Merry Christmas

'Tis the season to be thankful Sending a heart felt thank you for all your support  2014 has been an incredible busy and rewarding year for JustBe; receiving 2 awards for our skincare from the Ultimate Natural Beauty Bible and 2 Great Taste Awards for our organic herbal teas, the launch of our new skincare packaging, enriched soaps and aromatherapy chocolate range. In addition to those of you who come and say hello at the various fairs and events we attend along with those who get in touch to tell us how much you're enjoying using JustBe, we are truely grateful for all amazing therapists who offer JustBe treatments, to the cafe's and bistro's who serve our teas and the outlets who stock our ranges - including our 1st international stockiest in the Netherlands!  We'd also like to extend an extra special thank you to those who work with us behind the scenes and to those who review and blog - helping us spread the word about the benefits of using natural ingredients. As you can imagine, we too are looking forward to taking a days off over the festive season to relax and re-charge our batteries.  Although needless to say, we've already got lots of exciting things that we're working on and are look forward to sharing with you in the New Year. A gentle reminder that Monday the 22nd is the last day for UK on-line orders to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.  Which reminds us that we've still got our cards to write! Wishing you and yours a very healthy & happy New Year x

Just Be Festive

It's beginning to look a lot like... With December just round the corner, the count down to Christmas is almost here. From the fairs we've attended so far, we know that for some Christmas shopping is well under way. In fact, the event on 24th of October had to be opened early due to the sheer size of the queue!  Thank you to everyone who came to say hello and taste some of our new chocolates.  We've enjoyed hearing from those who couldn't resist the temptation of eating those that they bought and have been back for more so they can give some as gifts.  We're delighted that one lady was enjoyed them so much that her local store in the Netherlands is now stocking them. Whether you're just about to start your shopping or are looking for stocking fillers, as part of Black Friday, we're giving away a free 100g bar of your choice with every on-line order today. For those who live close to Edinburgh, we'd love to see you at one of these forthcoming fairs: Sick Kids, Meadow Bank Stadium, Sunday 30th November 11-4pm White Stuff, George Street Thursday 4th Dec 12-6pm George Heriots, Saturday 6th December 2-5pm Create the perfect gift with one of our newPamper Hampers that can be tailor-made, and the wooden crate can be re-used as a stylish window box. Enjoy a sweet treat on us with every online order today. Simply tell us which bar of our new chocolate you'd like to try in the comment box at the end of your order. To beat the Festive rush, make sure you post before the recommended posting dates.  Last date for Christmas orders for delivery in the UK is Friday 19th December.

JustBe Aromatherapy Chocolate

6 mouth-watering blends Introducing our exciting new range of aromatherapy chocolates. Just in case you were wondering, aromatherapy chocolate is simply great quality chocolate with aromatherapy oils and a selection of botanicals added. Which will be your favourite(s)? 70% Dark: Life is rich JustBe Detox: Cleansing juniper and milk thistle topped with fennel. JustBe Loved: Decadent, pure rose oil scattered with aromatic rose petals. Milk: Life is smooth JustBe Energised: Invigorating geranium topped with coconut sugar infused with cardamom. JustBe Active: Fresh spearming and a hint of warming clove oil. White: Life is Sweet JustBe Tranquil: Soothing lavender topped with refreshing raspberries. JustBe Happy: Refreshing pink grapefruit and zesty lime. We are delighted at the glowing response we received during the launch at BBC Good Food Show. In addition to having the chocolates available to taste, we gave away over 1,000 samples of our award winning herbal teas, selling out of JustBe Happy!  Would like to express a heartfelt thankyou to everyone who supported us and made the 3 days so much fun. Have you tried our new range of JustBeEnriched Soaps? In addition to the chocolates, these soaps are also lovingly handblended for us in small batches in Scotland and are packed full of natural goodness.  Each soap comes with a wooden free-draining stand to ensure optimum enjoyment. Did you know the entire JustBe range is nut free?! To help simplify your on-line shopping experience and explain our key points of difference, we've added some symbols to our websites that include: coconut enriched, vegan friendly, ideal gift, travel friendly & nut free.

