Grown Alchemist Archives - My Women Stuff

Help! All this handwashing is drying out my hands : 4 hand creams I’m using

March 24, 2020 Paris B 7 Comments

I said in my last post that I would keep calm and carry on blogging. And I intend to do so. But if I’m to be honest, my heart isn’t quite in it right now, purely because it appears so frivolous.

Yet, I have received a few kind messages from you that that bit of frivolity is what we need right now. A little bit of escapism from the mad mad world out there!

As much as I want to maintain a sense of normalcy in our life, the fact is nothing is normal, and if I’m to be honest, I do not want this to be the new normal. What is normal is for us to be able to move around freely, without that constant dread of meeting an infected person, and to shy away from people like they’re bearing the plague. That isn’t normal.

What is normal is meeting family and friends, holding them, hugging and kissing them, sitting down for a meal or a drink, being able to enjoy each other’s company. That’s normal.

But we keep our distance, and we stay home, and we try to ‘Flatten the Curve’, and one thing we’ve been cautioned over and over during this period, is to WASH OUR HANDS. And I don’t know about you, but my hands are washed raw. So, here’s some things that helped me.

Love using gel cleansers? Here are a couple of non-drying gel cleansers that won’t strip your skin

June 27, 2018 Paris B 6 Comments

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with gel cleansers. On the one hand, I love them. I love the gel texture, and how it feels so light on the skin. I hate how it dries me out.

While gel cleansers do not necessarily mean foaming cleansers, they do generally tend to foam up, and it is the ingredients used in creating such foam, that makes our skin dry out. If possible, I’d say to avoid foaming cleansers altogether. But that would be over-generalizing, because it can be helpful for oily skin types. Truthfully also, it does feel quite nice to wash your face with light airy foam.

I now tend to use only cream or milk cleaners, which feel more gentle and less stripping on my drier skin. But it hasn’t stopped me testing out the odd gel cleanser.

Sometimes, I am happy to find one that not only feels gentle on the skin, but does not strip the skin more than normal, and I’m happy to share it with you! If you know of more, please do share, because it is helpful to know of gel cleansers that do not strip your skin and dry you out!

We now have Grown Alchemist in Malaysia and I bring you 2 minutes with the brand and co-founder

March 30, 2017 Paris B 6 Comments

I first came across the Australian brand, Grown Alchemist, thanks to my friend, Tine, who gifted me a hand cream, many years ago. I liked the aesthetics, because it had that whole tin tube with vintage style writing on it. Smelled good and felt good too. But you know what? I thought it only sold body products. That’s first impressions for you! It wasn’t very popular then, and distribution was fairly limited to Australia at the time.

grown alchemist in malaysia

When I found out that the good folks at Ken’s Apothecary were bringing in the brand (FINALLY!), I got a little excited. I still thought it was a bath and body brand though (and I love nice smelling bath and body products!) … until I came upon their counter in the store and went “Grown Alchemist has skincare too?!”

That upped my interest tenfold LOL! 😀 I was privileged to be at the recent press launch introducing Grown Alchemist, in the presence of its founders, Jeremy and Keston Muijs, so not only got a little insight into the brand, but got to play with some of the products, and speak to Jeremy one-on-one to gain some insight into the brand, and I thought I’d share the info with you 🙂