Neal's Yard Remedies Organic Pamper Party

Good afternoon!

Our last post for the 'event weekend' is from Neal's Yard Remedies. We were very excited to be invited to the pamper party happening in Bristol this week, and after a bit of a delay getting completely lost (oops!) we eventually arrived at the apartment where the party had already started.

The lovely Sue was giving a demonstration facial which was really interesting as we could pick up on tips and tricks and see the products in action.

One of the new products on the scene with NYR is the Frankincense Intense Concentrate, which is basically a concentrated version of the Frankincense Intense cream and is a best seller for its effects already. The concentrate is a serum type product which promises to deliver even more of a punch than it's original product. The concentrate will retail at £65 for 30ml compared to the original cream which is £55 for 50ml.

It was lovely to be hands on with the products as they were being used and we had the most moisturised and best smelling hands in the whole of the UK after we'd finished testing everything!

They had the whole range there including cleansers, toners, mists, serums and creams galore. We also tried out some of their other products including roller balls with essential oils and body butters.

We were very lucky to leave with a goodie bag with a full size pot of the Wild Rose Beauty Balm. As you can see from the gift bag and packaging of the balm itself, it's currently celebrating its 10th Anniversary and so has a special design by Alice Shields. I absolutely love that they've done this and the packaging is gorgeous, although it's still NYR with its blue glass pot it has a gorgeous flowery label covered in bright colours.

After playing with all the products i have been making an extensive wishlist for future purchases. Having recently been to an interview where it turns out I'd be involved in animal testing I have been looking at things a little differently. We love products that are 'free from' and NYR definitely have that covered by the endless list of awards and accolades that you can find on their website here, it is seriously impressive.

They also as a rule never test on animals, so not only are they free from all the chemical nasties they also don't partake in unnecessary actions to develop their products which is great. I can definitely see my skincare shifting towards NYR a lot faster than expected!

It surprised me how many products NYR have in their books; not only the skincare and other products of the same kind, but also a make up range, superfood and tea range, and remedies and therapies section too.

We had a lovely evening and would like to thank Sue and Jessica for a fun and informative evening!

We even grabbed a few cans of Pimms to drink on the train back to Cardiff to finish off our night!

What's your favourite products form Neal's Yard Remedies? Have you tried the Wild Rose Beauty Balm?
Have you made the shift to cruelty free products?

L & M xxx

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