My friends at Lock and Mane (a fabulous website featuring the latest and greatest in hair products, plus an awesome blog) sent me this video just before the holiday weekend, and it’s such craziness that I had to post it.

Every week, they celebrate Champagne Thursday…and this particular round of cocktails included a top-up with Intelligent Nutrients‘ organic hair products, to put their “it’s so natural you can eat it” claims to the test.

A tiiiiny part of me expected Jo to spontaneously combust after taking a sip, but she survives intact.  The things we do for beauty!

London Correspondent Katherine McKenney writes:

Aromatherapy has become completely divorced from its own name. Today people seem to associate it more with the “aroma” component and no longer the “therapy.” In fact, aromatherapy uses essential oils to treat the individual through three different methods: inhalation, topical application, and orally. Aromatherapists treat the individual in a holistic sense, by doing diagnostics through questioning and using the feedback to blend the different oils to suit that individual’s needs. Then depending on the ailment, the aromatherapist will select the appropriate method. For example, colds, depression or anxiety might be treated through inhalation, whereas skin and muscle conditions might be treated through blending and applying the oils through massage. In the US and UK, essential oils are not prescribed to be taken internally, although in France some doctors are actually trained in this.

There is an amusing story behind the birth of modern aromatherapy. Although herbal remedies have been around for millennia, it was a Frenchman by the name of Gattefosse who first coined the term in 1936 when he published “L’Aromatherapie.” The origins of his research began after an unfortunate incident where he burned his hand in a laboratory. Seeing no water or appropriate liquid immediately available, he went with his instinct and plunged his hand into a vat of lavender oil. Voila! His hand was healed (not instantaneously, but noticeably quicker than after using other conventional treatments of the day). It was then that the world’s love affair with the classic and most used essential oil lavender began (don’t you just love happy endings!)

[Side note: Most people only think about an aromatherapy massage as a nice-smelling way to relax, however aromatherapists struggle to get across that aromatherapy is a serious complementary therapy. When I attended a 6 day introduction course on aromatherapy at Neal’s Yard Remedies in London, the aromatherapist who taught the massage content joked about how happy she was to teach us, since she could finally do a relaxing massage on the lucky student who was selected for the demonstration.  In the course of her work, she rarely gives relaxing massages!] (more…)

London correspondent Katherine McKenney writes:

Making the switch to natural beauty products is an exciting proposition. Well done you for deciding to put your health ahead of empty marketing promises!

I can see it now: you buy your first natural product. You take it home. You unwrap the minimalist, eco-friendly packaging. You apply said product. And then you think, “Ahhhhhh, wait a minute!  This isn’t what I was expecting!”

Perhaps you are unfairly comparing the natural product to your usual synthetic chemical-laden equivalent. Natural beauty products are wonderful but they won’t behave in the same way as synthetic products. In order to prepare you for what to expect, here is a guide for what your natural beauty products won’t do.

– Natural beauty products will not smell the same because their scents are derived from plants, flowers, and lovely things found in nature.  Therefore they will not smell like the man-made chemicals you are used to.  At first whiff, you may be reminded of your granny who loved florals: lavender, rose, and geranium (not necessarily scents you would associate with your hip, happening self).  The first time I took a whiff of cedarwood, I thought it smelled like dirt.  Now I love it.   The essential oils tend to grow on you after your nose becomes accustomed.  I find synthetic fragrances really icky and overpowering but my Italian boyfriend persists on buying them for me since he comes from the land of overpowering scent.   When I jokingly asked him which “cancer spray” he was going to give me for Christmas this year, he retorted that with my bad attitude I wasn’t going to get anything.   Ba humbug!  He didn’t think it was very funny but I don’t think using toxic products on my body is very funny either.  To each his own. (more…)

For months, I’ve had an organic skincare line called L’Uvalla sitting on my beauty counter (otherwise known to my roommate as our dining room table), continually meaning to try it out…and continually forgetting or getting sidetracked.

Last week, I finally got around to testing the products, and I can say that L’Uvalla is a line I think all my natural-beauty-enthusiast readers will love (we have Katherine McKenney at Natural Beautee to thank for pushing Jolie in this organic direction!).

