Innocent Oils is soon to launch a totally new product - O'Dough

It may seem a strange to add what is essentially a 'play dough' to the Innocent Oils range, but we think NO!

Here's why...

Our ethos of producing the finest toxin free, 100% vegan, super eco natural products available, extends to all products which come into contact with the skin.
In fact making O'Dough is not so different to making our wonderful Innocent Oils skin and body care range.

Play dough has for many years been a fantastic sensory development aid for children and adults, and great therapy for both alike.
However, over the past few years of working closely with our customers and having had many a friendly conversation. I have come to know all too well that not only is finding suitable skin and body care difficult, having fun without encountering toxins and sensitivity triggers can be an expensive minefield too.

Playing with dough stimulates the senses and has a great beneficial effect in many situations.
The down side is that unless you have the time to make your own, it is very difficult to find out exactly what is in the dough or modelling clay you and your children are playing with. Sufferers of gluten and wheat intolerance, eczema, ADHD & Autism, allergies and or joint pain know how carefully products need to be selected, in order to find something suitable.

Through the bank of knowledge built up over the years of developing Innocent Oils we have a thorough understanding of the chemicals used in personal care products today.

What better way to put this knowledge to good use than with a new product?
Something that not only moisturises and assists both physically and mentally, it can be played with universally.

The down side is that unless you have the time to make your own, it’s very hard to know exactly what is in the dough your children are playing with! Innocent Oils is bringing back hours of squidgy fun for children and adults who previously thought that play dough was not for them.

O'Dough is packaged in sturdy fully biodegradable, resealable PLA corn starch tubs. Comes in fun natural non toxic safe colours.

Using O'Dough as a theraputic product enables the user to gain all the benefits of sensory stimulation in a fun and gentle way. Particularly useful for those not keen on massage or touch.

We add skin moisturising organic botanical oils to ensure your sensitive skin is cared for as you play, and we leave out any nasties that may ruin your fun.
There are some very special ingredients in O'Dough, especially our pure Himalayan crystal salt which has many wonderful skin caring properties and is considered to be the finest salt known to man. We believe O'Dough is the first, and only play dough to use this unique ingredient in its formula to date.

If you, or your children have allergies, autism, ADHD, trauma therapy, arthritis or joint pain. I would like to hear about your experiences and preferences for essential oils and types of dough, so that before we launch O'Dough we can be sure that we have it covered.

We will be launching O'Dough at the event 'I Make Fun Stuff' 27 March 2010 at Ipswich Town Hall Galleries http://www.culture24.org.uk/am46812 Do come along if you are in the area we love to meet new people, and hope to put some faces to names on the day. :D

Please email me with your queries: contact@innocentoils.com

Namaste, your support is never taken for granted. Helen X

Shades of Green from a shopping bag

How things have changed since the days way back when I worked in retail, in the late 80's Plastic bags were and still are used as advertising tools and to some extent to prove that an item was bought at the shop in question if returned.
Seems crazy these days I know, but back then if a customer produced a return garment from a bag that wasn't from the store, eyebrows immediately were raised with suspicion!!!
I remember a customer asking not to take a bag with her purchases, it near caused mass panic with the staff at the mere suggestion. The sales assistant serving the customer insisted the customer must have a bag as it was company policy! This did not go down well with the customer at the time and today it is easy to understand why!

Not so long ago shopping in a supermarket meant lots of plastic bags with every shop, and even though 'Bags for life' were available they were not so popular at all. Leaving the store having filled your own bag with goods made the security guards twitch nervously in anticipation!

How things have moved forward... More recently, with the advent of Green Points from a major supermarket it soon became more acceptable to use your own or reuse store bags for the shop. Then even more recently, checkout staff were still eager to pack your goods into one of their flimsy store bags before you've had chance to say NO!
I was often apologising as I was trying to quickly remove my goods for repacking in my own reusable plastic bags. Sometimes being given a sniffy look as if I d insulted them in some way. lol. So I opted to buy the 'bags for life' at the time as a compromise. I ended up with al ot of them and even though they were replaced for free they didnt last too long before a hole or three would appear and they needed replacing, with another thick reusable plastic bag that would take even longer to degrade than the flimsy version. This was making me feel very uncomfortable about the whole thing!

So another move forward... Now the checkout staff ask "Do you have your own bags?", and no longer have them by the bundle on display at the checkout. Other stores have caught up with the european supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidle who've been ahead for decades by charging for their bags.
Most of the customers I see in my local big supermarket are using reusable store bags or their own bags and those not doing so tend to look rather sheepish while making excuses for not having brought their own.  How times change! :)

Those reusable store bags I mentioned earlier, which I had in great supply, are now dwindling and I will gladly hand one over if the customer in front of me is in need of a bag. My bag collection is now fabric based, first started with plain cotton, then organic cotton, now fair-trade, organic cotton or even better a home made Morsbag type upcycled from what ever material was handy when the sewing machine ventured out of hiding.

Looking back its interesting to see how we move through the shades of green on our journey to a lighter footprint. Plastic bags is just one aspect of the huge journey of going greener and an easy place to start on that journey. There are many many others which link in and if done gradually you'll hardly notice the difference and changes will feel natural and effortless. Trying to do it all in one go can be overwhelming and a mind boggling step to far. The aim is to take small steps at first which naturally will open up new roads and considerations to make along the way.

Awareness and consideration is the starting point which can open eyes initially. From there depending on your own concerns for the environment or living healthily on the planet it is up to choice on how to move forward. Moving forward in a positive way, is the key to huge change and onto really living consciously GREEN.

Just a thought :D
Namaste