During my journey of natural skincare discovery, I have tried several products that didn’t work for me as I’d hoped. Rather than stash them away in a cupboard to be forgotten about however, I experiemented a little and found that while they didn’t serve their original purpose, they provided benefits in rather different ways.

The beauty of natural products is that they are so safe and gentle you don’t have to worry about using them on varying parts of your body. I thought I’d share a list of items I regularly use in this manner:

• Anita Grant’s Ylang-Ylang & Kelp Babassu Shampoo Bar:  I was really hoping this would be a nice shampoo for me, but it made my hair sticky and heavy. Not too surprising as it’s designed for thick, curly hair which is the total opposite of mine, but I thought it sounded nice. I have found it makes a fantastic soap and use it all over my body - it exfoliates gently and the ylang-ylang and kelp prevent oiliness.
• Pure Nuff Stuff Shampoos, Shower Gels and Handwashes: I do actually use these as intended, but I’ve also found they are interchangable. So if I like the sound of a certain shampoo, but want to use it as a bodywash, I can do.
• Essential Care’s First Aid Repair Lotion:  I also use this as intended, but in addition it makes a nice moisturiser if I’m feeling particularly oily. It’s also great at drying out acne and sometimes even prevents a spot appearing if I apply it early enough.
• Akamuti’s Kalahari Watermelon Body Oil: As well as being a gorgeous massage oil, it’s useful after shaving to prevent itchiness. Is also wonderful used as a bath oil leaving my skin baby soft after drying.
• Anita Grant’s Carrot & Wheat Germ Cleansing Oil:  Though my OCM attempts were unsuccessful, I’m currently using this twice-daily on the stretchmarks behind my knees. I’ve only been using it for a couple of days, but it might help and at least enables me to use a product I had 95% of left and no idea what to do with.
• Pure Nuff Stuff’s Afterscrape Balm:  Great for general itchiness and not just after shaving. I’ve even tried rubbing some onto my underarms as a deodorant and it was quite effective.

So don’t go throwing out those expensive goodies you can’t use. Think about how else they might be useful and experiment. Even if something is totally wrong for your skin-type, chances are it will come in handy somewhere along the line. Even though my skin is generally oily, I still get the odd dry patch sometimes.

Also bear in mind that hormones affect our skin and so you might find that some products work better at certain times of the month. If possible, give yourself a few weeks to thoroughly try out a product before dismissing (or praising) it.

In the unfortunate event that you have products which still offer no useful purpose, consider giving them away to friends and family. I gave half a dozen items to a friend the other week and, while she didn’t like all of them herself, her family soon snapped them up with gusto! :D

I’ve been considering trying Aubrey Organics’ Calaguala Fern Leave-In Texturizing Treatment for a few months, to complement the matching shampoo I’ve been using. This is something Pure Skincare don’t currently stock, so I had a quick look around and found an eBay store exclusively selling Aubrey Organics products: iloveaubrey0rganics

They have quite a range and, even better, their prices are cheaper than retail! I was getting low on toner and shampoo I decided to order them too and, as I’d spent over £15, was entitled to a free bottle of Sparkling Mineral Water Complexion Mist. If I spent just over a pound more, I would qualify for free delivery too, so I topped up my order with a bottle of Aloe Vera.

I ordered on Saturday, the goods were sent out promptly on Monday and arrived early Tuesday. There were several samples included, a natural ingredients guide, a product guide and even a tote bag. All very well packaged in a cardboard box with lots of brown paper wrapping. I was expecting the products to perhaps be close to Use By date given the cheap prices, but none of them expire until 2009.

I really like the Complexion Mist too, so I may be ordering some more of that in future. I’ll give my mum the Rose Mosqueta samples and she’ll probably love those. :D

The store changes offers periodically, currently they’re giving away a soap bar when you spend £30 or more. I don’t think they’re doing free delivery at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll do it again at some point.

A little background before I detail all the drama - a few days ago I learned about the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) thanks to Fran over at High On Health, an interesting (and simple) way of cleansing the skin by using certain oils to counteract and breakdown the existing oil that clogs up pores. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it before, especially as it has quite a good following and the majority of users find it works extremely well. I’ll be going into more detail on this in a future post.

The key ingredient is castor oil, a basic and cheap product which has been used topically and internally for all sorts of ailments over the years. So yesterday, I headed down to a nearby pharmacy to grab a bottle and try it out. Except they didn’t have any, and they’ve never stocked it in the past.

Undeterred, I decided to stop off at Tesco’s on the way home. They didn’t have any either - not in the cooking oils section or the pharmacy. The lady behind the counter wanted to sell me a zinc and castor oil cream instead, until I explained what it was for.

At this point, I started wondering what was going on. How is it that a large, modern pharmacy and a national supermarket don’t have this most basic item? Perhaps it was just a coincidence, so I had a look in my local Sainsbury’s too. Nope, nothing there either.

