For me, few things beat a good soak in the tub - lighting a candle and leaving the city bustle behind me is a slice of heaven. So when I spoke to Nat of Nathalie Bond Organics my heart melted as smoothly as their lemongrass candles. And with Mother’s Day just around the corner, one lucky person can win the whole range of products to pamper their mum (or maybe just themselves!).

When Nat fell pregnant her everyday beauty brands just stopped working for her; so she did some digging and found that on average, women apply 168 chemicals to their body every single day!

Nat, what are these chemicals? There are all sorts from synthetic perfumes to the chemical making soap foam, then there is alcohol and even water can be a challenging ingredient for sensitive skin. That’s why all of our products are oil based.

Do you have a favourite product? I just love the Peppermint and Eucalyptus Scrub, it’s a two-in-one product, because it has lots of lovely oils in it, I don’t need to moisturise! I really want to simplify beauty, our products are versatile, they don’t have one set use. Body oils can be used in the hair or for massaging -- it really is whatever you want it to be.

What’s on the cards for this year? One of our biggest dreams long term is that one day we would be able to own a farm on the edge of the city where we can grow our own ingredients and continue to employ local people.

And where can I get my hands on your products? Of course you can get everything online, but we do stock in a handful of places across the UK. The best thing to do is email and ask, that way we can let you know what products they stock too.
 

Every single delightful organic item is handmade, labelled and shipped from a tiny workshop in Sheffield on the edge of the Peak District National Park. The range includes handmade soap, lip salves, balms, body oils, scrubs, bath salts and essential oil candles.

For your chance to win over £100 worth of organic loveliness head over to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and give both @ohcomelymag and @nathaliebond a follow and tell us why you should win with the #OCOrganic.

The twenty-ninth installment of Oh Comely has arrived! To celebrate, here's our interview with cover lady Naomi Shimada, who was photographed by Francesca Allen. Go on, get your hands on a copy here!

Naomi Shimada is a vocal spokesperson for the diversification of body shape and race in media and works as a television host, model and columnist. For issue twenty-nine, we asked her three questions about social and personal changes. 

Tell us about a significant life change you’ve experienced and the impact it’s had on who you are today. Breaking up with my boyfriend a year ago was a pivotal change that evolved my state of mind. Not letting anyone influence my judgement was hard at times, and lonely, but overall it’s a beautiful space to be in once you’re comfortable with it.

What social changes do you want to see accomplished in your lifetime? Oh, man, so many! World peace. Racial injustices to be a thing of the past. Skinny and white people not being the main beauty ideals ruling our screens, magazines and general periphery.

If you met your younger self today, what changes would you encourage her to make? Don’t live in fear of social expectations of who we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to do. Live with heart and soul. Be fearless.

All portraits are by Francesca Allen. Naomi's hair and make up was perfected by Lauren Reynolds. Naomi Shimada's online home is here. 

Oh Comely’s upcoming issue is all about sisters, and we’re on the hunt for sisters to photograph and chat to!  

For the chance to be featured in our pages, tell us what makes your relationship special — and send a recent snap of you together to [email protected]

Duos, trios and bands of sisters welcome — whether related by blood, by adoption, or by shared cause. If you have a special bond, we want to hear from you. 

The deadline to apply is 10am on Monday 15th Feb, and the date and location of the shoot is TBC. Good luck! We can't wait to meet you, Sister. 

Image: Francesca Jane Allen for Oh Comely Issue 26. Models: Coral and Tanisha Kwayie of Nevs Models London, styled by Verity Pemberton. 

The wait is nearly over as we visit the printer for the first time in 2016. Here’s a peek of what’s on its way in Oh Comely issue 29 where we talk about change.Photo: Naomi Shimada photographed by Francesca Allen

Cristina BanBan’s bold and bright illustrations open our chapters celebrating four women who changed the world. Our cover girl Naomi’s bright smile shines through the pages and we reread the books that changed us.

Illustration: Cristina BanBan

Thank goodness we’re too late to join the cries of New Year: New You! Green smoothies and exercise did not feature in our team challenge to shake-up our habits, instead we embraced rebellion and tried to sit up straight - you’d think this would be a doddle. It wasn’t.

We nattered to four generations to see into the future and five writers shared the turning-points of their past. The whole issue was put together with love and tears as we waved off our editor Liz Bennett and embraced what 2016 has in store for us. Plus interviews with Maxine Peake, jennylee and Daughter.

Photo: Liz Seabrook

Preorder Issue 29: Change here. Available on the newstands mid-February.

