Tracie Cant - S.C.D. Oil

As Albert Einstein once said “Energy can not be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to another.” Here at the Amazing Blog we know that is true for Tracie Cant’s S.C.D oil. 

Tracie Cant is an alchemist, reiki practitioner, holistic nutritionist and quoted by Jo Foley in The Luxury Spa Edit as an inspiration. However, she is probably best known as a top celebrity and editorial hairstylist and would gift little bottles of her S.C.D oil to actresses, models and musicians on set. After getting glowing reviews from everyone she gifted it to, Tracie decided to make S.C.D oil for a larger market. In ancient times, the ritual of 'anointing' was reserved for saints and kings, to inspire a divine presence or purpose, and S.C.D oil was designed to bring that practice to more people. It takes its names S.C.D taking the three keys letters from the word SaCreD.

Tracie used her 20 years of experience as a Master Energy Healer to create S.C.D oil, a unique blend of pure ancient sacred oils, chosen for their innate high vibratory frequency and healing potential. She works with energy centres and uses her S.C.D oil to balance, unblock and elevate physical, emotional and spiritual energies for clients in her Harley Street clinic. The ancient oils that she has combined in her S.C.D oils have a measurable electromagnetic frequency. When high-frequency oils are used, they assist in the elevation of our frequency, which promotes health and well-being. Our energy fields can be lowered by many factors including stress, processed foods and illness. The leading plant geneticist Bruce Tainio discovered that the lower our energy systems, the more likely we are to have illnesses. So it makes sense to keep the system vibrating at a higher frequency. Raising the frequency of our energy system, not only has a greater capacity and potential for self-healing but also helps to create a space for encouraging inspiration.

Tracie believes that ‘Energy Healing’ is not a substitute for conventional medicine, but can be used alongside it to ‘kick start’ the body's innate healing mechanisms. We loved using the S.C.D oil during meditation or for everyday general well-being. It is beautifully perfumed and the luxurious faceted crystal bottle is a perfect addition to any dressing table or armoire. Made with a unique blend of natural high-grade ancient anointing oils, it has a carrier of sweet organic almond oil, no additives, preservatives or alcohol. We think that the S.C.D oil is the perfect addition to a meditation routine.  Apply a small drop on the back of the neck at the base where the shoulders meet and cross, it can also be placed on the chakra points of the chest, wrists and feet. Want to anoint yourself with ancient oils? The S.C.D oil can be purchased here for £85 for 30ml.

Tiiya Alanoud Alattiya - Rose Oud Epiphany Eau de Parfum

Every so often you smell a perfume that transports you to another time or place. At The Amazing Blog we instantly felt transported to exotic Arabian nights after closing our eyes and a little spritz of Tiiya Alanoud Alattiya’s RoseOud Epiphany Eau De Parfum and we relished every fragrant moment.

The founder Alanoud Alattiya is a graduate from the UCL Museum and Gallery Practice Masters program. By day she is a museum practitioner and by evenings a couturier. She grew up in a household fully immersed in couture, with her mother being one of the first women to wear Christian Dior in the Arabian Gulf. it was just a decade ago, that her career in couture designing amongst members of elite society was frowned upon. However, her first cousin, His Highness The Father Amir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani built a platform of newer social meaning and understanding, allowing her creativity to be celebrated.

Regular reader will remember that we recently wrote about her Concentrated Eye Cream here, but today we wanted to tell you about her Epiphany Rose Oud Eau de Parfum. After applying a spritz of this perfume, we immediately felt the warmth and essence of the luxurious Persian Gulf. The Arabic oud’s woody deep scent mixes with the sweet floral notes of rose oil to create an elegant fragrance. Oud oil is estimated as being worth 1.5 times the amount of gold. This ‘liquid gold’ gives the Rose Oud Epiphany perfume a complex aroma and mythical essence of the East. Trust us when we say that with the Epiphany perfume, a little goes a long way. It lingered on the skin all day and then some. If you too want to smell like luxury, the Tiiya Alanoud Alattiya Rose Oud Epiphany Eau de Parfum 100ml can be your too, if you purchased here for £120.

La Chiva Snacks

Do you find yourself feeling guilty for all of the mindless snacking that you do? I know that here at The Amazing Blog we graze at our desks far too often. Hence, we’re on a neverending mission to find healthier alternatives to our usual choices. Enter La Chiva.

La Chiva was created by Ruth Willis who was born in Colombia and always missed her native fresh fruit and vegetables. Inspired by the flavours of her Colombia, she decided to create a healthy snack with light and crispy pieces of freeze-dried Colombian fruit. That’s it. No other ingredients are used to make La Chiva, where we breathed a sigh of relief, after reading this on the packaging. There’s no need to feel guilty about eating these either as each pack is gluten-free, virtually fat-free, vegan, no added sugars and best of all less than 40 calories! By freeze-drying the fruit at its ripest, La Chiva is able to deliver all the deliciousness of Colombian fruit with nothing added or taken away.

The brand’s name comes from the La Chiva buses, which is the only way to travel in the Colombian countryside. Since the brand is dependent on these buses to take their workers to the farms and their fresh fruit to market, they decided to name the brand after them. We tried all three varieties of La Chiva snacks – Strawberry, Pineapple and Mango. Our favourite was the Pineapple flavour, which was a winner of the Great Taste Awards in 2017. While you can eat these alone, the other possibilities are endless, we added them to cereal and also sprinkled them on top of Greek yogurt. Each pack can count as one of the five daily servings of fruit. Plus, their vibrant packaging brings a little ray of sunshine into our UK grey and rainy days.

