Organic Beauty Week

Hello everyone!

If you didn't know, September is Organic Month. This basically means I have given myself every justification for buying the lovely expensive organic produce from my local Tesco....but also has been refreshing my memory of all of the wonderful organic beauty products that I have tried previously and that are still on offer.

In particular there is an Organic Beauty Week which is next week, the 19th to the 25th of September.

I think it is great to bring organic produce to more people's attention, especially beauty products. They are a lot more available than they ever used to be before, and I have tried a few in the past that were really good.

So in light of this I thought I would talk about two of my favourite organic beauty products that I have tried, and hopefully you can give me some recommendations too!

My first favourite product is the Antipodes Divine Face Oil*. 

Antipodes is a brand I came across a few years, remember that exclusive Selfridge's beauty box that was released when they opened up their Beauty Department? (there's a post here if you need a reminder but the giveaway is obviously over now!)

This was my first organic product and also the first oil I put on my face, and in true blogger style I have not forgotten it. I have in fact repurchased it a number of times but due to buying a house last year my budget has been restricted....Antipodes were kind enough to send me another recently to refresh my memory. 

It is still absolutely my favourite facial oil that I have ever tried. I remember this was when the realisation of 'I can put oil onto my oily skin and it won't break me out?!' days. This was a revolutionary product for me and I'm so happy to have it back in my life, so is my skin as it has definitely shown in the last few days of usage.

I'd recommend it for any skin type as wen my skin was oily it never broke out when I used this, plus now that my skin is drier it works like a charm at hydrating it so I think it works for all skin types.

Why should you try it?

The Divine Oil contains premium avocado oil as the main ingredient along with rosehip oil, jojoba oil, jasmine oil plus pure plant fragrances such as Sandalwood and Ylang Ylang.

The organic avocado oil however is the star of the show, it is high in essential fatty acids (EFAs) including Omega 3 and 9 to help with regeneration, restructuring, moisturising and film forming. It also has lutein which helps to protect against the sun with its natural UVA sun-screening properties and antioxidants to help against the damage that free radicals can cause to the skin resulting in ageing.

So the promise is there...and the science backs it up. After some studies Antipodes have found the it stimulates collagen in human skin cells by up to 51%.,,,, Can we bathe in it?!

The Divine Face Oil costs £19.99 for 30ml and can be purchased directly from the Antipodes website but also Look Fantastic, Beauty Expert, Naturisimo and Feel Unique.

My second favourite organic product that I've tried is from Neal's Yard Remedies.

We attended an event from them two years ago now when they released their infamous Wild Rose Beauty Balm* in the beautiful new packaging to celebrate 10 years of the product.

Isn't it beautiful???

This is a wonder product, and my original post on this product (click here) lists the ideas other users have come up with but my favourite use is as a deep cleansing mask, hydrating mask, lip balm and general salve for any burns, sun burn etc that my skin has. 

It comes with a muslin cloth that I use to remove the product and this also helps with exfoliation. 

This balm also contains rosehip oil along with starflower, patchouli and geranium so it smells wonderful as well as providing a whole host of benefits for hydration, smoothing and soothing.

This one even has the Soil Association rating of 99% organic which is obviously really hard to achieve and hard to prove. It's impressive that this rating can be achieved but proves it is possible, i think more brands should aim to achieve these badges of honour!

The Wild rose Beauty  Balm can be purchased for £38 for 50g, and can be purchased from the many individual stores and their website, as well as John Lewis and Waitrose.

As the Soil Association is a UK registered charity this is probably why Antipodes don't have the same rating (they come from New Zealand). It would be great if they were more easily compared in terms of organic ratings but to be perfectly honest this isn't something that would stop me from buying a product from either reputable brand.

Have you tried either of my favourites? Do you think Organic Beauty Week is a good idea?

What's your favourite organic beauty product or brand?

L xxx

*Both products in this post were given to me for review by the respective brands directly, however this has not affected my opinion of either product. This post is not sponsored by the Soil Association either, I just think it's a great idea :)

Antipodes Grapeseed Butter Cleanser

Hey All

I've been meaning to write this post for ages but there has been so much going on lately I haven't got round to it. Antipodes contacted us to see if we wanted to try out some of their cleansers and as we are both big fans of Antipodes (L has written some reviews here). After going cruelty free (you can see some bits I've been buying recently in this haul) I've moved away from buying more high end beauty products as I hadn't done my research yet so was excited to see that antipodes is not only certified organic but also vegetarian society approved.

Beauty Naturals: Skin Revivals

Good evening to you all!

Hope you've had a lovely weekend in the sun. We've both just got from a weekend away at my parents caravan and are both nursing some burnt bits, mostly on our backs! They're always hard to cover and that pesky bit around your bikini strap is never covered properly is it??

Beauty Naturals were a company we found via Twitter who have a huge range of natural beauty products. They've actually been around since 1980 and offer free UK delivery from their website, amazing!

