We are on a roll.  And as I welcome you to the Weekend Read, the peak excitement I wrote about last week continues with yet more new product launches, another award-winning moment and of course the treats.  I have always said that the day I stop becoming so passionate about the products we launch, would be the day that I walk away from all of this.  And yet through it all, my passion, most especially over the past year or so, has increased exponentially because of the overriding need to keep our feet on the ground and embrace reality.  Whatever that looks like.  For each of us.  So let us begin.

And as we begin, please allow me to introduce you to the Calm Patches, which I have been testing, together with some of my friends, for rather a long time.  Having depleted all of my samples some time ago, I felt bereft without them and have been awaiting their arrival with huge anticipation.  In fact these are the patches that I didn’t know I needed until they went out of my life and I then discovered I couldn’t live without them.  I think you may feel the same way too.  I am completely and totally addicted.  It needs to be said.

So let’s talk about them.  The Calm Patches were created to help ease tension, such as headaches and migraines, but I believe they also perform miracles in helping to soothe frustration, anxiety, anger and agitation.  And we’ve all had plenty of that over the recent past.  In some way I suppose you could call them de-stress patches as they are formulated with Chuan-xiong, an ingredient known to calm, Safflower that helps soothe and reduce inflammation, Man-Jing Zi which helps diminish heat and Asarum that is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat aches and pains.

And then there is the unique fragrance which is created by White Peony and Peach.  When I was first testing I thought the scent was pretty weird, but within a few moments I was experiencing a deeply relaxing olfactive experience, so deep that in the moments I didn’t have them I could close my eyes and fragrance was still with me.  And I think it always will be.  They are circular in shape and you can apply them directly to the temples, forehead, or a specific area of headache.  They get to work immediately. 

Alternatively, you can try tapping into a powerful acupuncture point by placing the patch on the top of the foot between the big and second toe, which is known to help subdue liver heat in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  The Calm Patches can be kept in place for twelve hours, which is all rather wonderful, but added to that, every time you press them you get another rush of chill, which completely fascinates me.  Thus the addiction. 

So a huge thank you to Ross J. Barr.  He may well be one of the country’s leading and trusted acupuncture specialists, but he is my hero over and above all else.  And after launching his amazing Healing Patches some time ago, I feel honoured and privileged to continue this incredible journey with him.  And with each of you.  As we help calm the world, in a truly meaningful way.  Together.
Calm Patches by Ross J. Barr £15 for Ten Patches; Healing Patches by Ross J. Barr £15 for Five Patches

It is with a sense of love and gratitude that I bless the day Ionicell was created.  It was with its very launch that we declared that there was a new hair, skin and nail formulation.  A next-generation supplement.  And that next-generation product has gone on to become a rival to the long-standing dominance of High Strength Hyaluronic Acid.  Ionicell is, of course, the capsule alternative to Fulvic Acid Elixir, the liquid.  In some ways it is a triple race to the top, but that race is almost solely dependent upon how many times I have one of my soft moments.  And one of those moments is about to come, with a knowing that Ionicell will be the bestselling winner this weekend.

Maybe it would have been cute to run a Fulvic Acid Elixir treat alongside Ionicell and let them battle it out, but Shabir would lose his mind if I did that.  But now I’ve had that thought, you just know that I will do it at some point, but at least he will be semi-prepared for the moment when.  Anyway, one of the things about Ionicell and Fulvic Acid Elixir, is that they both help support hair growth and that was slightly problematic during lockdown, as many of you discovered.  But it wasn’t just our hair that grew wildly, our nails joined the party too, with rather a lot of help from Fulvic Nail Cream, but that’s another story.  Of magnitude.

The story right now is that I am not only taking the price of Ionicell down from £20 to £17 across the weekend, but I am throwing in the 60 ml Fulvic Acid Mist, which is worth £12.50, with every order placed.  We recommend spraying the Mist onto your scalp to help enable the renewal of cell life and keratin function, so often associated with hair loss, but you can also spray it onto your skin and your nails too.  It is a veritable cocktail of wonderfulness, fuelled by the power of Fulvic Acid.  For the record, I think you all know that I take Ionicell and Fulvic Acid Elixir.  It’s just that I can’t divide my loyalties.  So I don’t.  And won’t.
Ionicell For Women £17 for 60 Vegicaps (Including Fulvic Acid Mist 60 ml); (This offer will end tomorrow, Sunday 16 May at midnight BST); Fulvic Acid Elixir £30 for 480 ml; High Strength Hyaluronic Acid Capsules £35 for 30 Capsules; Fulvic Acid Nail Cream £12 for 30 ml

