Blog: natural beauty
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How to do a 10 minute facial using natural products from your kitchen

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How to do a 10 minute facial using natural products from your kitchen // Ellie Gill // The Natural Wedding Company

Our make-up artist friend Ellie Gill has put together a 10 minute facial for us using natural ingredients you’d find in your kitchen – now that’s my kind of beauty treatment. Back in the spring she talked to us about the benefits of a pre wedding massage and mentioned that she encourages her bridal clients to do a 10 minute facial in the lead up to their wedding.

I wanted to hear Ellie’s advice for her 10 minute facial, so she’s put together her tips and suggestions. Over to Ellie…

What’s your natural daily skincare routine?

In today’s busy world it’s so lovely to have a daily skincare routine. I find it so relaxing to just take a few moments to pamper myself and I genuinely believe that natural ingredients are the most beneficial.

I’m sure most of you will have experimented with making face mask as a teen. My friend and I used to coat our faces with lumpy bits of banana and egg when we had sleepovers. I always just thought it was a bit of fun and didn’t pay serious attention to my skin but fifteen years later and I’ve returned to the kitchen for some of my favourite beauty staples.

How to do a 10 minute facial using natural products from your kitchen // Ellie Gill // The Natural Wedding Company

A simple routine using natural ingredients

Through years of experimentation with various skincare products and a multitude of brands I’ve finally learnt that money doesn’t buy value and often the most expensive, cleverly branded creams and serums cause my skin to flare up.

Within my job as a makeup artist I see so many different faces. Time and time again clients with problematic skin seem to use lots of synthetic products with tons of suspicious ingredients. My clients with the best skin tend to have a more simple routine using natural ingredients.

So lets take it back to basics.

Top natural beauty products for a 10 minute facial

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The benefits of a pre wedding massage to relax and clear your mind to focus on the true meaning of marriage

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The benefits of a pre wedding massage to relax and clear your mind to focus on the true meaning of marriage // The Beauty Aisle // The Natural Wedding Company

Today I have a wonderful guest post all around taking care of yourself in the lead-up to your wedding by investing in wedding massage to help your de-stress and relax. I think we can too often focus on ourselves in terms of having a beautiful dress, hair and make-up for our wedding, but not actually in nurturing our inner self. Marriage is listed as one of the top stressful life events, we can end up so focused on putting together a wonderful day for all our family and friends, that we actually forget to give ourselves space to process what our wedding day is really about.

My experience of massage and other alternative therapies is that they are not only deeply relaxing but they also give you an incredible opportunity to clear and quieten your mind of all those racing thoughts and endless to-do lists. As a mother I now value those moments as incredibly precious, but I also recognised the importance of this in the lead-up to my own wedding. There are many ways to take this time for yourself, but massage is one of my favourites, and so I’m delighted that Ellie from The Beauty Aisle is going to share her advice on making the most of this wonderful therapy.

Ellie is one of our recommended make-up artists and offers a 10% discount to all our brides-to-be who book her for their wedding make-up, you can find full details of the offer here.

Over to Ellie…

The benefits of a pre wedding massage to relax and clear your mind to focus on the true meaning of marriage // The Beauty Aisle // The Natural Wedding Company

Why get a massage in the lead up to your wedding day?

So your wedding day is coming up. You’ve thought about the dress, flowers, invitations and venue but what about… yourself?

Planning a wedding is great fun but it can be stressful too. During this busy time it’s important to sit back and take time to relax too otherwise you risk suffering from burn out.

There are tons of ways to help you stay calm and collected in the lead up to the big day but I’m going to talk about massage as I know how it has benefited so many of my clients in the long term.

Massage is absolutely fantastic for reducing stress. Small amounts of stress are useful when we need to get things done but too much stress can be extremely damaging to our health. It can affect us in all sorts of ways from tension headaches and skin problems to interrupted sleeping patterns.

During massage your heart rate is lowered and ‘happy hormones’ are released. Many people think of massage as a real luxury but it should be thought of as part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It helps to relaxes muscles, improves circulation and it’s also detoxifying resulting in better immunity.

The benefits of a pre wedding massage to relax and clear your mind to focus on the true meaning of marriage // The Beauty Aisle // The Natural Wedding Company

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Get natural glowing skin for your wedding

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There can’t be many girls out there who don’t want to look and feel utterly beautiful and healthy on their wedding day.  After all those hours we spend at the laptop searching for wedding inspiration and the nights hand making all the pretty details, it’s not soon before we can start to look like an extra for the Twilight films.

I have fair skin, but I still want to have a healthy glow, especially when summer seems to only last for one month in April these days.  So this fab sounding natural product – Skin Glow Body Cream – from award winning Evolve is right up my street.  Available and on sale from The Natural Works Company it contains a tan boosting sugar extract to give you a natural hint of colour.

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Detox naturally this year with The Natural Works Company

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One of the lovely businesses from our directory, The Natural Works Company, is currently running a Detox Promotion and a sale at their website.

Products include John Masters Organics Moroccan Clay Purifying Mask, which removes toxins from the skin and is made from certified organic ingredients…

And Labyrinth Mud Suds Detox Bar, which contains natural mud extracted from the Dead Sea to leave your skin feeling lively, fresh and rejuvenated…

Ideal for banishing those post-Christmas blues – and they’re currently holding VAT at 17.5%!

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Pamper your back with a pre-wedding back facial from Pure Face Works

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Norah is a Holistic Facialist who runs Pure Face Works and believes that “healthy skin is beautiful skin”.  She offers bespoke treatments to relax and re-energise the body and beautify the skin.

Norah is now offering a Back Facial, which follows the same sort of process as a facial, but for your back.  It is great for any bride or bridesmaids wanting to wear a dress that reveals the upper back.

It starts with a dry skin brush to stimulate the circulation and the lymph , then cleanses and polishes your back with a scrub, clay mask and a steam.

Finally, Norah completes the treatment with an Ayurvedic back massage and a warm towel compress before applying a fragrant organic body butter.  Natural and organic skincare products used in the Back Facial are from the Myreen Young range.

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Get smouldering eyes with Pure Anada Mineral Cosmetics

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The lovely Clare of Pure Pampering has created a fantastic autumnal look that you can recreate yourself using gorgeous mineral cosmetics.

This look has been created by Clare Bryce, a professional makeup artist, who specialises in bridal styling and has attended 100’s of weddings!

Clare told me “Many brides love to have smoky eyes on their wedding day, this beautiful look is super stylish but will also have your groom captivated when he looks into your eyes!”

Get the look…

Start with sweeping a pale shade of eye shadow all over your  eyelid, then work your mid shade shadow into the crease and blend.

To add the smouldering effect, add a black eye shadow into the outside corner.  Add black eye liner to the top and lower lash line. Finishing with two coats of black mascara.

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