Journal

Slow beauty should be the words on your lips if you’re into clean living and an eco-friendly lifestyle. Given the state of the world post-COVID-19, it is hardly a surprise that slow beauty has gained such popularity. It is a mindful approach to skincare and life in general. Slow beauty is about making considered choices when it comes to your skin, your lifestyle and the planet. We think everyone should get on board.  Slow beauty followers support brands that use sustainable ingredients and improve personal wellness. Obviously, this means such followers must be a bit picky about the brands they choose to buy. This may seem difficult at first, but slow beauty practitioners swear by it. If you're still on the fence yourself, here are 7 reasons that you should choose slow beauty skincare and incorporate slow beauty principles into your own life. 1. Adopt a holistic beauty mentality - try natural skincare Slow beauty is a subset of the holistic beauty movement. Holistic beauty is a way of melding one's beauty routine with every other aspect of living.  What sets slow beauty apart is its specificity. A slow beauty lifestyle clearly emphasises the need to combine three particular facets of one's life:       1.  Physical health and wellness       2.  Mental health and emotional wellness       3.  Environmental sustainability 2. Increase your mindfulness With holistic beauty comes increased mindfulness. Mindfulness is a spiritual belief and psychological practice. It reclaims personal wellbeing by focusing on the moment and devoting oneself to living in it. It takes practice and concerted effort to achieve mindfulness, but every steppingstone along that path forms an important part of its experience.   Slow beauty can be one of those stepping stones. Purchasing products that seek to improve your health and appearance in a slow, sustainable way is markedly more mindful than purchasing products that promise instant results. Rather than getting hung up on the future or some unattainable end goal, slow beauty teaches people to accept themselves as they are and make gradual improvements instead of drastic transformations. 3. Support ethical business practices Some modern business practices can be a real turn off. Despite living in a modern society that is fully aware of the corporate impact on human life and our very planet, some businesses continue to operate in a manner that benefits them at the cost of all others.   Slow beauty bucks that trend entirely.   When you purchase slow beauty products instead of mega-mart brand-name cosmetics, you send an obvious message to businesspeople around the world. Specifically, you're saying that you will spend your money on healthy, sustainable products instead of mass-produced ones that harm our communities and environment.  4. Encourage environmental sustainability A good example of ethical business practices that the slow beauty lifestyle supports is environmental sustainability.  Slow beauty products are produced from sustainable, ethically sourced ingredients. Slow beauty products do not jump onto popular trends just for the sake of making a profit. Because of the connection between slow beauty and holistic beauty, you won't find a slow beauty retailer that supports environmental destruction. Slow beauty doesn't make sacrifices for the benefit of personal health. You can trust that the ingredients in slow beauty products aren't contributing to damage in rural areas or third-world countries. Likewise, slow beauty producers do not test their products on animals. Another reason to sleep easy when choosing slow beauty options. 5. Enable lasting, long-term self-improvement As we said earlier, the main goal of slow beauty is sustainability. This sustainability extends to both the environment at large and our own individual health. For example, consider what we know about building new habits such as including more exercise in our lifestyle, moving towards a plant-based diet or incorporating mindfulness into our life. Much as we would love for there to be an overnight or instant fix for these habits, it just doesn’t work that way. We know that we’re much more likely to continue a new habit if we incorporate it at a gradual, steady pace rather than a crash course or cold turkey approach. Beauty is no different. When you make small but long-lasting improvements to your self-care routines, you're more likely to stick with them and, thus, more likely to see long-term benefits. 6. Remove bodily toxins One of the largest benefits of slow beauty products is the focus on removing bodily toxins.  Lots of cosmetics advertise themselves as cures for congested skin and environmental damage. If they intend to do so by pumping your skin full of synthetic chemicals, though, they're really just exacerbating the problem. Slow beauty products do not. They address dull complexions, wrinkles, blemishes, sun damage, and other common beauty concerns with natural ingredients. In other words, you aren't adding new toxins to your body in the hopes that they will expel the old toxins.  7. Cultivate simplicity  As our own Wendy Nowell-Usticke  attests, “Minimal should be the norm, not the exception.” This is true for cosmetics, healthcare and life in general.   Unlike products with three labels full of ingredient lists, many of which are synthetic and unpronounceable, slow beauty products seek to deliver the best results in the simplest way possible. This means that they only use the ingredients they need and that those ingredients originate solely from ethical, environmentally friendly sources. Simple ingredients and simple processes mean simple solutions. Where to shop for slow beauty skincare Supporting the slow beauty approach is an excellent way to broadcast a message to cosmetics companies worldwide. We want beauty products that improve more than just our appearance. We want products that heal our bodies and protect our planet.  The only question left is where to go about purchasing such products. A great place to start is Corbin Rd.. A New Zealand-owned and operated business, Corbin Rd. uses only the highest quality and most sustainable ingredients possible. We reduce waste via mindful packaging choices and commit to absolutely no animal testing of our products. If you’re new to Corbin Rd., we have a starter set ( of our essential products, in sweet little mini sizes. Our Restorative Cleansing Balm, Viteve™ Silk Exfoliating Cloth and Restorative Face Oil. All you need for healthy, strong and radiant skin!  

