We have just moved in to 2016. I want to share a little bit from my 2015. I'm sure we all have had our ups and downs. But as usual I like to focus on the positive in life. 2015 was an exciting year especially for my blog as I started my blog in February and my YouTube channel in March. It's been an incredible journey and I've learned so much. I've also traveled to amazing places like Thailand, Cambodia and finished the year in Iceland. 

Enjoyed some beautiful visits home to Sweden. 

I made a video on how to do a Swedish Midsummer crown with my friend Jess.

Loved doing hair tutorials among other things on my YouTube channel.

       Went to see Blur in Hyde Park

    Took my mum to Paris in the summer.

Ran my first half marathon. Here I am with my friend Tor after the finishing line. 

Had a great time in Thailand and Cambodia celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary. 

Discovered some new exciting organic beauty brands.

As always I had some good times as work creating some beautiful hairstyles.

      Attended my first blogging event. 

      Ended the year in Iceland. 

      

What was your highlights of 2015? 

Having a face mask in the Blue lagoon

At the moment I'm enjoying a week in Iceland. It's been amazing so far. Today we went to the Blue lagoon

You can find the Blue Lagoon in a lava field in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, on Iceland's south-west coast. A giant bathtub that pools, six million litres of geothermal seawater from 2000 metres beneath the earth's surface. By the time it reaches the lagoon, the mineral- rich milky, Aqua blue water, simmer at temperatures between 37- 40°C. 

The water is self-cleansing - it renews itself every 40 hours. The geothermal water has a unique composition, featuring three active ingredients - Silica, Algae & Minerals.

The white Silica mud settles at the bottom of the lagoon and doubles up as a perfect mineral-rich face mask.

        The mud from the Lagoon.

Leave on for 5-10 min and rinse off leaving your skin feeling smooth and soft. 

More about Iceland is coming to the blog soon.

❤️

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a Merry Christmas! 

Thank you so much for your support and for following my blog this year. Looking forward to share it with you in 2016. 

Önskar dig en God Jul! 

Tack så mycket för allt stöd och att du har följt min blogg detta året. Ser fram emot att dela den med dig i 2016.

What's in my goodie bag

I recently went to the glowgetter gathering and received the most amazing goodie bag full of organic green beauty goodies. Here is my haul video on my goodie bag.

Magic Organic Apothecary (MOA)
http://www.moa.london
 - green bath potion
Angela Langford http://www.angelalangford.com
- bloom & glow radiance restoring face oil
- angel eyes  nourishing eye oil
- Scrub up
- Clean sweep
Neal's yard http://www.nealsyardremedies.com/
 - superfood
Chuckling goat https://www.chucklinggoat.co.uk
- refresh Kefir lotion
Herbfarmacy http://www.herbfarmacy..uk
- lip conditioner with marshmallow and vanilla
Organic balm company
http://www.theorganicbalm.com/
- r.a.h. face serum
Therapi
http://therapi.com
- Rose Otto propolis ultra radiance cream
Aurelia
https://www.aureliaskincare.com
- miracle cleanser
- cell repair night oil
- firm & revitalise dry body oil

Make sure you check out The Glowgetter http://theglowgetter.co.uk

Check out my blog at http://www.sarasteele.co.uk
You can also follow me on
http://www.twitter.com/sarasteeletweet
http://www.instagram.com/sarasteelesnaps
http://www.facebook.com/sarasteelehair

Thank you so much for watching.
Please give me a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe if you haven't already.

Sara
❤️

How to relax and rewind

Sometimes life is full on and it's hard to get time to yourself. But that's when it's more important to make sure you take time out and relax. Leading up to Christmas is that time for me. With everyone needing their hair done before Christmas. I work more than usual and being constant busy. My body aches and I feel constantly tired. I know it's time to take time out and have some me-time. 

Often when I need to relax I go for a run to let my brain lock off and just empty my mind. I also love going for a massage. But sometimes the best thing to do is to take an hour or two and just do nothing and pamper myself. 