It was a little after 6pm, so too late to check any other pharmacies. I went back home and did a little research and discovered that castor oil is often taken by pregnant women wanting to induce labour. As this practice is questionable, it seems that stores don’t like to sell it.

There are two other supermarkets in my area, and I was getting more and more determined to find the darn oil, so I decided to check them out just in case. Nope, that’s Asda and Morrisons off the list as well.

Today, I got my husband to ring around a few pharmacies (I asked him to do it in case they assumed I was pregnant). He called five places in total - three independant stores and two national chain stores (Superdrug and Boots) and nobody had any. However, there is some good news - Boots have arranged to order some in and it should be ready for collection tomorrow.

Interestingly, one of the pharmacies we contacted said that castor oil isn’t readily available because no one currently holds the licence to distribute it in this country. I find that rather strange, especially as Boots are able to get some, but it would certainly explain things.

The other alternative is to buy online, Googling castor oil brings up several UK-based companies selling it in sizes from 50ml to 1 litre. Assuming I like the OCM, I think that’s how I’ll be buying my castor oil from now on. 

Update: My husband works for the NHS, so I asked him to look for castor oil in the British National Formulary (BNF) - this is the official guide to all licensed medications in the UK for health professionals. It seems that it was once available as a laxative, but has been replaced with other products and is now considered obsolete. Amazing, eh? He also nipped into Boots this afternoon and one of the bottles we’d ordered had come in - I say only one as that’s all their supplier had. Looks like I’ll definitely have to order online if I stick with the OCM…..

It’s rapidly approaching the time of the month I fondly know as payday and therefore it’s time to think about what I’ll be buying for my skin. I tend to spend the whole month beforehand researching products and discovering new things to try, then gradually make a final list. Even that is subject to change at the last minute as I have a (bad) habit of impulse buying.

This month, I’m going to ease up on those impulses and try to be more practical. Over the last year, I’ve amassed a lot of products, all of them lovely, but many not suitable for me. I’ve tried to use them in whatever way I can, but I’m realising that it’s just not good for me - if something doesn’t work, I can’t force it to.

To help me let go, I’ve decided to pass on a few things to my mum. I was intending to buy her a nice moisturiser for Mother’s Day on March 2nd, but instead I’m going to give her a few creams that I haven’t been able to use, including my Mother Earth Orange Flower Moisturiser. I’ve only ever used them after thoroughly cleaning my hands, so I’m not worried about them being secondhand. And if she doesn’t like any of them, then I’ll buy her something new instead, no biggie.

As for what I’m going to buy for myself, I’m being very strict. I’ve decided to go for Anita Grant’s Camellia Copaiba Bath & Body Oil and another of her lip butters (a girl can’t have too many of those ;) ) I think the lemon one sounds nice. I have also sent her an email today asking if the plain Camellia Kissi or the plain Copaiba Balsam would be better suited to my skin, so it’s possible my choice may change. But ultimately, I am only going to be buying the one oil.

I also need to put in an order at Pure Skincare for some more Liquid Black Soap as I’ve managed to use over half the bottle this month, and a refill for my Angel Face Scrub. I’m also debating trying a new (and cheaper) shampoo now that my dandruff has cleared up. If my mum doesn’t like the moisturisers I give her, I will need to buy her something as well.

A quick post to say my samples from Anita Grant arrived this morning, just as promised! I rushed out of bed to open the package and spent the next 20 minutes ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the contents. There’s no doubt I’m going to be putting in an order for some full-size products very soon.

One of the lip butters is now permanantly installed in my handbag and the other by my bed (I often wake in the night with dry lips). Although I’ve only used them for a few hours, I’m thinking of featuring them in my next review which I will put together shortly. In total, I bought the two lippys, some monoi de tahiti oil and butter, ylang-ylang and cedarwood butter, a camellia copaiba bath & body oil and a gorgeous coconut and rosewood dry oil. Fabulous stuff! 

So I was just searching on google for similiar sites, when I discovered a UK-based skincare company that I’ve not seen before. Anita Grant seems to sell goodies that are right up my street and at reasonable prices too. I’ve just perused the whole site and noted a few things I’d love to try, so will probably put in an order this evening. I love that they have sample sizes - this is something I believe every company should offer. There have been many times I’ve wanted to try something expensive, but was concerned about wasting my money if I didn’t like it. Natural products often don’t come cheap and offering samples and trial sizes is a great way to help potential customers take the plunge. 

Anyway, I’ll be sure to post about my experiences with the products after I’ve had a few days to play with them. :)

UPDATE: I’ve just placed my order, which should arrive on Wednesday. Had to juggle around with some of the items I wanted in order to get Special Delivery postage - my impatience knows no bounds! :D I ordered some lovely looking oils and butters and a couple of lip balms, I’m really looking forward to trying them out.