Kora Naturals - African Pearl Luxury Body Butter & Organic Papaya Seed Oil

As summer is now here, at The Amazing Blog what we want is for our skin to glow and feel hydrated. so our search to find a new body butter soon became a matter of priority!  We looked at the list of award-winners for 2019 The Beauty Shortlist and found the African inspired brand Kora Naturals. What attracted us to this brand is that they only use organic, natural and environmentally friendly ingredients. We tried their award-winning Body Butter as well as their new Organic Papaya Seed Oil. Although these are were originally formulated for women of colour, we found these products perfect for all of our different skin types too. 

Kora Naturals was founded in 2010 by Corrine Hayford-Kwatchey who found that there was a lack of premium skincare available for (and made by) women of colour.  Corrine has created her brand based on natural, ethically sourced and wildcrafted premium African ingredients. She explained about the brand name: “Kora is taken from the Ghanaian Twi language (pronounced Kraa) for the calabash, a common natural utensil in Africa and the Caribbean. It is widely recognised as a reference to the natural or 'Ital' lifestyle of using organic, unrefined products.”  The idea of creating Kora Naturals came to her with the birth of her first daughter, when she was addressing post-pregnancy skin issues. It has since developed from being an artisan business into the luxury skincare brand that it is today. We think that so many unique African ingredients are very underused here in Europe (see where we recently wrote about the special African Baobab here). Kora Naturals utilises African native raw ingredients and oils, where they are all ethically produced using traditional methods, which is so refreshing. 

We were excited to try the African Pearl Luxury Body Butter which is very rich and smooth. You can almost feel the vitamins, antioxidants and omegas 3 and 6 working into your skin.  The ingredients include cocoa butter, organic shea butter, coconut oil, wildcrafted baobab and marula seed oil. All of these make the Body Butter effective at holding in the moisture and giving the skin a silky finish. This Body Butter certainly lives up to its reputation and is our number one choice to get our skin summer-ready. You can buy a 200ml pot here for £25.00.

Next we tried the Organic Papaya Seed Oil which is for the face, we found that it helped control sebum and remove impurities by unblocking pores.  This is also another product rich in omegas 6 and 9 and vitamins A, C and E; all of which help to reduce the appears of brown spots and scars.  Some studies have indicated that the enzymes of papain in papaya can decrease acne inflammation. It’s effective in removing the dead skin cells which clog the pores, and our skin did appear to benefit from using the oil - so another thumbs up to Kora.  This is a reasonably priced product at £7.00 for 50ml here, we found that a little goes a long way.  Both of these products can be bought directly from Kora Naturals.

The Handmade Soap Co: Lemongrass & Cedarwood Shower Gel and Lemongrass & Bergamot Body Butter

At The Amazing Blog, we value brands that care about our planet especially when their products and ingredients help to make this world a greener place. We came across The Handmade Soap Co, at our client's Supply & Buy event, where we engaged in a long chat with one of the founders Donagh Quigley.  This Irish artisan brand started in 2010 and has gone on to create some of finest natural bath and body products using only 'essential oil blends and nature’s pantry'. Donagh very kindly gave us their Lemongrass and Cedarwood Shower Gel and Lemongrass and Bergamot Body Butter to experience for ourselves.

Shower time is often synonymous for us with revving up for the start of another day. And we certainly enjoyed using this zesty and woody fragrance to stimulate the senses and help us on our way. The Lemongrass and Cedarwood Shower Gel is an amazing shower gel which cleared our heads and helped to give us focus for the day ahead. Formulated with natural and botanical ingredients including lemongrass, cedarwood, amyris, mandarin, patchouli and geranium oil; this shower gel gently cleanses the body while making it feel velvety smooth and wonderfully fragranced. 

The Lemongrass and Bergamot Body Butter was our favourite. This luxurious body butter is packed with the finest plants and botanic extracts including: Shea butter, cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, aloe vera, bergamot oil, ylang-ylang flower oil and bergamot oil. What a list! This delicious blend makes a highly nourishing butter that pampers the skin and hydrates. The lemongrass and bergamot also gives an irresistibly fresh and zesty scent that lingers on the skin all day long.

