Category Archives: Bathroom

Korres Jasmine Shower gel

Posted in Bathroom, Family, Health & Wellness, inspiration, lifestyle, Scent, Skin Care, Skincare, Uncategorized, Wellbeing by

This is one of my favourites as there’s only one way to describe the scent in this bottle and that is its sublimely indulgent.

The heady scent of Jasmine will hit you the moment this makes contact with water and skin.

The scent is as natural and as authentic as you can get to real Jasmine. I love the idea of enveloping myself in its aroma, drinking in the scent as if I’m sipping my favourite Jasmine Tea from Whittards.

From outside in, the scent of Jasmine can be a natural drug to lift your mood. It stimulates the release of serotonin which boosts energy. Perhaps this is the reason I love it so much.

As it is one of the most expensive essential oils to buy, I have a small bottle which contains a 10% dilution in jojoba oil, which I keep to add a few drops into the night time facial oil I made.

Around 8 million Jasmine blooms are needed to produce a kilo of essential oil, commercially the blooms are hand picked at night when their scent is at their most powerful. I love the idea that the magic of the scent is only released at night. There’s something very Arabian nights about this.  It also means it’s one of the most expensive oils to buy.

It also reminds me of my early childhood home where we had a Jasmine bush climbing outside our front door.

In in early evening as the blooms released their scent, our home was bathed in the delicate scent. I can’t explain how I remember this, I just do and that’s mostly the reason why I am always drawn to anything that’s Jasmine scented.

 

Molton Brown – Japanese Orange Body Wash

Posted in Bathroom, beauty, Health & Wellness, Scent, Skin Care, Skincare, Uncategorized by

 

I’ve been using Molton Brown’s Japenese body wash all this week, as a way to get the zing and wake up to the start of the day.

Getting back into the commute and a full day at work has been hard, especially after the long Festive break.

So this indulgent body wash, which is packed full of the delicious scent of the Japanese Yuzu fruit, is a wonderful way to chase away the darkness outside when I wake-up and reluctantly make my way to the bathroom.

If you are in need of something that will wake you up and lift your senses, this is a great way to begin the day. It contains a blend of Yuzu, Patchouli, caraway and smells wonderful.

The fruit of the Yuzu, a citrus fruit is used in Japanese bath houses as a part of a deep cleansing ritual. I’ve never been to Japan, but one of my earliest memories is visiting a bath house with my mother when I was little in Taiwan. I remember being in a deep hot pool of water bathing with other women along with my mother, a faded memory from childhood.

As this scent is so bright and zesty, I am using it to bring a little sunshine to my mood.

Home detox

Posted in At home, Bathroom, Clean Home, Kitchen by

Home made all purpose cleaning sprayCleaning the house is not something I enjoy. I try to avoid it until it becomes unavoidable.

It takes up so much of precious time at weekends that I am left grumpy at the thought that the endless cycle of cleaning has eaten away at the precious time I’d like to spend doing other things with the family.

In an effort to find ways to cut down, simplify and find short cuts, I’ve been looking at a number of blogs.

There are so many hints and tips to help you get through the household chores and I’m beginning to learn by doing.

I came across a number of blogs that recommend using Vinegar and Bicarbonate of Soda and adding essential oils for their antiviral and antibacterial properties and also to remove the smell of the vinegar.

home detox (2)We’ve been using this distilled vinegar from a Chinese Supermarket. It was in the local Chinese Supermarket in Mitcham that we sometimes go to stock up on Chinese ingredients.

The place caters for both those in the catering business as well as for people who are looking for Chinese specialist food and ingredients.

I love the smell of the supermarket and walking round, there are so many interesting things to look at, most of which I have no idea what they are or how to cook with them.

Compared to other distilled vinegar you can get, it is a little different and as it was the one white vinegar we had in the cupboard, I decided to use it, rather than go and buy another one, which I think would defeat the purpose of trying to simplify and cut down on the number of cleaning products around the house.

We bought it to remove limescale from our kettle, and it works really well at this job. I am sure that there are Thai recipes, with lovely sauces to try with this Vinegar, so will look them up for another time.

