Natural Cosmetics......... WHAT IS IT?

Natural cosmetics are personal care products wholly made from natural ingredients. These natural treasures are found in plant and earth matter, ranging from the cocoa butter which is extracted from the cocoa bean to zinc oxide found in below the earth’s surface. Natural cosmetics provides nourishment and protects the skin from external elements whilst working with your skin providing balance.

The competition begins in the market. Formulators apply their mastery in combining a selection of natural ingredients to feed and adorn the skin whilst excluding any man made additions which are called additives. Additives are chemicals that come in the form of artificial colours, artificial fragrances and preservatives. This additives will make the product look nice, smell nice, feel nice and absorb quickly within the skin. This is when you say "WOW" that's nice! I'll have one of those!" These chemicals which I will discuss later are doing you more harm than good.

Natural cosmetics is no different to food. It nourishes and feeds the skin externally, but the process is gradual and long term. No different to if you are suffering with bad eye sight and eat one carrot. You are NOT going to wake up the next day with 20/20 vision because you just ate one carrot yesterday!! It will take time, but not a lot of time. You will notice almost instantly that your skin isn't responding negatively. So if there is no stinging, itching and irritation then you are on the right track. That is where the waiting game begins.

There are many types of natural cosmetics and it is up to you the consumer to filter out the imposter's from the genuine. All the answers are in your labels so it is in your best interest to read them. Natural cosmetics will benefit all skin types and will work wonders especially for the sensitive, ultra sensitive, allergic, difficult, dry, combination and normal skin types. There are little to no side effects, and their long term use research has shown that natural cosmetics can in fact aid the delay of the ageing process so you stay looking younger for longer.

Natural cosmetics shouldn’t cost the earth.

Natural cosmetics should have a SHORT shelf life.

Natural cosmetics shouldn't have fragrance added to them. (Unless essential oil is used)

Natural skincare cosmetics should only be white. (Unless a natural fruit extract has been added to it to change its colour)

Natural cosmetics should be simple and easy to use.

Natural skincare cosmetics should be kept under 20 degrees to avoid fast expiration.

Natural cosmetics are no different to your fruit and veg. Your supplier should stock and keep them in the fridge to keep fresh. You wouldn't see the supermarkets putting their fruit and veg down the unrefrigerated isles.

Natural cosmetics should have a natural preservative which is easily understandable and worded in layman's terms.

Marina

Finally, do your own research and don’t be afraid to speak directly with a manufacturer to clarify any concerns or questions you may have.

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I Just DONT Have Time!!

How often have I heard the phrase "I just DON'T have time to look after myself and tend to my face" Well if I was given a dollar every time someone told me this, I would be living in Hawaii, PERMANENTLY!!

It is an unoriginal excuse. Everyone has time to look after themselves and tend to their faces. If I, a mother of 4 can do it, then so can you. You just need to get into the ROUTINE. Look after number 1 first and then the rest will follow. Let me put it this way, when you going on a plane, the flight attendants stand up at the front waving their hands around like they are drying their nails, pointing out the exists. Then the voice recording instructs you that in case of an emergency and the oxygen masks drop, put your own oxygen mask on BEFORE tending to the children or anyone else.

Now I know that looking after your skin in the morning isn't exactly what I would call a life threatening emergency. But again when you have given yourself a few minutes to wake with a quick skincare routine you will feel all refreshed and ready for the day. Guaranteed! (That is unless you have in fact had a bad nights sleep!)

True Love Blush

The simple everyday make up doesn't have to be elaborate or time consuming. If you are going to the gym, please don't bother. You don't need make up when you are working out, unless your a single girl and there is someone you want to impress at the gym!However, for everyday activities like going to the shops, going to work, or even if you are busy at home and perhaps expecting company, you can look made up with very minimal amounts of make up. Being made up with all the bells and whistles everyday is very time consuming, costly and when you are going on a special night out or day out, you are not going to look any different.

After cleansing, toning and moisturising, apply a little blush. The pink powder that you see on your left is the True Love Blush. Only a small amount is all you need as 'less is more'. If you are naturally red cheeked, then skip this altogether.





Eye Liners. 6 shades available
Grape, Brown, Black, Smokey, Amethyst, Khaki

Applying eye liner draws attention to your eyes and away from any imperfections that you may have elsewhere on your face without adding concealer and foundation. This pencil is made from cocoa butter base so it will glide on your eye lid and also on your water line. Your water line is the inner part of your bottom eye lid and will act as a highlight to your eyes. Practise makes perfect so time and time again as you apply your eye liner you will develop your own technique, become more confident and quick in your application. Dressing up the eyes alone is enough to make you look made up. Even if you were to apply nothing else.

MAL01

Next is the lipstick!! I love lipstick, Again another product which draws attention away from your imperfections without needing to add concealer and foundation. A nice colour that will suit you for everyday wear. This lipstick has no chemicals whatsoever. All ingredients are on the website. The base of this lipstick is cocoa butter, vitamin E and candelilla wax. Rest assured that if you kiss your little ones square on the lips they are safe as there are no toxins in any Marina's Ambrosia products. There are 7 popular shades of colour.

If you are thinking now, only 3 items of colour isn't enough. On the right is exactly what I am wearing. I have applied a grape eye liner to the top of my upper eye lid close to the eye lashes, black eye liner to my water line (the inner part of my eye on the lower eye lid) and amethyst eye liner under my water line. (We have all these colours in our range) I absolutely love my eye liner and I often wear it alone with just lipstick! I also have a light dust of blush on my cheeks and lipstick MAL01. "Where were you going?" Well, this is my everyday look. It takes me 2 minutes to apply. My hair is also dyed with Chocolate Brown henna which I do once every two months. (available in our 100% Herbal hair colours range) Half of my hair is pulled back and holding it back is a loose silver claw clip with 6 scattered diamonties.

