I visited our local health shop last week to talk to the new owner Neil, about Botanicals Natural Skin Care. Neil explained that he'd looked at a lot of skin care ranges, but hadn't found anything before that didn't smell awful! (Thankfully, he loved all the Botanicals smells!)

Surely, everyone (women and men) go for nice smells when choosing a personal care product. The cosmetics giants know this only too well, and invest millions of dollars in the formulation of fragrance. Unfortunately, this is typically synthetic fragrance, which brings with it the health concerns covered in my earlier blog post about 'secret ingredients'.

Why then are organic skin care producers seemingly not conscious of the importance of a nice smelling product?

Organic skin care products are made with all things that are good for your skin; natural vegetable oils, butters ,waxes, herbal extracts and essential oils. However, good as they may be for the skin, certain organic extracts, oils and tinctures, have a fragrance that is are more reminiscent of a compost heap, than the bunch of sweet smelling herbs or botanicals from which they originated. (Do you remember as a child, making 'perfume' by soaking rose petals in water?)

As a formulator of organic skin care products, I have always had the fragrance of the finished product right at the top of my 'must have' list.

Aromatherapy has always played a major part in the development of Botanicals products, which are designed to work holistically (with the person as a whole). This follows my personal belief that beauty comes not only from the care and nourishment of the skin, but also from the emotional benefits of fragrant plant essences.

This doesn't mean that we exclude certain therapeutic herbs and extracts because of their smell. They are all in there - and in beneficial proportions - but any undesirable smell has either been organically de-odorised, or masked by something equally beneficial, but more pleasing to the nose.

How much does your nose affect your skin care choices? Let me know, (along with anything else you consider important when choosing your daily skin care products), and we'll send you some free samples of our fragrant smelling Botanicals!

You can contact me via the contact page on the website.