Kristy shares her expert advice on natural and
effective skincare that works in harmony with you.

Time out in Andalucía

I have just returned from a wonderful two weeks in Andalucía. We stayed in the Alpujarras at Cortijo Prado Toro , a beautiful rural house that is surrounded by fragrant gardens and stunning views over the magnificent rugged peaks of Spain’s highest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada. An area famed by the book ‘Driving over Lemons’, and if you haven’t already visited the Sierra Nevada after reading this book you will be on your way!

After such a hectic six months, it was so lovely to withdraw from London life and bask in the Spanish solitude and sunshine with my family, eating wonderful food, drinking great wine and finally making my way through a pile of novels.

Having time out from the office is a great way to get my creative energy flowing and conceptualise new products and spa treatments. I am frequently inspired to create products while travelling, especially in the mountains or basking by the sea. I like to keep my hand in every area of the business so it is really nice to step away from it all for a while and look from the outside, in.

Being up in the mountains with beautiful water on tap and surrounded by lush, clean air was a great opportunity to allow my skin to breathe. Away from the impact of a polluted city, I really didn’t feel the need to do my weekly Facial Detox mask, nor layer up with lots of product but loved having the time to indulge in a few home-spa body treatments using our wonderful scrubs and body oils.

In an urban environment products rich in anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids are essential but in a pure, unadulterated environment, your skin tends to find its natural balance and is far less high maintenance. Just a nice cleanser, serum and hydrator do the trick.

So what was in my travel bag?

Cool and Clear Facial Cleanser - Such a lovely cleanser for summer, light, refreshing and leaves my skin feeling clean and balanced.
Moisture Milk Ultra Light Facial Hydrator – The perfect hydrator  for a really hot climate when you want something that is barely there, balances sebum production and keeps your skin feeling cool, clear and radiant.
Cell Food Protection and Repair Facial Serum – I simply don’t go ANYWHERE without this product. It keeps me looking fresh-faced day and night.
Beach Prep Radiance Body Polish – When you are going to bare your legs, this product is a must. It sheds dead skin and leaves my body feeling super soft and hydrated.
Skin Drink Summer Body Hydrator - The perfect summertime body hydrator – ultra light, silky and cooling with an aroma that emulates the essence of summer.
Botanical Body Repair Nourishing Body Oil – Ideal for night time after a day out and about. Reparative, hydrating and with an infusion of Jasmine and Mandarin what’s not to love.

A fabulous line up of seasonal must haves, if I do say so myself!

Wishing you a wonderful summer holiday.

Kristy

A Whirlwind Week in NYC

I have just returned from a fabulous week in NYC meeting with our new distributor, buyers and press.   We are very excited to have partnered with who we feel is the best beauty distributor in the market. Mary Leber and her wonderful team at Beauty Prophet will be exclusively managing Elemental Herbology distribution in the US and given their extraordinary market knowledge and enthusiasm, expect to see EH popping up at all the hip spas and apothecaries around town.

One of the favourite parts of my trip was visiting a number of the SpaceNK stores in Manhattan. It is always great to receive direct feedback from the staff and lovely to hear we have so many fans – both staff and customers alike.  While in-store I also did a number of personal appearances and one-on-one consultations and prescriptions for customers. New Yorkers definitely have different skincare requirements to the British. They like hydrators in summertime to be as light or as barely there as possible so I am sure our Moisture Milk will be a huge success stateside. I also noticed that customers were really concerned about sun damage, so spfs and reparative serums that reduce pigmentation are big business. Be sure to look out for Lighten and Brighten launching in September, rich in bio-actives that have been clinically tested to reduce dark spots and pigmentation.

