Beaut.ie Visits The Burren Perfumery

If you follow us on Twitter (go on go on go on) then you'll have seen me tweeting about being in Lahinch for the weekend with a couple of my bessie mates. Yesterday we drove into the heart of the Burren to check out the Burren Perfumery which is about 2km from Carron, and en route we suddenly screeched to a halt because we'd just spotted ...

THE FATHER TED HOUSE!

Howling with laughter, out we got and snapped away - God love the poor feckers who live there is all I can say - then got back into the car and continued on our merry way to the perfumery. While it's quite hard to find, the off-the-beaten-track location does add to the niche appeal and it's a really pretty little place to spend a couple of hours - there's a nice cafe serving cakes and scones, a still room where you can see some of the products being made (being a Sunday that bit was closed), a herb garden and a shop where you can scratch 'n sniff - and if you like, buy goodies to take home.

We liked. Pals bought bottles of organic rosehip oil - well priced at about €22 for 30ml I thought - and I snapped up a couple of beeswax candles for €9.50 a pop, as well as a tin of 100% organic arnica healing balm (I am constantly banging into things) plus some delish-smelling dead sea bath salts for a tenner. There's so much more where that came from though: Soil Association-certified body and facial skincare ranges, fragrances (of course!), teas, bath goodies and aromatherapy oils are all on offer and it was only lack of funds that meant I left with just four purchases.

More pix of the products and the gorgeous herb garden are after the cut.

Lovely healing balms, which are 100% organic and come in Arnica, Borage, Calendula and Comfrey.

Candles come in loads of fragrances and are made from soy wax and essential oils - I picked Cedar and Lemongrass and Sage and Cedar.

The soap range is massive and really nicely wrapped; I splashed out on a bottle of bath salts scented with a relaxing blend of orange and neroli but you can get loads more - seaweed, citrus and lavender are just three available.

Some of the skincare the Burren Perfumery makes. Skin creams are a new-ish development for them and they've just received that all-important certification from the Soil Association. Even if you're not into natural skincare, this is effectively a quality mark and products that reach the standard meet very high and stringent criteria, so you know you're getting great ingredients produced in an ethical way.

The herb garden is well worth a wander once you're done in the shop. While I don't think they use the herbs and flowers grown here in the products - it's a pretty small area so I can't imagine the yield would suffice - it's a nice introduction into what some of the plants look like.

There's two of my mates there sniffing flowers and having a gander.

Little pieces of inscribed slate are thoughtfully placed by the plants so you know what's what.

This place is well worth a visit if you're in the area, and if you're not - then hey, go. The Burren is spectacular as is the Co Clare coastline. You can also buy online: pretty much everything in the shop is available on their website and a quick look reveals that shipping is currently free on the skin creams to celebrate their Soil Association stamp. Head over there and have a gander - I'm already planning to buy a few more candles as stocking fillers.