Body and Beauty and Living-Naturally

As it appears I might have some extra time on my hands in the new year, I’ve decided to offer one to one sessions in soapmaking  in addtion to our usual offerings. This had  been requested by a few people in the past and recently.

This means that if you are the only ones interested amongst your friends, you don’t lose out! You can still learn. For more info see main shop

The picture in the soap is our regular workshop recipe made with guinness and scented with patchouli, sandalwood and lavender.

I ‘ve made this variant of the soap about 3times now in the last two years and still love it!  Although I am usually not a fan of woody scents, they work well for me in this soap, maybe it is the guinness! I’ve heard or read that hops are supposed to be good for your skin, but I can’t find anything to back up the claim so far…will keep looking …It is however used in some natural deodorants as they can inhibit the growth of odor causing bacteria.

Before working with the beer though, I had to et rid of the alcohol and to do this, I shook the can and left it in a glass to go flat. And then boiled it. This would leave you with flat non alcoholic beer. Same principle would apply if you decided to make a “wine soap” …hmmm….

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Yesterday night I was out with a friend for the Miss Southern Africa do. Dinner was at Fire…the appetiser of fishcakes was quite nice, which made the main course all the more disappointing. Had honey and mustard chicken with potato and potatoes had a weird taste…and food was cold.Service though was very good and the restaurant quite spacious which is always a plus.

The main event started late and when it did start,it wasn’t really shaping up We had however been looking forward to seeing some African fashions and listening to some nice African music…and then the bar closed…couldn’t even get non-alcoholic drinks and we were parched! Eventually we decided to pack it in and since the night was young, we headed of to a bar just near by…infact across the road.

Anyway, talking about African fashions, now, and then I start to wish I could make my own clothes…some of them at least but I am really inept at that kind of stuff. I cannot even mange to thread my sewing machine…funny enough tho, I will happily stitch by hand! Anyway, I came across  Erica B’s  blog- and it is fabulous. Between my friend whom I will refer to as “Miss S” and Erica B, I am almost inspired to want to try, but not a chance…I ‘ll keep begging Miss S instead!

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Just the kind of thing you want to hear before the holidays…chocolate is good for you!!!

The research now prooves it.

Recent research conducted at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland has shown that  eating dark chocolate may lower levels of stress hormones in people experiencing stress.

Researchers found that eating the equivalent of one average-sized dark chocolate candy bar (1.4 ounces) each day for two weeks reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the “fight-or-flight” hormones known as catecholamines in highly stressed people.

This adds to the potential benefits of dark chocolate-supposed to be good for your heart, blood pressure, etc. An article here from 2005 describes the benefits of chocolate for the heart.

The  recent swiss study examined the effects on 30 adults of eating 1.4 ounces (40 grams) of dark chocolate every day  or two weeks on blood (half in the morning and half in the mid-afternoon)  Anxiety levels of the participants were determined at the start of the study, blood and urine samples were also collected and analyzed at the beginning and end of the two-week study.The results showed that eating dark chocolate daily reduced stress hormone levels in those who started with high anxiety levels. Researchers also indicated that dark chocolate appeared to have beneficial effects on the participants’ metabolism and microbial activity in the gut.

So apart from using the dark chocolate in skincare recipes, we can now use eat it guiltfree!!

sources:

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/pr900607v?prevSearch=%255Btitle%253A%2Bchocolate%255D&searchHistoryKey=

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/pr900607v

http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/news/20091113/dark-chocolate-takes-bite-out-of-stress?ecd=wnl_skin_112509

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=8702

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5 Homemade Skin Care Recipes from The Green Beauty Guide

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As this weekend had been such a busy one I have not paid that much attention to the news. On my way into work though, I had a chance to plug in to the radio and listen to Gerry Ryan and I also got to read the free papers. I was shocked to see the devastation caused by the floods in parts of Ireland. A woman was talking about how they had nothing…

Floods are completely devastating, the town in which I grew up-Warri gets a lot of rainfall and flooding in certain parts is inevitable and there were families then who lived with their property permanently elevated to control the damage. You could wake up in the morning and stick your feet in water. But I digress, In these areas where it was little expected, to have to deal with this must be head-wrecking.

Anyway, I immediately started to wonder what one could do and you know how most people have stuff that they don’t use or just stored away in the attic…well, there are people who might just be greatful for them. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information about somewhere in Dublin where one might peharps drop items that might be of use…or indeed of a bank account one might pay money into.

If anyone has such info, do pass it around, I am sure there are others out there who are itching to help and certainly from the response to Gerry Ryan, there are loads of people who want to help.

