Stress Management

Recently I've had a number of stressful events happen in my life both good and not so good.  While looking around on the internet I found the Mental Health Association NSW  with some very helpful information one of them being the following.  I hope you find this a helpful as I did.

Stress Management

Always take time for yourself, at least 30 minutes per day

Be aware of your own stress meter: know when to step back and cool down

Concentrate on controlling your own situation, without controlling everybody else

Daily exercise will burn off the stress chemicals

Eat lots of fresh fruit, vegies, bread and water; give your body the best to perform at its best

Forgive others, don’t hold grudges and be tolerant – not everyone is as capable as you

Gain perspective on things, how important is the issue?

Hugs and kisses and laughter, have fun and don’t be afraid to share your feelings with others

Identify stressors and plan to deal with them better next time

Judge your own performance realistically; don’t set goals out of your own reach

Keep a positive attitude, your outlook will influence outcomes and the way others treat you

Limit alcohol, drugs and other stimulants, they affect your perception and behaviour

Manage money well, seek advice and save at least 10% of what you earn

No is a word you need to learn to use without feeling guilty

Outdoor activities by yourself or with friends and family can be a great way to relax

Play your favourite music rather than watching TV

Quit smoking, it is stressing your body daily, not to mention killing you too

Relationships - nurture and enjoy them, learn to listen more and talk less

Sleep well, with a firm mattress and supportive pillow, don’t overheat yourself and allow plenty of ventilation

Treat yourself once a week with a massage, dinner out, the movies, moderation is the key

Understand things from the other person’s point of view

Verify information from the source before exploding

Worry less; it really does not get things completed better or quicker

Xanadu - regularly retreat to your favourite space regularly, make holidays are part of your yearly plan and budget

Yearly goal setting, plan what you want to achieve based on your priorities in your career, relationships etc

Zest for life, each day is a gift, smile and be thankful that you are a part of the bigger picture

MY Miracle cure

Now I don't know about you but the birth of my son 22 months ago really knocked my body around, well in truth it was probably the pregnancy but I didn't notice until after he was born.  

One of the things that I have been dealing with is an incredibly itchy scalp, now for almost 2 years.  It has been driving me insane.  

Well, as you can guess I've been researching to find a natural alternative to anti-dandruff shampoo.  I tried a number of different remedies and none of them really worked.  Some worked for a day but after 24hrs the itch was back.  And my last experiment has been Apple Cider Vinegar.  Do you know how amazing this common kitchen item is???  

I found this information and some other amazing information from Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits

DANDRUFF
Apply pure apple cider vinegar to the scalp and work it into the roots of the hair; allow the vinegar to stand for a half hour or a full hour before washing your hair. This will help to destroy the bacteria and fungus that cause dandruff and itchy scalp. 

While I only allowed the Apple Cider Vinegar to stand for about 15minutes, the results have been amazing.  I did this about 5 days ago and I haven't had an itchy scalp since.  

This is MY miracle cure.  What's your miracle cure?  

Homemade Laudry Powder

It's been a while since my last post, it's been a bit hectic, with Christmas, New Year, Holiday to SA & WA and the start of school.  I can't believe that my eldest girl is in High School, time certainly flies.

But I digress, I wanted to let you know about a fantastic Homemade Laundry Powder I have made & used following Julie's recipe from Towards Sustainability.  I've been using it for about 3 months now and it is fantastic. 

I have two girls & a one little boy and although the eldest girl is usually clean and tidy the younger two are magnets when it comes to dirt and stains. 

If you are looking to save money and help the environment try these recipes.  I do have a front loader and I have had no problems at all.  As I make soap I generally use the soap that doesn't look good enough to sell, nothing goes to waste.  Try it, you'll be surprised

Concentrated Laundry Powder

2 cups grated laundry or homemade soap or soap flakes (Lux)

2 cups borax

2 cups washing soda

2 cups bicarbonate of soda (which acts as a deodoriser)

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and store in a plastic container with a lid. Use 2 tablespoons per wash. Again, this powder will not make suds and again, this is perfectly okay.

Heavy Duty Laundry Powder

2 cups grated stain remover soap (e.g. Napisan or Sards Soap; Sards has a nice eucalyptus scent)

2 cups grated pure soap or Lux flakes

2 cups Borax

2 cups washing soda

Mix all ingredients together well and store in an airtight container. As above, use two tablespoons per wash, and it is suitable for front loaders.

Try it and let me know what you think.

I have also found Down---to---earth which have number of other recipes for various types of cleaning product.

Nature

After you have exhausted what there is

in business, politics, conviviality and so on -

what remains? Nature remains.

Walt Whitman

Come forth into the lght of things,

Let Nature be your teacher

William Wordsworth

Jojoba Oil

Jojoba is not actually an oil, although we call it by that name. It is actually a liquid wax that is thicker in consistency than many oils and is made by cold pressing the seeds of the jojoba plant.

