A little while ago I took a few days off work, packed a bag full of my thickest socks, cardigans and jumpers and boarded a train from London Paddington to Devon. That’s where my dad lives, and it’s cold.

My dad moved about ten years ago from London back to the same village he grew up in as a child and much about it (at least in his cottage) hasn’t changed. There’s no central heating for one! It is a wonderful change from London though:  the fresh, clean air, the still, quiet nights lit only by hundreds of stars in the sky. You don’t get that on a Friday night after work in Soho. The pace of life is just so different too. We seemed to spend most of the time we were there going from one neighbour or friend’s house to the next to drink tea and eat cake. There was lots of cake.

But I digress. The point of this story is that while in Devon (in between eating cake) I discovered a wonderful natural product range, which I have been meaning to tell you about. My dad actually knows the woman who sells the products and made sure to introduce me to her while we were visiting (he’s my number one blogging fan I think, although he does insist on correcting my grammar).

Vivienne Trusler, or ‘The Lavender Lady‘ as she’s now known, sells a range of the most beautiful lavender bath and body products, all hand-made and grown in Devon. Vivienne started off by creating lovely little handmade quilted bags to fill with lavender – the kind you put in drawers or hang in your airing cupboard – before she moved on to sell bath and body products.

The Lavender Lady range consists of body butter, body lotion, bath and body oil, bath salts, soap bars, pillow spray and lip balm – all of which contain pure lavender essential oil. All the products smell beautiful. If you like lavender, you’ll love these. And they are incredibly reasonably priced too (cheap to be honest!). The soap is just £2.50 and the bath & body oil, which I highly recommend, is just £5 for 100ml. Another thing you won’t find in London!

After telling me all about the products, Vivienne kindly gave me some samples to take with me and I have tried and adored them all. The body butter is rich but not too heavy – great for hands, elbows and dry patches – or just all over. The lotion is also nourishing but a bit lighter and the lip balm is the perfect smooth texture – it sorted my chapped lips out in just a couple of days.

My favourites are the bath products, which is surprising as I never take baths at home (I don’t have time or just don’t ever think about it). I love the oil which you can use as a body oil or add a few drops to the bath for a really relaxing soak. Lavender has natural relaxing properties, which I put to the test with my daily morning baths while staying in Devon. A combination of the bath salts, which contain dead sea salts, and a few drops of the oil in a steaming hot bath is a little bit of heaven. All my muscles relaxed as I sank into the water and it made me go ‘ahhhhhh’…for lack of a better description. I am definitely adding baths to my to-do list now I’m back home and am armed with these lovely products! The extra time is so worth it for a relaxing, de-stressing soak.

Anything from The Lavender Lady range would make lovely a gift. And I’d also recommend trying them if you have problem skin such as psoriasis and eczema as lavender is a natural anticeptic. Lavender’s relaxing and healing properties makes it great for treating muscle aches and strains – a long soak in a warm bath with the bath salts really helps loosen up your muscles and ease aches and pains.

You can buy the Lavender Lady products by getting in touch with Viv by phone or email: 01837 682 996 or thelavenderlady@live.co.uk

Read more about the products on The Lavender Lady website.