Skin Care Essentials-Cleanse

I'm often asked "What product would you recommend to make my skin look younger/healthier/acne free?" I wish there was a magic product or even better, a magic pill that you could take once a month and take care of all your skin problems. Sorry to dissapoint you, there is no such thing. Taking care of your skin is an everyday routine. I know that setting-up an everyday routine is probably too much to ask from many of you, but I encourage you to give your best shot at it and see what happens. Can't do it every day, then do it every other day or every three days. I guarantee, you will love the results and at some point you will be happy to do it everyday. There are four steps of skincare regiment that I would like to cover in our future weekly "Healthy Tips". Those four steps are: cleanse, exfoliate, tone and moisturize.

Cleanse - cleanser is a facial care product that is used to remove make-up, dead skin cells, oil, dirt and other types of pollutants from the skin of the face. This helps to unclog pores and prevent skin conditions such as acne. As many of you know already, I have become a natural skincare addict after expiriencing results first hand. My whole family uses Marmalade Hills facial bars every day, even our youngters.
Marmalade Hills has four all natural facial bar soaps for most skin types. Our facial bars are gentle with creamy lather and are packed with nourishing, skin loving ingredients. For oily skin type we recommend Tea Tree Cucumber Facial Bar (in curing): made with natural clays, cucumber peel powder and prescious Australian Tea Tree Essential Oil. This soap will help to draw out impurities and keep production of sebum and appearance of acnes under control.
For sensitive and mature skin types we recommend Geranium Facial Bar: made with pink clay, wheat germ oil, extra vitamin E and envigorating Bourbon* Geranium and Indonesian Dark* Patchouli Essential Oils. This soap will improve skin's elasticity/firmness, clarity and texture.
For dry/sensitive/baby skin we recommend either French* Lavender or Milk n' Honey Facial Bar. Both soaps are made with Goat Milk with addition of extra moisturizing and soothing ingredients like oats, shea butter and golden honey. Milk n' Honey soap is completely unscented while Lavender Facial Bar is infused with French* Lavender Essential Oil.

* - Depending on the region of cultivation there are many different types of Essential Oils. In our facial bars we use only high quality or creme de la creme of essential oils that are considered more precious and exquisite due to their origin.

Still not convinced? Here is what experts say about natural bar soaps as facial cleansers->
Article taken from Spa Magazine:
"For years, women relied on simple bars of soap to wash their faces, but with the arrival of liquid, foam, and cream cleansers came the idea that bars dry the skin and clog pores.
It turns out that some soaps got a bum rap. "In general, they're not bad," says Jennifer Reichel, M.D., director of Pacific Dermatology & Cosmetic Center in Seattle. "Some bar soaps can be very gentle and moisturizing and do not necessarily trap oils and chemicals."
The soaps that deserve the negative attention are those that contain synthetic detergents or surfactants (like alkyl benzene sulfonate). "Synthetic detergents can be drying, which makes them a poor choice for many skin types,"says Angela L. Bowman Wales, president and CEO of Lillian Skincare, a manufacturer of organic skincare products.
But liquid cleansers can cause problems as well, according to Julia Hunter, M.D., founder of Skin Fitness Plus, a cosmetic spa in Los Angeles. Detergents (often sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate), preservatives (such as parabens), and antimicrobials (triclosan, for example) can cause inflammation and disrupt hormones. Instead, opt for soap with coconut oil, shea butter, glycerin, or olive oil. Although these emollients are often thought to cause breakouts, there is generally not enough in soaps to have such an effect. "Personally, I would choose emollients over inflammatory chemicals," says Hunter."

Till next time,
Liana.

