you do, have a preventative course for no longer than 8 weeks.  If you take medication for health problems, make sure to tell your GP you’re taking Echinacea as it does interact with certain types of medication.

If all these fail and you end up catching a nasty cold or flu:

- Make sure you drink plenty of water; tea helps too, especially if add fresh ginger, lime and honey.

- Wash your hands everytime you blow your nose, otherwise, you’ll re-infect yourself!

- Essential oils of eucalyptus, tea tree, rosemary, niaouli, cajeput, ravensara and thyme all help to fight infection and clear the airways. Remember essential oils are powerful plant extracts that have to be diluted in vegetable oil (cold pressed olive oil from the kitchen cupboard will do!).  Use as a chest and back rub.

- For sore throats, propolis (spray or tincture) is a widely known and scientifically accepted antimicrobial agent.  Make sure you buy a good quality one.

Since I’ve started working from home two winters ago, I’ve been winter bug-free. I do miss the office gatherings, but I don’t miss the colds!

Hurray!

I’m very please with the results and recognition Skin Bistro is getting.

It took me 3 years to develop our best selling product, the castile soap made with organic, extra-virgin olive oil.  Compared to the soap, developing the packaging was easy!

All this hard work was so worth it when last week I received the news Skin Bistro was a winner of the Future 100, an award that recognise the success of young entrepreneurs ‘who demonstrate entrepreneurial flair and innovation in progressing a responsible business venture’.

Winning a business award is an incredible achievement, taking into account the company is only 3 months old.  It proves I’m on the right track from the beginning.  It is, however, the rave reviews I’m getting from clients that really make my day.  Without them, this business wouldn’t be possible.

http://www.facebook.com/Victoriaregia?ref=ts

http://www.finchsquarterly.com/7901/the-perfect-soap/

http://thegreenfamilia.co.uk/tgf-rated-review-castille-soap

http://thegreen.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/top-to-toe-health-and-beauty-26576/

New soaps on the block

I’ve been very busy today.  There was creation in the morning, some label revamping right on time for the photo shoot to follow… Ah, and a vegetable lasagne in between washed down with one of my favourite wines – organic tempranillo from Santa Julia, Argentina.

I’ve created some brand new soaps:

- flower bud: delicate enough to use on the face; pink clay creates a marble effect; the flowery scent brings spring back to life!

- face scrub: for oily skin, it works like a solid, soapy scrub; it contains green clay and cupuaçu grains for extra cleansing and smoothness.

- scrub bar: a citrus, pungent blend to keep circulation going while gently sloughing off the last bits of summer tan…

- wedding favours: these little pink hearts are cute enough to be considered as such, huh?

Here are some pics of the show – I loved them, and you?