I have a secret obsession… It’s time to confess… I’m addicted to my lip balm!

Seriously, I can’t go anywhere without it! If my trusty lip balm tin isn’t in my pocket I’m bereft! And if, God forbid, I forget to take it with me somewhere… well that just doesn’t bear thinking about!!!

I use my lip balm for so much more than just my lips!

Here are a few tips and tricks that Freyaluna lip balms can be used for…

Lips & Skin

• cleanse away the day’s impurities
• massage into nails and cuticles to keep them in top condition
• a moisture surge for dry skin emergencies
• great for dry hands and sensitive skin
• soothe cracked heels to smooth dry and worn skin

Helping Hand for Make-up

• tame unruly eyebrows, keep them in shape and condition
• condition lashes by applying with a clean marscara wand
• prime skin under foundation to even tone and moisture levels
• under lipstick or alone as a lip conditioner
• great for dry patches around eyes, nose and lips without disturbing make-up

Excellent Travel Companion

• off on a plane? Freyaluna lip balms are a handy size to carry on board – no more bulky moisturisers in your hand luggage
• throughout the flight, use on any emerging dry patches
• smooth on lips and skin to avoid dry skin caused by sun damage

Fragrance & Aromatherapy

• Freyaluna lip balms can be applied to pulse points as a natural fragrance
• if life is getting you down open a pot of our lip balm and let the natural essential oils soothe and revive you
• apply it to the back of your hand or wrist, or to a tissue or hanky, and inhale throughout the day for an instant lift

Freyaluna lip balms are solve-all skin salves useful for a multitude of situations from chapped lips and dry skin, to unruly brows!

What more could you ask for from a tiny little tin?!

Look out for new frangrance blends coming soon!

Ever felt you don’t quite live up to the standard of beauty in glossy magazines?

I really wouldn’t worry… Finally! Here’s the wonder product that means you can look just as good!

Check it out now!

If you follow me on Facebook (what? You don’t? Why ever not?) then you may have already seen this, but I just had to share it here as well!

Here we are, two weeks into the new year.

The crazy festive season is behind us. We’ve had time to take a deep, cleansing, calming breath and look ahead to the year to come.

I don’t know if you’ve made your new year’s resolutions yet, but if you’re anything like I was when I was trying to clear my acne, my resolution was always to get healthy skin.

I made this resolution year after year and, I’ll admit, I only half-heartedly kept to it.

In the end, after trying many, many products I decided to go natural. It took a real effort, and a few years of trial and error, to figure out what worked for me and my skin. You can read more about this in my skin story.

Is your skin showing how much partying you’ve been doing lately?! Is it showing how many late nights and how little sleep you’ve been having over this party season?!

Well, this year, if your resolution is to show your skin some well-deserved love (remember, your skin is there for everyone to see, and it’s a barometer of what’s going on inside your body as well!), then I am here to help you!

I’m making it my personal mission to help you with any skin questions or problems you may have!

I am only offering this to those who have sign-up to become part of the Love Yourself Naturally family (if you haven’t, quick go do it now to get in on this deal! You can find out how by clicking the ‘free stuff‘ button in the top navigation bar), so you are getting a really great deal here!

What I’m offering you here is absolutely FREE(!) access to all of my natural skincare knowledge and expertise for the whole of 2012!

How ace is that?!

You can email (sami@freyaluna.co.uk), tweet or facebook me at any time during 2012, with a natural skincare question or problem (whether it’s recommendations for dry or sensitive skin, or wanting help clearing acne or eczema), and I will be there for you!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this!

Many have already taken advantage of this offer, and we’re only two weeks in!

I really hope you will take up this offer if and when you need it. This service is something I’m hoping to role out to a wider audience, for a fee, in the future, so get it for free while you can!

This is the third part of a three-part series that I wrote for Bohozine, the online magazine, about the ingredients that go into natural skincare products. Part one of this series was Where Does Water Fit into Your Skincare? Part two was How to Choose The Right Oils for Your Skin.

You know what? Your skin is absolutely amazing!

Just think about it…

Your skin has the ability to heal and repair itself!

So how come we still end up with unwanted skin conditions and skin problems?

