Weleda Week: Weleda Lavender Creamy Body Wash

(affiliate link) If I had to choose one shower gel or bath salt scent for the rest of my life, lavender would be it.
Its obviously a flower (herb?) long associated with relaxation and having a calming effect, which I would certainly say is true in my case. I know some people can't stand the smell but it's definitely one of my favourites. That said, I only appreciate a proper lavender fragrance, with that beautiful true lavender scent which is exactly what you get with Weleda's Lavender Creamy Body Wash.

This is a mild body wash that gently cleanses using Coco-Glucoside and Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate (surfactants derived from coconut oil and fruit sugars) and has a silky base of organic Sesame Seed Oil and Glycerin. Lavender Essential Oil is obviously a main player in the mix, giving the creamy body wash a soft, comforting scent that soothes mind and body.

I'm not sure what more I can say about this other than that it's a really worthwhile addition to any bathroom (provided you don't detest all things lavender) and is particularly welcome during a pre-bed shower or even added to bath water to help you relax.
Weleda Lavender Creamy Body Wash is £7.95 for 200ml at Look Fantastic.

Weleda Week: Weleda Oat Replenishing Shampoo

I think it's important that I begin this review by saying that the Weleda Oat Shampoo smells really good. I know that fragrance is a very subjective thing and this particular one is tricky to describe but I just feel like most people will enjoy the way this smells. Also, as if you would expect an oat shampoo ( or an oat anything, let's be real) to smell fantastic! Oats are just bland, beige little fibrous things some of us like to eat for breakfast aren't they? Apparently not, if this shampoo is anything to go by.

As it turns out, the humble oat is actually really good for your hair. This is because oats absorb silica in liquid form from the soil that the crops grow from, and silica is an important mineral that promotes healthy, shiny hair.

Phosphorus and Iron are also found in oats and are beneficial to the hair as, along with the silica, they smooth the hair cuticle, therefore reducing hair breakage and split ends.
Who knew?

The shampoo has a Disodium Cocoyl Glutamate base, which is essentially an alternative to SLS made from vegetable oils and Disodium Coco Glucoside Citrate which is a Sugar Surfactant ideal for people with sensitive skin and scalps.
Sodium Lauroyl Oat Amino Acids ( a salt made from the fatty acid Lauric Acid and amino acids from oat proteins) is 4th on the inci list. I mention it's position on the inci as the higher an ingredient is on the list, the higher the percentage (hopefully that makes sense) and it's great to see a product marketed as an oat shampoo actually have oat as a vital component. You know when you see shampoos or body products with things like 'with lemon extracts' or worse, just called 'lemon shampoo' or 'lemon body lotion' (no idea why I'm using lemons as an analogy here) and then you look at the ingredients and lemon is listed right at the bottom, as if the bottle was once just in the same room as a lemon and that's it and you feel a tiny bit ripped off? There's none of that here. This is an oat shampoo and oats play a major role!

Using this shampoo is a slightly different experience to washing your hair with a typical SLS based shampoo (I don't have a problem with SLS as a side note) and the first time I used it my hair felt a little too clarified if you know what I mean. While it was still wet it felt quite stripped but bare in mind that I rarely actually use a conditioner after I shampoo (I prefer leave in conditioners) so that could have been a factor. Once it was dry, my hair went oily quite quickly and it didn't look or feel excellent by the next day. Not one to write off a product after one use, I persevered and washed with it again and things started looking up. Now I've used the shampoo four times and I'm really pleased; my hair is shiny and healthy looking with natural volume and it smells magnificent too.

Maybe the first wash was a bit weird because the formula was getting rid of some kind of build up left behind from my previous shampoo? Maybe I didn't rinse it out properly the first time round? Who knows. Either way, I think it's a lovely shampoo that's worth a shot whether you exclusively use natural products or not.
Weleda Oat Replenishing Shampoo is £11.95 for 190ml at Feel Unique.