Keeping it simple

All natural skincare We were contacted back in February this year by a Master's student from the University of Tartu in Estonia, to ask if JustBe Botanicals would take part in a piece of research into the average consumer understanding for spa skin care labels.  Interested to learn more, we said yes. Interestingly enough the top 3 most important factors when choosing skincare are: price, product ingredients, followed by a friends recommendation.  With this in mind we're delighted to share our latest review from our friends at Bella J which touches on these factors. "My current go to eye makeup remover is the award winning dual purpose JustBe Cleansed Eye Makeup Remover which contains only eight natural skin-loving ingredients. Each ingredient blends seamlessly together to enable gentle and effortless removal of all eye makeup (including waterproof mascara), whilst also soothing the skin to provide the ultimate treatment for the eye. Because this eye makeup remover contains coconut oil and jojoba oil, it is incredibly moisturising, nourishing and it feels so luxuriously comfortable on the skin that it can not only be used to remove your eye makeup, it can also be taken across the whole face as a dual purpose rich cleanser to remove the rest of your makeup as a beautiful first cleanse.  You can pick up the delightful, convenient and travel friendly 30ml pump bottle for £15 from here" In addition to the new skincare packaging being photographed tomorrow (the picture above shows a glimpse), we've got a busy calendar of events coming up.  We'll be at Pop-up shop at White Stuff store in George Street, Edinburgh followed by the BBC Good Food Show in Glasgow where we're hoping to give out 1,000 samples of our award winning Justbe Happy herbal tea! And we'll finish the month with our first Christmas shopping evening (yes we know it's only October) more details to follow in next months newsletter. Join us on Saturday the 11th of October as we Pop-up in White Stuff to provide mini treatments and tasters of our JustBe Happy Tea. We're delighted to be part of this years Great Taste Market at the BBC Good Food Show in Glasgow 17th-19th of October.

Just Be Celebrating

We've so much to be grateful for this month August has been an incredibly exciting month of us, not only were we selected as part of the YOU Beauty Discover Box but the entire allocation of JustBe Hydrating Serums were gone in the first 3 hours of the first day! Following a review by skincare specialist Caroline Hirons the demand for our Cleansing Balm has gone global - with interest from Ireland, mainland Europe & Australia! We've also delighted to have received 2 Great Taste Awards for our range of organic herbal teas. This year a massive 10,000 products entered and were judged by over 400 of the most demanding palates belonging to food critics, chefs, and a host of food writers and journalists.  Great Taste is widely acknowledged as the most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers and we will be proud to be able to display the labels shown below. We will be taking part in the BBC Good Food Show in Glasgow on the 17-19th of October where we will be offering tea tasting along with our new range of aromatherapy chocolates (more details to follow).  JustBe Active Botanical Blend, is an infusion of organic spearmint and colves has received 1 gold star. The tasting notes from the panel were:  “Striking spearmint notes with little clove on the nose. A touch of lemon on the finish. A cleverly managed blend.”  JustBe Happy herbal tea is a blend of organic Lemon Balm & Hibiscus and has been awarded 2 stars. The judges comments include: “The flavour is clean, original and it really is uplifting.We believe this to be a genuine contribution to the market. With a touch of honey or even palm sugar, as an iced tea it would be fabulous.”  We're delighted at the demand and positive feedback we've received for our Award WinningCleansing Balm.  Watch out for our new packaging which will be launched next month.

You know you know

what do you already know? This time 5 years ago, I was on holiday in Spain with a group of friends and went on a day trip to Malaga.  After searching out Cafe Aranda which was famous for it's chocolate churros, we headed for Alcazaba - an 11th century fortress overlooking the city.  On the way up the many steps, we came across a piece of graffiti 'you know you know' which made us all laugh and then became a talking point - what did we know?  5 years ago, I could not have known that I would develop JustBe or indeed alot of the other things that have happened along the way.  But I did know that everything was going to be okay - and that knowing is perhaps all that we need. My first taste of chocolate churros (shared between 4!) Exciting new developments more details to follow in August It's been an exciting time at JustBe HQ as we've been developing a range of 6 aromatherapy chocolate bars.  Needless to say the tasting sessions have proved exceptionally popular and the over-riding comment has been "I just love them all!".  In addition to the chocolates, a range of 3 natural soaps will be launched in August along with new packaging for a selection of the facial range. Till then, we wish you all a very happy July.

