I always feel very fortunate when I get to meet the people behind the brand. I met Colleen from Lucy Annabella at the Organic and Natural Beauty Show. In common with many brand owners, Colleen an experienced therapist, is the force of nature behind this amazing range of candles, and bath and body products. Skilled, resourceful, determined, ambitious, focused and most importantly lovely. She gave me lots of very useful tips and we had a lovely chat about life the universe and beauty products. The first thing I noticed about her stand was that there were several glasses of what I assumed to be ‘milk’ at her beautifully displayed.
I thought it might be something to do with clearing your nasal passages before smelling the next fragrance, but actually, it was the gorgeous Lucy Annabella Milk Bath. There were a range of fragrances but I kept coming back to the same one. Colleen advised that from an aromatherapy perspective, the smell that you are drawn to is the blend that you need at the time. So I needed the Muscle Quench blend – lavender, (calming and soothing nervous tension and stress) rosemary (scientifically proven to reduce cortisol [a hormone associated with stress] in saliva in test subjects after inhalation), marjoram (calming) and vetiver (also calming). I really do need this blend as elements of my job have been jumping up and down on my last trembling nerve for the past four months! Anyway…
The milk appearance is not replicated in the bath because of the volume of water but the fragrance is still intense. I am not a huge bath person but the thing about a Lucy Annabella milk bath, is that as much as I tried to get involved with my copy of Vogue and glass of my favourite Syrah… after a few minutes, I had to put those things down and just breathe…. slowly… until I fell asleep. The camphory lavender with the woody rosemary and marjoram and the zesty but not sweet vetiver with the soft orange flower water is divine. When I eventually got out of the bath, I slept like a baby. Well, maybe I was just tired, I thought. It was a Friday night and it had been along week. So I tried again. I had a weekend midday bath… this time with Harpers….and a cup of tea…. and I fell asleep again. It keeps happening. I also love the fact that it is a milk – a formulation that Colleen was explaining is not straightforward to create. It feels very decadent, to be in a milk bath rather then a bubble bath.
I live in London where the water is hard like set concrete but when you get into the milk bath, the water is sooo soft and your skin when you leave the bath, even my very very dry skin is soft. The organic glycerine, coconut oil, argan oil, rapeseed oil and sweet almond oil give the bath a very moisturising base. (The Argan and Bergamot Treatment oil from the range is on my wishlist). I have also used this product in the shower with exfoliating gloves for some ‘exfoliation lite’ and again the essential oil blend worked wonders on my senses (calming but did not send me to sleep), while the milk bath formulation left me beautifully fragranced and moisturised.
I love the packaging too. It comes in a glass bottle, which has a pencil drawing of lavender on it. As you use the product, you still get the effect of the drawing because the bottle is opaque so it provides a soft background for the drawing. This is not meant as a shower product but as I said, I have used it that way. Rather then holding the bottle with wet hands repeatedly, I tend to go under the shower to dampen my skin, then apply the bath milk directly to my skin and then use the exfoliating gloves, (loofah, mitt or whatever you have). Lovely. This is not an everyday product, but I have been using it weekly and really enjoying it. If you are looking for a great product that will do wonders for your senses, have a look at the Lucy Annabella range.