Weleda Week: Weleda Wild Rose Cream Bath

(affiliate link) At the Weleda Insight Day in June, we were let loose in the brand's on-site shop for a while (extra exciting when you're feeling all enthusiastic and passionate about a brand!) and I was instantly drawn to the Wild Rose Cream Bath.

Earlier in the day we were guided through Weleda's Harmonising Rose Facial which involved us all sitting around tables with bowls of warm water, flannels and gorgeous products and giving our faces a proper cleanse, tone and massage. This was surprisingly relaxing - you wouldn't think sitting in a large room full of strangers wearing disposable headbands would be a particularly soothing experience but it really was! One of the steps in the facial included the Wild Rose Cream Bath, which threw me a little at the time when actually it made perfect sense. Incredibly calming and infused with the natural relaxing fragrance of damask rose, the cream bath was used in the facial by adding a capful to a bowl of warm water and soaking a flannel in it and using it as a sort of compress to remove a cream mask from our faces. This step felt so comforting and I absolutely loved the scent so of course I sought it out in the shop straight away!
Milky and opaque, the rose cream bath is unlike any bath milk or cream I've used before. The texture is sort of unusual, it's on the runny side rather than the gloopy one, and it doesn't bubble or foam, probably because of its uber-natural inci list.

The base of the cream bath is Jojoba and Olive oil, with organic Rosehip seed oil and natural Damask Rose oil giving it that beautiful true-rose fragrance.

Sinking into a warm bath with a couple of capfuls of the cream is relaxing in both a physical and mental sense and you emerge with soft and silky skin without feeling like you're coated in something, if that makes sense?. I love using bath oils and I do like how they make my skin feel but I'm not so keen on emerging from a slippery bath so this is a great way to get the same sort of fragrant experience without the slip factor.
Weleda create a variety of different bath products- I bought my boyfriend the Arnica Muscle Soak which has gone down a treat- and I'm currently bathing my toddler using the Baby Calendula Bath which is particularly excellent at the moment as the poor little guy has chickenpox and Calendula is brilliant for reducing inflammation and soothing the skin.
The Weleda Wild Rose Cream Bath is £14.95 for 100ml at Look Fantastic.

Weleda Week: Weleda Gentle Cleansing Foam

(gift/affiliate link) Designed for normal and combination skin types, my dry-ish complexion isn't strictly the target audience for the Weleda Gentle Cleansing Foam but I have been enjoying it nonetheless.

The natural face wash features mild plant-derived cleansers including Coco-Glucoside (a surfactant made from coconut and fruit sugars) and contains Marshmallow Root and organic Witch Hazel extract to soothe, moisturise and refine the skin.

I want to clarify that this isn't a foaming cleanser, it's a cleansing foam - foaming cleansers are known for drying and stripping the skin as they lather up but this one is simply liquid that comes in a pump that creates a fluffy ball of foam as it's dispensed. As for drying the skin, it doesn't do that either; I've not experienced any tightness or discomfort whatsoever, just a pleasantly clean feeling.

To use, you just give the bottle a pump or two to release the foam, massage it onto a damp face then rinse off with warm water. There is an uplifting and sort of invigorating scent to the cleanser thanks to a special blend of essential oils, so I think it's particularly good for a morning cleanse to wake you up a bit and give you an aromatherapeutic boost before you start the day.

The cleansing foam rinses away very easily and leaves behind no detectable residue so it's a good option if you like to get things done in a hurry! I haven't used it to take off makeup but a friend has and she commented that it did the job well so that's worth noting too.
Overall, after using the cleansing foam a good few times myself and having my boyfriend, sister and friends use it too (we've had a few visitors lately!), I'd say that it's a good shout for pretty much everyone really.
Weleda Gentle Cleansing Foam is £15.95 for 100ml at Look Fantastic.