Right, three new launches from iS Clinical, but before I get to them I need to tell you what happened last weekend.  And I suppose it wouldn’t be too difficult to guess that after launching LiProtect, we now have a wait list.  A rather large wait list actually.  The global demand for this new product has blown us all away, but, and as I wrote on the last Weekend Read, iS Clinical products stand out in the mass of mediocrity and LiProtect truly is in a class of its own, in my humble opinion.  But then I have always believed that each of their products are in a class of their own, in their genre.  Truly nothing comes close, so I apologise for the wait.  Resolution will come.  Soon.  I hope.
LiProtect SPF 35 by iS Clinical £20 for 5 grams (Wait List)

Skincare has, and always will be, a minefield of hype, disinformation and conflicting viewpoints.  And if that’s not bad enough, the SPF market is in a league of its own, with everybody claiming to be an expert in this field.  And then there is the whole debate about the efficacy of SPFs in moisturisers, which I am not going to enter into, save to say that iS Clinical have never included SPFs into their skincare formulations, and actually neither have we in our Fulvic range.  But over and above all of that, such is the rather precarious sun-care market, I believe it all comes down to a matter of trust.  And I trust iS Clinical.

Over the years I have often written that the only SPF I will ever use on my face is Extreme Protect.  And Shabir agrees, in case you needed to know.  So big excitement as Extreme Protect has been re-formulated and here comes the lowdown.  Extreme Protect SPF 40 is a multi-level environmentally protective treatment formula featuring iS Clinical’s proprietary Extremozyme technology, combined with scientifically advanced all-physical sunscreen actives, transparent micronized Zinc Oxide and transparent micronized Titanium Dioxide.  This rich state-of-the-art broad spectrum UVA/UVB sunscreen supports optimal skin health and it is botanically based.

Given that I always say that the iS Clinical products are pretty immaculate, so is their research and development.  And I say this because there is a really impressive Clinical Study demonstrating that we would be more protected wearing Extreme Protect in the sunlight, than lying sleeping in a darkened room at night due to the work of the DNA repair technologies.  In other words, SPF blockers are simply not enough, there has to be more.  And that more comes in three different shades, Translucent, PerfectTint Beige and PerfecTint Bronze.  I have always worn Translucent, but I just might shift myself to Bronze any time soon.  And I shall glow.  As I invite you to join me.
Extreme Protect SPF 40 Translucent by iS Clinical £66 for 100 grams; Extreme Protect SPF 40 PerfecTint Beige by iS Clinical £66 for 100 grams; Extreme Protect SPF 40 PerfecTint Bronze by iS Clinical £66 for 100 grams

Moving on, a lot of words were written about the use of Zinc in the early days of the pandemic.  Being the tenth most common element in the body, Zinc is vital for the functioning of more than 300 hormones and the growing evidence is that approximately 20% of the world’s population is deficient in Zinc.  If anything, the importance and awareness of this mineral has increased, as of course has the need to protect our immune system, no matter what.  Shabir takes a look at the uses, side effects and benefits of Zinc, together with his recommended supplement.  Listed below.  Of course.
VH Editorial: Zinc Supplements: Uses, Side Effects & Benefits; Zinc Caps by Life Extension £8 for 90 Capsules

In this week’s Health Notes, Sarah writes about dental care.  You may not aspire to a Californian babe smile, but healthy teeth and gums are not only attractive in their own right, but looking after your mouth can help fight infection and other problems.  Gums aren’t a glamorous topic, says Sarah, but gum disease is far less appealing.  The investigation.
TLC For Your Smile by Sarah Stacey

I have a bit of Shabir news for you, but I need to do a couple things first, because I’ve started to laugh before I’ve written one word, and I need to concentrate on what I’m doing.  And perhaps you may wish to concentrate with me as I have a very limited-offer treat for you.  I do not expect this to last that long, so if you want it, then I suggest you bash your keyboard pretty rapidly.  I am talking about Beat The Blues Room Spray, which as so many of you know, is a fabulous, calming room fragrance spray containing powerful essential oils to help banish feelings of melancholy.   In other words, a much-revered product of our time. 

Helping to uplift emotions, I am offering you the opportunity of experiencing the brilliance of Beat The Blues in a special, dedicated 15 ml size for £8.  Can I just say here that I am limiting this offer to one per customer in order that we can share as equally as we can.  So, with my Calm Patches firmly in position on several pulse points, I go forth and spray each room and then I walk into the mist.  It is a heady experience.  And it’s all a bit ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’.  Which is about as close as I will ever get to a hallucinatory moment.  I guess.      
Beat The Blues Room Spray by Ilapothecary £8 for 15 ml (whilst stock lasts); Beat The Blues Room Spray £29 for 50 ml

