Weekend Read 29 April 2023

Weekend Read 29 April 2023

Well here we are, nearly in May and we find ourselves in the middle of the first of three long weekends within the coming weeks.  So, into the warmer months we go and as we do so we will be taking a closer look at the seasonal products that help support our needs.  Some of these products have been tried and tested throughout the years, such as Maui Babe, Mrs White’s Unstung Hero and Thyme Out, which deals rather heroically with many summer skin concerns, such as prickly heat.

To help make life easier, we have put a curated edit of the products we believe to be amongst the very best summer essentials onto the front of our site.  We will be keeping that curation there over the coming weeks, with Mega Probiotic leading the way because we honestly believe that if you are travelling abroad, you should be taking probiotics, actually you should take probiotics at all times but, as ever, that is a considered choice.  All I want to add here is that over the next few weeks, we will be launching some new and exciting products into this category, so it will become an ever-evolving curation, which is what we all are really, ever evolving.
Summer Essentials

So, let’s talk about the evolution of products and as so many of you know, this is a really important focus for us, not least because it is our responsibility to ensure that we are supporting your health and wellbeing needs as best we can, and we have been doing so for a very long time.  As I wrote last weekend, it is no small thing to ask you to change your supplementation, but we did so with the launch of Daily Multivitamins last weekend and I’m not finished yet, because there are more cutting-edge and pioneering products launching over the coming weeks and months.  I am not deliberately drip-feeding them either, these things take time to come to fruition.

It took nearly a year to bring Daily Multivitamins to market, so I just want to say thank you to the many of you who supported our most recent launch.  Daily Multivitamins is an exceptional food-state supplement as it encompasses the very latest research and scientific evidence in its formulation and that’s the most important thing here.  There is absolutely no point whatsoever in launching a new product for the sake of launching a new product, it just doesn’t make sense to do that, most especially because any given supplement is totally dependent upon its efficacy, which is why we will not entertain synthetic or semi-synthetic vitamins. Volumes spoken. 
Daily Multivitamins £30 for 60 Tablets

Anyway, having just mentioned Mega Probiotic, I am dropping the price of Mega Probiotic ND across this long weekend from £22 to £19.  I am fully aware that I dropped the price of Mega Probiotic recently, but I do so again because I know it helps. In full transparency, margins are becoming increasingly tighter, that much is obvious, but if we are to share that margin, and it’s far from easy at times, then my choice has always been to share that margin with each of you rather than participate in any paid-for collusions, and that includes paid-for awards.  Volumes spoken.  Again.
Mega Probiotic ND £19 for 60 Capsules (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 1 May)

Right, on with it and many of you will have read Shabir’s article on Squalane last weekend, where he suggested that you may wish to dose your moisturiser or body lotion with a few drops of 100% Pure Squalane Oil, most especially if you have dry skin.  I often dose my products, but most specifically Shabir mentioned dosing Fulvic Face Cream and Fulvic Body Lotion and although both products are totally amazing without the need to dose, I thought I would follow through on his words by way of two Fulvic treats, for no other reason other than I want to do this.  And I’m in mode.  Given the above.
100% Pure Squalane Oil by Garden of Wisdom for VH £11.50 for 30 ml

Let’s start with Fulvic Body Lotion, and I honestly don’t feel the need to say too much other than this is the lotion I tested for over a year before I told you about it and that it has been formulated using two revolutionary skincare technologies which you can read about on the product page.  It is rich and I think it is probably veering towards being a body cream, as opposed to a body lotion, but that’s my personal opinion.  I will also tell you that we have received a lot of feedback saying that it helps eliminate Keratosis Pilaris (chicken skin) and although it wasn’t formulated to do that, the fact that it can help with KP is the icing on the cake really.

So, when you buy Fulvic Body Lotion, we will automatically include a free tube of Fulvic Face Cream (30 ml), which is worth £15 and that’s the first part of the equation.  The second part is that I am dropping the price of Fulvic Face Cream from £30 to £25 across the long weekend, so two different treats.  You may want one, you may want both and you may not want either, be that as it may, but there is only one gift per customer on the Fulvic Body Lotion treat in order that we may share as widely as we can, which is really important to me.
Fulvic Body Lotion £20 for 200 ml + Free Fulvic Face Cream (30 ml) Worth £15; Fulvic Face Cream £25 for 60 ml (offers end at midnight BST, Monday 1 May)

On the most recent What’s The Solution, a question was submitted regarding low libido.  As you may have read, Maca Root has been the subject of small studies indicating that it may help to boost sex drive in women with low libido, so I just want to stay with this for the moment.  Taking absolutely nothing away from Maca Root, when we first launched Fulvic Acid Elixir, I received many emails telling me that whatever else it was doing, Fulvic Acid Elixir appeared to enhance libido in a rather noticeable way.  And those emails have continued throughout the years, which is quite significant.