Since reading a the blogs about how to clean and organise a home, I decided to try making the bathroom all-purpose cleaner from Clean Mamas post – you can read it here. It seemed simple enough, water, vinegar and alcohol. I wasn’t sure though whether it would work without some kind of soap in the mix.

home detox (3)Since I had some fragrance free washing up liquid that had been under the sink, I thought this could be a good option to try. I hadn’t liked it for dishes because I like the smell of citrus when washing dishes, It was pretty good at cleaning though, I just prefer ones with a lemony scent.

With the washing up liquid and the distilled vinegar, I made up the following mix:

1/4 cup of distilled vinegar

1/4 cup of vodka

1/4 cup of washing up liquid

3/4 cup of water

Lemon , Tea Tree and Mitcham Peppermint essential oil

Lemon, Tea Tree and Mitcham Peppermint essential oil

(If you want to make more than this just use the same proportions as above in larger quantity, or follow Clean Mama’s recipe)

As the blog post recommended adding essential oils, I chose lemon for its lovely citrus fragrance. It has antibacterial properties and has an uplifting scent.

Tea Tree Oil is sold in most pharmacies for its anti bacterial qualities.

Since I like the smell of Mitcham Peppermint essential oil, known for it’s antiviral properties, I used this as well.

A cleaning detox that means no more harsh chemicals around the house and a simpler way to clean.

I put equal amounts : 10 drops of lemon, 10 drops of Tea Tree and 10 drops of Peppermint oil in with the vinegar, water and alcohol.

As I’ve just finished an Ecover multi purpose cleaner in a spray bottle, I decided to recycle it for this home-made cleaner.

I rinsed it out with some water, put some bicarbonate of soda in and left it over night, rinsed it out to remove as much of the chemicals as possible. With all the ingredients added into the bottle, I put the top on and shook it up to make sure all the essential oils were combined into the other ingredients.

I’ve been using this home-made cleaner for about a month, it’s good on kitchen counters, sinks, baths and the loo.

Because the spray is homemade, I’ve not thought of cleaning so much of a chore now. In fact as I clean, I look and inspect to see whether the spray is cleaning as well as the shop bought cleaners available.

I think it does a better job. The sink and bath are shiny and there isn’t any streaking on the shiny chrome surfaces.

home detox

The air doesn’t have the heavy artificial fragrance of commercially bought cleaner and now that all the scents have had a chance to combine, I can smell the sweet uplifting scent of Peppermint and lemons. The bathrooms just seems fresher and the surfaces of the ceramic sinks look just as shiny.

Using the spray with a little Biocarb gets the grime lifted away far better than the commercial cleaners I’ve tried, so that’s reduced the number of cleaner products I use around the house and saved on storage and my wallet – Brilliant!

Do let me know if you have a cleaning tip / idea to try.

I got Lushed for my birthday

Posted in Bathroom, Skincare, Wellbeing by
Lush shower Gel, Lush black currant shower gel and Lush bath fizz

Lush bath treats

For my birthday last week, my husband got me Lushed. I’ve always wondered what the store held.

Each time I’m in Wimbledon, the store is just by the train station and as you walk past the storefront, a blast of scent hits you. It’s sometimes over powering, to the point that I wonder what concoctions are being created, like a witches cauldron full of mystery.

I’ve never been in the store in case I get an overwhelming desire to buy everything and anything I can lay my hands on.

Well I guess I got my wish, as a little bag of delights were handed to me by my grinning daughters and a sly looking husband who said that I might like to try these out since he’d watched me experimenting in our kitchen over the last month, whisking up home made deodorants, foot soaks and the like.

I’ll update this post as soon as I’ve tried each one of these little treats. The cherries and coconut jelly tub looks particularly yummy, but as I’m not entirely sure how it will get from the pot onto me, without it washing away in my hands, I’ll let everyone know tomorrow how I get on with it.

Update – Sunday morning

The Shower  Jelly was an interesting experience. Exactly as the tub described, it looked and smelled like a pack of Rowntrees Jelly before you add water and make it into a jelly, which means it was a little hard to scoop out of the tub with your fingers.

It also smelled like a delicious tub of sweeties, the kind that you know is not good for your teeth kind. It rubbed on and lathered up, but didn’t have a load of bubbles, it was a fine lather. I’d say it’s best to use in the bath-tub as it kept slipping out of my hands. A lot of fun, I think my youngest will enjoy in her bath tonight. Worth trying just for the fun of it.

Lush shower jelly