Jojoba has a chemical makeup that is very similar to the sebum that our skin produces to keep it protected and waterproof. It is rich in Vitamin E which helps to nourish and rebuild damaged skin. Its likeness to sebum makes jojoba oil suitable for use by all skin types.

Jojoba oil is excellent for use on skins suffering from eczema and other irritations because it has anti-inflammatory properties. It works wonders on skin suffering from acne because it is also anti-bacterial. It is an amazing oil, isn’t it?

The cosmetic industry loves to use jojoba oil. It acts as a wonderful moisturiser but is also light and won’t clog the skin. It is often used in shampoos to keep the scalp and hair healthy.

Jojoba can be used on its own but it is a wonderful carrier oil for essential oils. We use it in our Natural Calendula Baby Oil because we know it is gentle enough to use on baby’s delicate skin. It absorbs beautifully into the skin and doesn’t leave that greasy feeling left by other oils.

Jojoba oil is a wonderful base for many natural cosmetic products and now you know why.

Why do we use Australian Pink Clay in our products?

Clay has been used as a medicinal aid for thousands of years in societies all around the world.

The Australian Aborigines used local clays not only in their art and body decoration, but as medicine. They knew that clays are able to draw out toxins from the skin and so they would apply it to stings and certain wounds. Not only did they use the clay externally but they actually ate clay with some meals to treat certain intestinal problems.

Australian clay is very pure. The geography of our harsh continent has meant that we have quality mineral and nutrient content in the clay which has not been contaminated by centuries of inhabitation and subsequent environmental damage. The clay is mined under strict conditions and is sun dried so that it stays pure..

Clay comes in different, naturally occurring colours. Each colour has a different effect on the skin because of its different mineral composition.

Pink clay is very gentle. It helps to clean the skin by gently drawing out the impurities in the pores. It helps to give skin a firm and toned look. .You will often see pink clay used in a face mask because as it dries it lifts out all the dirt clogging up the pores but it is gentle enough to leave the skin feeling soft.

Our Rose and Pink Clay Goats Milk Soap relies on the pink clay for that extra deep cleaning power. When that is combined with rose, which is well known for being excellent for the skin, and the skin softening power of goat’s milk, we have a soap that becomes a spa for the body. Other products we have with this wonderful ingredient include our Goddess soap and Our Goddess Bath Salts

Australian Pink Clay is a special product that you know will be beneficial for your skin.

Rainforest Sugar Scrub

Not everyone wants to smell of flowers, do they? Sometimes, especially in the heat, a little freshness is best.

Rainforest Sugar Scrub has a fragrance that is fresh and gorgeous It is a unisex scent blended from ginger, eucalyptus and peppermint. Doesn’t that sound refreshing? It really does give you a lift. The scrub is gentle enough to use every day.

Peppermint has a cooling effect on the body. It also brings a feeling of energy. Eucalyptus has an amazingly clear and zingy fragrance, doesn’t it? It is great for opening up your nasal passages and seems to clear out the dust of the dry weather. We have added ginger to balance out the blend. It adds a touch of warmth to soften the cooling oils and gives a delicious fragrance hit as it is warmed by application to the body.

So how do you use our foaming sugar scrub?

Make sure that the area you want to use the scrub on is moist. The Rainforest Sugar Scrub is perfect for use in the shower. Just scoop out a small amount (perhaps a level teaspoon) and pat it gently onto your skin. You can add more as you work your way along your body. Gradually start massaging the scrub across your skin so that it can exfoliate all those dead skin cells. There is no need to rub hard because the texture of the scrub will do the work for you. The gentle foaming action will help the scrub to rub smoothly across the body. I find that a circular motion works best and it is excellent for my circulation, bringing a healthy look to my skin.

Rainforest Sugar Scrubs are a great way to start your day. Your skin will be fresh and glowing and the fresh, forest scent will help to get you started with energy.

TowTabs – Instant Towelettes

Have you seen the TowTabs in our store? This is a really useful and versatile item that everyone can use.


A TowTab is an instant towelette. It comes in tablet form – small, round and compact. You just add 15mls of water directly to the tablet and watch it expand instantly. Just unroll it and you have a large, moist towelette ready to use. Once it is opened up the towelette measures 20cm x 25cm – much larger than the usual towelettes available.

These are excellent for travelling and take very little water to activate. Add some to your first aid kit or just carry them in your handbag. The tablets are small and won’t take up a lot of room. They come in a handy little refillable case which holds 6 towelettes or in a roll of 10 that is shaped like a roll of lollies.

They are so easy to take wherever you go. Add them to your picnic hamper or BBQ kit. Take them to sporting events or on family days out. They will wipe up spills, clean sticky fingers and deal with grazes. They are quite strong so you can reuse them. They will clean more than one set of sticky fingers.