Treat on treat.  And I will now tell you that with any Sarah Chapman product bought, you will automatically receive the 5 ml size of the Skinesis Eye Recovery, which is worth £16.  I think that is all pretty straightforward, no exclusions, just the knowing that you will automatically receive this gift whilst stock lasts.  And please don’t ask me to predict how long that will be, and I certainly wouldn’t ask Shabir.  His track record is not looking good.  Actually.
Sarah Chapman

So on the Shabir front, he is in deep trouble.  Within about an hour of the release of last Saturday’s Weekend Read, it was very obvious that my sanguine moment had rapidly departed my very being as once again, I wrote about Derma E’s Crepey Skin Repair Treatment and once again, we didn’t have enough stock.  And the thing is that although we have another consignment arriving very soon, he still didn’t order enough, so there will be a further consignment on top of the original, if you follow the gist.  And then he received a one liner from me offering him psychic awareness lessons.  And it was with that suggestion that I started to laugh, and actually, I can’t stop.

But more than that, I think this product will haunt him forever.  Maybe he is dreaming about it.  Maybe not.  But this has now become a game, which is pleasing me rather a lot.  The game is that every time I write ‘Crepey Skin Treatment’, more and more people order it.  Of course it is a brilliant product, I wouldn’t write about it if it wasn’t, but when a certain journalist called me and said she wanted to tell her readers about it, I just fell apart laughing again.  This has obviously become ‘a thing’.  The body product that became a facial product.  It’s the stuff legends are made of.  Read all about it. 
Crepey Skin Repair Treatment by Derma E £20 for 180 grams

Let’s do the news and feedback.  As most of you will have read last Saturday, Alpha Arbutin 2% and Kojic Acid 1% Serum went viral on TikTok and then Sarah Jossel featured it on This Morning.  If you missed it, then please refer back to the last Weekend Read, but actually I don’t think too many of you missed it as we had several thousand on a wait list.  Hyperpigmentation has, and always will be, a huge concern for so many of us, but with that said, and I don’t actually know how we have done it, but we have conquered the wait list.  Miracles do happen.  After all.  It would seem.
Alpha Arbutin 2% and Kojic Acid 1% Serum by Garden of Wisdom for VH £12 for 30 ml

Together with Jane Cunningham, the creator of the Japanese Cleansing Clouds, I would like to thank you so much for your loving support as we launched the new Yuzu and Nashi Pear Cloud last week.  There are always the brands and the products that touch a part of your soul, mostly because of the intent behind the creation.  Intent is everything and when that intent is to help make a positive difference to each of our lives, albeit in varying ways, it is my belief such brands and products stand out in the crowd.  The Japanese Cleansing Cloud is such a product.  And I promise you, I know the difference.

So all I really want to say here is that every time I look at Mr Sunshine Cloud, he makes me smile, but what I also want to say is that we have had to take the original Japanese Cleansing Cloud off our site because we have sold out.  He will be back in the fullness of time, but I don’t know exactly when.  We fully intend to create a whole Cloud family, but the constraints of production limit our ability to achieve this in the short-term.  But we trust and we believe.  In gifting.  For all that it means.  Energetically.
Japanese Cleansing Cloud (Yuzu and Nashi Pear) £12 for 100 grams

And into the Saturday only treat we go.  I promised that I would share another award-winning product with you this week, and so I will.  Spacemasks has, once again, won a Gold Beauty Bible Award.  So huge congratulations to Harriet Inglis, the Founder of Spacemasks as I tell you that with every order placed for £30 and above (excluding p&p) we will include a single Spacemask.  Spacemasks became completely iconic in the moment of their launch.  What a journey it has been.  The full size pack is listed below.  Just because I feel like it.  And they are amazing.  Of course.
Spacemasks £15 for 5 Masks

As we come to the end of another Weekend Read, I want to share a piece of music which was sent to me to share with each of you.  The song is lo Ti Penso Amore and some of the clips are taken from the film The Devil’s Violinist, which features the music of Paganini.  The film stars the violinist David Garrett and he is seen here performing with Nicole Scherzinger.  A sense of calm pervades the senses whenever I listen to this, and I listen to it a lot.  Music for the soul.  I believe.
lo Ti Penso Amore by David Garrett featuring Nicole Scherzinger

With love to each of you.

Gill x

 

 

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*Free gifts will only be granted if the items purchased are physical products and your total basket value exceeds the required amount noted.  Saturday only treats are subject to change should the specified gift run out prior to your purchase and are only included in orders placed between 7.45am (GMT) and Midnight (GMT) on the Saturday the Weekend Read is sent.  VH Addicts membership is a digital product and therefore will be excluded from the basket value.  Some gifts are blocked from international shipping due to local limitations imposed based on the country destination.  If this is the case, we will replace the gift with one that is able to be shipped to your destination.