All L’Uvalla skincare products bear the European COSMEBIO organic certification (see below), are “sustainably produced for optimal environmental preservation,” and are free of parabens, sulfates, propylene glycol, synethtic preservatives, synthetic fragrances, GMOs, and a whole host of other chemical baddies.

Side note: What’s the COSMEBIO/Eco-Cert Certification?
It’s considered the strictest certification available for natural/organic products. To receive this certification, products must meet the following requirements:

A minimum of 95% of the total ingredients must be natural
A minimum of 10% of the total ingredients must be organic
A minimum of 95% of the total Plant ingredients must be organic

I’m currently using the Gentle Foaming Cleanser ($26.99) and Eucalyptus Toner ($30.99), which are both gentle enough for dry and sensitive skin, but suitably cleansing and clarifying for oily, acne prone complexions (like the oil-slick blemish factory Jolie has going on).  If you’re in the market for natural skincare that’s still glamorous, read their FAQs about organic/natural products and check the line out for yourself!

London Correspondent Katherine McKenney writes:

Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare is to me what Bare Minerals are to Jolie (beauty obsession!). Although I make most of my own beauty products in my “laboratory” (aka kitchen), when I feel like splurging on skincare products, I go to Liz Earle. Her products are a high percentage organic and she even employs a full time botanist (Jennifer Hirsch) to formulate new products that get the most out of Mother Nature.

When I recently attended an event at the Liz Earle Flagship store in London’s Sloane Square, I met Liz in person and was stunned by how amazing her skin looks. It’s dewy and glowing, and she could be the poster woman for an anti-Botox campaign!  Considering how inarticulate and babbly I was as I thanked her for helping change notions of beauty, you might have thought she was Brad Pitt.   In her book Skin Secrets, Liz talks about the different things skin need at various stages of life. She told me that she had to fight with the editor not to touch up any of the “models” who were actually just friends of hers–i.e. “real” people.

These are my favorite Liz Earle Products:

Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser – the most famous and revered of all of her products. (more…)

I long ago accepted that chemicals in my beauty products were probably going to get the best of me – sure, natural products are nice, but isn’t the chemically, tough, super-duty effective stuff just so much better?!  My new London Correspondent Katherine McKenney disagrees with me, and has been passionately educating me about natural and organic beauty these past few weeks.  She will be writing a series here on Jolie about natural beauty and also poking around London for the best beauty finds.  Enjoy!

London Correspondent Katherine McKenney writes:

Earlier this year I decided to switch to natural, SLS-free hair products. Sodium lauryl sulfate is all kinds of nasty: it’s a toxic chemical which overstrips your skin so that other harmful chemicals can more easily enter your skin (and bloodstream) and it makes your skin overproduce sebum. In industrial settings, it’s used to clean machine engines; it’s also what makes products like shampoo foam. Not exactly what I want to be putting on my body – “But do SLS-free hair products work as well?”, I wondered.  The test began!

I started my mission by purchasing the highly rated Logona Repair Shampoo Gingko for dry, damaged hair and Logona Hair Repair Jojoba. My hair is naturally wavy and in the past I always purchased shampoos and conditioners that were very moisturizing. I used to use Kerastase hair masks as my regular conditioner and wash my hair only 3 times per week. In addition, I only blew out my hair 1-2 times per week, and I used hair straighteners even less frequently. Whenever I went for a hair cut in a salon, I was always told that my hair was in good condition and I attributed this to infrequent washing and styling, and high end products. Therefore when I purchased the Logona products I presumed that I should pick from same repair/dry hair range.

5 weeks after using the products my hair was extremely greasy and I’m ashamed to say that there were a few dreadlocks starting in the back. Mortified that my little organic experiment was going so wrong, I was beside myself. Further research on the internet told me that people who stopped washing their hair altogether for 6-8 weeks found that their hair would start to “rebalance” and actually be in better condition than before. Since stopping washing my hair altogether was not really an option (gross!) I switched from Logona to A’kin products. (more…)