Anecdotal evidence certainly has a role to play in any given product, if there is sufficient accurate anecdotal evidence to support such findings.  I have enough evidence to support this finding, and strangely enough it doesn’t happen with Ionicell, so it must be something in the liquid, but I honestly don’t know what it is.  Notwithstanding that, Fulvic Elixir hasn’t suddenly transformed itself into the one and only libido liquid and it may not help everybody but bearing in mind I lowered the price of Fulvic Acid Elixir last weekend, I will uphold that offer this weekend too, in light of what I’ve just written.  It won’t work straight away, but if it does, do let me know.  I’m discreet.
Fulvic Acid Elixir £25 for 480 ml (drops from £30 and offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 1 May)

Moving on, Weleda's Hayfever Relief Oral Spray is a homeopathic oral supplement to help relieve hay fever and other forms of allergic rhinitis.  Containing organic extracts of Allium cepa (onion), Euphrasia officinalis (Eyebright) and Gelsemium sempervirens (Yellow Jasmine), it will help with sniffles and sneezes and will also help to relieve itchy, watery eyes and blocked noses that are caused by airborne allergens.  Nothing to add other than I always spell hay fever as two words, others spell it as one word.  A mild observation.
Hayfever Relief Oral Spray by Weleda £11.50 for 20 ml

Having just written about an oral supplement, I will balance that with a topical product and that topical product is Sinol D Decongestant Nasal Spray.  Containing Eucalyptus, Aloe Vera and Sea Salt, Sinol D has a soothing effect as it helps break down mucus and helps reduce irritation.  A couple of weeks ago I led the Weekend Read with some hay fever solutions, but there is not a definitive product which will work for everybody.  However, Sinol D Decongestant Nasal Spray has been a bestselling product in this genre for several years and importantly it can be used long-term, unlike antihistamine nasal sprays which tend to dry out the nasal passages.
VH Editorial: How To Relieve Blocked Sinuses; Sinol D Decongestant Nasal Spray £14.95 for 15 ml

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Pukka Herbs and their decision to discontinue their supplementary range of products as they would just be throwing the focus on their teas.  Their organic castor oil was amongst one of the products which had reached the end of its life, so we have had to replace that product and we have done so with Heritage Store’s 100% Cold Pressed Castor Oil, which is vegan and cruelty free.  And back to Pukka, their Organic Elderberry Syrup is also being discontinued, but we managed to get a last and final delivery before it hit product heaven.  We don’t have a huge volume of stock, but we have some, so I’m listing it below for ease.  Before we say adieu. The final goodbye.
100% Cold Pressed Castor Oil by Heritage Store £10.99 for 237 ml; Elderberry Syrup Organic by Pukka Herbs £14.99 for 100 ml

And it's adieu to another product which is about to go to product heaven.  I can barely believe I am writing this because I declared it as the product of month in January, asking you to remind me to include it in the VH Awards at the end of the year.  Except there will be no award for Magnesium Soap, unless I award it posthumously, which I might just do.  Magnesium Soap so deserved its accolade because it helped to cleanse and calm irritated skin, most especially for those who were prone to eczema and psoriasis.  It also helped correct Magnesium deficiencies, and we are mostly magnesium deficient.  Additionally, it didn’t dry out skin, so it was ideal for sensitive skin.

Falling under the category of therapeutic bathing, we will of course miss Magnesium Soap, but there is a story behind this.  Magnesium Soap is £5.49, but I’ve literally just been told that if we were to continue listing this soap, then the price would increase to approximately £15, which I found unacceptable.  Its ascension to heaven was a decision I had to make, so in one final fling I am offering you a chance to buy Magnesium Soap and if you feel the need to stash, then please do because I have also stashed and with a sell-by date of November 2024, there is still plenty of life left in this remarkable soap.
Magnesium Soap by Life-Flo £5.49 for 121 grams

Staying with therapeutic bathing, at the beginning of this month, 1 April to be precise, I wrote about the healing qualities of medicinal bathing powders from Japan.  These products sing to me because I am a huge advocate of ritualistic bathing and I have all four powders lined up in my bathroom essentially because I am then able to choose according to need and mood.  I really can’t separate them out, I think they are all wonderful, but I will tell you that Yunohana Powder is the bestselling product.  Anyway, there has been a famine across each of the products, unsurprisingly perhaps, but they are all now back in stock, and with that an invitation to soak.  Medicinally. 
Yunohana Natural Hot Spring Bath Powder by Tribe Skincare £18 for 120 grams; Japanese Bath Powder With Liquorice, Aomori Hiba Oil & Squalane by Tribe Skincare £18 for 200 grams; Japanese Bath Powder with Koyamaki, Sugi & Hanoki by Tribe Skincare £18 for 200 grams; Japanese Bath Powder with Hokkaido Acacia Honey, Lemon Extract & Pure Sunflower Oil by Tribe Skincare £18 for 200 grams

Back to supplementation and it’s interesting to note that many vitamins are commonly referred to by their role function, such as Vitamin D is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin.  Vitamin B12 is commonly referred to as the energy vitamin, although it has a number of other very important functions.  It is thought that many of us have sub-optimal levels of B12 and for the longest time experts believed that a B12 deficiency was solely associated with vegetarians, but that belief was wrong.

