THE CORK WOMAN WITH A NEW CALM OFFENSIVE

Ask Noella Gabriel (inset) for her wellbeing tips and she’s likely to tell you, in her soothing brogue, to ‘relax and enjoy’. But, as the 60year-old co-founder of skincare range Elemis knows well, we need a helping hand in these pressured times. So the Cork woman has developed Life Elixirs, Elemis’s new range of five ‘emotional essentials’: Calm, Clarity, Fortitude, Embrace and Sleep, each a delicate blend of oils designed to restore harmony and settle mind and body.

I am writing this on a Monday morning. My brain is racing. My office is chaos. I have a long to-do list, piles of washing and ironing – and smeary specs.

But I opened the box of Life Elixirs and read these words inside the lid: Stop. Breathe. Tune into you. So I did just that – and cleaned my glasses. Then I rubbed Calm oil on my pulse points and I do, indeed, feel calmer.

Having moved from Bandon to New York in the early 1980s, Noella originally studied shiatsu massage, reflexology and aromatherapy, which she has applied over the years in the creation of new products and of Elemis’s world-renowned spa and treatment menu. Recently, she learned to practise mindfulness, which, she says, has had a big influence on Life Elixirs.

Her second mantra, which I like so much I have to include, is to follow your dream. ‘When I was growing up, my mum and my elder sister inspired me to follow my dream and taught me that anything is possible.’

Each of the Life Elixir blends is available as a Bath & Shower Elixir, €65 for 100ml, Perfume Oil, €33 for 8.5ml, and a Candle, €43, as well as in mini-sets; elemis.com.