As you are no dount aware by now, this investigation into products and their ingredients does not smile happily upon chemical filled high street versions and instead is trying to discover some planet and skin friendly variations which will be good for you instead of simply claiming to be good for you or just bouncing off the kudos which their well known brand name brings about.

Whilst looking through the ingredients on a product which is much loved and regularly used by me, I became aware of the dangers of using such harsh chemicals in a product like a scrub.  With a moisturiser, yes the ingredients would eventually seep into the pores but with a scrub you are actively opening up the pores and essentially damaging the top layer of skin to get down to the new, fresh layers beneath.  So not only are you  scraping off a layer of skin, you are doing so with harsh chemicals such as Benzyl Benzoate, which when derived naturally from cinnamon essential oil is safe to use in small amounts such as the amount in a beauty product.  But if the ingredient list does not specify that the Benzyl Benzoate they are using is from cinnamon natural oil and is infact the synthetic version which is used to kill head lice and is linked to dangerous side effects such as burning, itching and blistering to name a few, then do not buy it!  Same with Sodium Laureth Sulphate which I also discovered is in my favourite body scrub.  And aside from the water, it is the second highest in the ingredients list meaning they use an awful lot of it! Corrosive Industrial Cleaning scrub anyone? Well that is essentially what this is with that ingredient in it.

So where can you go to find the natural version of these harsh highstreet products? Lets face it, they will never come off our shelves no matter what fuss we make about the ingredients.  Names like Sanctuary and Soap and Glory and too well ensconsed into our favourite highstreet pharmacy and beauty stores, but it is possible to find some lovely natural products which do an even better job without involving damaging chemicals so lets let our buying do the talking and stop giving money to these chemical obsessed brands!

After sampling several natural brands, my favourite find was The Beauty Kitchen, for a few reasons.
1)They do not charge over the odds for something which is entirely natural like so many organic and ‘naturally occurring’ beauty companies.

2) Their products work!  My skin felt soft, supple and glowing with health after using their cranberry seed ‘Love Me’ body scrub. (£11.95)

3)They guarantee that there will never been any hidden chemical or synthetics in any of their products – in their own words they are 100% NATURAL.

4)They use locally sourced, recycled or pre-cycled packaging to lower their carbon footprint!

5)They hold work shops either at the shop in Glasgow or they can come to your home for a Beauty Kitchen Party!

They even have a tool so you can make your own natural body scrubs using basic, everyday ingredients proving that they really are a ‘Natural’ loving lot!

Alongside the body scrub, I tried the Classic Sage handscrub (£6.95).  Having never paid any real attention to my hands aside from moisturisng them at night and having regular gel tips applied at the salon, I was geuinely surprised when they came out of the scrub looking 5 years younger and so pretty!!  When you consider how much we do with our hands (and feet for that matter) it is sad we don’t show them more love so 3 or 4 times a week now I have been scrubbing both of my hard working sets of extremities and they are looking very happy and healthy because of it!  So thank you Beauty Kitchen.

For a full list of products and their ingredients go to the Beauty Kitchen website page!