Once again, I really do have to thank you for your ongoing responses to the many subjects I write about each week.  It remains of paramount importance that we are able to share and discuss the issues that really matter to each of us, and in that respect having an open dialogue helps all of us, me included.  My determination to help protect and support each of us, as far as I can, is mission critical, and of course I am not only talking about products.

I really don’t want to say that much here because I have rather a lot to report on this week, but what I do need to say is that I am so very grateful for the platform we share together and that we do have a voice, no matter what. Also, whatever else it is going on in each of our lives, we must always try to keep it as real as we can and use our collective voice for the better good of all, when circumstances dictate the necessity to do so.  And so that’s what we’ll continue to do as I bring you this week’s news and updates.

So let’s begin by talking about brain fog, which I wrote about last weekend.  Actually it’s my brain fog I want to mention because I really don’t know where my mind went when I ordered the new, and fabulous, PerfecTint products from iS Clinical.  I seriously under-estimated the demand, which I suppose is a good thing in one respect, but it meant that we went out of stock relatively quickly last Saturday, for which I must apologise.  Furthermore, I forgot to say that I think PerfecTint Bronze is an amazing powder blush, which can be used in conjunction with each of the tones.  All tones are now back in stock as I breathe a sigh of relief.  With a smile on my Beige PerfecTint face.
PerfecTint Powder SPF 40 Ivory £64; PerfecTint Powder SPF 40 Cream £64; PerfecTint Powder SPF 40 Beige £64; PerfecTint Powder SPF 40 Bronze £64; PerfecTint Powder SPF 40 Deep £64; All by iS Clinical

And I will keep that smile on my face as I write about a rather special treat.  It comes from EarthKind and I am throwing the focus here on their shampoo and conditioning bars.  As so many of you are aware, we recently launched the Elasticity Bar for EarthKind, which I must point out is not included in this treat.  However, there was peak interest in all their other products, so I am giving you the opportunity to try these products, if you haven’t already done so.

With a specific tip from EarthKind not to apply or rub the conditioning bar into your scalp, I am reducing the price of the named products, listed below, by 25%.  And the reason not to use the conditioning bar on your scalp is because the scalp produces sebum and it really doesn’t require additional oil from a conditioner.  It can also exacerbate scalp problems.  Just one further thing, I will hold these prices for two weeks, with the offer ending at midnight BST on Friday 22 April, or whilst stock lasts.  To the shower we go.
Bergamot & Sage Shampoo Bar For Dry & Coloured Hair £5.20; Citrus Leaf Shampoo Bar For Frequent Use £5.20; Tea Tree & Eucalyptus Shampoo Bar For Improved Scalp Health £5.20; Organic Oat Conditioning Bar For All Hair Types £6.70; The Elasticity Bar £12.50

I write about peri-menopause and menopause quite regularly because it is important to recognise that at any given time any number of women enter into this phase of their lives.  The side-effects are extraordinarily well-known and they do of course include hot flushes, excessive sweating, mood swings, night sweats and vaginal dryness.  With five articles on the Sage Complex product page, Shabir covers most aspects of this transitional journey in those articles, so all I am going to do here is refer you to his words as I take down the price of Sage Complex from £25 to £20, across the weekend.
Sage Complex £20 for 90 Capsules (Offer ends at midnight BST, Sunday 10 April)

One other notable side-effect of the menopausal years is the loss of hair.  I really feel it is so important to talk about this quite often because of the psychological and emotional repercussions of hair loss, which must never be under-estimated.  There are of course several solutions, but the caution here is that this is a complex concern and as such there is no such thing as an overnight result and it can often take up to six months of specific treatments in order to begin to see results.  We have always been very clear about this because I will not give any of you false hope and I also have to add that not every solution will work for everybody.  But that’s true across all products.

Based, as ever, on extensive research, we believe that Superior Hair is one of the most comprehensive forms of supplementation to help encourage the growth of hair without any side-effects.  Once again, Shabir gives the lowdown in his article, which although is quite specific to menopausal hair loss, it can be of course applied to all forms of hair loss.  So let’s drop the price of Superior Hair from £30 to £25 because I am more than aware that you will need to stay on this supplement for several months and you may also wish to introduce Natucain’s Hair Activator Growth Serum into the equation, which provides a hormone-free treatment to help stimulate hair growth.  From the root.
VH Editorial: Addressing Menopausal Hair Loss; Superior Hair £25 for 30 Capsules (Offer ends midnight BST, Sunday 10 April); Hair Activator Growth Serum by Natucain £99 for 100 ml (Lasts up to three months)

As your emails continue to come in regarding our campaign on the potentially dangerous side-effects of synthetic prostaglandin hormone compounds, I need to tell you that I am slightly behind Sarah in the testing process.  As her lash and brows continue to flourish, as it were, I am beginning to notice a difference in my own eyebrows.  Such a joyous moment, most especially because, like Sarah’s, they have become rather sparse, so I’m rather thrilled actually.  And I study them daily. 

In full transparency, I have not been able to test the lash serum yet.  Long story, cut short.  I have just had two minor procedures on my eyes.  Nothing at all serious, but it all started many years ago when a tear duct broke under one of my eyes when I was on a short-haul flight.  And it went on from there.  Anyway, the bottom line here is that I will join as soon as I can.  I did think of asking Shabir to test alongside Sarah, but thought better of it.  Mirror, mirror.  On the wall.
Lash Serum by Natucain £59 for 3.9 ml; Brow Serum by Natucain £59 for 6.2 ml

Staying on the subject of Shabir, he is having a moment about functional foods.  In all seriousness, I honestly didn’t believe that I would ever be writing about a breakfast cereal, yet I am just about to do that.  And I’m doing it because Shabir wants you to know about Oatwell Crispy Hearts, which contain natural oat bran.  To put it into context it contains high concentrations of beta-glucans, which in over 100 scientific studies have shown the positive effects of helping to lower cholesterol.  A few weeks ago I wrote about Oatwell Original Powder and this is the follow-through.  For even further context, I am linking you to Shabir’s article on lowering cholesterol.  Crunch.
VH Editorial: How To Lower Cholesterol; Oatwell Original Powder by LifePlan £11.79 for 150 grams; Oatwell Crispy Hearts by LifePlan £7.99 for 7 x 30 gram Sachets

Time for two new products, the first of which is a highly effective Vitamin B12 Liposomal Oral Spray.  Containing the most bio-available form of B12, Methylcobalamin, it is one of those all-singing, all-dancing vitamins that helps in the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, helps to promote normal energy metabolism, whilst also helping to support the normal function of the immune system. 

In its Liposomal format, Vitamin B12 is wrapped within thousands of micro-phospholipid spheres, which shields the nutrients from harsh digestive processes, as other forms of Vitamin B12 can be difficult for your gut to digest.  So let’s make it easy and it comes in two flavours, Truly Fruity and Very Berry.  Recommended dosages can be found on the product pages and as we launch, we drop the price from £19.99 to £16.95.  Ongoing.
Vitamin B12 Liposomal Oral Spray Truly Fruity by Well.Actually £16.95 for 30 ml; Vitamin B12 Liposomal Oral Spray Very Berry by Well.Actually £16.95 for 30 ml

This is quite amusing, well at least it amuses me because when we were in LA, we packed a product to take with us for testing purposes.  The product is called deCrease and before you think I am going to announce that this is a spray to de-crease your face, it isn’t.  It’s a spray for your clothes.  I am quite wary about these forms of products because, from experience, they have left my clothes with ring marks on the areas sprayed.  So we all got a little over-excited when we discovered deCrease, which uses new technology to de-crease dry clothes with a simple spray. 

I think this product probably comes into its own when you are travelling, because clothes can often get creased in transit.  It’s not magic, it’s science according to deCrease, because its special formula absorbs deep into the inner core of fibres, helping them to expand, which opens up the creases.  This is the amusing part, because I decided to test it on one of Shabir’s shirts and it gave me immense pleasure to wring his shirt in my hands until it looked like a rag.  And then we hung it up, sprayed it quite liberally, stretched it out and waited for it to dry.  Dry it did, crease-free it was.  And we all clapped our hands.  How clever.  We thought.
deCrease £9.99 for 250 ml (Please follow instructions carefully and do not use on silk or rayon)

Right, after that slight deviation, I think we need to get back to health issues, and I will do so by referring you to a short article about the prevention and treatment of cold sores.  This is another one of those articles which Shabir has updated recently as he has included a new lip balm into the equation.  It is called Lysine Lip Balm and it sits as an adjunct to L-Lysine HCI.  Lysine is an essential amino acid and studies have indicated that Lysine, which has anti-viral properties, can help speed up the recovery of cold sores and help prevent recurrences.  L-Lysine can also be used for helping to treat warts and verruca’s, with specific information on the L-Lysine product page.
VH Editorial: The Prevention And Treatment Of Cold Sores; Lysine Lip Balm by Good Health Naturally £5.95 for 5 grams; L-Lysine HCI by Lamberts £14.25 for 120 Tablets

Staying with health, let’s take a look at Bioflavonoids.  Bioflavonoids are a group of plant pigments, which scientists have discovered are very important to the overall health of our body and offer protection against free radical damage to our skin, arteries, organs and veins.  Collectively they are often referred to as Vitamin P, and although they are often added to Vitamin C supplementation, there is so much more to Bioflavonoids, which Shabir discusses in his article, linked below.

I really don’t want to steal Shabir’s thunder, but I thought you may be interested to know that whilst Hyaluronic Acid concentrates primarily in plumping up the skin, amongst a myriad of other things, two of the best Bioflavonoids, Hesperidin and Rutin, have been the subject of some rather interesting research where it has been indicated that they may help reduce the appearance of age spots and also help even out skin tone, with an emphasis, in the case of Hesperidin, on helping to brighten age-damaged skin.

Hesperidin has a similar structure to Hydroxyquinone, a chemical that has been used topically to not only brighten skin, but to help treat hyperpigmentation.  Unlike Hydroxyquinone, Hesperidin does not have any unwanted side-effects, such as skin rashes and dryness, and works well to help prevent excess pigment formation.  There are of course many other benefits from supplementing with Bioflavanoids, but I’ll leave the rest to Shabir.  I know my place.
VH Editorial: Why Are Bioflavonoids Important; Rutin and Vitamin C + Bioflavonoids by Lamberts £12.95 for 90 Tablets

Beauty Treats.  Three of them.  I may well have side-stepped our own Vitamin C Serum last week as I wrote about Derma E’s Vitamin C Serum, but you can’t keep a great product down for too long, so without anything further to add on that subject, I am taking the price of Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid down from £10 to £8.  Across the weekend.  If we have enough.
Vitamin C Serum 23% + Ferulic Acid by Garden of Wisdom for VH £8 for 30 ml (Offer ends at midnight BST, Sunday 10 April)

I was in two minds whether or not to do two of our own products in this section, but the fact of the matter is that so many of us use, and love, Fulvic Body Lotion, so why not.  Using two breakthrough skincare technologies, which you can read about on the product page, this is the body lotion that has immense healing properties and rescues dry skin rapidly. And actually the thing to say here is that unless I believed it would virtually outclass all else in this category, I would never have brought it to the beauty arena, so with that said I’ll just drop the price of Fulvic Body Lotion from £20 to £15.  And keep my mouth shut on other things.  Lest I get out of control.
Fulvic Body Lotion £15 for 200 ml (Offer ends at midnight BST, Sunday 10 April)

One more beauty treat and it’s from QRx Labs, a brand I rarely write about, but their products do have a great following.  Anyway, I’m writing about it now as I take the price of their Glycolic/Salicylic Acne Control Pads down from £15 to £10.  Combining Alpha Hydroxy Acids and Beta Hydroxy Acids, these textured pads will help unclog pores, treat blackheads and exfoliate your skin.  That’s all. 
Glycolic/Salicylic Acid 10/2 Acne Control Pads by QRx Labs £10 for 50 Textured Pads

Into the Saturday only treat we go and this week I have several different gifts to share with you, so as such it is another lucky dip week.  As these gifts are computer-generated, I really can’t comment any further other than to say we will automatically include a gift with every order placed for £30 and above, excluding p&p, and I hope you enjoy using the product sent.

As we come to the end of another Weekend Read, I thank you, once again, for your ongoing loyalty and support.  In a world which continues to disturb so many of us, it is all we can do to stay close and try to help others overcome immense difficulties wherever, and however, we can.

With love

Gill x 

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*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 (GMT) and Midnight (GMT) 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.