Table Tonic

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Table Tonic "clean" beauty buys: PART III

Posted by setya at 12:00 PM

Brand: Sanctum www.sanctumaustralia.com

Skincare or haircare? Both
I tried: (above) Shampoo & Conditioner for dry hair, Night Conditioning Cream, Body Balm, Gentle Face Exfoliant, Moisture Concentrate, Hydrating Gel Mask and Soothing Cream Cleanser.
Clean creds: 100% naturally derived, locally harvested ingredients in combination with medicinal grade, therapeutic herbal/plant Extracts, "cosmeceutical levels" of active vitamins and essential oils. Not tested on animals (Sanctum is a member of Choose Cruelty Free, no animal derived ingredients (Vegan).
Best bit: Made in Australia AND Certified Organic AND Vegan! Phwoar. I'm sold!

Standout product: Once again, I have been very pleasantly surprised by a cream cleanser - the Soothing Cream Cleanser. It wasn't at all greasy and left a lovely clean feeling.
Bonus points: Those who prefer minimal "fragrance" will love Sanctum products. They have virtually no scent.
Where to buy: Click for stockists

Buy online at: Sanctum

PS Found this info on the Sanctum Australia website and thought some of you might be interested: "Did you know there are in fact 3 classes of organic products recognized around the world? These are as follows, for products that are: 1) Under 70% organic content is to be described as non organics. 2) Over 70% is described as containing certified organic ingredients. 3) Over 95% organic content can be termed certified organic." Click to read more - "Demystifying the Organic Skin Care Myth".

Random fact: This post was written whilst eating one of Sarah Britton's Raw Brownies (I added 1/2 cup organic shredded coconut to mine)(and I rolled mine into balls)(I never follow recipes).

Oh, and in case you missed them, click to read:
Table Tonic "clean" beauty buys: PART I
Table Tonic "clean" beauty buys: PART II

On sale now: Real Living, Vogue Living, Home Beautiful

Posted by setya at 4:41 AM

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Some bright and beautiful mag-ness has been hitting our bug-that-needs-a-colonic-infested mailbox this week (I swear I need to start wearing gloves to retrieve the mail?!). This week's loot comes in the form of my Aussie faves Real Living (Nov), Vogue Living (Nov/Dec) and Home Beautiful (Nov)...

And hats off to the Home Beautiful team - I'm calling this their BEST ISSUE EVER! I know. Loved it. And I spy a Mexican Suzani on the cover (there's a Table Tonic Mexican Suzani in Real Living too!). On sale now (Table Tonic AND the mags, that is!).

Cyber "press": Table Tonic says thank you!

Posted by setya at 12:00 PM

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Thank you to Elly at Carribean Living for this lovely mention.

Thank you to the Ivy & Piper blog for this lovely mention.

Thank you to Toni at Something Gorgeous for this lovely mention.

(below) Toni bought the Table Tonic Turquoise Spot Ikat cushions to spruce up her beach apartment bedroom!

Thank you to The Style Net for this lovely mention.

Thank you to Stylist Kara von Rosenlund for this lovely mention.

(below) Lucky Kara received a Table Tonic off-white Juju Hat for her birthday!

Thank you to Skinny Flat White for this lovely mention.

Cyber-love makes the world go round! Thank you everyone! Google alerts tends to be hit and miss, so if you feature Table Tonic on your blog or site, drop me a line! I'll be more than happy to give you a thank you right here next time! Oh, and PS Don't forget:

Support Anti-Poverty week (16 - 22 October 2011)

Posted by setya at 12:00 PM

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Did you know it's Anti-Poverty Week this week (16th October to 22nd October 2011)? Anti-Poverty Week is centred on strengthening public understanding about the causes and consequences of poverty and encouraging discussion to address these problems.

There's this group called Good Return - what they do is basically connect you to individuals who need loans to lift themselves out of poverty. It's an innovative and new way of giving. And making a loan is just that - Good Return has a 100% repayment rate and you can decide whether to continue making loans, make it a donation or have the loan returned to you once repaid. You don’t even have to donate your money to help people, just lend it and you can get your money back when the loan is repaid. Lending $1 turns into $6 if you keep relending your initial loan - you can help 14 women who need microloans to lift themselves out of poverty. In fact, Good Return provides more than a loan by delivering the borrowers with financial literacy classes, small business management, debt management and many other skills they need to maximise their success. Helping one woman actually benefits five people.