Well, we live in a dirty, mucky world. There are exhaust fumes, strong weather (sun, wind, etc.), general dirt and grime, and everything else that we come across during our daily lives. All of these things can have an adverse effect, meaning that our skin’s own healing properties don’t work quite as well as they could.

Here are a few things that get in the way of complete and healthy skin repair:

• Build-up of dead skin cells on the surface
• Lack of nutrients to assist with building new cells
• Lack of essential ingredients that help to rid the skin of toxins
• Damage from internal stress, e.g. poor diet, lack of sleep, etc.
• Damage from external stress, e.g. environmental factors such as sun or wind
• Topical applications that can cause blockages, e.g. suncream, make-up, etc.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was an ingredient that could be added to a skincare product that would solve all of these problems, and would:

• Be absorbed into and through the skin easily
• Never cause any blocked pores
• Help to build skin cells at a deep level
• Clear the blood and the lymphatic system of any congestion
• Assist with reducing free radical damage caused by internal and external stresses
• Be non-toxic and treated by the body as food

Wouldn’t an ingredient that did all that be absolutely amazing and worth its weight in gold?

Here’s the good news… This ingredient actually exists! In fact, there are a lot of them! And what’s even better is that they’re natural, and smell great too!

What are these ingredients? I hear you cry!

Ok, ok, I’ll stop teasing you with all these wonderful statements and tell you what I’m talking about… Essential oils!

What are essential oils?

Aromatic (smelly/scented) plants contain aromatic compounds in secretory cells within the plant. In many plants, these cells are located near the surface, in the flowers or leaves. This is why, when you brush past a lavender plant in your garden, the lovely aroma of the plant is released.

I like to think of them as the therapeutic ‘essence’ of the plant.

When the plants are distilled (usually by steam distillation), the aromatic compounds, or essence, undergo subtle chemical changes and are bottled as essential oils.

It is these essential oils that are used in aromatherapy.

Essential oils are very strong and concentrated. This means they need to be diluted for use on the skin. For aromatherapy massage, they are mixed with vegetable base oils. They can also be added to skincare products.

Essential oils are made up of tiny molecules, and work by getting into the bloodstream and then being circulated around the body to different organs and body systems. The size of the tiny molecules mean they pass easily through the skin and into the body.

What are the benefits of essential oils and aromatherapy?

Essential oils are a precious gift from Mother Nature and there are many benefits of using them – just look at the list above!

Perhaps the most important is that these oils are completely natural, produced with very little human intervention.

In the modern world there are many chemicals and synthetics in common use. An increasing number of people suffer allergic reactions to these ingredients, such as asthma, skin rashes, eczema, and so on.

Aromatherapy’s natural qualities help to reduce the problems caused by excessive use of these unnatural substances. The vegetable base oils used to dilute essential oils are also natural. Both base and essential oils work in harmony with our bodies, reducing the risk of adverse reactions.

Continued use of essential oils in your skincare routine helps to rejuvenate the skin – a natural way to enhance the skin’s condition, and maintain it in good health.

But remember, beauty is more than skin deep.

Not too long ago, I spent the weekend deep in the Welsh Mountains (where there is not even a hint of mobile phone signal, never mind a broadband connection!), taking a bit of time-out for the weekend.

We all need a break every once in a while… even our skin!

I’ve talked about stress and its efffects on the skin before, but today I wanted to share my story with you.

I know how embarrassing and emotionally crippling a skin condition such as acne, eczema or psoriasis can be, and I’ll be honest, it has taken me a lot of time to come to terms with my skin and arrive at a place in my life where I feel I can actually share my story with you.

I’ve pretty much battled with acne or most of my life since puberty. I think I can safely say that hormones were the cause of it to begin with.

I tried so many off-the-shelf products that my toiletries cupboard looked like a Boots stockroom. Nothing seemed to work. A lot of the products just dried my skin out, which may have helped with the spots, but the dry and flaky patches looked just as bad.

I tried going on the contraceptive pill, which worked wonders for my skin because it helped to control my hormones. But the side effects I experienced were awful. I felt so tired and depressed. Some days I just didn’t want to get out of bed. It got to the point… I’m struggling to write this, even now, because I’ve never really talked about it… but it got to the point where I was thinking and contemplating the worst thing possible – ending it all. I didn’t consider it seriously, but the thought passed through my mind on a number of occasions.