Looking for the best quality health and skin care products, then Corbin Rd. is the place for all your needs. Read about our blogs

Amazing Skin for the Holidays? YES PLEASE! By guest writer Kristy W. Gilbraith, MBA, BSN, RN, BC-LMT Okay, let's face it. The Corona Virus and all the other happenings taking place in the world was enough stress to add premature wrinkles to anyone's face. For me, after day 30 of lockdown, the thought of what I was going to do about my skin left me fraught with flashbacks of pubescent acne because my monthly facial routine was interrupted. What?! Don't judge. We all had priorities during what seemingly felt like a "world is ending" moment, and facials and toilet paper were mine. There's nothing like a pandemic to get you rethinking how to implement self-care and beauty at home. The need for quality skincare products on hand and devices to support the efficacy of creams, balms, and oils, or what have you to maintain vibrant and healthy skin, became more apparent each day, and a vibrational therapy facial wand is one of those devices. The Science: If you've never heard of vibrational therapy, you may think it sounds a bit, well, hokey. However, vibrational therapy is not new and is definitely not hokey. For quite some time, whole body vibrational therapy (WBVT) has been used in the medical community to manage various chronic conditions. For example, according to Aminian-Far et al. (2011), WBVT may reduce delayed onset muscle soreness via muscle function improvement. King et al. (2009) observed short-term improvement via whole body vibrational therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease, citing observed improvements in all symptoms, motor control, and functional outcome measures at the time of assessment. Specifically, a significant decrease in rigidity and tremor and a substantial increase in step length and improved speed on the grooved pegboard task. Fascinating, right?! There's also the study review by (Lau et al. (2011) that noted WBVT as being "beneficial for enhancing leg muscle strength among older adults." Even from a focused perspective, vibrational therapy was deemed feasible in improving TMJ (Muir et al., 2014). So, you may be asking, "what does any of that have to with me getting great skin for the holidays?" Well, everything quite frankly loves. Beauty and the Tech: Leave it to technology to bridge the gap between science and beauty, which isn't that much of a leap when you think about it. Skin is the largest organ of the human body. It is complex and requires absolute care if it is to look, feel, and perform it's best physiologically. Knowing what we do about vibrational therapy in healthcare, the stage is set for what we can expect from focused therapy, such as the kind observed in a facial vibrational wand. Facial vibration wands demonstrate benefits similar to that of massage. They reduces puffiness, increases circulation, and aid in toxin removal via lymphatic drainage. Additionally, like WBVT observations noted by Lau et al. (2011) and King et al. (2009), vibrational facial wands help tighten muscles in the face, while relaxing facial rigidity. So, no need to get injections in the face to relax wrinkles when a vibrational therapy facial wand will seemingly do the trick. The icing on the cake is the enhanced absorption of facial products, which in my book, makes this gadget a winner! If you're looking to enhance your at-home skin routine, I highly recommend checking out Corbin Rd.'s Scupta 6000 to get your face ready for the holidays and whatever 2021 brings. It also travels really well. So, great skin is anywhere you are. Cheers!Kristy W. Gilbraith, a self-proclaimed life student, is a licensed registered nurse, board-certified massage therapist, Armed Forces veteran, and the founder of Southern Hospitality Brands: UndiesLoft and Southern Hospitality Fragrance Co When unwinding from business, her guilty pleasures are binging on Netflix series', beauty and health writing, and international travel with her husband.   References: Aminian-Far, A., Hadian, M.-R., Olyaei, G., Talebian, S., & Bakhtiary, A. H. (2011). Whole- Body Vibration and the Prevention and Treatment of Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness. Journal of Athletic Training, 46(1), 43–49. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-46.1.43 King, L. K., Almeida, Q. J., & Ahonen, H. (2009). Short-term effects of vibration therapy on motor impairments in Parkinson's disease. NeuroRehabilitation, 25(4), 297–306. https://doi.org/10.3233/nre-2009-0528 Lau, R. W., Liao, L.-R., Yu, F., Teo, T., Chung, R. C., & Pang, M. Y. (2011). The effects of whole body vibration therapy on bone mineral density and leg muscle strength in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Rehabilitation, 25(11), 975–988. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215511405078 Muir, B., Brown, C., Brown, T., Tatlow, D., & Buhay, J. (2014, December). Immediate changes in temporomandibular joint opening and pain following vibration therapy: a feasibility pilot study. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4262808/.

