Create your own 'clean' beauty routine

Over the past few years there's been a growing shift in consumer awareness about health and wellness. With the skin being the body's biggest organ, knowing what you put on your skin is imperative. 

Sometimes clean beauty, that is choosing products that do not contain ingredients that have been demonstrably linked to harmful health effects, means going that extra mile and mixing your own bespoke products, but this can also be a benefit as you can mix and match products to the seasons and your skin's needs.

Using a natural moisturiser, such as one containing Grapeseed oil which is rich in linoleic acid (Omega-6 essential fatty acids) and powerful antioxidants, is a simple change to make. Hydrating Grapeseed oil smooths as it plumps the skin and reduces the initial signs of ageing, helping to protect the skin from damage, caused by free radicals. 

You can mix Grapeseed oil with a multitude of aromatherapy oils depending on your mood. Lavender is an excellent choice, as it's calming, cleansing, relaxing, soothing and a great help to relieve aches and pains, fatigue, stress, anxiety, headache, sunburn, acne, eczema, psoriasis, itchy skin, insect bites and stings too!

Choose a Lavender oil that is of high quality and has provenience in its heritage. For example, Sanatio Naturalis AOP fine Lavender essential oil is grown at an altitude of 1,400 meters in a rare protected natural environment. This mark of Appellation d'Origins Protégée (AOP) denotes very highest quality production from a small organic French farm. The rigorous sorting of the Lavender blooms ensures the handpicked flowers are selected at the optimum moment of chemistry for the best therapeutic, scented essential oil. The French lavender oil is then very slowly steam distilled in an original old copper alembic steamer making the finest luxury oil.

Interested in creating your own skincare blends?

Valerie Ruonan Shi, originator of Sanatio Naturalis, shares her skin recipes:

Facial Blend for daily face massage

Mix one drop Lavender Essential Oil and 15 ml Grapeseed Oil. Apply a small amount of oil to the palms of the hands, massage into the face using upward gentle strokes, finish by putting your palms gently over your eyes and breathe in, very relaxing.

Relaxing Massage

Add five drops of Lavender to 10 ml of Sanatio Naturalis Grapeseed Oil for a relaxing body massage and to release tense aching muscles. This is easy to use daily after your shower keeping tense shoulders at bay, moisturising your body and keeping legs silky smooth too!

Lavender Bathing 

Add 5 - 10 drops of Lavender oil diluted to a warm bath to calm the mind and relax the body. I usually do this at the end of a very busy day to relax before bed.

What to look out for when choosing your oils