It took me a long time to decide that having clear skin just wasn’t worth living with the side-effect of crippling depression.

For anyone who hasn’t lived with a constant and visible skin condition such as acne, might read this and think that I was absolutely stupid for thinking that a silly thing like acne should be more important than depression… but that’s how skewed my thinking was!

For a long time I believed that being rid of my acne was more important than living a happy life! I don’t think you canproperly understand that way of thinking unless you’ve really experienced something similar.

I stopped taking the contraceptive pill and have not taken it again since. I love my life too much to put myself back in that situation.

In the end, through a process of trial and error, I discovered five basic steps to clearing my skin. This involved sorting out my diet and eating healthily, the best skincare products and regime, and balancing my hormones in a natural way.

I’m pleased to say that after this, things pretty much settled down.

That is, until I was 26, just last year!

I relocated 200 miles from a small country village in North Wales to the big city of London to live with my boyfriend (I hadn’t lived away from home before) and I didn’t know anybody in the city! Not long after I moved, we found out that my mum was seriously ill with cancer (thankfully, she’s fine now and was given the all-clear just the other day!). I was trying to grow my business while working in a part-time job that I hated…

It all took its toll and my stress levels went through the roof!

As a result, I ended up with a really bad case of acne.

For this reason, I feel I am the perfect example of how stress can affect and cause acne. And so my five steps became six steps to clearing my acne!

And it’s not just acne…

My stress brought about that bad case of acne because I have naturally acne-prone skin.

You might not be getting acne, but your skin could be trying to tell you to slow down in a different way – eczema and psoriasis are two well-known skin conditions that can be exacerbated by stress.

Actually, when I’m stressed I also get mild cases of both eczema and psoriasis. These problems don’t present themselves to such an extent as the acne, but they are noticable.

Sometimes it’s easy to remove stress from our lives if it’s something small.

At other times it’s not so easy. Maybe you’re in a difficult life situation, like I was, and you just have to ‘sit it out’ and hold on in there until you relax into your new life.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to help – there are many ways you can help yourself to relax, and in turn, help your skin to heal. It doesn’t need to be one of the popular relaxation choices like yoga or meditation. It can be absolutely anything that helps to relax you, like a gentle walk in the countryside, gossiping with friends, or watching sitcoms – whatever works for you.

It is important to do something that you enjoy, something that relaxes you and makes you happy. Give yourself a break and enjoy a bit of ‘me time’.

Don’t make the excuse that you haven’t got enough time in the day to relax. You can always make time. Your health is really important so it is definitely worth it.

You could also try to remove yourself from as many stressful situations as possible. If you feel stress building up inside you then stop what you are doing and have a little break. Sometimes, removing yourself from the situation for even just five minutes can help.

This post is a personal reflection of my own battle with my skin which first knocked me for six at puberty, and has been on-going ever since.

I founded Freyaluna to create natural skincare products that work to support the skin’s natural processes (instead of over-loading them with chemicals!) and help you get naturally beautiful skin.

From there, it has grown and evolved into Love Yourself Naturally - an online santuary of holistic natural skincare advice, information and recipes to help women like you navigate their own skincare issues.

I’ve made it my personal mission to reach out to you lovely ladies and to provide you with the information and support you need to get through this bit of your life. I know you’re feeling shitty. I know it’s hard. And I know it feels oh so unfair. But rest assured, I know what you’re going through – I’ve been there, and at Love Yourself Naturally, you’re amongst friends.

If you enjoyed this post feel free to ‘like’ it or tweet it out there – you’re following me on Twitter right?

And if you know a gorgeous girl like you who should be loving herself naturally, for heavens sake give her a nudge and tell her to get herself over here!

So, here I am… my first ever video blog!

EEK!!!

You see, I wanted to tell you about the new feature I’ve added to the blog – the CHECK YOUR SKINCARE page.

I was all ready to write a huge long blog post extolling its virtues, when I thought, hang on a minute! Why don’t I just tell you all about it personally?!

The CHECK YOUR SKINCARE page is a really useful tool for all skin types, but especially for those with acne-prone skin, or for those with sensitive skin prone to irritancy.

More in the video…

I’d love to hear what you think, so please drop a comment below.

If you think others would like this, you can share it via twitter or Facebook by using the ‘share’ button below.