The Handmade Soap Co's products are made with 99.7% of natural ingredients with the other 3% being only the binding agent and preservative (to stabilise the body lotions). We're happy to report that this brand is without parabens, petrochemicals and SLS. Even the card that is used for the packaging is from sustainable sources and printed with vegetable-derived ink! You can purchase the shower gel here for £10.64 and the body butter here for £17.76

Body Care Range - c.Booth

We just got to the middle of the week and all we want to do is take a nice, hot bath and indulge in some well-deserved pampering. Here at The Amazing Blog we have discovered c. Booth, perfect to make that relaxation session a whole lot better. We got the opportunity to try the Walnut Shell Body Scrub and Cleanser, All Over Body Sea Salt Scrub, and the Italian Olive Oil Butter. Combined, they were enough to send us into a daydream holiday by the sea.

c. Booth prides itself on providing the ultimate bathing experience whilst giving you nourished, smooth and soft skin. The Walnut Shell Body Scrub & Cleanser will make you feel like you are in nutty heaven. Rose Hip, Balm Mint, and Kola Nut have been blended to engulf you in a gorgeous scent whilst rejuvenating your skin. This exfoliating cleanser will cleanse your skin and get rid of those impurities whilst moisturising at the same time. The Sea Salt Scrub will also slough off any rough, tough, and dull skin whilst purifying and replenishing it with its Algae extract. You just have to massage the scrub in circular movements to start feeling an immediate difference in your skin. The holiday experience doesn’t stop here! The Italian Oil Body Butter features a blend of Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Coco Butter and Kola Nut to soften and eliminate any dry skin leaving a lovely smell too.

Take a look at c. Booth’s products here for £10.

Shea Innocence – Triple Butter Whip and Mocha Vanilla Candle

We think that Shea Butter is the skin's best friend. It's regularly used as a key ingredient in many skincare products, as it helps to moisturise and leave you with a soft and smooth complexion. So when The Amazing Blog came across Shea Innocence, we just couldn't resist trying the range out. With a wonderful selection for both the skin and the home, Shea Innocence uses a fusion of natural ingredients to keep you looking beautiful and feeling relaxed. We were delighted to try their Triple Butter Whip and Mocha Vanilla Candle.

We'll be the first to say that the market is chock full of body butters for dry, oily or sensitive skin, but with Shea Innocence Body Butter, we're pleased to see that they have taken a natural approach. This product is fantastic for the whole family as its list of ingredients is simple and 100% natural, using only organic Shea Butter and Essential Oils. We tried the butter with Almond Oil and it was perfect for keeping our skin hydrated. Mango Extract and Sweet Orange Oil give a divine scent that's hard to resist, and leave our skin feeling incredibly soft and nourished. 

The same care and love Shea Innocence uses in their body butter range clearly goes into their Candles. In a mini tin, their Mocha Vanilla Soy Candle offers a delicious bouquet of fragrant Coffee Beans and sweet Vanilla, perfect for a relaxing night in. What's more, its comforting scent that lasts longer than usual because Shea Innocence use nothing less than the best quality soy wax rather than artificial paraffin - so no more burnt smell once the flame is out.

The Mocha Vanilla Candle and many more are available here at £6.00. Discover the other fragrances and get the Triple Butter Whip for only £10.95 here.

Lucy's Lotions - Body Butter & Rejuvenating Night Oil

Do you ever find yourself wishing that you could tell your skin how to behave? Here at The Amazing Blog, we're often plighted with bad skin days. More often than not, they make their unwelcome appearance when we're heading to an important meeting or daunting first date. Thankfully, Lucy Gordon, founder of Lucy’s Lotions, felt the same way, and she has created a collection to help us finally take charge of our complexion woes.

When Lucy was younger, she spent her weekends creating unique skincare blends with her aunt, who is an aromatherapist and herbalist. Suffering from acne later on in life, this gave her the drive to create her fabulous vegan Vitamin E and Grapefruit Range.

From the range, we tried the Rejuvenating Night Oil and Body Butter. The Rejuvenating Night Oil contains a luxurious blend of 6 oils, including Argan and Avocado Oil. These oils promote cell renewal and help soothe and repair damaged skin. Smoothing the oil onto my face in the evening, it was fantastic for brightening my complexion. During winter, my hands became particularly chapped too, so I decided to experiment, massaging the oil onto my mitts. It was such a great discovery - it sunk right in and the tiny cracks on my hands were all gone the next day! The Body Butter contains Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and Aloe Vera, which reduce the appearance of scars and stretch marks, soothe damaged/sensitive skin and intensely hydrate. I use the butter after shaving my legs for a wonderfully soft and soothing finish that smells divine.

Want to banish those bad skin days? Head on over to the website and purchase the Rejuvenating Night Oil for £26.00 here and the Body Butter for £16.00 here.