I also had the pleasure of meeting with China Paradelo, the Spa Manager at the Shibui Spa at the beautiful Greenwich Hotel where Elemental Herbology launched as the exclusive brand last year. It is such an amazing hideaway. The carefully selected handcrafted interiors make the setting feel so tactile, warm and indulgent.  So many western spas try desperately to emulate an Asianesque spa experience but this spa really hits the mark. First of all, it isn’t tacky in any way. It feels authentic and real, you could almost be slipping into an Onsen or traditional spa in the heart of Tokyo. Robert DeNiro is one of the co-owners and has taken his hand to personally selecting so many of the design features… clearly this man has some serious style to boot!

I received the Enzyme Glow Facial by Elemental Herbology but under an alias so I could offer China my feedback without prejudice. The treatment was amazing and very nice to be told by the therapist that my skin was so good I was definitely looking after my skin in the right way and using good skincare!  Clearly Elemental Herbology has been doing what it says on the front of the box.

I also met with the girls at Beautybar.com. If you haven’t already checked out this site, I urge you to take a look as this company, which is the real deal.  Having only launched last year they are on a mission to become America’s largest and most exclusive beauty site and with amazing concepts in development where you can upload a picture of yourself and try on make- up, robots doing their picking in their DC, a new partnership with Allure Magazine and recently acquired by Amazon they are on their way to world domination!

And then there were my press visits. When we were launching Elemental Herbology in 2008, I found my first visit to the Conde Nast building just off Times Square, home to the world’s most famous publications – Vogue, Allure, GQ, Glamour, Vanity Fair – a little daunting. This time however, having already done the rounds of desk-side interviews many times over and forged some great relationships with press who are now very familiar with Elemental Herbology, it was a lot of fun. There is also something wonderfully glamorous about visiting Vogue offices in NYC!

I was there to introduce editors to our new solutions for summer skin and post-sun repair. Moisture Milk is the first in the line up and is the ideal hydrator for anyone living in a hot polluted city. Perfect Clarity then goes hand in hand with this hydrator. It is a blemish minimiser that comes in a super slick and stylish click pen to keep in your handbag and apply any time you feel a spot may be on its way. We also have Lighten & Brighten launching in September which already has a waiting list!  It is Elemental Herbology’s long awaited solution for sun damaged skin. In typical EH fashion, it is super rich in efficacious botanical actives that have demonstrated clinical results, while also smelling amazing and feeling beautiful on the skin.  It will help to profoundly reduce dark spots, age spots, and pigmentation. Apply for at least 30 days morning and night and you will see the results as the skin becomes more luminous, nourished and balanced.

Fortunately the trip wasn’t all work and no play and I also had an amazing meal at Nobu (Black Cod with Miso is defiantly to die for), a good frolic in Central Park with my little girl Bianca, lots of amazing Mexican food (which is always one of the highlights of NYC) and a few windows of opportunity here and there to explore some of the fabulous boutiques in Tribeca and Greenwich Village, only to inevitably return with a significantly heavier suitcase!

Spring is in the air

If I had to pick a favourite season, it would have to be spring.  As we all wake from our winter slumber the lovely vibe in the air is palpable.   Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that spring heralds a period of heightened universal energy when our ‘Yang’ energy starts to increase. Yang energy is a more outward and mobile energy, which is why we are more energetic and sociable in spring and summer. This transition can occur virtually overnight – one day you crave a day snuggled under a duvet on the couch and the next wanting to the hit the park for a jog or picnic with friends.  We also start to crave totally different foods as we shift from hearty soups and stews to lighter, cooling foods such as fish, salad, fruit and sushi. We even change from red to white wine between summer and winter, drink less coffee and much more water.

If you seize the moment and jump on this energetic shift you will actually find it so much easier to make changes during spring.  For a mini spring clean, try consuming daily: one fresh vegetable juice, ½ an avocado, a punnet of blueberries, a bowl of steamed seasonal vegetables and handful of nuts and linseed.  This will infuse your skin with a healthy dose of anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids and purifying tonics and also give your organs a boost.