The office has been unoccupied for two weeks, the tinsel has been taken down, fairy lights retired for another year and I have an urge to clean. The type of cleaning that involves moving furniture and several trips to the recycling. I succumb to that urge. Oh what treasures were found lurking behind the sofa.

It started with stumbling upon a box of lost glue sticks and then the office just kept giving and giving; under every desk was an unlabeled box of joy! Notebooks designed by Owen Gent, Pin Badges by Kaye Blegvad, pots of glitter, knitting patterns, wrapping paper... a box of Issue 1 - JACKPOT!

With all these unearthed goodies the only logical thing to do was have a little sale! We’re letting you fill your bookshelves with 50% off issues and as for all the wonderful pieces from 2015, we thought we’d make you some mystery parcels! Because who doesn’t love a surprise?

There are two price options so you can choose to treat yourself a little or a lot. Every Mystery Parcel will contain wonderful pieces unique to Oh Comely from our collaborations of 2015 and will be at least a 25% saving. Although you can’t choose your items, we will try our very best not to duplicate items if you buy more than one!

So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Oh Comely Shop to fill your life with loveliness. Sale runs from 15th January until 1st February but be quick limited numbers are available.

When we send each issue of Oh Comely to print, I almost always feel that there's a piece of writing in there that's changed me in some way. And my round-up consists of that sort of piece. It's no definitive selection of our best and most polished, and you can find plenty more to chew on in the Words section above.

Instead, here are a few bits of reading that made me laugh, or made me cry, or made me think in 2015.

Issue 24, Lost and Found

Cooking For Others Can Be Selfish declares Sarah Miller's defiant longform piece about why she's never cooking again. Jason Ward's rambing interview with director Ana Lily Amipour was huge fun to read and discussed pretty much everything but her new Iranian-American vampire western. They pondered the pros and cons of dying at the hands of vampire. It'd be pretty magnificient, Ana Lily says. 

Issue 25, Weather

The lavish illustrations of Owen Gent shepherd you through this issue, taking the casual flicker on a journey from rainy morning to clear night. I had the pleasure of interviewing our cover model, jeweller Saadiqah Rahman about the secret stories behind her pieces, and the septum ring she wears no matter what. Meanwhile, Jenny Jedeikin made us all cry with her tale of loss and unconventional parenthood, How I Came to Tie a Tie on a Boy (not online).

Issue 26, Wheels

Skateboarder Lois Pendlebury grins toothlessly in her portrait by Liz Seabrook, holding a skateboard aloft. She's one of five inspiring interviews with women on wheels curated by Sadhbh O'Sullivan. Francesca Jane Allen's portrait story about two sisters, Coral and Tanisha, made a killer cover.

Issue 27, The Body

"I hope I haven't sullied your beautiful magazine with my sad penises-and-heartbreak story," wrote Jason. Nope, penises-and-heartbreak was just the start of the thought-provoking writing in Issue 27. There was Linnea Enstrom's disturbing tale of turning thirteen and Kathryn Carter's gentle piece about learning to love the butterflies in her stomach.

Issue 28, Secrets

This issue, I asked writers to send me pieces anonymously, pieces that they couldn't have penned under their real name. This story about a secret nose-job was my favourite. Rosanna Durham's piece about moving house and so much more had sat in my inbox for a whole year and it was a privilege to finally print it.

Photos of the mag by our readers on Instagram (click to view): Issue 24, Issue 25, Issue 26, Issue 27, Issue 28.

It's Christmas Eve, dear reader, and we're terribly excited. To mark the occassion, Oh Comely staff share their ghosts of Christmases past and present in an e-toast to tradition and ritual.

"Every December I listen to a different audiobook of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. An unabridged reading takes around three hours so I'm usually able to get through it over a couple of crisp, lonely walks around Hackney Marshes. I absolutely adore the book: we take it for granted because it's so elegantly constructed, but it's a nearly perfect thing. It gives me a much-needed yearly reminder that change is achievable and it is always possible to be one's best, most compassionate self."

- Jason Ward, Associate Editor

"With age I've grown to marvel at how perfectly executed my mother's Christmas efforts were. Every year she'd buy a cannister of fake snow and spray it from doorstep to tree. She'd then put on a pair of oversized worker boots and stomp all over the floor, leaving a trail of Santa-sized footprints. She'd also half-destroy a mince pie and carrot to provide hard evidence of reindeer activity.

