Wednesday 25 September 2013

Neal's Yard Remedies London Bloggers Event


I recently joined this London Beauty Bloggers group and the first thing they had on that I could attend was an event at Neal's Yard Remedies. Prior to the event, whilst I'd of course heard of Neal's Yard, but I didn't have a good idea of the company's aims, ideas and products so I thought it was a really interesting event to attend - wouldn't it be boring to be told a load of stuff you already know!

The event was held in a perfect location, their store on Neal's Yard itself, in Covent Garden. Arriving a little short of 7pm, I was greeted with a delicious drink; a combination of champagne and a home made rose syrup.


The evening started with an introduction about the company. For those of you, who don't know much about them; "Neal's Yard Remedies was born in 1981. The vision was to bring the expertise of the apothecary and our holistic approach to health and beauty to local people and their communities. What matters to us are people, their health and their happiness. We're obsessed with discovering and delivering natural ways to improve health and wellbeing through our outstanding natural and organic skin and body care products. We also believe passionately that our environment is of vital importance, both in its own right and as the source of many of the plants and herbs vital to our wellbeing. That's why we actively support and promote organic farming and the use of certified organic ingredients in our products".

We were introduced to their range of super foods and were given a demonstration of how we could make a winter smoothie and a tasty chocolate afternoon snack! The winter smoothie was created to warm you up with a hint of ginger and also help build a resistance to all the winter bugs that go around. The chocolate was aimed to give you that chocolate fix without getting the sugar peak and fall you'd have from eating a normal chocolate bar. It was super easy to make and I'm definitely going to give it a go! It tasted lovely and you only needed a small amount to quench your thirst for some chocolate. You can find their recipe for it here.

Organic aromatherapy salt scrub

Next came my favourite part of the evening, the opportunity to make our own unique product. We had a choice of a salt scrub, a massage oil or a shower gel. I picked the scrub as I own very few. Then we got to pick the scent which was great fun! They explained the importance of top, middle and base notes. We then got to try 3 different scents in each of the categories (so 9 in total) and were asked to each select our favourite top, middle and low notes without knowing for sure what each of them were. Once we'd picked, they let us know what we'd chosen. I'd gone for:
Top note: Bergamot
- a citrus orange scent, "The therapeutic properties of bergamot oil include analgesic, antidepressant, antiseptic, antibiotic, anti-spasmodic, stomachic, calmative, cicatrisant, deodorant, digestive, febrifuge, vermifuge and vulnerary"
Middle note: Ylang Ylang
- a sweet, floral scent, "The therapeutic properties of ylang-ylang oil are antidepressant, antiseborrhoeic, antiseptic, aphrodisiac, hypotensive, nervine and sedative"
Low note: Frankincense
- a spicy, woody scent, "The therapeutic properties of frankincense oil are antiseptic, astringent, carminative, cicatrisant, cytophylactic, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, sedative, tonic, uterine, vulnerary and expectorant.

The other scents we could have picked were grapefruit or lemon as a top note, geranium or lavender as a middle note and patchouli or cedar wood as a base note.

We mixed the salt and a massage oil into an empty Neal's Yard Remedies jar and stirred it together until it was the consistency of a usual scrub. Then we gradually added the scents individually until it suited us. We were given a guideline of around 10 drops in total (for all 3 scents combined) but I did add a few more of the Ylang Ylang as I didn't feel it was quite strong enough for me and this was the scent I liked the most. After smelling so much oil you do start to de-sensitise though! We were lucky enough to have spare jars after this, so I made another of the same scrub (I'm a creature of habit).

Organic Tea Body Butter

We also received a goodie bag with a items in it, including a packet of Organic Summer Tea with Eyebright and Nettle along with a tea ball strainer, a tub of Aromatic Body Butter, a sample of their Frankincense Intense anti-aging cream and a really useful booklet which was both a catalogue of the whole Neal's Yard Remedies range and some really handy information such as a detailed explanations about the ingredients and herbs they use. I think every shop should have one of these booklets, it's so useful! You can even request a copy here!

Catalogue Herbs Aromatherapy

We were offered 15% off anything in store for the evening, so I also purchased Organic Reviving tea with Elderflower and Peppermint and a Remedies to Roll Night Time scent as I always have difficulty sleeping.

Remedies to Roll Night Time

So far I'm loving my Reviving tea and Remedies to Roll, but I've yet to try the other products. I've moved flat this weekend (and have only just realised how much stuff I own!) so I've been super busy but hopefully should have some time to check them out this week (and be a bit more active on the blog and Twitter again!)

What's your favourite Neal's Yard Remedies product?

4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the fab post! So glad to hear you enjoyed the evening. Hopefully we'll get to catch up again soon. x

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    1. Thanks! It was really interesting and I loved the hands on approach to the evening! x

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  2. We loved reading this post; thanks for sharing. Natural / organic products are our big love!

    The winter smoothie sound amazing.

    How fun making your own scrub - fascinating & inspiring :-)

    x Roch & Tash x
    www.next-route-style.blogspot.co.uk

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