Irish Country Magazine readers enjoyed informative talks from The Bee Sanctuary of Ireland’s Paul Handrick and Clarins Ireland National Skincare Trainer, Bronwyn Conway
We were delighted to be joined by Irish Country Magazine readers for an evening in the Clarins Boutique & Spa on Dublin’s Wicklow Street. Guests were greeted by sparkling glasses of Champagne and tasty nibbles, before taking their seats for an informative discussion on how we can look after the bees and biodiversity, followed by helpful skincare advice and insights.
Owner of The Bee Sanctuary of Ireland, Paul Handrick, kicked off proceedings, sharing his story of how he came to purchase land in Co Wicklow and is tirelessly converting it back to nature in a colossal effort to support Ireland’s bee population. Clarins has been supporting Paul’s work for over two years and he is currently planting a wildflower meadow and forest walk with the brand’s support.
Some of Paul’s key tips for guests were as follows:
- The first thing you can do is don’t use chemicals in your garden
- Take a strip for yourself and leave the rest for nature; leave as much space as you can to go wild
- Long grass is so important for bees and for nature in general
- Let wildflowers in, dandelions, thistles and sunflowers are a brilliant place to start. (Paul shared that daffodils are the boybands of the flower world! And don’t provide much nutrition for bees and insects)
- Rosemary, herbs you would use in cooking, are all great for the bees
- I would always say go native as possible with your plants, you don’t have to spend to lots of money
- When you go to a garden centre, plants are often saturated in chemicals – ask the staff about it. Tell them you’ll be back for plants that aren’t pre-sprayed. The more we tell people, the more we can create change.
Next up, Bronwyn Conway, National Skincare Trainer for Clarins Ireland, shared her main steps to looking after the skin, demonstarting some of her favourite products. Her top tips for guests were as follows:
- Skin changes take time, nothing happens overnight
- First step is to cleanse. Cleanse in the morning; and in the evening pre-cleanse and then use a milk or an oil to deeply cleanse off makeup and build-up from the day
- If we want our products to penetrate into the deeper layer of the skin, we need to exfoliate. Irish women in particular have very thin skin, we need to exfoliate in a way that’s kind to skin. Clarins believe in respecting the skin, building it up and replenishing it
- A really easy way to do this is to use the new Beauty Flash Peel – brush it all over the face and neck (don’t forget the neck!) and leave it for five minutes, then follow up with skincare
- I’m a big believer in eye creams, Total Eye Lift is an amazing product for the eye area. It is great for puffiness and skin slackening. When we use eye cream we all have a tendency to use too much – use a tiny grain-of-rice size, warm it on your ring fingers, put it on the orbital bone and eyebrow bone – it will travel up to the eye area itself – press in and then work the fingers outwards, to stimulate the blood flow
- Massage gets everything working in your skin again – that’s what Double Serum does, it stimulates the five vital functions of the skin
- Why do we need a serum? Serum is your targeted treatment that will change your skin.
- The last and very important step, is SPF. If you were to say to a dermatologist I can only use one thing on my skin, SPF would be the product they recommend. It’s the best way to protect against increased ageing in the skin
As guests explored the boutique and departed out into the festive city centre, they each took home a luxury Clarins goody bag and a gift of a potted tulip from The Bee Sanctuary of Ireland. To be kept up to date with future exclusive reader events, be sure to subscribe to Irish Country Magazine today. We have a wonderful Christmas offer currently running, find more details here.
See more photos from the evening in the gallery below:
