As we come together once again, I wrote about upholding a mission last weekend, but actually it was a mission and a vision, a vision of acceptance and understanding regarding mental health.  That mission and vision belonged to Sally Brampton, yet there is something here about upholding a mission and a vision which I feel is so incredibly important for each of us, which is why we must never compromise our own vision or values.  And so we won’t.

With that said, let’s head straight into the products and I am going to begin with Daily Multivitamins One-A Day, actually make that DoSe Multivitamins One-A-Day because this really is about dosing a multivitamin correctly using food-state ingredients in their therapeutic strengths and I am uncompromising about the importance of this.  I think, and believe, that if you make a statement about the efficacy of any given product, you have to back that statement up with an understanding of the research, clinicals and difference, and of course there is a vast difference between food-state, synthetic and semi-synthetic vitamins.

And here is the difference.  The vast majority of multivitamins contain synthetic or semi-synthetic nutrients with many of those formulations using mega doses of specific vitamin, which can actually do more harm than good, and lower strengths of others.  Notwithstanding the fact that synthetic vitamins are ill-absorbed by the body, whenever a vitamin is presented in a very high strength, it can compete with other vitamins for absorption, which is far from ideal.  What is also far from ideal is that some of these multivitamins show that they contain 5000% of the recommended daily amounts (RDA).  It’s all on the label.

For balance, the body obtains its nutrients from food and Daily Multivitamins offers a comprehensive range of vitamins, minerals, together with green foods and fruit extracts which are derived from whole foods in their natural state.  Having established the importance of food-state supplementation, there are numerous studies which indicate that over 60% of us are deficient in many vitamins and minerals, so a few words about the importance of vitamins, also for balance.

We are all aware that each of the organs within our bodies have specialised functions and these organs perform chemical reactions through the use of enzymes and co-enzymes.  Vitamins act as co-enzymes, so they work to optimise the reaction, functionality and efficiency of our organs, which Shabir outlines in more detail in his article, linked below. Ongoing research indicates that multivitamins are taken by a large number of people to achieve optimal health and wellbeing, but optimisation can only ever be achieved with the correct form of supplementation, so I’m dropping the price of DoSe Multivitamins One-A-Day from £30 to £26.  To help achieve that.
VH Editorial: Are All Multivitamins The Same; DoSe Multivitamins One-A-Day £26 for 60 Tablets (Two Months Supply) (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 20 May)

Optimisation is at the very core of our being and we are driven by the guiding force of this optimisation, which is a fundamental requisite in the formulation of our products.  If you serve with purpose, then our products must reflect that purpose and Superior Joints does just that, most especially because its key ingredient, Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM™) has been clinically proven to help provide joint pain relief for arthritis, knee pain, muscle pain, backache and shoulder pain relief. Thankfully, Superior Joints is now back in stock, and it is back in stock with the DoSe branding.

I can only apologise that we had a long wait list for Superior Joints, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the label change, but everything to do with raw ingredient issues and the due process of manufacturing.  Superior Joints is one of our bestselling supplements and the issue here is much the same as with HA, if you don’t take it you really notice it and you really do feel the difference. I don’t think I want to say much more, other than the Superior Joints famine is over, I am more than aware how many of you depend upon its efficacy, so once again, I am so sorry for the wait. 
VH Editorial: Read This If You Suffer From Painful Joints; DoSe Superior Joints £30 for 60 Capsules; DoSe Hyaluronic Acid Capsules High Strength £35 for 30 Capsules

I think we are five or six supplements away from completing the current DoSe branding exercise, and I am referring to supplementation here, not the DoSe skincare products, which I will talk about later in this newsletter.  Within that branding, we have two Liposomal formulations, DoSe Liposomal Vitamin C and DoSe Liposomal Glutathione, both of which have been formulated to an exacting science, and in the case of Liposomal Vitamin C, two forms of Vitamin C are used in our formulation, ascorbic acid and sodium ascorbate, to maximise the multiple benefits Vitamin C provides to the body. 

Both of these naturally derived forms are present in the world’s first-branded Vitamin C, Quali™-C, a high-quality, pharmaceutical grade Vitamin C, so as research moves on, we move on and I know I keep writing that, but it really is all about optimisation again and taking the correct form of supplementation.  The same is of course true with Liposomal Glutathione where a clinically studied form of Glutathione, Setria® Glutathione, is used in our formulation, which has been clinically proven to increase blood Glutathione levels with an assay value of between 99% and 101%.  At this given time, we believe Setria® Glutathione to be the best form of Glutathione on the market. Fact.