My brother and I would emerge from our slumber at some ungodly hour, spot them from the top of the stairs and lose ourselves entirely, squealing "He's beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!". The year it stopped is the year I realised we'd all got horribly grown up horribly quickly."

- Aimee-lee Abraham, Editorial Assistant

"Every Christmas Eve, my Father would read us The Night Before Christmas poem aloud."

- Rosanna Durham, Editor

"For our Christmas stockings when I was a child, my mum used her mother's own single-leg stockings that she had worn suspender-style in the 50s. The thin material meant they were enormously stretchy and semi-transparent. We used to try and peer through them on Christmas morning to see what was inside."

- Liz Bennett, Editor

Image: Courtesy of one of our lovely readers @isayraar. 

2015 was a big year for podcasting. After the record-breaking audience numbers for Serial late in 2014, it seems the collective appetite for story-driven audio was whetted. With the promise of bigger audiences, established podcasts could get better advertising deals, which translated to more money for new programs to be launched. Today, the audio eco-system is vast and thriving. As a commuter, podcasts have a central role in my day, keeping me company while I wait for trains or walk home through my Brooklyn neighborhood. They regularly make me laugh out loud, or cry, or think of arguments for an imaginary debate with the hosts. Of the hundreds of episodes I listened to this year, these are the five[1] that really stuck with me.

“The Living Room”, Love and Radio (March 6, 2015)

If this episode hasn’t already won some kind of podcasting Pulitzer, it should. At once voyeuristic and strange, human and heartbreaking - this is an episode to listen to alone.

"Quit Already!”, Reply All (December 2, 2015)

Reply All has been one of the consistent revelations of 2015 for me. Alex Goldman and P.J. Vogt were the first people to be poached from NPR by Gimlet media, and from the quality of the episodes this year, it seems like it was the right move. Every episode contains some beautiful nugget of humanness, plucked out of the weirdness of the internet. This episode tells the story of Lucía Mendizábal, a Guatemalan grandma who accidentally started a huge political demonstration by posting on Facebook. Once you’re deep into a couple of episodes, try skipping to “Today’s the Day” from August 27^th, where P.J. and Alex remember that there’s a world outside the studio.

Rukmini Callamachi, The Longform Podcast (February 18 & 19, 2015)

In this two-part interview journalist Rukmini Callamachi discusses her career reporting on terrorism. One of the earliest reporters of the rise of the Islamic State, Callamachi has written important articles about their recruitment methods, their beliefs and the blood-curdling efficiency with which they kidnapped women and children to enslave them. A highlight of the interview is hearing Callamachi speak about her research methods, which include engaging with IS members on Twitter.

“The Problem We All Live With” Part 1 and Part 2, This American Life (July 31 and August 7, 2015)

If you’ve heard of any podcast, you’ve heard of This American Life. Under the watchful editorial gaze of Ira Glass, the program has been syndicated throughout the US since the mid-90s. It’s been a podcast since podcasts have existed, and its influence on the medium can’t be understated (least of all because they’ve trained half of the producers currently making the stuff). In this two-part series, This American Life reporters Nikole Hannah-Jones and Chana Joffe-Walt discuss one of the most burning issues of our time – the systematic inequality of opportunity for people of colour – and tell a story about one really effective way of battling it. Prepare to be shocked, angry, hopeful and determined to make things better.

 “Sam Phillips and the Early Years of the Memphis Recording Service: We Record Anything, Anywhere, Anytime”, Fugitive Waves (January 13, 2015)

Fugitive Waves is the podcast of the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, a production duo who have made some of the best radio documentaries out there since partnering up in the late 70s. Through a mixture of archival recordings and interviews, this episode introduces us to the world of Sam Phillips, the man who discovered Elvis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash, to name a few. Listen to this episode when you’re in the mood to time-travel. If you want more mid-century Memphis, try their other episodes, “Electronic Memories: R.A. Coleman’s Memphis” and “WHER: 1000 Beautiful Watts – The First All Girl Radio Station in the Nation”, Parts 1 and 2.

Bonus

I would be remiss to ignore Karina Longworth’s twelve-part series about Charles Manson. This truly is a tour-de-force of podcasting: it is incredibly well-researched, well-written and mainly very well-produced (I have to admit that I found some of the voices, and her tendency to over-articulate, a tad on the irritating side). If you liked Serial, if you’re interested in cults and the 60s and drugs and Hollywood (and who isn’t!) this is definitely for you. 

And for Frasier fans, listen to this: https://soundcloud.com/talksaladandscrambledeggs/talksalad-009