Gua Sha is the ancient Chinese practice from the Ming Dynasty. It was originally used to treat ailments ranging from joint and muscle pain to heatstroke by scraping the skin using stones or similar type hand tools, along with a cream, serum or oil. Today, Gua Sha is experiencing a renaissance within the beauty industry. Here's how it works.

As Kiwis, we're infinitely proud of our clean green image, but it doesn't take much digging under the surface to uncover a more sobering truth. And when it comes to plastic waste, we're not much chop. New Zealanders each consume around 31kg of plastic waste from packaging adding up to 250,000 tonnes of plastic waste headed to landfill every year.  With inconsistencies in recycling programmes provided by councils, we're not all that flash at recycling either, with less than one-fifth of what we consume getting to recycling centres, and even less than that deemed able to be recycled. This is because when just one container in an entire load is not clean, the whole lot is labelled "contaminated" and heads directly to landfill. Yikes! But there's nothing we Kiwis love more than rallying together and making change swiftly. So this Plastic Free July, at Corbin Rd. we hope to inspire you to make small, incremental daily lifestyle changes that contribute to making a big difference to our shared New Zealand future.    How to go plastic free this July So to help you kickstart your zero waste journey, here are our 5 easy ways for you to start your Plastic Free life this July: 1. Say 'No!" to plastic in the first place BYO shopping bags have paved the way for us all to think differently about our consumer behaviour. The next step is breaking the cycle of buying (or inadvertently buying) plastic in the first place. It starts with saying a polite no plastic straws, coffee cups and sushi containers, and taking your own. A stainless steel straw pops easily into a handbag, reusable coffee cups are readily available to buy, our amazing Travel Flask is perfect for brewing specialty teas is, and there are amazing, durable reusable containers for your lunchtime takeaway salad or sushi. And when you're choosing your beauty products, seek out compostable, biodegradable cardboard packaging, or glass, which can be used again and again, and when it's recycled, becomes an aggregate used to strengthen products like concrete. 2. Reuse before you recycle Recycling is an end of line activity only when packaging has no further use. At Corbin Rd. we have carefully designed our Restorative Cleansing Balm glass jar to be used again and again in multiple ways. The sticker easily peels off and the jars are ideal for storing herbs and spices, seeds, salt, nuts for your desk at work, jewellery, buttons, safety pins, hair ties and much more. The only limit is your imagination! 3. Replace plastics with sustainable options Our households accumulate so many plastic items that we once didn't think twice about purchasing. But now that we're more informed, when these items need replacing, it's the perfect time to seek out environmentally-friendly, durable options. Replace plastic pegs with stainless steel ones, when plastic coat hangers inevitably break, buy wooden ones built to last a lifetime to replace them. Replace plastic laundry baskets and kitchen, bathroom and storage containers with woven ones, and use glass jars instead of plastic containers in your pantry and fridge.  4. Ask retailers to stock the plastic free products you want People are expecting more from their local supermarkets, chemists, fruit and vegetable outlets, grocers, butchers and more. So it won't be unexpected if you'd like your favourite shops to stock your preferred items. Talk to store managers and ask for bamboo toothbrushes, ear buds and dental floss. Or switch where you shop and head to bulk food stores and take your own containers to fill up on everything from grains, rice, pasta and cleaning products. 5. Streamline your beauty regime with multipurpose products If your night time routine involves a myriad of different products, change it up and seek out fewer products that do the same thing. Our multipurpose balm deeply cleanses while drawing out impurities, wiping away stubborn makeup, while restoring hydration. So just this one product replaces four: a cleanser, an eye makeup remover, a face mask and a deep moisturiser. Or buy one product that replaces many. So instead of buying jar after jar of exfoliation products, end the cycle by stocking up on a few of our Viteve™ Silk Exfoliating Cloths and never have to buy an exfoliation product again.   Join us and sign up to the Plastic Free July Challenge here!  