Want to taste the goodness of Colombian grown fruit for yourself? The La Chiva Freeze Dried snacks can be purchased here. A box of 12 bags retails for £9.00 (7g bags for the strawberry and 10g bags for pineapple and mango) while an individual bag retails for £0.89.

Popcorn Shed

At The Amazing Blog we always have a small selection of snacks at our desks to feast on. We try to be good by consuming only low fat and healthy snacks. Today we want to tell you about our new discovery Popcorn Shed that left our taste buds tingling!

Popcorn Shed was founded by cousins Laura Jane and Sam Feller in 2016, and like every great brand it has a story, Jane’s and Sam’s story starts in a shed! Their popcorn is a home-grown, family-owned business where they’ve created a unique set of flavours, that not usually found in rival popcorn brands. These are gourmet popcorn range that are natural, gluten-free and suitable for vegetarians. Their popcorn is made using an artisan cooking process using a fresh caramel batch in every process, before being scattered in either melted chocolate, nuts or dried fruit all adding a new texture to the popcorn. What piqued our interest is that each of their packets of popcorn have an average of fewer than 140 calories per pack. Don’t worry the popcorn is easily chewable and you won’t have to worry about kernel or sticky caramel getting stuck in your teeth! We’re also fans of the vibrant packaging which make them unmissable.

The first of the seven flavours we tried was the Pop ‘n’ Choc. These are evenly coated with Belgian milk chocolate in a smooth cocoa-caramel base. They are not too sweet and the chocolate is in the right quantity to be enjoyed without being overpowering. Next is Salted Caramel which was our favourite. Coated with sea-salt caramel and Belgium milk chocolate, it has a fabulous crunch and a slight hint of salt, making it very moreish. We then move on to Butterly Nuts, all peanut butter with a blend of salt, caramel and nuts, this hit the spot! The peanut butter is creamy and the nuts offer an irresistible crunch. The Pecan Pie popcorns are partly coated in caramel and real golden pecan nut pieces. They have a smooth nutty, buttery and sugary taste and a sensational crunch that leaves you wanting more.

Probably the most unusual flavour of the collection is the caramel and cheese in Sweet Cheesus. These popcorns are partly coated in caramel and cheddar cheese offering the bursts of sweet and salty together,  this is one for the fans of less sugary snacks.  Then we have the Berry-licious where fruit tart meets dark chocolate – freeze-dried raspberries in the rich chocolate make it almost a dessert in itself. Lastly, Say Cheese! The Cheddar Cheese popcorn flavour is coated with cheese that leaves a tangy tingle on the tongue, melting perfectly to release a creamy milk and cheesy flavour which all cheese fans will adore.

A Popcorn Shed box of 80g is £3.50 and a 16 pack of 24g is £19.98 here. Why not grab a new popcorn flavour and awaken your taste buds.

3/4 Oz Tonic Maison - Syrups

As much as we enjoy cocktails, making our own at home is never quite the same as when done by a mixologist. At The Amazing Blog we always like to impress our guests by making cocktails. So, the idea of creating our own tonics with syrups, playing with the flavours and strength to suit, certainly intrigued us. Which is where we discovered the drinks brand ¾oz Tonic a clever concept for customising our favourite drinks.

The names came from ¾ of an ounce (approx 25g in metric), which is the amount of syrup needed for each glass to make your perfect tipple! ¾ oz Tonic was born in Montreal, Canada where these syrups are handmade with only 100% natural ingredients, they are non-alcoholic and offer a delicious array of tastes and aromas.

There are five flavours in the range, but we only tried just three: Ginger Ale, Spritz and Tonic syrups. Ginger Ale Syrups is one we’ll never tire of. Made with fresh ginger juice, hops, sugar cane and citric acid, this syrup is so refreshing to drink just mixed with sparkling water.  Or to create an ‘Irish Buck’ prepared with a glass full of ice, poured with ¾ of Ginger Ale Syrup, 1 ¼oz of your favourite spirit (Irish whiskey in our case), finished with 2-3oz of sparkling water, stir well and enjoy. We found that unlike shop-bought mixers, this bursts into life tasting zesty and fresh with its sweet warming ginger. This was our favourite of the three.

Next, we have The Spritz Syrup is a non-alcoholic version of the classic Italian-style bitters aperitif. Key ingredients are with cinchona bark infused water, cranberries, grapefruit and orange zest, cane sugar and natural quinine. Your palate will experience some pleasant sourness at the beginning, ending with a dry finish. We also tried Spritz with sparkling wine which were an ideal match. If that’s not your drink, try mixing it as suggested for a Negroni or top it up a notch as a Manhattan! For the classic Spritzer add 1 part of Spritz, 2-3 parts of sparkling wine, 1 part sparkling water and an orange slice (for Instagram purposes obviously!) with lots of ice to finish.

Last but not least, is the signature Tonic Syrup. Unlike other tonics, Tonic Syrup has an attractive amber colour that caught everyone’s eyes. It is similar in its ingredients as The Spritz Syrup; however, with this we noticed had a slightly more distinctive bitterness, which is probably due to the more undiluted Cinchona bark ingredient.  There is also sugar, lemongrass and orange zest too making that quite a dominant taste; NB it’s not for mixing with your more subtle flavoured gins. It tastes raw and punchy with a feeling of apothecary goodness. They suggest adding ¾ oz of the Tonic Syrup, 1 ¼ oz of gin (or vodka) and 2-3 oz of sparkling water on a glass full of ice. Whether you want cocktails or mocktails, these delicious and handy bottle syrups make great drinking partners. We recommend getting your ¾ Tonic syrups  240ml bottle at £7.99 from Waitrose here.