Brushing your hair and tying it back will also change the way your face looks too. All you need is a few simple hair clips and everyday you can have a different look. Half pony, full pony, low pony with a few loose hairs on the side, high pony with the braid, low braid, side braid and even just a headband that has a bit of colour in it will give you a different look again. Try different ways to do your hair to best suit you, your lifestyle and more importantly your time.

So when you are thinking to yourself, I don't have TIME to look after myself and tend to my face, think again and just give it one try. When you look good, you feel better within yourself and ready for any situation!

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Lets go back to the beginning!

Cosmetics is the one word to describe what we use for skincare, make up, hair care, perfumery and any other product or ingredient used on the body. There is so much history about cosmetics with very conflicting time lines as to how long ago it actually started. Some reports suggest it goes as far back as 10,000BC and other reports will say it has been around as long as there have been people around to use them.

The oldest use of cosmetics dates back to Ancient Egypt where cosmetics were used from birth right through to death. Cosmetics all started out in the beginning very natural and raw. Over the past 200 years we have seen it evolve into something that is becoming very toxic, dangerous to our health.

The thought that a woman’s daily ritual needing to be time consuming, complex, cost the earth and come in a fancy bottle is creating personal strain on females of all ages. It has become somewhat like a drug. The earlier you start the more you seem to want to apply and the more you think you need. It gets to the point with many that you wouldn't leave the house without it. Woman are now going as far as putting on "THEIR FACE" when they go into labour at 1am because, heavens forbid anyone seeing their faces during child birth. I have a little laugh thinking that maybe a white sheet over the head during labour would be more practical?

Keep in mind .....Cosmetics has its place in our daily lives, however we need to be logical and self aware, BUT not self conscious.

We have all seen the beautiful celebrities on the cover of various magazines. I myself don't aspire to be like any of them and I wouldn't want to swap my life with theirs either (except for perhaps their bank accounts!!). If you and I both had 5 different specialised woman working on us each morning, we would look the same if not better than them!

Imagine having one lady do your hair, one lady working on your make up, one lady massaging and moisturising your body, one lady ensuring no bodily hairs are growing where they shouldn't and another lady dressing us for the outside world! ohhhhh, just imagine........ Ok ladies back to reality... and the reality is, that if each one of those beautiful celebrities didn't have all that help, well, they wouldn't look the way they do. By the way the camera man and the photo shop technology also have a lot to do with it too!!

The most important thing in this day and age is to cleanse and moisturise your skin. That is the most essential thing to do. Applying sunscreen to the face is the best product you can use to slow the ageing process. PLEASE don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Lipstick or lip gloss is something that will brighten up your face and actually make you look made up wearing it on its own. Brush your hair and apply a deodorant under your arms (we will discuss the deodorant in more depth later) and you are good to go first thing in the morning.

Finally, lead by example, the best thing to put on your face which will always make you look beautiful, and feel good about yourself is a SMILE!

 

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Hello world! Marina's Ambrosia has a blog!

In 2002 Marina's Ambrosia came to life when I was able to help my own skin when no one else could. I had suffered from constant and ongoing reactions to chemicals in skincare and had no idea that this was happening. I just thought this or that particular brand is just not suiting me so I need to try something else.

WOW I gotta tell you, it started to get very very expensive. Lucky for me, just when I was at my wits end and about to go on some serious oral medication, I started a new module in my Natural Therapies studies.

This module in particular highlighted natural plant based ingredients like cocoa butter, jojoba oil, essential oils and other raw ingredients being good for the skin. I found this absolutely fascinating and decided to go and actually read the ingredients on the back of one of my cleansers. Believe me I had over 12 different types of shop cleansers in my collection during my quest for something that will fix my skin. The label had words on it that seemed to use every letter of the alphabet. I decided to try the Internet search engine to help me decode as to what these ingredients were.


Small selection of MA Products

OH MY GOODNESS..... I couldn't believe what I was reading!!!! The ingredients were those used in industrial cleaning agents, heavy metals, petroleum extracts, solvents and these were just to name a few. The more I researched the more shocked I became. The only question that came to my mind was "Does anyone out there know of this information??" and then another question followed "Why are they putting this rubbish in our personal care products?" Well the answer to both of those questions is "NO" people don't read their labels to know and if they did they wouldn't understand what was in it and the BRAND MANUFACTURERS use these ingredients because they are cheap, they do the job and the make a lot of money. Simple as that.

But what we now see happening is that people are getting sick.... and they don't know why. It makes me very sad.

Primrose Moisturizer

In 2002, I formulated the Primrose Moisturiser. In 3 weeks my skin had improved immensely! It was like a magic cream. But being that I had been let down before by other brands that worked for a short time before my skin reacted, I gave the cream some time. After 6 months, not only did my skin completely heal up, it was looking so very healthy and come THAT time of the month.... only 1 blemish would come through. I learnt to make friends with that 1 blemish that would appear in different areas of my face. That one blemish I could handle. (Sometimes I would wish that if it HAD to come up, it would come up on my backside instead of my face!!) BUT the burning, itching, irritation and a rash like break out...... NO SORRY I cant handle and I wont tolerate.

Just take a moment out of your busy day and just do yourself and your family a favour and just enlighten yourself on what is in ONE of your personal care items, Whether it may be a shampoo, moisturiser, eye cream or even your baby's bath gel. Knowledge is power and it is up to us to arm ourselves with it and pass it on.!!

www.marinas-ambrosia.com