Recipes for homemade beauty products, and tips to prevent sun damage and general wear and tear to the skin, received a warm welcome from all present at the September meeting of North Petherwyn WI, as did the guest speaker, Charlene Wheeler from Lumiere Beauty.

Charlene kindly shared her recipes for homemade beauty items which anyone can make at home at very little cost. Her exfoliating/moisturising sugar scrub recipe, for example, included everyday ingredients such as brown sugar, caster sugar, and olive or coconut oil.

Members acknowledges that, at the end of summer, when skin can be prone to sun damage, Charleen’s suggestions of a gentle exfoliation of the hands, in particular, to both soften and moisturise once or twice a week, made very good sense. It was very relaxing to try the homemade preparation for the care of cuticles, made using olive oil and lavender oil, which also had the added benefit of anti-bacterial content. As she helpfully pointed out, these products could, with a little inventive WI decoration, make lovely presents. Plenty of new ideas, therefore, for the exchange of homemade gifts at the WI Christmas party,

Charlene’s final piece of advice for the evening, during her question and answer session, was to try leaving out shampoo in cleansing routines, and just use conditioner instead — and to spend a bit longer massaging the scalp rather than using expensive products.

As the WI began its Autumn programme, warm thanks were expressed to the guest speaker for her contribution to a lovely evening.

The next meeting is on Monday, October 14, when members will be visiting the Lawrence House Museum in Launceston. Christmas wreath-making in November and a Christmas party in December will round off the programme of events for 2019. Prospective new members and guests are always made welcome at North Petherwyn WI.