Best of all TowTabs are environmentally friendly. The towelette is made from cellulose which is extracted from wood pulp. They contain no chemicals or dyes so they are biodegradable and can break down in around 3 weeks.

These are so cheap, convenient and useful that everyone should keep a roll or two of TowTabs handy.  You can get them from Purely Natural Living, today.

How Natural Products Protect the Earth

We hear a lot about products being environmentally friendly these days, but what does it really mean?

An environmentally friendly product is one that causes little or no damage to the earth either during its production, its use or once it is finished. Realistically, anything we make or do has some impact on the environment but an environmentally friendly product is one that makes the least impact of all.

Bath and body products can do a lot of damage to our earth. They often contain synthetic materials and chemicals which artificially provide fragrance or some supposed benefit to our skins. We don’t really know what the long term effect is on the human body but we can already see what effect they have on the world around us. We won’t even talk about the testing on animals…..

Did you know that talc comes from great big open mines? Some of them have even been located inside National Parks. Not only are they digging this out of the earth, they then turn the products including talcum powder which has been linked to cancer.

Mineral oil sounds nice and gentle, doesn’t it? Sadly, mineral oil is poorly named because it is actually derived from petroleum. This is the same product that we know as baby oil and for generations it has been plastered all over our skins. Not only does it stop our skin from breathing but it as it passes through the body it interferes with the elimination of toxins. We damage the earth by mining petroleum, which is not a sustainable product, only to damage ourselves by using it.

You have probably seen reports on how phosphates are feeding the algae in our waterways and causing our fish to die and our water to be polluted. Phosphates are found in laundry and dishwasher products. SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulphate) is another chemical that is in most of the soaps and hair products we use. Although they say it is ‘derived from coconut’ SLS is actually quite corrosive and can cause skin damage. It is also used on animals when manufacturers test for skin reactions. Can you imagine what happens when a chemical cocktail of our household cleaners and cosmetics is flushed into our waterways?

Natural products are made from plants and products that occur naturally in the environment. They are environmentally friendly because they do not interfere with the earth or with plant and animal life. The materials are sustainable so that balance is maintained. Natural products are not processed with chemicals so they have no poisons to seep into the earth nor are they tested on animals. Natural, environmentally friendly products have no side-effects on us or on the Earth. The waterways stay clean and the micro-organisms that are the basis of our food chain stay healthy.

Look around your home and read the labels on the products you are using. How natural are they? Try eliminating chemical products from your home. Why not start by replacing your harmful bath and body products with our natural range? Every step towards natural products is a step towards a healthier life for your family and for the planet.

Beauty Tips from Audrey Hepburn

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness

For lovely eyes seek out the good in people

For a good figure, share your food with the hungry

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through once a day

For poise, walk with the knowledge you will never walk alone

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anybody.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

Natural Baby Wipes

Have you ever thought about making your own baby wipes...well here is a really easy recipe and great for little bottoms, not to mention it's quick. You don't need to buy anything special, you should have most of the ingredients in your cupboard.

1 ltr of brewed chamomile tea
1/4 cup Olive Oil
A few drops of Lavender Essential Oil
Poured over the folded cloth wipes & drain of the excess

I found out about this recipe from my sister who was trying to save money, after having her children.  I have been using them for my son and have had no need for any rash ointment.  I love these and they are also so much cheaper than the ones you buy in the store and there's not nasty chemicals

Purely Natural Living Product Review

We have been getting reviews on our products recently, have you seen them? Here are a couple of them;


Here is some of what Mum e Assistant had to say

"I have been alternating between the Goats Milk Soap and the Liquid Soap on a daily basis now for about 1 ½ weeks and in that time have not felt the need to apply moisturiser after showering as these wonderful natural products do not contain any harmful chemicals that dry your skin only natural oils.

So do yourself a favour and visit Purely Natural Living today and pick up some wonderful handmade Christmas gifts. "

You can read the full article and other articles at Mum e Assistant Blog.

Here is some of what Your Cheeky Monkey had to say

You can read the full article and other articles at Your Cheeky Monkey Blog.

"Not surprising, I have to rave about the Goddess Bath Salts – just the name alone is enough to win me over let alone having an excuse to bathe in a sea of pink bath salts with rose petals… take it from me, you just have to try these! I managed to sneak a bath in at the end of a very stressful day using the Goddess Bath Salts, and afterwards felt like a new girl!

The great thing about the Purely Natural Living soaps is that they are so natural and soft to use I have no hesitation using them for my sons (in fact I wouldn’t have a problem using them for a baby either). ..... "

Thank you very much to Leigh Pendergast from Mum e Assistant and Monique Nickalls from Your Cheeky Monkey for your reviews. If you would like to try these or any other Purely Natural Living product please visit us.