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
Clean Truth about Antibacterial Soap
10 Foods that are healthier than you think
Healthy Nails Tips
Healthy Hair Tips
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to
Benefits of Green Tea
Beauty Sleep
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6
How to add years to your life

MH's 5th Fan Page Giveaway

As many of you know by now we have Marmalade Hills Fan Page giveaways every time we acquire 30 new fans. It is a fun way to introduce our products to loyal fans/friends and to get their help in making some business decisions. We believe that being successful in business is a two-way street. After all we are small indie business and this is how we differ from the "big guys" who could care less about their faceless consumers. So this giveaway is no different, we need to hear your thoughts about something that has been on our mind for some time. We would love for you to have one of our Clay Facial Masks as a "Thank you" for your time. Please feel free to share this giveaway with your friends, however there are some rules: to enroll in MH's 5th Fan Page Giveaway you must be a Marmalade Hills fan on Facebook; you must be 18 years of age or older; and you have to leave a comment to this post on our blog. Whether you are a fan or just a friend please tell us what kind of Marmalade Hills' product you think you would most likely buy at an art/craft show or fair and why. Would it be handcrafted soaps, facial care product, moisturizers and so on? We are looking forward to your comments which we will take into consideration while preparing for our upcoming shows. Please leave your comment underneath this post. If you leave a comment as anonymous, don't forget to sign your comment. This giveaway will be closed for comments exactly one week from today-March 5th. As always random winner will be announced on our Fan Page.


Good luck!
Liana.

Featured Product-Bath Bombs

I heard this too many times before "I don't take baths", "I don't have time for a bath"... Cannot agree more, we live in a busy world after all. But lets go couple of centuries back to understand this time tested method of relaxation and beautification. The term spa is associated with water treatment. It is often suggested that the word is an acronym of various Latin phrases such as "Salus Per Aquam” or "Sanitas Per Aquam" meaning "health through water". Greek mythology specified that certain natural springs or tidal pools were blessed by the gods to cure disease. Around these sacred pools, Greeks established bathing facilities for those desiring healing. But now, thanks to the advances of scientific research, we know that gods did not bless any streams with miracle powers, we know for fact that nutrients are drown-in through the skin directly into the blood stream (same principle is used in smoking cessation patch) where they help carry toxins away from the body through the lymph system. We can also experience first-hand the effects of natural butters and oils have on our skin. They make it more supple and smooth and they can relieve any dry skin discomforts. And lets not forget about mind rejuvenating effects of a warm bath ritual! Our adult lives are filled with many responsibilities that contribute to our stress levels. Stress has adverse effects on our mental and general health, it wears out our organs and overall immune system. This is where spa in your own bathroom with Marmalade Hills' Butter Creme Bath Bombs comes in! Our bath bombs, a.k.a bath fizzies, are made with fresh, natural and nourishing ingredients. They will spin, whirl and fizz in your tub infusing water with Coconut Milk, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, creamy Mango Butter and powerful antioxidant - Green Tea Extract. Our creamy Bath Bombs will leave your skin super soft and supple. Our highly fragranced and Essential Oil infused bath bombs will refresh your senses, uplift your spirits and fill your house with amazing aroma! You cannot be running around and multi-tasking forever, everybody needs a little "me" time to unwind and recharge. So shut that door, light up a candle, get your favorite glass of wine and/or a book, and immerge yourself in a warm bath infused with exotic butters, real silk fibers and creamy coconut milk. Do yourself a favor - relax, you deserve it. Psst, did I mentioned no lotion required after this special treat!
List of Beneficial Ingredients:
✓ Sodium Bicarbonate - As a natural acid neutralizer and softener soda has been widely used as bath soaks to sooth discomfort of sunburn and itch of poison ivy. It works great when you need to soak away your stress and with not much effort, make your skin feel like baby's patootie!
✓ Citric Acid is a weak organic acid that makes bath fizzies swirl in your bath tub and also softens the water making stay in your bath even more pleasant.
✓ Coconut Milk is a vegetable variation of lactic acid (milk acid) is an alpha hydroxy acid, a natural material that dissolves the glue that holds dead skin cells together. Milk can cleanse the skin down to its deepest layers without over-drying it.
✓ Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is expelled from raw coconut kernels. It is unbleached and not deodorized with slight aroma of pure coconuts and retained vitamins and nutrients.
✓ Mango Butter is obtained from the kernels of the mango fruit. Mango tree is a sacred tree for Hindus which has been cultivated in India for over 4000 years. Mango Butter is highly emolient, particularly rich in fatty acids and it lends protection against the sun. It is also said to prevent drying of the skin, formation of wrinkles. It reduces degeneration of skin cells and restores elasticity.
✓ Kaolin Clay is soft and gentle clay, it is also known as White Clay. Clay facials and body treatments are widely used in spas all over the world. I love them especially for their ability to detoxify, tone and deep cleanse our skin.
✓ Green Tea Extract is my other most favorite ingredient, besides Rose Hip Oil and Evening Primerose Oil. Green Tee Extract naturally contains the chemical ECGC - an antioxidant proven 200 times more powerful than Vitamin E. Green Tea also happens to be one of my favorite drinks!
✓ Fragrance or Essential Oils. Essential Oils have magical power to heal, uplift and invigorate. I am a true believer of powers of Essential Oils and aromatherapy. Since I'm dealing so much with Fragrances and Essential Oils now, I can assure you that never ever an opened bottle of Essential Oil seemed overwhelming or unpleasant. Every time I have used an Essential Oil infused product it made me want to breath in as deep as I can, it's like a breath of fresh air that you can never get enough of.


Till next time,
Liana.

Honored to be the Featured Business on IBN

Today Marmalade Hills was featured on Indie Beauty Network by Donna Maria. I have joined IBN network only last year but have made many friends and found so many think alike people in one place! Find out here how Marmalade Hills was born, how we operate and what keeps us going and growing!

Truly yours,
Liana.

Healthy Tip - Clean Truth

If you use any of the antibacterial soaps for hand washing or dish washing, I wish you would reconsider it. There are so many compelling reasons why people should chose natural soaps over antibacterial ones and here is just some of the most critical ones:
✓ Soap and water is the gold standard [for fighting cold and flu and other viral infections]. In a recent study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, researchers in Australia doused the hands of 20 health-care workers with human H1N1 flu virus. Soap and water removed slightly more virus than three alcohol-based hand rubs. When volunteers didn't clean their hands, most of the virus was still present an hour after exposure. Source: Wall Street Journal.
✓ More scientific studies have found that simply washing your hands correctly may mean more to your health than using an antibacterial soap. Antibacterials can kill more germs for a longer time, which is why they're useful in hospitals, but they have no effect on viruses that couse colds or flus. Source: ABC News.
✓ Studies show that main chemicals of antibacterial soaps (triclosan and triclocarban) are building up in the environment at an alarming rate. Americans dump more than 1 million pounds of triclosan and triclocarban into the environment every year. Rolf Halden, PhD, a scientist at Arizona State University, published a study this month in Environmental Science and Technology showing that the chemicals don't quickly break down in the environment. He found these chemicals in sediment dating back 40-50 years. Source: WebMD.
✓ Antibacterial ingredients have become so popular, they’re literally in our blood. In addition to lead and pesticides, the CDC now periodically monitors levels of triclosan, the most common antibacterial agent, in randomly selected Americans. A recent CDC study detected triclosan in the urine of 75% of the people tested. Source: CDC website.
✓ Daily dose of triclosan can cause health problems in a long run. Experimental studies show that triclosan can cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics in test tubes. So far, no one knows whether that leads to the same result in hospitals or homes. Some researchers, though, believe resistant “superbugs” created by widespread antibacterial soap use could be a real possibility. Source: WebMD

So leather up one of our natural bar soaps and wash your hands thoroughly for not less than 20 seconds. Our natural, cold process soaps are the most gentle and skin loving soaps for your hands. Go ahead and wash your hands as often as you need without over drying or irritating your skin! Stay healthy and care for the environment!

Till next time,
Liana.

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
10 Foods that are healthier than you think.
Healthy Nails Tips.
Healthy Hair Tips.
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to.
Benefits of Green Tea.
Beauty Sleep.
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6.
How to add years to your life.

Marmalade Hills Official Debut

Good day my friends! After long time in draft Marmalade Hills' website is ready for it's official debut! We are still hard at work on our shopping cart but now we finally have a place that we can call HOME! It feels great to see how everything takes shape and coming together slowly but surely! You are witnessing a very important moment in Marmalade Hills' life :)
Please stop by to test drive our website and leave your feedbacks and comments!

Truly yours,
Liana.

Healthy Tip - 10 Foods That Are Healthier Than You Think

This is taken from the article that you can find at Healthy Eats. I wanted to add my personal touch to it and here is what I got:
1. Avocado
So it may seem weird for a fruit (yes, avocados are fruits) to contain fat, but avocados are one of the few produce items that do. Their heart-protecting monounsaturated fats are actually one of the things that make them so healthy. Eating these green guys can help lower your risk of heart disease and stroke — so have some of that guacamole!
In my house we like to make super easy sandwiches of fresh Italian bread, few slices of ripe avocados, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper and slice of our favorite cheese. Yum!
2. Spaghetti and Meatballs
Thanks to the iron and protein from the beef, lycopene from the tomato sauce and energy-producing carbs from the pasta, this dish a healthy trifecta. If you stick to modest portions and lean beef, you can enjoy its benefits without overdoing it. Limit yourself to three ounces of meat and a cup of cooked pasta per serving.
My extremely easy version of this dish is pasta with meat sauce! It is a crowd pleaser, my daughter would eat this any day and my one year old LOVES to smudge it all over his tray and his face... and sometimes hair. What you'll need: 1 box of spaghetti, 1 lb organic ground sirloin, 1 jar of RAOS Homemade Southern Italian Pasta Sauce with Italian peppers and mushrooms (it is absolutely my favorite brand, you can find it in health food market and sometimes in a regular grocery store for $8 or so for regular size jar). Boil your spaghetti, brown your ground beef on non-stick pan (no oil or spices required), add pasta sauce to the pan with browned ground beef, cover and simmer for 15 minutes on medium heat. BAM! Serve meat sauce over pasta.
3. Bananas
Often bashed for their high sugar and carb content, bananas are a ridiculously healthy fruit that everyone can enjoy. A small banana has the same calories, carbs and fiber as an apple. They also come packed with vitamins C and B6 and good-for-your-heart potassium.
My family is BANANAS over these happy yellow guys. Easy, not messy (big plus for mommies) and super healthy snack! Bananas are perfect over your favorite ice-cream or mixed in a plain yogurt.
4. Peanut Butter
I always hear “peanut butter is fattening!” Sure, it contains fat, but 30% of your daily calories should come from healthy fats, so why not add peanut butter in as an option? The nutty spread is also a great way to get protein, fiber and vitamin E. The same goes for whole peanuts or nuts such as almonds and walnuts — they’re a great way to get your daily dose of healthy fats.
YES! Love this stuff. When I first came to United States (11 years ago) I couldn't stand peanut butter, I just didn't get it. Now I can eat it with a spoon or (another one of my favorites) celery dipped in peanut butter! Try it, you'll love it! For extra fun try adding raisins on top and you get "ants on a log" for kids!
5. Eggs
Eggs do contain some cholesterol, but that doesn’t mean they’re a total no-no. According to the American Egg Board, healthy individuals can eat up to two eggs per day without significantly affecting blood cholesterol levels. Eggs are also full of vitamins A, D and the antioxidant lutein. Don’t skip the yolks; there’s just as much protein there as in the whites.
You can eat eggs in so many was but my new favorite is this one, I have stumbled upon it some time ago and would love to give it a try. It looks delicious! I can almost taste it!

Do you have any favorite snacks or dishes made with these yummy foods that you could share with me?