First, I like to take a bath. I'm not a massive bath person so not taking a long long hot bath here. I normally just need to let my muscles relax for a bit. I've recently discovered the perfect friend for this kind of bath. It's MOA (Magic Organic Apotechary) fortifying green bath potion. 

The MOA bath potion is perfect for my aching and tired body. I never enjoyed a bath so much since I've started using the green bath potion. As a hairdresser I stand for many hours a day. I'm also a keen runner do my legs are often aching as well as my lower back. Within minutes in my bath I feel better. I can feel my muscles starting to loosen up and I feel energised. 

MOA's bath potion contains refreshing peppermint, detoxifying fennel, calming, relaxing fir needle and sweet birch to ease achy muscles. 

It feels refreshing and I love the cooling feeling the peppermint gives the skin. I always feel too hot after a few minutes and want to get out of the bath. But not with this bath potion, I feel I can stay in the bath forever whilst it works miracles on my muscles. 

Also a little side note for anyone who hasn't got their Christmas presents yet. The MOA green bath potion has the most gorgeous packaging and is perfect to give away as a present to anyone who loves a bath or just need to de-stress. 

When taking a bath I like to light candles all around the bath. I find candles, relaxing and helps me to rewind. 

I also put on a face mask to get rid of any dirt and impurities. At the moment I'm using Botanicals revitalising mask. To read more about the mask check out my review here.

After the bath I cream my body with Neals Yard Remedies Beauty sleep body butter. I love this body butter. It's so nourishing for the body makes the skin soft. It hydrates it well that it still feels smooth the day after. It has a calming effect, which makes it perfect after a relaxing bath. 

Once relaxed and pampered I make myself a cup of tea, light some more candles and with a good book I get cosy in my bed. Even better if I got some chocolate too. 

There I stay as long as possible. 

What do you do to relax? Do you find me-time important? 

Review | Saach organics

Strengthening haircare using Ayurveda with Indian herbs, made in the UK. The last couple of months or so I've been using Saach organics basil, hibiscus & peppermint shampoo, for hair strengthening, and hibiscus, henna and primrose hair nourishment conditioner. I've also used the herbal hair oil. 

Saach organics contain 100% natural actives and are free from 

• parabens

• formaldehyde 

• sulphates 

• petrochemicals 

They are cruelty free and suitable for vegans. 

When I first started to use Saach I wasn't too sure about them. As many natural shampoos they don't lather that much and can sometime not feel like it cleans the hair as good. It can also weigh down the hair, leaving it feeling greasy. I tried a few different shampoos and in the end the one that worked best on my hair is the Basil, hibiscus & peppermint strengthening shampoo.

I then shampooed twice and rinsed it well. It worked and hair felt clean. 

After a while I started to notice how it improved the condition of my hair. It felt soft, smooth and stronger. It's the best condition my hair been in for a long time. 

The longer I used the products the more I like them. Because I see the benefit and how much better my hair feels. I keep getting compliments on my hair and all I've done is washing it. 

The conditioner I liked right away. It feels great to apply it to the hair, easy to comb through and makes my hair smooth. I love the smell of the conditioner. Part from the hibiscus, henna and primrose, it also has almond and cinnamon. It's rather spicy and I love it. 

The use of henna in their products is new to me. It also made me slightly nervous using them as I didn't want it to  change my colour. The henna Saach is using is a colourless henna so it won't make any difference to your hair colour and is fine to use on coloured hair. 

I've also been using the herbal hair oil. Made from Indian gooseberry cotton seed oil and almond oil. Some of the other ingredients are henna, rose, coconut oil and red sandalwood. I apply oil on my scalp and throughout the hair and leave it over night. It sinks in to the hair so doesn't feel too greasy like many oils can do. 

The herbal hair oil claims to open up blocked capillaries, improving the blood circulation on the scalp and brings back moisture to your hair. 

My scalp often get dry and itchy and this oil has helped with that. My hair feels smooth and healthy. 

Price is £10.95 a good value for a good and natural shampoo. The herbal hair oil is £12.90. You can buy them from LoveLula www.lovelula.com

I would definitely buy these again. 

