Swathy and Sky

Earthy Goods Forest Honey Nourishing Handmade Soap {Product Review}

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Last week, I discussed with you the difference between a soap and a beauty bar. So, the speciality of this soap is that it is handmade and full of natural ingredients for real.

Price: Rs 95 for 100gms.
Ingredients

Pros
– moisturizes the skin and keeps it soft
– made up of natural ingredients
Cons
– melts very soon 🙁
My Experience

It is a really good awesome soap. It is moisturizing and doesn’t let your skin dry. In winters, I went without a moisturizer after my bath both at night and in the day time and my skin didn’t really feel stretched at all. So, in summers, its gonna be great!!! And, I can definitely say this is one of the few soaps I have loved completely and I do love the ingredients.
Ok, there is one problem – Palm Oil.  If you are not aware, palm trees are getting endangered due to their extensive deforestation so palm oil is being actually avoided in products and its substitutes are being used. Sometime back, Lush also started a “Save Palm Trees” campaign (something like that if I didn’t get it right exactly). So, I would definitely appreciate that ingredient to be not used.
Availability
Website – Earthy Goods
And, I also feel good that the company is trying to do a bit of good for the rural people. And, you should definitely check out all the things they have in their store.

Evion Tablets and Joint Pains {Health}

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So, yesterday, I was just talking to my mom [She’s on a visit to me] and suddenly, she asks this question that “Why are you not taking the Evion tablets? You have so many of them!!!”. That was how our discussion started. And, she told me that she had taken scores of Evion in 90’s to get rid of her muscle and leg aches. And, they really helped her. So, I thought that would make a good post for everyone to be aware of.
But, before anything, let me be very clear that I am not endorsing Evion or any supplements for that matter. In fact, I am downright against popping scores of pills into your mouth. And, I would never advise anyone to do that unless t has been recommended by a doctor. This post is just for information and not recommendation. And, if you are facing certain same issues, it would do good to increase your Vitamin E intake instead of simply taking the pills.
What is Evion?
Vitamin E dissolves fat and is used for treating diabetes, preventing cancer, treating neurological disorders and also helps with problems related to the heart like hardening of the blood vessels,heart inflammation and other heart diseases. Vitamin E also helps protect skin from effects of sun exposure. It is an anti-oxidant and fights the free radicals getting generated in the body.So, that was about Vitamin E and Evion tablets are Vitamin E supplements which are generally safe for intake but excess of everything is harmful. Excess of Vitamin E reverses all the benefits it provides so it is better to be in moderation.

Food Sources of Vitamin E

That, Vitamin E is really good for the body apart from keeping the skin soft and supple. So, regular intake of Vitamin E in proper doses in a day helps in a healthy body. But, as I have already discouraged intake of supplements, try to fulfill the daily needs of Vitamin E through intake of proper nutrition.
Sources of Vitamin E are all kinds of nuts and beans. Nut butters and oil like peanut butter, sesame butter, almond butter, peanut oil, olive oil, etc. also provide high doses of Vitamin E. Green vegetables, tomatoes and mango are also rich in Vitamin E.I would also like to add that deficiency of Vitamin E is very rare so if you really think that it is happening with you, please always consult a doctor first before taking any kind of supplements. It is not a healthy procedure to fulfill nutritional deficiencies by taking supplements unless your body has some major issue.

Do you take Evion?

How to make Perfume Oil at home? (Part I) {DIY}

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Note: This post is a lot personal and I am describing how I went about making perfume. I am not sure if I have entirely succeeded so I shall just recount my experience and my knowledge of all I have read regarding the subject. So, please bear with me. The series is divided into four parts as I could not make a huge post. Hope you like it. And, let’s get on 🙂
So, last Sunday, I sketched up a guide on how to go about using essential oils. Coming down to business, I was always interested in creating a perfume for myself because, as a general rule, perfumes don’t suit my nose and end up giving me headaches. Of course, I haven’t tried Dior and Chanel as they are quite out of my range.
And, then, sometime in last few years when I started this blog, I came across the idea that you could make perfumes at home using essential oils. But, I wasn’t sure if EO’s available in the market were really pure or not. And then, one of my friends and bloggers, Leon introduced me to this great wholesale site in India which sells EO’s and other amazing products. Check it out here. For the record, I am not asserting their purity but I found them to be better than others I have tried (I haven’t yet tried Forest Essentials, though). So, let us delve into some background of perfumes.
Perfume and its Notes
A perfume is a blend of notes of fragrances. I am talking about ones you get in the market. But, if you are going to make it personally, you can combine a fragrance for yourself using just a single fragrance as well. That’s entirely up to you. But, in general, a perfume has three notes:

  • Top Note: which is the first smell you get when you smell the fragrance. They are the lightest group of essential oils which evaporate very quickly because of their small molecular size. Generally, all the citrus and fresh EO’s come under this category. For example, lemon, orange (sweet and bitter), mandarin and many more!!!
  • Middle Note: which is the heart fragrance of your perfume and it starts developing just immediately before the top note is going to die away. It has lesser evaporation rate than the top note and thus, last longer than them. It also helps to blend away the base note more pleasantly into the perfume. This category includes a lot of EO’s like the floral genre or the oriental EO’s. For example, neroli, vanilla, rose, lavender and many more.
  • Base Note: which is the base of the perfume and lasts the longest as it has least evaporation rate and largest molecule sizes. Some of the base notes can last for days on the body. It starts developing almost after the heart of your perfume goes away. The base notes combined with the heart notes give a certain depth and character to your perfume. So, if you are going to use only single essential oil for your perfume, always use the base note. These scents are mainly woody or spicy. For example, cinnamon, frankincense, patchouli and many more.
  • Bridge Notes: which help bridge the scents of the middle and the base notes with the top notes. The middle and the base notes contribute a lot to the top note so you can say all the three notes blend in harmony. So, there is nothing as such separate called the bridge notes but this is just for reference. I don’t even know if perfumers really consider these notes either. As far as I have read, there are only three bridge notes – vanilla, lavender, neroli and Ylang Ylang. Yes, these notes are not categorized separately but are from the middle and base note family. Thus, if you are going to use Ylang Ylang, you can as well use it as a middle note and combine it with a spicy base note. Ylang Ylang is both a middle and a base note.

These are the notes which make a perfume. So, when we make Perfume at home, the various essential oils from all notes are taken and blended together.

What I did?
So, before you start making perfume, you want to buy Essential Oils from various notes which can be blended together. So, I bought five EO’s – Bergamot (it is a top note), Neroli and Rosemary (which are middle notes), Frankincense (which is a base note) and Ylang Ylang (which is both a base and a middle note and can also be categorized as a bridge note).

Now, we blend these EO’s in proportion to create a blend for the perfume. We shall discuss that in the next part.