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The workshop in the Seamus Ennis Centre went well. We had oh…at least about 13participants. Some very interesting people. I think most people there today have intentions of trying out most things. We made a lipbalm, body scrubs, and body oil. The point was to make usable and nice products with stuff most people would have in their kitchen.

Here is the glossary of some of the oils mentioned in the workshop:http://nieriu.com/ingredients.html

recipe for cleasning oil:http://www.nieriu.com/nieriublog/?p=6

Still can’t remember the name of that shop near Dame street for Virgin coconut oil…it’s just there at the back of my head!!!

It’s been quite a busy weekend-was also at the bold and beautiful excellence awards last night, a friend got a surprise award and for the the first time ever I saw this guy speechless!!

Have a great week this week!

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ingredients for facial,
originally uploaded by NiÉriu.

In Preparation for a busy weekend, I decided to give myself a facial tonight. I type this with my masque of chocolate…smells yummy!

I ‘ve used all NiEriu products….well mostly…
I recently had a facial done in a popular beauty salon in Dublin City centre- just for a treat and felt like I’d been left short. Despite the fact that I had told the therapist that I had very dry skin, she felt the need to remind me in an almost accusatory tone that I had no blackheads or anything to extract…I did get a nice shoulder rub instead though so was not too unhappy.
Anyway I am back to DIY stylee so sharing with you my procedure for a very Simple NiEriu Facial:

This is suitable for dry and very dry skin

Ingredients:

Cleansing oil

NiEriu Soap

Essential oils of choice(I particularly like Rose and Jasmine at the moment)

Honey

Powdered Oatmeal, rhassoul mud(can stick with just oatmeal)

Dark chocolate (preferably pure or near pure-can be got from lidl)

NiEriu Simply Natural oil
Procedure:
1. Remove all makeup and cleanse the skin using simple cleansing oil mix and babassu facial soap/any other NiEriu soap.
2. Remove all final traces of makeup using cotton wool dampened in any of –rosewater, very diluted acv, chamnomile tea.
3. And then lay a warm face towel over your face. As it cools off, wet and wring it out in a bowl of hot water that contains a few drops of rose and jasmine essential oils.(can use whatever essential oils you prefer)
4. Exfoliate the skin with oatmeal+honey+ milk
5. Apply the mask: mix of dark chocolate(from lidl)+ honey +rhassoul mud (optional) + oatmeal powder+ milk. Leave this on for about 10mins (been more on mine now as I’ve been typing this up!) and then rinse it off.
6. Massage NiEriu simply baby oil-with a few drops of jasmine+rose in upwards motion from neck upwards and outwards from centre of face.
7. All done!!
All takes about 45mins doing it yourself….if you don’t get distracted…off to rinse it off now!

Enjoy!!
ps: I couldn’t get oatmeal powder so, I just put the pinhead oatmeal thru the coffee grinder.

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It’s that time of year again…when the weather conditions and central heating start to wreck havoc on our skin and hair.

Rather than wrap up and forget about everything till next summer, I say we keep buffing and primping…especially given that it is party season!

It is now even more important to exfoliate and moisturise.

For exfoliating the body…I’ll refer you to a recipe we’ve mentioned earlier:

For moisturising, well, in this season, I’ll be using a NiEriu mix…I tend to go with the base oils as used in the NiEriu products but vary my essential oils. If you would like to get your products unscented, let me know and I’ll do that when I mix yours.

Ideal products for the winter:

sheabutter, face butter, body oil, facial serum .
Mix a drop or two of the face serum with your  foundation for added moisturising effects.

The body oil can also be used on your hair:  Rub a drop between your hands and run through the ends of your hair.

For a nice glow with your party outfit, mix a bit of your bronzer with some NiEriu body oil…or face serum.

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Confessional:

Last weekend, I was heading out with friends, and as we put on our makeup, one of them expressed surprise that I used a main-stream foundation and lipstick…ie. Not natural ones. And it occurred to me that if my customers bumped into me in beauty aisles, they might be surprised as well. So here’s my confession…

Although I mostly  use my own products, I also use some from the other side… mainstream brands BUT I do look for altenatives first…for example, my foundation…I’m an African in Ireland, we are not spoiled for choice in shades in cosmetics. The one I use just seem right in colour and does not irritate my skin or dry it out….of course, I use a base of Nieriu serum.

I also try to be sun-safe, so again we (I and my family) also use sunscreen usually bought from the local healthstore or boots. I also use conditioners also  from boots…no pooing means we go through a fair few in a short time!

Soo, while majority of our skincare and beauty products are made inhouse, we still get the odd one from the shops! Don’t be so surprised when you see me in the beauty aisles so!

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You can now follow NiÉriu on Twitter!!
Bear with me while I get the hang of it though…I have to find a few people to follow now so if you tweet, let me know so I can follow you!

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