Just Be You As I'm often asked about the inspiration behind JustBe, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the story with you. The story starts in September 2009 whilst working as a therapist on a Mind Detox retreat in Turkey.  Actually it starts a couple of years before when I made the conscious choice to leave a stressful corporate environment which was starting to impact my health and wellbeing to follow my interest in the mind body connection.  I retrained in a variety of 'holistic' therapies which included massage. During one to one sessions, clients would often say they wanted to be less tense, less stressed, less tired.  Aware of the law of attraction (we get what we focus on), I'd ask them to be clear about what they wanted, not what they didn’t want.  The first 4 blends were based on these answers.  In essence, we all want similar things - to be loved, happy, energised and simply to be and accept ourselves. A year on, Armathwaite Hall the luxury Spa in Lake District were interested in JustBe and in November 2010 took in the range of 6 signature massage oils that I created for them.  Following a successful trial, 6 months later they asked for an anti-ageing facial. Like a lot of people, especially woman, I mistakenly believed I had sensitive skin.  The truth, which I discovered whilst developing the products was that our skin is constantly changing and that my self diagnosed ‘sensitivity’ was my skins response to the chemicals contained within some skincare ranges.  I wanted to create an all natural range that was suitable, simple and enjoyable to use for all skin types and ages especially 'sensitive'.  The JustBe range is also nut-free which is good for anyone with a nut intolerance. To cut a long story short, based on success of the JustBe Radiant facial and introduction of Lomi Lomi massage, Armathwaite Hall asked for a facial that would be suitable for teenage skin as well as a signature ritual.  The JustBe Fresh Faced facial was launched on Mothers Day 2012 and includes skin analysis and advice on how to achieve 'beauty that's more than skin deep' - creating healthy habits from an early age.  JustBe Elemental and Botanical Bundles massage were added in October of that year.  JustBe Elemental is a full body treatment that incorporates a thermal body wrap using Scottish Peat that's great for cellulite, weightloss and anti-ageing - top 3 on most women’s wish lists and perhaps unsurprisingly has become Armathwaite Hall's No.1 treatment! As you can see Armathwaite Hall Spa (who have been awarded a Best Residential Spa by the Professional Beauty Awards twice in the last three years) has been an integral part in the JustBe journey.  I am therefore delighted to be 'in residence' offering tailor made treatments between 10th - 12th of June. So if you would like to make time to ‘Just Be You’ this month please call 017687 76551 to arrange a session.

Spring into Summer

With summer approaching our thoughts turn to warmer weather, summer holidays, 'daring to bare' and hopefully wearing less layers of clothes.   With this in mind, the justbe team have enlisted the help of personal trainers to help us get in shape - mentally and physically.  Although we will all benefit from being more active, our attitude to nutrition is potentially more important. Here are 10 top tips from personal trainer Stewart Robinson : 1. Try to eat more protein Your body uses protein to burn fat, tone lean muscle and repair damaged muscle fibres after training.  It also helps you to feel full, so it’s easier to make good food choices. 2. Reduce potential food allergens Food allergens can hinder weight loss as your body produces the stress hormone cortisol which encourages your body to store energy as fat.  Bread, white rice and white pasta are the most common - so try and reduce the amount you eat for a few weeks and notice the difference to your waiste line and energy levels. 3. Eat more vegetables They're packed with nutrients, low in carbs and unlike some fruits, your blood sugar levels won’t spike. 4. Don’t drink fizzy drinks! Enough said.  Switch to water - try adding a slice of lemon, ginger or even cucumber.  Or try drinking chilled herbal teas as a refreshing alternative. 5. Try not to snack in the evening When trying to tone up and improve fitness, ideally finish dinner 2 or 3 hours before you go to bed and try not to eat again until the next morning.  Quality sleep is prime time for fat burning / lean muscle building – but not if you go to bed with a really full stomach. 6. Everything in moderation Red wine and dark cholocate are good in moderation.  Try sticking to 1 or 2 glasses at a time.  Just remember that a glass of wine is the equivalent to a chocolate éclair - you probably wouldn't tend to sit and eat 4 or 5 of them watching TV on a Friday night.  If you’re going for chocolate try to stick to dark chocolate (70%+ cocoa), again in moderation. 7.Portion control Stop eating when you feel full rather than when the plate is empty. 8. Keep hydrated Drink plenty of water so that you eat when you're hungry and hydrated. 9. Have a cheat day And look forward to it when you feel tempted.  Instead of saying ‘I’ll never eat biscuits again’ (or whatever your vice is) just make lots of small choices every time you feel tempted and remind yourself that the cheat day isn't far away. 10. Don’t go absolutely berserk on your cheat day Keep your end goal in mind whilst enjoying the journey. justbe recomending... positive snacking brand Rebel Kitchen lets you “nourish your thing” with coconut 'mylk' dairy-free drinks Whilst we love all 6, are 2 favourites are: Banana Mylk Rainforest Alliance bananas blended with organic date nectar, a touch of cacao, coconut milk and water. The ultimate, all-natural banana mylk-shake. Chai Mylk A complex blend of Fairtrade raw cacao, and health-giving cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves, which have anti-inflammatory properties so are soothing on the stomach. Made with coconut milk and Somerset spring water and a touch of organic date nectar. So if you'd like to shake up your snack times, visit www.rebel-kitchen.com  for more infomation. Dairy free & delicious NEW tasty Adults range