We explore Matariki, the celebration of the Māori New Year - its origins, what it symbolises for Māori and how it is celebrated in the 21st century - plus what's on in your area in 2020.

Our skin is our outermost, protective shield and the winter months can play havoc with it. When the humidity drops with the cooler temperatures, and the heat is turned up inside, zapping the last few drops of moisture from the air, it’s time to switch up our skin care routine to keep skin hydrated, supple and beautiful.

Corbin Rd. produces high-performance skincare products that are sustainable, ethically sourced and of the highest quality. This report breaks down our rationale for using silk, and considers all the current research that informed our choice. 

We teamed up with influencers @DylanCawte and @Olyvyerleru during the month of May to discuss the importance of men's skincare.

We compare the differences between men and women’s skin and ask the question, can men use women’s skincare products?

We've come up with a revolutionary way to exfoliate the skin that does not use granular scrub formulations or chemicals. Our Silk Exfoliating Cloth and Restorative Cleansing Balm, used together, slough away dead skin cells, draw out impurities and stimulate blood flow to the skin's surface, resulting in vibrant and radiant skin.

Environmental pollution can have a damaging effect on our skin. Exhaust fumes, smog, cigarette smoke, dust, debris and even pollen can all introduce destructive free radicals that attach themselves to healthy cells, damaging the skin’s protective barrier, degrading collagen and contributing to premature ageing.

Kawakawa oil, renowned for its healing properties, is one of Corbin Rd.'s hero ingredients. The fruit, bark and leaves of the Kawakawa tree have medicinal properties and have been used by Māori for centuries. In skin care products kawakawa oil draws out impurities and delivers an anti-inflammatory, antifungal and healing effect.

We all know that UV rays from the sun can damage our skin. But what about HEV Light (High Energy Visible Light) - the blue light emitted from our computer screens and devices? Some experts claim that four days in front of a screen is as harmful as 20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure in the middle of the day...

As we move out of lockdown we will once more be exposed to winter germs and viruses. We ask nutritionist Jessica Campbell of Body Balance Nutrition NZ for her top tips on how to stay well and boost our immunity during this transition period.

We're supporting Kiwis to stay safe during the Covid-19 pandemic! We've launched our own hand sanitiser! The Corbin Rd. formula has the necessary 70% alcohol to kill germs plus a bundle of other ingredients to help support the skin's hydration.

The benefits of breathing in fresh air, particularly during the colder months, is one of the simplest, cheapest ways to strengthen the immune system.  Breathing helps body, mind and soul, and there are powerful, simple breathwork techniques that are easy to learn that will create a healthier, happier life.

Use out of date skincare and makeup at your peril. The effects can be nasty! Thankfully because Corbin Rd Restorative Cleansing Balm’s ingredients are natural botanicals only, including the naturally antibacterial ingredient coconut oil, the potential for it to go off quickly is diminished.

We chose geranium oil for our Restorative Cleansing Balm for the calming, balancing effects that open up when the balm warm is warmed in your hands, and for its skin rejuvenation and anti-fungal properties, which aid in treating blemishes.

At Corbin Rd., what gets us out of bed in the morning is not demonising other brands that are on another path; it’s celebrating our own nutrient-rich products that contain ingredients that hydrate, nourish and protect skin for radiant, long-lasting skin health.