It's Silver for Orange Lip Balm in the FreeFrom Skincare Awards!

Orange Lip Balm has won Silver in the “Face Care (‘Leave On)” category (sponsored by Barefoot SOS) in the fourth annual FreeFrom Skincare Awards presented at the Love Natural, Love Organic Show at Olympia, London on Friday 3rd July. 

The Awards were founded to encourage and reward manufacturers of skincare products that are ‘free from’ many of the allergens, chemicals, additives and fragrances associated with skin sensitivities, allergies, and ethical, environmental and health concerns.

I was thrilled to be shortlisted, so actually winning Silver is fantastic.  The fact that we were up against all sorts of facial skincare products, not just other lip balms, makes the achievement even more gratifying.  In fact, we were the only lip balm amongst the winners, so technically you could say that we won Best Lip Balm!  I’m proud that I can now say that my Orange Lip Balm is multi-award winning!

The announcements followed a long judging process which included a rigorous month-long assessment by testers recruited by the Awards’ associates, the Ultimate Natural Beauty Bible, and concluded with several days of expert judging sessions.  Some of the comments from the Beauty Bible testers: 

“I would buy it to carry in my bag during those walks across the moors - it will be invaluable. Love the plumped-up lips. Packaging is simple and effective, great little tube... And the ingredients - rapeseed oil (so good, local stuff and a welcome change from olive oil), oat kernel oil, rosemary and orange oils, simple and so effective.”

“A very efficient lip balm. It delivered moisture and relief from dry lips immediately. I would definitely buy this. I loved it.”

The awards were presented by ‘Imperfectly Natural’ beauty and holistic health guru and author, Janey Lee Grace. Head over to the Skins Matter website for a full list of winners.

Buy Fairfield Gardens Orange Lip Balm from here.

Lip Art

I recently came across these pencil illustrations by Christo Dagarov.  He's taken lips and given them some interesting textures.

The middle one could definitely use some lip balm!  You can see more of his other work here.

5 Ways to Celebrate Your Lips This Lips Appreciation Day!

Have you heard of Lips Appreciation Day?  It's a day to celebrate our lips and appreciate all the wonderful things that they allow us to do – eating, drinking, smiling and kissing to name a few and it’s today - 16^th March.

Here are 5 ways to celebrate your lips this Lips Appreciation Day:

1. Give them the lip equivalent of a high-five, with a nourishing and moisturising lip balm. (I suggest Fairfield Gardens lip balms of course!)
2.  Eat something delicious.
3. Smile at a stranger.
4.  Give lots of kisses.
5. Pout in a photo.

In honour of the day I'm offering 50% off all Fairfield Gardens lip balms for the next 24 hours.  Use the code #loveyourlips at checkout.

Why not share your lips appreciation today?  Post photos of yourself showing some lip love on Instagram, Twitter or on Facebook?  Use the hashtag #loveyourlips and tag @FairfieldGdns (Twitter) or @fairfield_gardens (Instagram).

Happy 2015!

May 2015 bring you more of what your heart desires and more of what your soul requires.

Festive Fun - Christmas Kisses Competition

It's December, the decorations are up, the Christmas CD is on and I'm feeling festive!  Fancy joining in some festive fun?  From now until midnight on Sunday 14th December I'll be hiding a Christmas Lip Balm in one of the listings on one of the websites that stock Fairfield Gardens lip balms.  All you have to do is find the Christmas lip balm and tell me where you found it.  Everyone who takes part (and answers correctly) will be entered into the grand prize draw at the end of the week where the prize is a year's supply of lip balm!  Please see the Terms & Conditions below.

First you have to find the Christmas Lip Balm.  It looks like this:

And it's hidden on one of these websites:

Gentle Bodycare

LoveLula

Adore Naturals

When you find it, go to www.fairfieldgardens.co.uk to enter.
Good luck!

Terms & Conditions

• One entry per email address.
• The competition starts at midday Tuesday 2nd December and will end at midnight Sunday 14th December.
• All entries will be included in the grand prize draw, which will take place at the end of the competition.  The grand prize is a year's supply of lip balm of your choice (one lip balm per month for 12 months).
• Competition only open to UK residents.

Gold!

I'm very proud and happy to announce that our Orange Lip Balm has won the Gold Medal in the Best Lip Balm category of the 2014 Green Parent Natural Beauty Awards!  

The orange lip balm has an amazing orange aroma, and the formulation will help to soften and soothe dry lips.  

As well as the award, take a look at what people are saying:

Great product, would recommend
Great product and smells lovely. I love that the company are british (and local) and use natural ingredients. What's not to like?! At an affordable price too.



Great lip balm
Received this lip balm recently and I have to say it's amazing! Really soft and nourishing, with a gorgeous smell and tastes yummy! Can't wait try the other flavours.


I've always loved the orange lip balm, and now it's official that it isn't just me who feels that way!  Experience it for yourself and buy yours now.  Take 25% off with the code GOLD (expires 31st July).