In Australia, avocado with Vegemite on toast is a breakfast staple and I literally can never get enough of avocadoes. Even my husband who grew up in Serbia and was a prosciutto and cheese man is now a serious convert. You can really see a visible difference in the skin when we feast on avocados coupled with macadamia nuts and oily fish which all have such a nourishing impact on the skin.

Spring is also the ideal time to rethink our skincare regime.   Our bodies are a microcosm of our environment and just as the trees blossom in spring and shed their leaves in winter our bodies are also affected by a seasonal cycle. It is our ability to respond to these changes that will keep us feeling healthy and vital and our skin clear and radiant.

I am a huge fan of dry skin brushing, which I was first introduced to in an onsen in the Japanese Alps where a woman very kindly offered to exfoliate my back with a brush that had no mercy!  While I am by no means recommending a brush as firm as this, a good dry skin brush really helps to kick start your metabolism, shed dead skin cells and promote new cell renewal.  The body brush which comes free with our Deep Cleanse Body Wash, I am sure you will find will do the trick. Start now and try to make it a daily morning routine throughout spring. Your skin will be in much better shape when summer arrives.

Another mantra for Spring is ‘Exfoliate and Hydrate’.  To do this, I really recommend using Beach Prep and Sun Kiss daily. Our Beach Prep body exfoliator contains a delicious combination of macadamia and argan oil with papaya and orange flower water. While our Sun Kiss body hydrator contains a subtle level of self tan which builds up to a beautiful, healthy sun kissed glow over the course of a week. I can really testify as someone with pale skin that the combination works like a treat and it is much nicer putting on a summer frock with a lovely, silky sun-kissed glow.

On that note, wishing you a wonderful Spring!

Kristy

Kristy’s Local Tour

If you live in or around my local stomping ground of Queen’s Park I would recommend popping into the Queen’s Park farmers market, held every Sunday at Salusbury Road Primary School.  We only moved to Queens Park in December and were delighted to find it’s one of the most fabulous places to do the weekly grocery shop.  Filled with children, family, friends and neighbors, it has such a lovely, local community vibe.

I try to eat with the seasons wherever possible and it’s great to see some changes filtering through the farmers market as the weather is warming up. Oranges (for their vitamin C), passion fruit (high in vitamins A and C and a good source of potassium and iron) and rhubarb (good source of fibre) are some of my favourite foods that have started appearing so far this month.

Stocks farm is a must for organic meat and poultry, Susan Brooms for her decadent and incredibly delicious cakes, Flour Station for the best sourdough in London and Jane and David Barker for a wonderful selection of biodynamic organic seasonal produce, ripe for a spring lunch.

I once loved the experience of spending half of Sunday in the kitchen, but since having baby B (who likes to help in all food preparation perched on my hip) Sunday lunch has become a bit of a chop and stir affair. Cooking one-handed is certainly not one of my strongest points which is why Madame Gautier at the Farmers market has become my savoir. Run by Anglo-French couple Corinne and Mark Gautier, they use fresh seasonal produce from the regions around London to create wonderful dishes. The recipes are a wonderful combination of the traditional cuisine Corinne was brought up on as a child with the culinary excellence that Mark has accumulated through working in Michelin-starred kitchens in both France and the UK.

My favourite is their pot roast beef with seasonal roasted vegetables and red cabbage… but anything from their kitchen is seriously delicious. Mr R and I constantly marvel at how their food is far more satisfying than that found in countless restaurants and with fabulous size portions you have Sunday lunch prepared in a jiffy and dare I add, without 10 pots waiting for you in the sink! If you happen to be in Queens Park be sure to stop in on your way home to purchase a lovely bottle of Prosecco from the Salusbury Wine Shop on Salusbury Rd. A wonderful compliment to any springtime feast!