To date:
1215 women have received loans-it changes lives.
100% repayment rate (it really works).
6075 individuals have benefitted (it multiplies).
2600 individuals have received training (it's sustainable).
$1 lent, turns into $6 (it’s effective).

Help to spread the word!

1. Check out the Good Return Blog for more posts & updates.

2. Got a Facebook page? Post videos and testimonials from the Good Return website. Those who receive loans can best tell how effective giving has impacted their lives. Support the Anti-Poverty Week Facebook campaign. Visit their page at Facebook.com/goodreturnorg and share posts.

3. Use the Anti-Poverty Week Twitter hashtag: #antipovertyweek. Good Return will be presenting their own thoughts on the issue, including writing statuses on Good Return’s effective giving. Follow them at Twitter.com/goodreturnorg and re-tweet their tweets.

Good Return has a target during anti-poverty week of 75 loans during Anti-Poverty Week and you can play an important part in spreading the word to help Good Return hit the target. Got 60 seconds? Here's some motivation:

Food, glorious (and organic!) food: PART II

Posted by setya at 12:00 PM

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How hard it is to think of meal ideas 3 times a day, every day? It's a killer, right?! Throw the word "healthy" into that equation and it gets a whole lot gnarlier (dude). Admittedly, I've always been a big "salad" fan. And because of the resourceful Virgo in me, my lunches and dinners are almost always dictated by whatever veggies we have in the fridge - and if I may say so myself, I have a bit of a knack of making it work. Remember that TV chef a few years back called Aristos? He'd meet someone in the supermarket, look in their pantry and fridge then whip up a gourmet meal with whatever ingredients they had. Yeah. I'm a bit like him. And I constantly surprise myself. Here are a few you might want to try at home - all mega-quick, super-duper easy, and crazy-delicious:

(above) Thinly sliced (raw) zucchini, mixed lettuce leaves, walnuts, lemon zest, parmesan and harissa/chilli.
Dressing: lemon juice, olive oil, honey and garlic.

(above) I turned that...

(above) Into this! Cos (Romaine) lettuce leaves make a beautiful, crunchy wrap! I used smoked salmon, a tomato and avocado salsa and the walnut tapenade from the My New Roots Raw Tacos. I've been making it a lot - It goes gangbusters on just about everything! Here's the recipe:

Walnut Taco Mix
1 cup raw walnuts
1 Tbsp shoyu (raw, unpasteurized soy sauce)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, chilli, harissa etc (more if you like it spicy!)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Directions: Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse just to mix. Don’t over-blend, or you will end up with walnut butter!

(above) Oh look! There it is again! This time with roast pumpkin, roast onion lettuce, and shredded coconut in a mountain bread wrap.

(above) And again (I told you it was good!). I made a waldorf salad of sorts with it - Celery, apple, chickpeas (to "oomph" it up), walnut mix and a beautiful, garlic-y continental parsley pesto.
Dressing: lemon juice, olive oil, honey and garlic.

(above) My breakfast almost every day is two jars of this "Green Smoothie" (and if I miss a day, I miss it like crazy!). 2 cups kale/baby spinach/silverbeet, 1 frozen banana, 1 lemon, 1T coconut oil, 1T chia seeds, handful of almonds. But it's slightly different every day - there's also goji berries, coconut milk, coconut water, almond butter, flax seed oil, pear, apple, macca powder and bee pollen to play around with?! Green smoothies sound disgusting, but they're a superb (and convenient) way of getting your green leafy veggies in and are DELICIOUS. Victoria Boutenko claims to be the pioneer of the green smoothie, and her books Green for Life and The Green Smoothie Revolution are fabulous. I literally inhaled both of them in 48 hours.

(above) This is one I'm very proud of. This was last week, on one of those nights that I had "nothing" in the fridge or pantry. Enter spaghetti and frozen edamame beans* (so much nicer than broad beans too!). Add toasted pine nuts, parmesan, chilli, lemon juice and olive oil. Success!
*Look for edamame in the freezer section of Asian supermarkets ($1.98 a bag).

(above) Smoked salmon and salsa (corn, tomato, onion, avocado, corainder, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and olive oil).

(above) Another day, another killer salad: Roast pumpkin, roast onion, green beans, avocado, feta (I love Barambah brand) and walnut tapenade.
Dressing: Olive oil and lemon juice.

So there it is - "A week on my plate". I feel a Table Tonic cookbook coming on... I could call it: "Table (wait for it) Tonic"! PS Click to read Food Glorious Food Part 1. Bon Appetit Tonic-ettes!