Have you ever tried Saachs organics products? Which natural hair products do you use? 

How to make your own bath salt

A perfect gift idea for Christmas. Making your own bath salts is personal, saves you money and you'll know exactly what's in it.

I love making bath salts as gifts. It's so easy to make and I love knowing that's every ingredient is natural because I put it in there. 

To make your own bath salt you'll need:

Coarse sea salt - 6 parts 

Epsom salt - 3 parts

Baking soda - 1 part 

Essential oil - few drops

I also added some dried lavender as I think it's pretty and gives it a more natural look.

Taking a bath with Epsom salts and baking soda is an effective way to flush toxins and increase magnesium levels. Epsom salt soothes tired muscles. Baking soda is known for its cleansing ability and anti-fungal properties. It also leaves the skin feeling soft.

Put the salt in a nice mason jar or reuse any old jars from your kitchen. 

If you enjoyed this post why don't you check out my video on how to make coffee scrubs. http://bit.ly/1Ohhl1C

Have you made your own bath salt before? What gifts do you like making? 

The Glowgetter gathering

Last Sunday I went to The glowgetter gathering hosted by the Amazing Ailish Lucas theglowgetter 

I was really excited as it's my first proper blogger event and I couldn't wait to meet my fellow green beauty bloggers and all the amazing green brands. 

It was held at the beautiful Kettners in Soho, central London. Just around the corner from where I work. 

I was warmly greeted by Ailish who looked stunning, has to be said. For some reason she kept putting a glass of champagne in my hand. 

The room was pretty decorated with lots of pink, which made me feel just like home. 

Some of the brands that were there  

• Neals Yard Remedies, 
• Chuckling goat, 
• Therapi, 
• Herbfarmacy,
• Angela Langford, 
• Magic Organic Apothecary, 
• Aurelia
• Blend & press
• Antipodes

It was great to see some of the bloggers that I've been speaking to on social media for so long and finally meet them in real life. It was almost a bit surreal. But they were all as lovely as I hoped and I was greeted with lots of big hugs. 

I had some lovely chats with the brands. Was great to see so many green beauty brands and most of them were new to me. I love finding new brands. It was also great to hear their stories as many of them are small family run businesses. 

Firstly I spoke to MOA, Magic Organic Apothecary. I must say they definitely had the most beautiful packaging. Perfect for presents. Their main product is the green balm, but they're expanding. I loved their bath potion oil that was in my goodie bag. I can't wait to try more of their products.

Then I couldn't resist to talk to Neal's Yard remedies. They were there with the most delicious healthy vegan sweets. Showing what you put into the inside is just as important as the outside. I can't wait to try and make their berry beautiful cheesecake. Yum. They also gave out hand massages, but unfortunately I missed out on that one. 

Therapi not only showed samples of their products, but also a drink with their ingredients of a toner. Showing that what they put in their products are all good stuff. Even though they use honey in their products and as a vegan, I often try to avoid it. Being assured of their love for bees and that their honey is produced organically and ethically and are of a high standard. I wouldn't mind using their products. We also had a long chat about Scandinavia and packaging. 

I was a delighted to talk to to meet Angela Langford. She shows a real care for all her customers, ensuring they get the right product for them. She sends samples with her products so you don't have to waste a full bottle on something that's not right for your skin. I would feel very safe using her products and I can't wait to try the samples she gave me. 

It was exciting to talk to the small family business The Chuckling Goat. Even though I'm a vegan And they use goats milk kefir that they make by hand on their farm. I find they have a great story and I even got to see pictures of their goats. So if you don't mind goats milk I would say definitely check them out. 

I was great to connect with everyone I spoke to, brands and bloggers. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to speak to every person in the room. But hopefully next time. Because I can't wait. 

Ailish did such a great job and everyone seem to enjoy themselves. So a big Thank you to her. 

Then we went away with the most fabulous goodie bag and it definitely felt like Christmas came early this year. 

Have you heard of any of these brands? Any brand you would like to hear more about?