Being that there is a huge difference between fact and fiction, I have always believed that it is our responsibility to separate fact from marketing fiction, which is of course so rife in the health and beauty industry.  I have never held back on this subject, and I will never hold back, because there is nowhere near enough due diligence carried out to ascertain that difference.  Another book for me to write perhaps, but for now I am dropping the price of Liposomal Vitamin C from £35 to £30 and Liposomal Glutathione down from £49 to £44.  As a deep sense of purpose overwhelms all else.
VH Editorial: The Best Vitamin C Supplements; Liposomal Glutathione; DoSe Liposomal Vitamin C £30 for 240 ml (48 Days Supply); DoSe Liposomal Glutathione £44 for 150 ml (30 Days Supply) (offers end at midnight BST, Tuesday 21 May)

And on the subject of overwhelm, there was an overwhelming response to my words about Olverum last weekend. Olverum is a beautiful brand with beautiful products, not least their Bath Oil, the hero product of the range which, as I wrote last weekend, has been revered for over nine decades.  In writing about the products, I also wrote about a limited-edition gift, Olverum’s Firming Body Oil (30 ml), which was included with every order placed whilst that offer lasted.  And of course it didn’t last long and by 10.16 am, to be absolutely precise, that offer was over.  And I felt bad.

I knew that I wanted to write about Olverum again today, mostly because it deserves to be written about again, and as the wonderful Harriet Inglis, founder of Spacemasks, declared last Saturday morning, Olverum and Spacemasks are a marriage made in heaven.  Everything happens on a Saturday morning, well nearly everything, so because I don’t want to feel bad at 10.16 am this morning, when you buy any Olverum product, I will send you a Spacemask (original) because you may just want to soak away the tensions of the day with two exceptional products, the Bath Oil and the Spacemask.  We are complete.
Olverum Products; Spacemasks

Let’s talk about probiotics.  I talk about probiotics rather a lot, with Mega Probio being our bestselling probiotic, which isn’t really surprising because it supports healthy gut function extraordinarily well.  However, I also write about targeted probiotics, so although the principle of a probiotic remains, the replacement of harmful bacteria with beneficial bacteria, there are specific probiotics which are formulated to address differing health concerns and Florassist Oral Hygiene does just that.

Formulated with two specific probiotic strains, S.salivarius BLIS M18 and Immuno LP20, Florassist Oral Hygiene has been shown to compete against pathogenic bacteria in the mouth, which is the primary cause of periodontal or gum disease.  It is estimated that over 70% of the adult population aged 65 and above have some form of gum disease, including gingivitis, which is the inflammation of the gums, but those statistics are also relevant to people under the age of 65, but the percentages are lower.

Regardless, the oral cavity is a fine balance of the good bacteria, which helps protect our gums and teeth.  When this balance is affected, which Shabir explains in his article linked below, cavity producing bacteria thrive which can often lead to inflammation and infection.  So, as we recommend Florassist Oral Hygiene for gum health, I cannot write about oral health without mentioning Clinisept+ Mouthwash, which drops in price from £7.95 to £6.  I really don’t think that any mouthwash is comparable to the efficacy of Clinisept+, but back to Florassist Oral Hygiene as I drop that price too, from £18 to £16.
VH Editorial: A Probiotic Supplement To Prevent & Treat Gum Disease; Florassist Oral Hygiene £16 for 30 Lozenges; Clinisept+ Mouthwash £6 for 400 ml (offers end at midnight BST, Monday 20 May); Mega Probio £24 for 60 Capsules

Skin health, but most specifically does Vitamin A have a role to play in helping to treat acne and we believe it does.  Vitamin A is a nutrient which is often recommended and prescribed for acne, but there are two types of this nutrient, provitamin A and preformed Vitamin A, which is confusing, so Shabir takes a look at this in his article, which I have linked below. The explanation is detailed and there are caveats applicable to taking Vitamin A supplementation, so I think it is best if you read the article, but the bottom line here is that Shabir recommends Biocare’s Nutrisorb Vitamin A, which is a liquid Vitamin A in a simple olive oil base.
VH Editorial: Vitamin A For Acne; Nutrisorb Vitamin A £13.09 for 15 ml

If there is confusion about Vitamin A supplementation, there is perhaps more confusion about which topical products are best to help treat acne-prone skin.  Tretinoin is a generic name for a derivative of Vitamin A, which is considered to be transformative in the treatment of acne and studies have shown that retinoids work by exfoliating dead skin cells, thereby enhancing cell turnover.  However, Tretinoin and many other retinols and retinoids are not without side effects, which can include burning, itching, reddening and the discolouration of skin.  For all of those reasons, Tretinoin is only available on prescription, which is understandable, so we need to look at a gentle solution.

Granactive Retinoid 5% Serum is that gentle solution, it is equal in efficacy to retinols, but it doesn’t irritate the skin, which is common to high strength retinol products. Containing Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate, Granactive Retinoid 5% Serum has now arrived with the DoSe branding, so just a word here to say that this is a comprehensive formulation and it is comprehensive because we have added Ergothioneine and Hyaluronic Acid to Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate to enhance its tolerance and to demonstrate the significance of clinically evaluated ingredients working together for optimum skin health.
DoSe Granactive Retinoid 5% Serum £22 for 30 ml

I want to stay with the DoSe serums for the moment because I think it is pretty obvious that we are replacing each of the Garden of Wisdom products with the new DoSe formulations, and we have a few more left to go.  This is a gradual process and I don’t have confirmed dates for any specific product, but I will drip-feed those changes in across the next few weeks and months, but I’m not quite finished yet, because I have a few more things to say.