Vitamin B12 is a co-enzyme and it is required by the enzymes within our bodies to perform many critical functions in the body.  A lack of Vitamin B12 can often lead to fatigue and a general lack of energy, an inability to concentrate, mood swings and sleep disturbances.  Shabir writes about all of this and more in his article linked below, so all that is left is for me is to tell you that our chosen B12 supplement is B12 Elite and that I’m dropping the price of B12 Elite from £14 to £12.
B12 Elite by Life Extension £12 for 60 Lozenges (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 1 May)

Onwards and because I wrote about dosing products above, another opportunity to dose and this time we will use Hyaluronic Acid Serum, which is one of our bestselling serums.  This lightweight serum delivers a vegetarian based HA, which is free from alcohol and silicones, we like it that way.  Anyway, do with it what you will, but let it be known that I have massaged this serum onto my legs before stepping into a bath, which is somewhat indulgent I guess, but it’s all in the name of research.  Anyway, the important thing here is that in another one of those limited edition oversized treats, we are offering you 45 ml of Hyaluronic Acid Serum for the price of 30 ml.  That’s it.
Hyaluronic Acid Serum – Vegetarian by Garden of Wisdom for VH £11.50 for 45 ml (whilst stock lasts)

On theme, and staying with skincare, Aurelia’s Revitalise & Glow Serum delivers potent botanicals, probiotics, peptides and antioxidants to help protect and balance the skin.  It is at that stage of the newsletter that I often refer you to the product page of any given product and so that’s what I am going to do.  What I am also going to do is take the price of Revitalise & Glow Serum (30 ml), down from £69 to £29, whilst stock lasts, which is a saving of £40.  I have random moments at times, and this is another one of those moments.  In a long line of them.
Revitalise & Glow Serum by Aurelia London £29 for 30 ml (whilst stock lasts)

Weleda.  I have written about a product from Weleda earlier in this newsletter, so something else to say here.  And that something else is that if you buy any product from Weleda, including the Hayfever Relief Oral Spray, we will automatically send you Skin Food (10 ml), which is probably their bestselling product.  I am not limiting this to one gift per customer, so in other words for every Weleda product bought, you will receive this gift.
Weleda Products

Finally, a reminder that three of the Temple Spa Truffle products are on offer this month and this offer ends at midnight BST tomorrow, Sunday 30 April.  Each of the products listed below has a retail price of £90, which individually drop to £50, meaning that you save £40 on each of the products mentioned.  That’s it, this section of the newsletter is over.
Skin Truffle £50 for 50 ml; Truffle Noir £50 for 50 ml; Truffle De-Light £50 for 50 ml: All by Temple Spa   

Before we head into the Saturday only treat, I want to take a moment to talk about Poppy.  That would be Poppy Delbridge, the founder of Rapid Tapping, who is one of life’s very special people.  Wonderful Poppy, she came into our lives during the pandemic offering support and help at such a difficult time.  I respect her work immensely and I have been tapping with Poppy for a long time.  Rapid Tapping changes lives, it has certainly changed mine and I absolutely know that it has changed many of your lives too.  And I know this because so many of us share in our safe and sacred space, which is always so incredibly cathartic.  So, with that said, I have news.

Poppy has just announced a brand new Rapid Tapping experience.  It’s called the Dream Vision Bootcamp, it takes place over three days, 23-25 May, with a thirty minute tapping session on each of those days between 12.30 and 1 pm BST.  This is open for everybody and this training and vision system will probably help change your life if you commit to all three days.  Poppy states that it is the proven blueprint to having the life of your dreams. So, all I need to add here is that the Dream Vision Bootcamp is free of charge and it is often said that when the student is ready, the teacher comes along.  If you feel you are ready, I have linked the registration details below.
Dream Vision Bootcamp with Poppy Delbridge

And into the Saturday only treat we go and with every order placed for £30 and above, excluding p&p, we will automatically send you Super Shower Power Conditioner (50 ml) from Neom Organics.  This nourishing formula blends coconut and almond oils, as well as shea butter and algae extract, to help moisturise the hair and I suppose you could use it as a hair mask too.  Product details listed below.
Super Shower Power Conditioner

As we come to the end of another newsletter, I just want to say that I believe the VH Playlist tells the story of our lives over the past two or three years.  In a way it is a musical journal of who and what we are together and how music held us together in some of our darkest moments.  We walked into and through the unknown and for so many reasons we are still walking that path.  And as we do so, it has become apparent that the world has changed and people have changed, yet we still have the freedom of choice, the freedom of speech and the freedom to walk away from those who no longer share our values, which I commented on last weekend.  Let’s sing.
I Want To Break Free by Queen; The VH Playlist

With love and wishing each of you a restful long weekend.

Gill x