A mistaken idea put right...

One shop I never, ever visited was The Body Shop. For some unknown reason I imagined the products to be cheap and worthless. This idea might have stemmed from family opinions that anything unfamiliar was worthless. Let’s face it, The Body Shop was extremely unfamiliar to the then older generation, consequently I was raised to think the same. However, now that I am a fully fledged and paid up member of the elderly section of the universe I thank the youngsters for introducing me to some of The Body Shop products.

I confess to suffering with dry, ageing skin, something I thought would never happen to me after all the years of regular moisturising. I’m told it doesn’t show but I know it’s there. Hard to miss really when the lips are continually sore and there is hard skin around the nails, so hard it makes me want to pick it off. Same goes for the feet; I am constantly treating the heels. Now isn’t that curious, it’s only the heels; skin covering soles and instep are fine. Anyway, all this causes a lot of anxiety, or rather it did before our Rosanne bought me some hemp products.

Hemp? Isn’t that some kind of cannabis?

Yes, that’s what I thought until I checked it out on Wikipedia:

Hemp (from Old English hænep) is a commonly used term for high-growing industrial varieties of the Cannabis plant and its products, which include fiber, oil, and seed. Hemp is refined into products such as hemp seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper, and fuel.

Hemp is not to be confused with the close relative cannabis, which is also a Cannabis plant, but is widely used as a recreational drug and medicine. These variants are typically low-growing and have higher content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), and other cannabinoids. The legality of Cannabis varies widely from country to country, and from state to state in the United States. In many countries regulatory limits for concentrations of psychoactive compounds, particularly THC, in hemp require the use of strains of the plant which are bred for low content.

Actually my first venture to The Body Shop wasn’t to buy products made from hemp, it was to acquire a pot of Shea Butter ... on the recommendation of Paola, the young lady who helps with the housework. She was very into Body Shop products and couldn’t wait to introduce me. That was when I complained about the dry skin on the legs.  Shea butter is what you need, she said, before talking me into buying some. She’s good at persuasion, is Paola. She knew very well it would work.

Then came Rosanne, but she didn’t just talk about it she bought stuff for me. First off was the hemp lip salve which I found so good I now have three tubes, one in the handbag, one in the bathroom and another in the kitchen. 

It wasn’t long before she came bearing gifts of two kinds of hand cream. Hemp Hand Butter with heavy-duty hydration and Hemp Hand Protector which is described as a hard working moisturiser. I use the latter more because of its deep seated penetration ... that’s my description not something I read on the tube. I have to use it a lot, certainly every time I wash my hands, but their appearance is 100% better than it was a couple of months ago. At one time I hid the hands rather than let people see them, now I can show them without shame.

Altogether now..... HOORAY!