This is the second of a three-part series about the ingredients that go into natural skincare products. Keep an eye out for the third part! I wrote this article a while ago for the lovely Nova over at www.bohozine.com, but thought I’d add it here too. Enjoy!

I was talking to a lovely lady a couple of weeks ago, and she was telling me about her experience of using natural skincare products.

She had had a breakout of cystic acne and decided to switch to natural products to see if it would help. She loved the idea of using organic oils to cleanse and moisturise, so started using the ‘oil cleansing method’ using olive oil and castor oil.

For the first three months her skin felt soft and glowing, and most of the cystic acne had cleared. However, she said, in the forth month she started to realise that the oils were clogging her pores, and she ended up with a bad case of cosmetic acne.

Sadly, this lady is now very wary of using oils on her skin in the future.

Of course, this doesn’t happen to everyone who uses natural products, there are many testimonials about how natural oils worked well. But I’ve often heard people say that they have issues using natural skincare products because they contain so much oil, which tends to cause blocked pores and breakouts.

Well, yes it is true that natural products contain oils… But it is also true that so do the mass-produced skincare products. The only difference being that the mass-produced products are also packed full of chemicals and preservatives!

You see, if you want to create a cream or lotion there must be a mixture of oil and water, held together by a natural emulsifier.

So let’s talk ingredients…

It’s all very well your friend telling you what amazing results she’s had from using coconut oil, or your mum saying she loves using rosehip oil, or the wonderful things you’ve heard about evening primrose oil…

But what about your skin?

How do you make these ingredients work for you and your skin type and skincare routine?

Well, the first thing you need to know is that ALL skin types need regeneration. The skin renews itself on average, every four to six weeks, leaving you with a beautiful brand new layer to present to the world. But this can’t happen with out some key things.

It’s all about the fat… essential fatty acids!

These nutritious fats are essential for life and regeneration, and our bodies can’t make them. Our bodies are pretty clever and can make all sorts of things like vitamins (think of Vitamin D from sunshine), but not these guys. Our essential fatty acids have to come from the food we eat or the oils we put on our skin.

To give you an idea of how important these fats are to our bodies, they are used in the creation and regeneration of new cell membrane. Considering how many millions of cells there our in our bodies, I’d say these guys are pretty important!

So, essential fatty acids are found in oils. Not the heat-treated or hydrogenated or processed ones, but the oils that are cold-pressed and as natural as possible. Here I’m thinking of coconut, avocado, almond, apricot kernel, rosehip, olive, evening primrose, jojoba, sunflower, soy, hemp, sesame… the list goes on, but I think you get the idea.

All of these oils, when extracted through cold-pressing methods, will retain these essential fatty acids.

Skin metabolism…

It’s not only our stomachs that digest stuff. The skin does too! Different skin types have different metabolisms, meaning that they can digest oils at different rates. This is why not all oils are suitable for all skins.

I’ll be honest, finding the right oil for you and your skin will be a case of some trial and error, but here are a few pointers…

• Jojoba is a good place to start. It has a chemical make-up that closely resembles the make-up of our skin’s own natural oil and so can help to even out the oil balance of your skin. I love jojoba oil and tend to use it in a lot of the products I make.

• If you have oily or acne-prone skin, avoid heavy oils such as castor, rosehip, wheatgerm, avocado, etc.

• If you have mature skin you could try rosehip as it is a rich source of essential fatty acids, excellent for premature ageing, regeneration of scar tissue.

• For dry skin you could try wheatgerm, avocado or calendula. Calendula can also be beneficial for those with eczema.

• I would not recommend using these oils neat on the skin as some of them can be quite powerful. Instead, mix them with an oil such as almond, grapeseed, sunflower or olive.

I have mentioned just a few oils here. There are many more you could try. Remember, you don’t have to use the ‘oil cleansing method’ which uses just the oils, but look out for these oils on the ingredients lists of skincare products.

Take the next step towards naturally beautiful, healthy skin by clicking here to sign-up to the Love Yourself Naturally tribe.

I’ll send you weekly inspiration, recipes, ideas, and straight-talking skincare advice to get you on track for your most beautiful skin ever, the natural way!

As a bonus, you’ll also get a FREE copy of my “5 Secrets to Naturally Beautiful Skin” ebook. Join the tribe here!