On another note, for a little EH news, Elemental Herbology has just been announced as a finalist in the 2011 CEW awards the Best New Brand – Prestige. This is such a fabulous pat on the back for my small but fantastically talented and dedicated team who work tirelessly to create beautiful skincare. Incubating and growing a brand from scratch, launching it to the market and then actually surviving in a market saturated with huge brands with massive marketing, sales, product development and PR budgets is a constant challenge. Nonetheless a challenge we cherish and will continue to navigate with increasing numbers of avid EH followers! Fingers crossed for the winners’ announcement lunch on the 20^th of May.

I hope you are enjoying the first glimpse of spring in Europe and if you haven’t already, be sure to get your hands on a jar of Facial Glow – our facial exfoliating mask is the perfect prelude to summer.  The fruit enzymes help shed dead winter skin, Kombuchka brightens your complexion and nurturing Argan and Macadamia Oil infuse your skin with hydration to make your cheeks glow.  It also smells divine. Seriously delicious skincare that really works!

Kristy

Mother’s Day Treats

Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate motherhood and a wonderful opportunity to say thank you to your Mum for all her energy, support and love.

Until my daughter came into the world 15 months ago, I really didn’t appreciate what it meant to be a mother. What a wonderful, fulfilling and all encompassing journey. It has really taught me how to be selfless. Having a daughter has also really strengthened my connection with my mum as I can now completely appreciate just how much she loves me, how she nurtured and guided me and gave me wings to fly.

Giving your mum an indulgent bath or body product, a beautiful bunch of spring flowers, cooking her a wonderful feast, sharing a piece of cake and a cup of tea, taking a long stroll together or giving mum a foot, hand and shoulder massage (we can show you how!) are just a few of the ways you can make your mum feel special.

I created Elemental Herbology to help us get back in touch with the beauty ritual by inspiring ‘feel good’ products that really work. So I am sure any one of our tactile and indulgent body washes, bath oils, body hydrators or oils will be warmly received by your Mum.

Happy Mother’s day!

Kristy and the team

Treats and Treatments

Trust us – all mums love a massage. It’s not about skill, it’s all about the effort. Here’s how..

1. Feet First: Feet can be really sensitive but a foot massage can also be one of the most relaxing and luxurious treatments you can receive. To give a great foot rub it’s really important to support the ankle at all times, ideally with a pillow, then use both hands alternately to do big rotations both over the foot and under the foot. Be sure to apply thumb pressure along the base of the foot, kneading with both bands. Finish by stretching the feet – flexing them towards you and then away. For this massage we recommend using our Body Soufflé, a lovely hydrating and nourishing body hydrator, infused with Rose Damask, making it perfect for Mum’s Day…and every other day.

2. It’s all in the Hands: One of the key things to remember with a hand massage is to maintain contact the whole time, don’t take your hand from the skin but ensure transition from one movement to the next by passing along the skin. Keep strokes long and flowing and then take each individual finger, glide down to the tip, apply pressure and release. Wind and Cold Therapy is a wonderful product for hands, cuticles and lips. It’s rich in the ‘tree-of-life’ oil, renowned for its high levels of essential fatty acids – wonderful for soothing and repairing dry and inflamed skin.

3. Back to Basics: Back massages are one of the great joys in life. A few simple moves can ensure that any novice will be able to bring a smile to mum’s face. To start, position your hands side by side on your mother’s shoulders with your finger tips facing the feet and then run each of your hands simultaneously down the length of her back to the hips and back up again. Repeat this five times and then knead the shoulders and neck. Follow this by squeezing and releasing skin on both shoulders at the same time. To ensure the perfect glide of hands over the skin, try our Botanical Body Repair. Delicately scented with frangipani and jasmine, mum will be left smelling wonderful and her skin hydrated and indulged.

If you don’t have the time, or won’t be seeing mum to be able to give her a massage on Mother’s Day, our three great tips for presents are:

Velvet Skin Body Cleanser for a wonderfully luxurious body wash.

Detox Botanical Bathing Infusion for detoxifying and energising bath.

Cell Plumping Facial Hydrator for the moisturiser every mother covets.

Have a wonderful Mother’s Day, no matter what you choose to do.

Kristy

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