Graham's Natural Skincare

Grahams skincare are natural based products for people who suffer from skin conditions such as Eczema or Psoriasis.  It is new to the UK and comes all the way from Australia and I was very lucky to get to try out a shampoo*, conditioner* and some bath oil*.

Grahams describe themselves as being:

“NEW to the UK Grahams Skincare, Australia’s best-selling natural skincare range of top-to-toe treatments for eczema and sensitive skin conditions has been borne out of a fathers’ desire to ensure his son did not have to suffer from such debilitating physical and psychological effects of severe eczema”.

Living in London, we have hard water and it is one of the things which my hairdresser thinks irritates my scalp (as well as stress) and every now and again I suffer from a flare up of dry skin and my scalp can become a snow globe and it is really annoying.  So I am more than happy to try anything that will help.

Each product came packaged in this lovely bright yellowness as you can see below, a product you certainly wouldn’t miss if it was on the shelves in your local drug store with the bright blue lid giving it a real finish.  Colour aside, the packaging is fairly simple to look at and everything you need to know if before your eyes.

The Shampoo and Conditioner both contain manuka honey and coconut and I should mention they are also SLS Free for those of you will need to know and that they include a gentle blend of organic and natural ingredients to relieve and protect a dry and sensitive scalp.  When using the shampoo, the first thing which shocked me was that the shampoo itself is a pale blue colour, not what I was expecting and having taken the lid off to look inside both bottles, it seems that the shampoo and conditioner are infact blue!  Colour aside, they smell divine, the honey and coconut scent hit your sense of smell as soon as they are released.

Having used this on my hair for the last month, really well timed because my scalp has been a nightmare, I have to say I am impressed that it helped clear up my issue, it didn't cause build up, didn’t make my hair any greasier and left my hair smelling really lovely.  The same with the conditioner, though I don’t tend to condition every time I wash my hair because it simply doesn't work for me, when I did use this, it left my hair really lovely and soft with no knots. Also, when I used my GHD’s to straighten, they glided through my hair.

Then we come to the bath oil.  My favourite of all 3 products and something I really love.  Whenever my skin feels really dry, despite how much I moisturise, I love to add a bit of oil to my skincare routine and sometime there is nothing better than a bath oil.  This particular bath oil contains manuka oil and honey as well as other natural oils such as Olive Oil, Apricot Kernal Oil, Almond Oil, Emu Oil and Vitamin E oil all of which help to cleanse, replenish, nourish and protect the skin without drying it out.

As you add a few drops to your bath water, and I mean a few drops because it is an oil and adding too much can make your bath slippery when you get into it, you can see the oil within the water, so it isn't a good idea to wash your hair (does anyone still do that?).  As you get into the water the oil literally coats your skin and once you emerge from the same water, again taking care not to slip, my skin was amazingly soft, the rough skin on my elbows as was very smooth, the same with my knees and I for one am very impressed with this product.  It can also be used on its own as a massage oil and is gentle enough on the skin to be used on a daily basis.

If you have a scalp issues like me or suffer from Eczema or Psoriasis, I would highly recommend trying out these products.  They are available HERE.

Lush 9 To 5 Cleanser

Lush 9 To 5 can be found amongst the cleansers within your local Lush store. I love the cleansers from Lush and have probably tried most of the items on sale. This product is sold in a black bottle and comes in two different sizes, you can either opt for a 95g bottle which will set you back £4.75 or you can buy the bigger bottle which costs £9.25 for 240g and naturally I opted for the bigger bottle and duly took my goods home. The bottle itself for interest is pure black plastic and has a black flip top lid which is easy to open and close and around its middle is a label which details the name and size of the product and obviously the Lush logo. It is quite blandly presented but it's what's inside that counts! 

