There's an interesting article here on chemicals in make-up and toiletries.

It suggests that the average woman wears about 500 chemicals on herself daily and gives some tips on the worst ones, which you should avoid if you can.

Personally, I've tried to eliminate additives - especially parabens - from my purchases by buying organic products (the problem is, people keep giving me freebies...), but it is very hard to eliminate chemicals altogether, even with the best intentions. 

My new sunblock, for instance, is under dermatologist's orders because I am a Type 1 phenotype (blonde, blue eyes, pale skin with freckles) and have already had several dodgy moles removed. It contains three or four different parabens, something which I had actually managed to eliminate from my skincream by switching to coconut oil, and I have been ordered to wear it for the rest of my life, March to October. Parabens are in almost all sunblocks in order to act as a preservative. 

The other thing that is hard to find without masses of chemicals is shampoo (and conditioner).  My shampoo and conditioner alone account for 44 different additives, including three parabens.

Any ideas, anyone? Is there an organic alternative out there? 

Are you applying your face cream properly?

Forgive me for asking, but I found out recently that I wasn't - after humph-knows-how-many years of slapping the stuff on. 

I have been one of those women who dots it on their forehead, cheeks, nose and throat and then blends it in - well apparently, if you do it this way, you can chronically underhydrate your skin. If you have dry skin, as I increasingly do, what you should do is apply a biggish blob to the palm of one hand, rub it between your palms and then rub your palms over your face, in an upward massaging motion. 

I've been doing this for about a week now and I must say I can see a difference. I am definitely using more product, even allowing for some excess soaking into the skin on my hands, and my skin is also definitely plumper and less dry, particularly in the morning. The cream also seems to settle in a thinner, more even layer, allowing you to apply more later if need be. 

Worth a try, anyhow, especially for those of us who are finding our skins changing and becoming dryer with age. 

Further to a piece I wrote a little while ago on eco-friendly beauty, I thought I'd share a few more budget - and natural - bathtime ideas.

The first is from my friend K in Cincinnati - sugar. I'd tried bath salts, of course, but had never thought about sugar, but she is right - it makes the most fantastic body scrub, especially if you mix it with some oil. Just pour about a teaspoon of oil into your hand, add about the same amount of sugar, mix it to a paste and bob's your uncle. No mess, no residue, clean drains. I've taken to keeping a vanilla pod in the jar too - scents the sugar wonderfully.

Another tip was one I read about many moons ago, back in the 1970s and was advice offered up by Marie Helvin - margarine. Before you gag, think about what margarine actually is - it's just oil hydrogenated into a solid form, which actually makes it a tad easier to use. Just keep a tub of it by the bath, grab a smallish handful and either drop it in the hot water or rub it over yourself like a cream as soon as you get in.

If you balk at margarine, why not just use oil? Rather than shelling out for expensive bath oil that you add to the water, I now get in the bath and quickly rub plain old grapeseed oil all over myself. (Don't add it to the water or it just forms clumps.) Grapeseed is high in natural collagen, which plumps up your skin, but it's a bit thin, so if you prefer something thicker, either mix in some olive oil or use sweet almond oil instead - particularly good for dry skin. I keep mine in an old massage oil container which is very pretty, and have added a bit of ylang-ylang and rosemary essential oils to it for a more fragrant experience. 

My latest bit of fun is a product I found at my local health store. I actually bought it to eat, but it also works well as a detoxifying bath - green clay. Just shake a bit into a bath until the water goes cloudy and you have the most gorgeous, silky-feeling water imaginable. You can also mix it to a paste and use it as a face or body mask.

I suppose everyone over a certain age already knows about oatmeal for the bath. It was all we had when we were kids. This is best used in a cloth bag or you end up with bits everywhere. Hang the bag under the hot tap while the water's running, and at the end, give it a squeeze - wonderful for dry or sore skin. This oatmeal specially made for the bath is from www.eatmoreoats.com. On a similar theme, powdered milk makes a very nice bath too and generally costs so little that you can use as much or as little as you like. 

Courtesy of Twiggy's book on style over 40 (see reviews section), I tried her idea for a honey and olive oil face mask, and very nice it is too. You have to warm them to mix them together, leave on for 10-15 minutes and simply wash away. 

Voila - a cheap, nice-smelling, totally eco bathtime.

And by the way, I found a great system for a natural deodorant - will post another time. 

Dr Debra Luftman and Dr Eva Ritvo are out and about plugging their new book: The Beauty Prescription (£13.99, McGraw-Hill). 

Luftman is a dermatologist while Ritvo is a psychologist, but as friends, comparing notes, they realised that their patients had many of the same body issues - low self-esteem, poor self-image etc. Luftman's clients were looking for external solutions to their problems, while Ritvo's were looking more inside themselves, but the two women decided they could come up with a 'beauty prescription' that would work for everybody.