They contacted us and offered that we could try some of their products which was absolutely lovely and we were really excited to receive them knowing they'd come from such a reputable company and were going to be natural/organic.

We received these three products to try, Skin Revivals Organic Facial Cleansing Oil, Skin Revivals Advanced 24 Hour Balm and Rose Mist Facial Spray.

Along with the products was a catalogue with all of the products and brands that Beauty Naturals stock and I can tell you it was an interesting read which has doubled my shopping list at least!

From a quick flick through the catalogue i could already see some honey products, camomile, rosehip oils, serums, enzyme masks, vitamin C gel,  and a whole host of others including brands such as Amie and Organic Surge. They also provide comsetics and nail products from Orly, hair care from Jason and even Carmex for lips.

The first product I tried was the Organic Facial Cleansing Oil. This oil is Soil Association Certifed as 99% organic containing rosehip and avocado. It claims to naturally break down make up and impurities as well as maintaining moisture balance, all for £12.

The 100ml bottle will certainly last you a while as you don't need a lot of it to cover your facial area.

It also contains a whole host of vitamins which are great for your skin.

I applied this straight to my skin and massaged it in before washing it off with a muslin cloth. It was very easy to use and dissolved my make up, even mascara, really easily.

I really liked this product for getting rid of my make up as it made it so easy and the oil felt very moisturising. I think this would be great for drier skins who require the extra hydration but oilier skins may find this a bit much as it does stay on your skin after cleansing.
However it definitely works and I can see myself using it often throughout the week as a hydrating cleanser.

Next up is the Advanced 24 Hour Balm which is 90.8% organic and enriched with frankincense and rose, vitamin rich shea and cocoa butters and also jojoba, macadamia and rosehip oils.
It also contains aloe vera and rose geranium to calm and soothe skin which lets face it, makes it a complicated and chocca block full balm that is sure to help your skin!

This product was my favourite, the smell was amazing and soothing and although I believe it is more of a lotion than a balm it was great at hydrating those areas such as elbows and knees and I've used as a face mask without any negatives effects. My skin felt super soft but not greasy the next day so I love it!

This costs £16 for the 100ml bottle which I think is definitely worth it for such a multi purpose and versatile product. You can see a picture of the balm itself below, it's a standard white lotion that sinks in very easily regardless of skin type as I mentioned before smells amazing!!

Lastly was the Rose Mist Facial Spray.

This product is naturally fragrance with Rose Damascena Floral Water and Witch Hazel and helps to hydrates and maintain moisture balance of the skin.

This bottle is the perfect size to fit into your handbag and apply additional moisture to your face throughout the day, especially over summer. This would be a great product to apply if you work in an office with air conditioning and the rose scent will help to keep to calm and collected.

You can also apply it to pulse points for additional soothing!

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of a facial spray, mainly as i always forget to use them at home and can't carry products like this on my at work. But it was a lovely treat when I was sunbathing at home and had the time to spray it on my face at will, it was so refreshing and although it's a small bottle it does only cost £5.50 and I know a lot of people who will really love this!

I will certianly be looking more at Beauty Naturals knowing that they're such a respected company and the free postage is definitely a bonus! I can see plenty of orders in the future from myself when I've made my way through my current batch.
I do love skin and hair products and some of the masks, facial oils and hair repair products have caught my eye!

Have you bought anything from Beauty Naturals before? Do you have any product recommendations?

You can find their website here if you fancy a browse!

L xxx

So after a lush weekend relaxing with L and forgetting about the world I am back. With a slightly sunburnt back I now have to put after sun on. Luckily I'm double jointed and can just about do it myself.

Anyway onto the products. I've had the face mist for a few weeks now and have been using it after applying my make up to set it and remove any powder look to it. As I mentioned in a previous post I've been using powders like the HD brows one more as my base so I'm not wearing as much heavy make up in this heat. I've enjoyed using the spray over the top. As it states it's moisturising I was worried it would make my oily combination skin even more oily but it just adds a quick refresh. The rose scent isn't too over powering or one to linger which I like. The only thing that would make me prefer this more is if it had more of a cooling feeling on the skin.

As for the balm this pleasantly surprised me. Things that say 24 hour moisture worry me with my oily skin that it would be thick and to be honest I held off trying it for a while. That was a mistake. This is a lightweight more of a lotion formula that has left my skin really soft. It sinks in really easily and hasn't left my skin with an oily feeling. This is one I can see me definitely enjoying more and I'll be using this when I visit L.

The only product I wasn't too keen on was the oil and I think that is a personal preference. It does remove make up easily and is super gentle on the eyes and doesn't sting them which are all good things. The thing I didn't get on with was the slight oily texture once it's been washed off. I'm sure anyone with dry skin would love this as it would help provide extra softness but as I said at the beginning I'm just not a cleansing oil fan.

Do you shy away from certain products due to your skin type? Products like the balm have made me realise I need to stop doing this.
Love M

xxx