When it comes to cleansers there is a reason that I particularly like to use them. So why cleanse? Well living in London it's a polluter haven, lots of cars, buses, trains and tubes all equalling lots of pollution which in turn leads to dirt and grime on the skin. Since living in London, having moved down Sarf from oop North, I have noticed a change in my skin, it is now much dryer and oily in parts, so this has lead to my using more products to try and combat all of this. So Cleansing the skin, which should be part of everyone's daily routine, is done to remove sweat, air pollution, excess oil, grime, cosmetics and bacteria, all of which lead to skin problems and sometimes infection. Cleansing your skin isn't an arduous task, infact it takes me less than an extra five minutes a day to complete this routine, which isn't a lot really. 

Lush 9to5 is marketed as being a 'liquid cleanser' and usually with a cleanser it would involve using it in a similar way you use soap and that is by wetting your face and then lathering the cleanser in the palms of your hand and then massaging over your face for a few minutes before rinsing it off and this is certainly what I had been doing with the Wash Away Clinique Cleanser.

However, with 9to5 you don't need to do any of that, after washing and drying your face as you would normally do in a morning and an evening, all you will then need is a cotton wool pad or ball (I use a pad because the balls make me feel queasy when touching them, even now I've gone cold all over thinking about them) and you simply squeeze a small walnut sized blob onto the cotton wool pad and you simply wipe it over your face, paying attention to your problem areas, which in my case is my cheeks and t-zone where I have dry and oily skin and once you have completed this task, look at the cotton wool pad and despite washing your face thoroughly you will probably notice that this lotion has managed to remove even further excess dirt, grime, oil, make-up etc... without fail every time I use this cleanser on my face after washing, it will remove excess dirt and grime - Yuck! After using it on your face it doesn't leave behind any greasiness or slimy feel on the skin, just soft smooth and moisturised feeling skin. There is also a lovely fragrance of honeysuckle and ylang-ylang left on your skin.

The cream itself is really smooth to the touch, as soon as it touches your skin you can feel its smoothness and it is such a gentle cream which sinks into your skin without a problem. For anyone who hasn't tried it, I would suggest going into a Lush store and asking them if you can try it, they will use the back of your hand as a tester area. So after it is applied to your skin, using the cotton wool pad your skin should feel silky soft and smooth to the touch, which mine always does without fail and your skin should no longer feel dry instead completely moisturised and this is down to the ingredients. 

As ever with Lush you can expect to see a long list of ingredients which the shop assistant went through with me at the time of testing this product. Starting with:

• Almond oil which you can smell slightly when using, it is easily absorbed into the skin to help with moisturising and is suitable for use on all skin types, especially for someone like me with sensitive skin, it causes no irritations. 
• Ylang Ylang oil and this helps to balance the sebum in your skin which can create that over oily look especially around your T-zone (nose, chine and forehead) and in controlling and balances the sebum it also helps deal with overly dry and oily skin. Ylang Ylang also helps soften and smooth the skin. Next is the main ingredient and the one which gives the most noticeable aroma and that is 
• Fresh Dove Orchid Extract which are used to calm and soothe irritated skin and by irritated skin they mean dry problematic skin which is need of a little extra TLC and moisturising. For me, the Dove Orchid Extract is the most noticeable fragrance because it reminds me of the Orchid that I was given for my birthday last year and the aroma is just really lovely.  
• Everlasting Flower Absolute, again not something I have come across before and I was told that it acts as an antiseptic on the skin to ward off infection whilst at the same time it helps to rehydrate the skin. 

And it is suitable for Vegans!

So with all of that knowledge and those ingredients it isn't hard to see why this cleanser comes highly recommended not only from Lush but from me. Having used it since the beginning of November, every day in a morning and in an evening before going to bed I am still amazed at how soft my skin feels after using this cleanser and still shocked that it manages to find dirt and grime on a daily basis, even after I have washed my face. 

At the minute I alternate between using this and another Lush product and having purchased this one just over 2 and a half months I am surprised to say that I have got just over half the bottle left to use and that is with using it on a daily basis and the reason for this is that you don't need to use that much at any time yet it is simple, easy and effective and it ranks highly up on my list of my favourite Lush products and it is something that I am going to continue to use long after it has run out.