Katie's Letter RSS

High summer at Beechgrove Herb Garden is a real treat. Where Yin Yang is made, is surrounded by several herb gardens and orchards – some of which are rather tidy and some, which jostle wildly in friendly abandon. June as always has been a great month in the Cotswolds, with rather more than the average hours of sun and following a warm wet winter, our herbs have grown with happy flourishes. Marvina and Eddie (with some help and interference from me) attempt to keep it under control. The grapes are just budding and the figs will be ripening soon but...

Creating our new Summer Skin Care products has been an interesting experience. They are all very light and I have enjoyed working with them and testing them too. Their lightness means that they can be delivered with a spray to exactly the place where they are needed. As we get older, we tend to suffer with keratosis pilaris, which is an accumulation of dead skin cells, that blocks pores, looking at first like a freckle and then becoming a slightly raised lump. So as I had a number of these, I decided to use the After Sun Lotion to see if I...

Spring is here April is an exciting month in the herb garden and this year it is particularly advanced with the blue borage flowers out 2 to 3 months earlier than usual. Indeed, everything seems to be blue just now with the rosemary bushes, grape hyacinths, violas and some blue pansies all out together. Also in the South facing Mediterranean walled garden, we have been hosting butterflies and bees already. Plant of the month - Organic Nettle The stinging nettle is very welcome in various corners of the herb gardens, not only for its traditional health giving properties but because...

The Telephone Link with the Yin Yang Family We are ending 2010 very much as we started it, frozen in at Beechgrove Farm, 500 feet above sea level. Looking out over the Cotswold Countryside, as I write at my desk, it is as close as one can come to looking out on fairyland. As the telephone host for Yin Yang, it has been good to talk with lots of new customers as well as hearing from regular and loyal ones, who have used Yin Yang for many years. Being able to communicate on a one to one basis with such...

Yin Yang So Sensitive and Allergens in Essential Oils The past few months have kept me very busy not only working on the Acne products which I mentioned in my April Newsletter but also on the Yin Yang So Sensitive range to be introduced later in the year. It has always been my view, due to their concentrations, that essential oils should be used as a very low percentage of the product- often well below the 2% upper dilution limit recommended by most aromatherapists.  The great thing about the Yin Yang Scientific Advisory Panel, is that we can access useful information. This...