"True beauty," says Luftman, "isn't about being physically perfect: it's about maximising your beauty potential. When you do this, people will subconsciously want to treat you better." 

At the core of the 'prescription' is what the women call the 'brain loop' - inner beauty, health, outer beauty, environment. 

* Inner beauty covers areas such as mental and emotional well-being, self-esteem, self-awareness and self-confidence.

* Health deals with taking care of your physical health through the right nutrition, sleep and leading a healthy lifestyle in general.

* Outer beauty covers maintaining your external looks such as make-up, hair, skincare etc.

* Environment deals with your surroundings and what feedback you get from them - home, work, relationships and friends.  

The trick, says Luftman, is to keep all areas of the loop flowing. "When someone says you look beautiful, you feel more beautiful," she says. "When you feel more beautiful, you start to look after yourself more. The better you feel and look, the more positive the response you get from your environment, the more people are attracted to you and the more confident you feel."

But although this can be a positive circle, she adds, when one area isn't working, you can also end up in the opposite - a circle of negativity.

The tips are pretty basic, but they include:

* Inner beauty: do voluntary work, value your relationships, practise self-affirmations.

* Health: exercise, eat properly, get enough sleep, have regular medical checkups.

* Outer beauty: see a (non-affiliated) make-up artist for some tips, develop a daily skincare regime, replace your makeup regularly, 'dress up'.

* Environment: spend time with people you like, avoid people you don't, do little things to cheer yourself up such as putting flowers on your desk. 

Well, basic they may be, and the doctors have come in for some criticism because of it, but I wonder how many of us actually do them?

Because I practise Buddhism (though I'm not a Buddhist) I learned a long time ago to write down five positive things at the end of every day. It sounds naff, but it does help you to focus on the good things in your life instead of the bad things, while is my tendency, being the depressive sort. I also put my health before everything these days because I have an auto-immune disease which would otherwise lay me flat (hence the downshift to the countryside instead of my former caffeine-fuelled life in London). How many of us go through our makeup drawer twice a year and chuck out everything that's past its sell-by? Most of us suffer a shot across the bows like conjunctivitis before we learn that lesson (yes, I do mean me...).

Lots of women never learn to put themselves first in anything, and then whinge like martyrs that their husbands and kids boss them about (as a non parent I see this all the time with mothers). But as they say in emergency services: put your own oxygen mask on first (ie: if you don't, you're no use to anybody else) and that's not a bad tip to carry through life.

However, it strikes me from this little list that the lesson some women never learn is to cut people out of their lives who aren't worthwhile, especially when it comes to men. How many women stay in relationships that are violent, or disrespectful? And realistically, how many men do this? How many women stay with an alcoholic husband? Nine out of ten, according to stats, while nine out of ten husbands leave an alcoholic wife - very interesting.

We're even worse when it comes to family, as if there was some reason to put up with people you wouldn't otherwise be friends with in a million years. And speaking of friends, how many of us have negative friends, who do nothing but suck the mental energy out of you and leave you feeling tired?

Probably owing to my dysfunctional family, I had a habit over the years of putting up with crappy friends myself. But I do notice, thank God, that as I get older, I'm more ruthless about cutting them off. My friend T put her finger on this exactly when she said: "I don't have time to spend time with the people I DO like. I'm sure as shit not going to spend time with people I DON'T..."

For more on The Beauty Prescription, including a longer list of tips, see this article in the Mail.  

Available at: Amazon.comAmazon.co.uk

Cult Beauty, a new beauty website and glossy magazine, is now online.

The site aims to be the online arbiter for the best cult hair, beauty and grooming products from around the world. In order to remain independent, it does not accept beauty advertising.

The website will champion cult products that each stand out as the 'hero' product in their respective fields - products will be sourced and suggested both by Cult Beauty's own experts and by users. In other words, it'll be the best place to find those one-off products that can't be sourced outside the major cities. This could be a godsend for people like me, who live 40 miles from the nearest beauty shop and have to order everything online.

"We want to do for beauty what Net-a-porter has done for fashion - bringing the once inaccessible, undiscovered and elite gems in beauty to everyone," said Jessica Moore, the firm's managing director.

To use Cult Beauty, just visit the site and register. It only takes a couple of minutes and you can then browse to your heart's content by new item, colour, type of product, etc. The icons tell you if the product is animal-friendly, and you're given directions on how to use it. You can also do an advanced search by your skin type, hair colour etc.

After logging on, within seconds I spotted a flesh-coloured kohl liner of the kind I've been searching for for years. It's the Clarifying Pencil by 3 Custom Color and I will be ordering it right away. I've used white and pale pink kohl liners for years as an eye brightener, and they work like a charm, but if you want to touch up and not have it noticeable, a flesh-toned pencil is the way to go - and you can also use it as a spot concealer.

Cult Beauty delivers throughout the UK and Europe for a flat rate (£4.95 UK, £14.95 Europe).