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
Clean Truth about Antibacterial Soap
10 Foods that are healthier than you think
Healthy Nails Tips
Healthy Hair Tips
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to
Benefits of Green Tea
Beauty Sleep
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6
How to add years to your life

Fourth Fan Page Giveaway Winner!

As always BIG Thank You to our active fans for participating in our Fourth Giveaway! Now let’s find out who will be receiving our heavenly soft and deeply moisturizing Body Butter! This time it will be easy as only two people shared with us their opinion: 1-Christine, 2-Sabine. And the winner is....



Congratulations Christine! After so much participation this is a very well deserved gift! Please email me with a choice of your Body Butter.

I truly appreciate your input ladies as it is very important for me to get an idea how other people think of Marmalade Hills' products, because for me they are my babies and deserve to be in the best high-end spa ever! It was nice to hear that someone thinks the same thing.

Till next time,
Liana.

Healthy Nails Tip

From little girls to teenagers, young women to older age women, we all love to have beautiful, healthy looking nails. There are salons for the care and beautification of nails but the basic care has to start from home. Well maintained nails are a true reflection of good health and hygiene. Try some of these really easy, natural tips from www.SimpleHealth.com to make your nails stronger, less brittle, more shiny and even to grow them faster and longer.
1) Dip cotton swab in fresh lemon juice and rub for 5 to 7 minutes on the nails, doing each nail one by one. After the rub do not wash hands for 10 minutes. Thereafter, wash your hands with tepid water. Regular application of lemon juice will make your nails stronger and give them a natural shine.
2) To remove paleness from the nails try including beet root and Vitamin D into your diet.
3) Soak about handful of raisins in the night in water before going to bed. When you wake up in the morning, drink this water and eat soaked raisins. This will improve your iron content restoring the natural pinkish-reddish tinge on nails and palms and even add a glow to your face.
4) For growing nails, instead of rubbing lemon, keep the nails dipped in a bowl of tepid lemon water for 5 minutes. This helps to deep clean the nails also. Wash with cold water immediately after that.
5) Like for other parts of our body, the intake of 3 servings of dairy every day is beneficial to the nails as well. It will prevent the brittleness and weakness in the nails and will avoid the nails getting chipped every now and then.
6) If almond oil is available to you, massaging the nails with almond oil daily makes the nails beautiful, strong and cures the brittle nails problem.

This article was altered from the original version which you can find here

If Marmalade Hills' Body Oil is already your favorite product, you can utilize it for massaging it into your nails, as it is made of highly nutritious and moisturizing natural oils that will reduce brittle nails problem and improve elasticity of the skin (cuticles) around your nails.

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
Clean Truth about Antibacterial Soap
10 Foods that are healthier than you think
Healthy Nails Tips
Healthy Hair Tips
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to
Benefits of Green Tea
Beauty Sleep
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6
How to add years to your life

Fourth Fan Page Giveaway

We have been having regular Fan Page Giveaways every time Marmalade Hills acquires 30 new fans! Our fourth Fan Page giveaway is here! Anyone who is our fan on Facebook can enroll to win! This time the winner will receive Marmalade Hills Ultimate Body Butter of their choice (Lavender, Tea Tree Blossom, Cranberry Fig, Coconut Lime)! Body Butters are temperature sensitive products and will not be offered for sale during warm/hot months. You can find out more about our Ultimate Body Butters here.
There are a few rules for this giveaway: to enroll you must be a Marmalade Hills fan on Facebook; you must be 18 years of age or older; and you have to leave a comment to this post. This time please comment about what type of retail stores you see selling Marmalade Hills products? Health food market, Gift/Flower shop, Spa/Salon, Artisan Gallery or something else? I would love to hear your thoughts on this, as it will help me to pursue the right type of possible retail locations. If you leave a comment as anonymous, don't forget to put your name at the end. This giveaway will be closed for comments on February 10th.

Good luck to all!

Truly yours,
Liana.