Witch Hazel and what to use it for.

Dermafood Witch Hazel Toner - 500 ml - £12.90 incl p&p

As one of my favourite Dermafood products and all time useful toner, I was happy to find this article from onegoodthingbyjillee.com . It's amazing how creative people are. I find the comments after the article most interesting, so many good ideas how to use the Witch Hazel toner. We sell it thru the FB page at the moment, will be listed on Dermafood website very soon for direct purchase.
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/11/amazing-witch-hazel-the-medicinal-marvel-with-the-funny-name.html#

Teenage acne and how to try and keep it under control

Dermafood's Black&Grey Men's Wash

Well it's every teenager's nightmare having a huge spot coming out just before a night out or a birthday party. And the truth is you can't stop it, but you can try and manage the acne and reduce the risk of further infection and scarring by following few simple precautions.

1. Stop touching your face. The amount of bacteria you could transfer from your hands to your face is unbelievable. Always wash hands before and after you clean your skin.

2.  Never pick or try to burst the spots. This is the quickest way to worsen the Acne and to start an infection.

3.  Preferably wash your hair and wear it away from your face, as it prevent ventilation over the covert skin areas and so more sebum builds up and bacteria settles more easily on those sections.

4.  Have a skin toner with astringent and disinfecting properties. I recommend Dermafood's Witch Hazel toner. Apply in the morning and night time after washing the face with lukewarm water, but never use hot as it stimulates sebum production. Depending on the Acne you can use or not use soap, there are few soaps on the market with disinfecting properties. We, at Dermafood.co.uk have Black&Grey men's wash with Kaolin and  Active Charcoal. Kaolin is a natural clay that absorbs toxins from the skin and acts as a mild exfoliator, Active Charcoal also detoxes and reduces sebum on the skin. Pat dry, never rub harshly with the towel. Apply toner with a cotton wool and let skin to air dry.

5.   Always use your own towels, don't share with the rest of the family. You are risking infecting your skin and/or transferring infection to the other members of the family. When washing towels put a bottle cap full of thick bleach in the washing machine to kill the bacteria.

6.   Moderate sun exposure can  sometimes feels as bringing relieve and improving Acne symptoms, unfortunately it's a very temporary to my observation effect. Also I wouldn't recommend to anyone exposing their own face to sun without sunblocks.

7.   In a very serious cases of Acne, where scars are forming and the spots are coming out bigger and bigger, it's usually a sign of infection and needs to be treated by a doctor. I knew a teenager who went thru a serious antibiotic treatment course. The scars are still there, but the treatment definitely helped with the Acne. Please, never underestimate the signs of infection, always seek medical help.

Working with Essential oils

I am often asked how do I work with Essential oils and how do I prepare my combinations. It's a long learning curve for me, I made so many mistakes and wasted ingredients. To start with I took finally a practical advise and started working only with 10% dilutions of essential oils in carrier oils. Working with pure and full strength oils is a recipe for disaster. It is not a joke at all and I would warn everybody to be very careful how and where they handle full strength Essential oils. On top of that, the full potent oils are very harsh and overwhelming, it takes longer for the right notes to develop and for some of the very powerful ones you only need such a small amount, it's sometimes virtually impossible to measure.
So start with I prepare 10% dilution in Jojoba oil, although with the sky high pricing of it, it s more cost effective to use Sunflower oil-please don't underestimate the good old Sunflower oil ( I will be talking about it in one of my next posts, lots to be said about it). So if you don't have a good scale, use a dropper. So to every 100 ml Sunflower/Jojoba oil add 10 ml pure essential oil of choice, or on every 10 drops carrier oil , add a drop Essential oil. Shake well and leave for a day before starting to work with it, it will give it a chance to develop the full scent and to settle.
The combinations are limitless, I would advise to start with combining 2-3 essential oils. Measurement is also a headache, if you only need small amount its maybe better to use droppers ( glass droppers are the best) If you want larger quantity, its best to use highly sensitive scales, the ones that weight 1/100 of a gram. Can be a substantial investment, but its worth it if thats what you want to do. Always leave the newly combined scents for a week to settle and develop, meanwhile keep checking it write down what you feel when you smell the new combination. It's amazing how the combination change over time. Don't forget to write down the ingredients, the quantity of each one and the date.
Later I'll be talking about the different notes and the basic rules of mixing Essential oils.

Tried to make my own Light Box for photographing my skincare products, here's the result. After watching few videos on YouTube I tried it myself. I used a brown cardboard box approx measuring 60 x 45 x 40 cm, white strong tape, new white shower curtain, two lamps from Ikea (less than £8.00 each), halogen bulbs - 70 W, 2700 kelvin (£4.00 pair). Still to source the background material for the inside, but all together it's not a bad result. This box can only be used with small products, for bigger ones you'd need to improvise something different. 

I've cut three windows in the cardboard box, cut and reinforced the edges and the walls with cardboard strips and taped it together with the tape. Covered everything with the white tape. Covered the inside and outside with the shower curtain. Not too bad I think.

Our Xmas gift hamper "COMING HOME" packed with skin loving bath creamers, soap and bath bombs. Check our Facebook page Dermafood for more.
Bath creamers are a great new bath product. Made with gentle bubble bath, Shea and Cocoa butters, Almond oil and Soda Bicarbonate they slowly fizz and release mild exfoliating agents and moisturizing butters. They leave your skin soft and heavenly scented.