Weleda Week: Weleda Skin Food Light

(affiliate link) I recently had the pleasure of attending a Weleda Insight Day at the brand's UK headquarters. It was a beautiful day of exploring Weleda's bio-dynamic gardens and fields, learning about the brand's history and ethos, trying out a relaxing rose facial and sampling tasty vegan food. It was a very early start for a lot of us to get up to Derby for the day but it was more than worth it and only made me even more interested in a brand I already had a lot of time for.
Along with the other attendees (a mixture of Bloggers, Makeup artists and Weleda enthusiasts) I received a lovely gift of some Weleda products at the end of the day (I also raided the on site store and picked a couple of bits myself), all of which I've been enjoying trying out so I thought I would show my appreciation and share a few on the blog over the next 5 days.
To kick things off, I'll start with a variation of the brand's most well known product, Skin Food Light.

A multi-purpose cream/lotion, Skin Food Light is, you guessed it, a lighter version of the cult Skin Food.
Unlike the thick, rich texture of the original, Skin Food Light is, well, lighter really. The lotion texture of the formula absorbs beautifully, making it perfect for use all over and particularly ideal in warmer weather.
The formula combines organic Sunflower oil with Chamomile, Pansy and Calendula for a skin-calming hit of soothing moisture.
I personally really enjoy the thick glossiness of the original and use it on my face regularly in winter but as mentioned, this version is great for summer when richer creams can feel a little too heavy on those really hot days.

Skin Food Light has the same refreshing scent as the original and actually feels quite cooling on the skin so I find it to be really great for 'waking up' my face in the morning. The fast absorbing formula makes it perfect for using on hands throughout the day too.
If you're a fan of the original Skin Food, you'll probably appreciate Skin Food Light too. It's £7.95 for a 30ml tube at Boots.

Weleda Skin Food; why you need it in your stash

It's nothing new (in fact it's been around for almost a century) but Weleda Skin Food is having a moment. Read on to find out why every makeup artist and Aesthetician worth their salt has a tube in their stash and you should too.

Skin Food is one of those products I'd always see on both physical and virtual shelves but never felt compelled to buy. Now that I actually own some, I totally get the hype and I'm pretty sure I don't ever want to be without it to be honest.
Supremely talented makeup artist and queen of dewy skin, Katie Jane Hughes regularly mentions Skin Food, which is actually the main reason I ordered some for myself. I think Katie's actually responsible for getting a lot of people hooked and it's easy to understand why; this stuff is quite simply brilliant.
I got my first tube in September last year and I just know it's going to become a staple in my household.

Weleda Skin Food Review

Skin Food is very, very thick and almost 'gummy' in texture, if that makes any sense at all. The formula (I don't know whether to call it a balm or a cream, because it's not really either!) can be applied basically anywhere that needs a little love. That includes elbows, knees, knuckles, cuticles , feet and even the face. In fact, my face has seen more skin food than the rest of my body has because it's exceptional on dry, flakey, generally annoyed skin.
It has both moisturising and protective qualities and you can use it on your face for everything from soothing wind-chapped lips to adding a touch of sheen to cheekbones, so it's a worthwhile addition to anyone's skincare stash.

In case you're interested to know, Skin Food is not a vegan product as it contains lanolin as well as beeswax in two forms - hydrolysed and non-hydrolysed. The ingredients are all natural as is expected from Weleda and include sunflower oil, organic calendula, organic chamomile and organic rosemary leaf and pansy extracts.

For some reason I expected Skin Food to be scentless when in fact it has quite a strong smell. It's a citrusy sort of scent and actually reminds me a little of citronella candles (you know, the ones you burn to ward off mosquitoes!) but I don't find that the smell lingers, so if you really don't like it, the way it smells shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Weleda have recently brought out more products in the Skin Food range including Skin Food Light for people who find the original formula a bit thick, a lip product and body butter. You can find it anywhere that stocks Weleda including Look Fantastic starting at £7.95 for a 30ml tube (it comes in a metal tube, which I really love).