Remember for every $30 spent at Purely Natural Living, before 1 December 2009,  you go into the draw for a $50 Gift Voucher

Why We Use Quality Oils

You have probably wandered shops or markets and seen lovely ranges of sweet smelling oils with prices ranging from really cheap to seriously expensive. Perhaps you have wondered what the difference is between them. Let me tell you a little about essential oils.

Some of the oils you have seen are probably scented oils. They are oils laced with a fragrance so that they smell wonderful. These oils are created in a laboratory and they do not have any health or therapeutic properties about them. They will make your room or products smell lovely, though.

The more expensive oils are probably ranges of essential oil. Essential oils are derived directly from plants and herbs. They can come from many different parts of a plant. Some oils use the bark, some the berry and some the flowers, fruit or leaves of the plant. These contain oils that are known to have health benefits for us.

Even among essential oil ranges you will find quite a variation in quality and price. If you are choosing oils for their therapeutic qualities then it is worth paying the extra price and buying the best quality oils you can find.

At Purely Natural Living we use both scented and essential oils in our products. We label them clearly so that you know what ingredients go into every item that we make. We use high quality Bramble Berry scented oils for their lovely fragrances. Sometimes it is not possible to get an essential oil in that fragrance. It may be far too expensive. For example, rose fragrant oil is only a few dollars per bottle but rose essential oil can be around $50 and even then it is only 3% of the oil blend. Scented oils bring us perfume that we may not be able to get anywhere else.

We use quality essential oils in our products because we know that they are pure and not diluted with other oils. They do not have cheaper but similar smelling plant oils substituted for the real thing. With the cheaper oils you don’t really know how the oil was produced or where they sourced their plants from. Some regions produce plants of purer quality than others so of course the oils extracted from them are much better in quality. We use quality essential oils because they are far more likely to have health benefits than the cheaper oils.

Scented and essential oils are both beautiful products but it is worth buying the best quality that you can. Your nose will notice the difference.

Benefits of using handcrafted soaps

There are so many benefits to using handcrafted soaps & body products that I don’t even know where to being! Handcrafted soaps & body products are good for your body, good for the environment and good for the economy. Let me tell you why…

For starters, handcrafted soap is great for your skin. There are so many fillers in mass produced soaps & body products that even though they may claim to produce soft skin, have moisturizing content, and even vitamins or other essentials, the truth of the matter is that they can also be full of detergents, chemicals and dyes. Handcrafted soaps & body products on the other hand, are typically made from a natural glycerine base and have added ingredients such as olive oil, Jojoba & coco butter, just to name a few. From there, they are scented and dyed from natural dehydrated ingredients that we may find in or own local market. Sugar, Oatmeal, honey, you name it and it may be in your soap, but it’s all natural! Many of the ingredients found in handcrafted soaps & body products are nothing less than the quality of the food you eat. And thought I can’t speak for everyone, I know that I take pride in suing the best quality ingredients I can find. If I wouldn’t eat it, then I won’t use it in my soap.

This brings me the next benefit of using handcrafted soaps & body products. Not only are they good for our skin, but there are also have many social benefits to buying handcrafted soaps & body products. If you are an animal rights activist or even just someone who cares about their quality of life, then buy handcrafted soaps & body products may be something that’s important to you because handcrafted soaps & body products are never tested on animals, like many of the mass produced products we buy. In fact my soaps & body products are all tested on family & friends. Mass produced soaps & body products are often full of high content animal fat, while handcrafted soaps & body products are full of vegetable based oils making them vegan friendly, beside Goats Milk Soaps & body products. And not only removing animals from the equation, but handcrafted soaps & body products are also better for the environment. Think about every time you take a shower, and how many detergents are being washed down the drain, into our sewage system. Well, with handcrafted soaps; body products, you can put your mind at ease knowing that what you are using in the shower is an all natural product made up of items grown by the earth, thus being safer for them to go back into the earth after being used. So as you can see, being environmentally conscious can have a great impact on more than just what you eat, but what you use for cleaning your body as well.

And finally, aside from the environmentally friendly socialites in the world, there is yet another group of people out there striving to make our economy a little more structurally sound, and that would be nothing less than the group of entrepreneurs, like me, Purely Natural Living. While you might pay a little more for handcrafted soap you would for mass produced commercial soaps & body products, you’ll find that there is an added benefit to buying something made right here at home. There are many people making soaps & body products and other wonderful handcrafted products can help our economy become more stable and locally sufficient. Let’s support these small businesses and bring the jobs back home!

So the next time you run across an art fair or craft show and wrinkle your nose at $5 for one little 100gm bar of soap think again. Not only are you doing something good for your body, but with that comes peace of mind for your lifestyle and the economy that you live in. Your skin will thank you, the environment will thank you and so will the economy. So give it a try! You might just find that handcrafted soaps & body products are your new favourite and affordable pampering treat.