Launching each of the DoSe serums and oils on a skin health platform was incredibly important for us, and so we launched our capsule collection of products specifically formulated to address various skin concerns on that health platform. We each have different needs for our skin, but there is no doubt that Ergothioneine is the hero of the range, it was always going to be and I knew that long before we launched Ergothioneine Serum because the difference it made to my skin was remarkable, but remarkable ingredients do remarkable things.

The other thing I knew long before launching was that DoSe was only ever going to be, and will only ever be, a tight curation of remarkable products, because I will not dilute the importance and significance of pioneering and cutting-edge ingredients.  Perhaps I just had another moment, but moments should be shared and because I have always believed that Fulvic Face Cream is another one of those remarkable products, albeit with Fulvic branding, if you buy any DoSe serum or oil across this weekend, we will send you Fulvic Face Cream (30 ml) as a gift, which is worth £15, because you may just want to follow my lead and dose your chosen serum into Fulvic Face Cream.
DoSe Serums and Oils; Fulvic Face Cream £30 for 60 ml (offer ends at midnight BST, Sunday 19 May) (only one gift per customer, whilst stock lasts)

Actually, I’m not quite finished yet, because in full transparency I wanted to gift the Fulvic Face Cream (30 ml), when we launched the DoSe products, but we didn’t have the stock levels required at that time, but better late than never.  And because I have written about Fulvic Face Cream, I am now going to write about Fulvic Body Lotion, and I will keep it very simple.  Fulvic Body Lotion is formulated with two breakthrough skin technologies, yes, they are remarkable technologies and yes, Fulvic Body Lotion is rather fabulous for dry, bumpy skin.  Let’s stay with the rather fabulous, and we’ll do that by dropping the price of Fulvic Body Lotion from £20 to £17.
Fulvic Body Lotion £17 for 200 ml (offer ends at midnight BST, Monday 20 May)  

Nearly at the end, but a reminder that three of the Truffle products from TEMPLESPA, namely Skin Truffle, Truffle Noir and Truffle De-Light, have dropped in price from £95 to £55, which is a saving of £40 on each of the products.  This offer will end at midnight BST, Friday 31 May, and that’s all I need to say really.
Skin Truffle £55 for 50 ml; Truffle Noir £55 for 50 ml; Truffle De-Light £55 for 50 ml: All by TEMPLESPA

This weekend’s final fling is all about Beat The Blues Room Spray, which is perhaps the hero product in the Ilapothecary range.  I have written quite a lot of words about Beat The Blues over the years, not least because we launched the brand, so all I want to say here is that if you buy any product from Ilapothecary, we will automatically send you the travel size Beat The Blues Room Spray (15 ml) and because this is a limited edition offer, there is only one gift per customer and I don’t know how long this offer will last, but if it fails to go into your basket, that will mean the offer is over.
Ilapothecary Products

And into the Saturday only treat we go, so with every order placed for £35 and above, excluding p&p, we will automatically send you Palm Balm (15 ml)* by TEMPLESPA, which is an intensely nourishing hand cream formulated with Mediterranean oils of Lavender, Lemon and Bergamot.  Full product details listed below.
Palm Balm

Finally, let’s sing a summer song, because we can.
Mr Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra; The VH Playlist

Wishing each of you a restful weekend.

With love

Gill x

DISCLAIMER: The views, opinions and information expressed in this article and on Victoriahealth.com Ltd are those of the author(s) in an editorial context.  Victoriahealth.com Ltd cannot be held responsible for any errors or for any consequences arising from the use of the information contained in this editorial or anywhere else on the site.  Every effort is made by the editorial and content team to see that no inaccurate or misleading information, opinion or statement appear, nor replace or constitute endorsement from medical bodies or trials unless specified.  Victoriahealth.com Ltd accept no liability for the consequences of any inaccurate or misleading data, information, opinion or statement.  Information on Victoriahealth.com Ltd and in the editorials is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional.  You should not use the information on this website or in the editorials for diagnosing or treating a health concern or disease, or for the replacement of prescription medication or other treatment.

Prices and products advertised at times of sending and publishing are subject to change and availability.

*Free gifts will only be granted if the items purchased are physical products and your total basket value exceeds the required amount noted.  Saturday only treats are subject to change should the specified gift run out prior to your purchase and are only included in orders placed between 7.45am (BST) and Midnight (BST) on the Saturday the Weekend Read is sent.  VH Addicts membership is a digital product and therefore will be excluded from the basket value.  Some gifts are blocked from international shipping due to local limitations imposed based on the country destination.  If this is the case, we will replace the gift with one that is able to be shipped to your destination. One gift per customer, whilst stock lasts.