Rosemary Pesto

Inspired by the Rosemary & Lemon Balm Fairfield Gardens Pinterest board (and the profusion of rosemary in my garden!), I had a go at making Rosemary Pesto.  It's actually pretty tasty and is great stirred into plain pasta or used in a rice salad.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp flaked almonds

2 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp grated hard cheese like Parmesan / Pecorino Romano / Grana Padana

5 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil

Salt and pepper

TO PREPARE

• In a small pan, lightly toast the flaked almonds over a low heat until they are just starting to turn golden (optional).
• Place the almonds, rosemary and garlic into a food processor.
• Process until the rosemary and garlic are chopped finely, then add the cheese.
• With the processor switched on, pour the rapeseed oil in a slow, steady stream through the funnel in the lid.
• Scrape the sides and add salt and pepper to taste.  The pesto should not be runny, but should fall off a spoon in a nice dollop (to use the technical term!).

To serve just stir a teaspoon or so through a serving of cooked pasta or rice, or try it on toast with tomatoes and mozzarella (yum!).

If you try this recipe, come back and let me know how you liked it and how you used it by leaving a comment below.

Enjoy!

It's Time to Grow!

Gosh, I started writing this post back in mid-March and now it's mid-May! Oh well, there's still time to get out into the garden and get planting for summer.

While adding pins to the new Fairfield Gardens Pinterest Boards (a legitimate excuse to browse Pinterest during my work day mwah hah hah!) the "Bee Friendly Plants" board made me think about planting my own garden.  I've successfully planted calendula, rosemary and strawberries in the last few years and I've been threatening to plant a fragrant flower garden for ages. With declining bee populations and widespread loss of natural habitats I think that it's really important to do what we can to help provide food and shelter for our bees and other pollinators.  Whether it's a single pot on a windowsill or an entire field of poppies, (to steal a well known catchphrase) every little helps.

So what plants do bees and butterflies like?  Well, there's lots of information to be found online, but the downloadable guides by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) are great.  There's bucket-loads of information about garden plants (handily listed by season) as well as wildflowers.  There's also a great website, Bee Happy Plants, that sells organic plants and seeds that are all helpful to bees.

I like the idea of using the plants and flowers that I grow for food or to use in various skincare concoctions, so I'm going to choose ones that are edible.  But with a large number of plants to choose from you can make your choices based on whatever speaks to you - whether that's colour or smell or purely on looks.

My garden is not large and, so that the kids can have a space to play in, a lot of it is lawned.  But we managed to keep a small space for the strawberries and there's always room for a few pots.

I already grow rosemary, thyme, sage, bay, mint, lemon balm, oregano, strawberries and dwarf apple trees.  Many of those could do with some attention, so I'll be replanting, re-potting and pruning.  Here are a few plants that I'd like to plant (if space allows!):

Calendula

• Calendula (Calendula offinicalis): bright and cheery, easy to grow, easy to care for and if you remove the flower heads periodically it will flower from June right through until the end of September.  The dried flower petals can be used to make infused oils (which has wonderful soothing and anti-inflammatory properties), for cooking with or to make soap and bath items.  They do better in the ground, but don't mind being in pots.

• Borage (Borago officinalis): I planted this a few years ago and it's like catnip for

  

  Borage (image source)

  bees (beenip?).  It also needs very little attention and self-seeds freely so could actually be a good candidate for a pot plant, although I've never tried it in a pot.  The young leaves can be eaten is salads or used to flavour drinks like Pimms, ice tea and lemonade.

Lavender (image source)

• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia): I've tried growing lavender from seed a few times, with very average results. Maybe this year I'll invest in some plants instead.  All sorts of bees love lavender and the flowers have a multitude of uses  - from cooking and baking to skincare and healthcare.  And the colour is amazing.  I dream of having fields of lavender one day!

Sunflower (image source)

• Sunflowers (Helianthus annus): What's not to love about sunflowers?  Cheerful, easy to grow and the flower heads produce loads of tasty (and nourishing) seeds.  This is a great plant to get the kids to grow (if you have them!) as once they get going the plants shoot up quickly.

I did intend to plant a few others, but as time is no longer on my side, I think I'll stick with these few.  It would be great to hear about what you're planting.  Leave me a comment below and tell me about it.

Bye for now!

Scenic Sunday - Loch Lomond

Over Easter I spent some time in Scotland. We were based near Loch Lomond but did a fair bit of driving - going up to the Nevis Mountain Range and down to the Isle of Bute on a day trip. I didn't realise that Scotland is such a HUGE place! But there's no denying that it's stunningly beautiful, with breathtaking views to be found in abundance.

Natural Lip Balm Commended in the 2014 FreeFrom Skincare Awards!

Earlier this year I entered the Natural lip balm into the Skins Matter 2014 FreeFrom Skincare Awards in the "Face Care ('Leave On')" category, and yesterday I found out that it received a commendation! Yay!

In their own words the FreeFrom Skin Care Awards "are designed to celebrate and encourage skincare and cosmetics manufacturers who create products that exclude many of the allergens, chemicals, fragrances and artificial additives associated with skin and health concerns, ethical and environmental concerns, and which may appeal to those looking for purer or more natural cosmetics and products for their skin, including those with problem skin conditions."

And about being commended they say, "A commendation in the Freefrom Skincare Awards goes to products that are well-made and sit comfortably in the natural or 'free from' market..."

I'm so proud to receive this recognition, and in our début year!  You can see a full list of commended products and find out more about the awards here. We're in some pretty nifty company :)