Friday Favourites – Sheet Masks

Since the 10-step Korean skin care method and its corresponding products have become a full-on trend, you cannot walk into a beauty department without seeing a plethora of sheet masks and The Amazing Blog can see why. Sheet masks are so easy to travel with, just throw one into your bag and you’re good to go! They leave your skin looking ten times brighter in just 15-30 minutes. However, with hundreds of options, it’s so hard to choose the right one. For this month’s Friday Favourites, we have four #amazingfinds face masks, something for everyone. These will leave your skin feeling rejuvenated while you sit back, relax with a cup of tea and watch the telly.

The first set of masks we have for you is by Mitomo, a Japanese company that specialises in creating high-quality beauty and wellbeing products, particularly face masks. We’ve already tried their Anti-Wrinkle Eye Mask with Gold and Bee Venom and Eye & Nasolabial Mask with Snail Extract and EGF in January, and recently their Collagen + Lithosperium, Hyaluronic + Lithospermum and Q10 + Lithospermum Essence masks. So we were even more excited to try their latest launch of Facial Essence Masks which targets, moisturises and heals sensitive skin.

The Facial Essence Masks come in six different types: Camellia (nourishing), Green Tea (purifying), Rice Leaven (protecting), Sake (moisturising and heat retaining), Soy Bean (irritation reducing and skin improving), and Tea Tree (soothing). Each includes a combination of antioxidants, vitamins, omegas, and organic acids depending on your changing skin needs. It is ideal to use these masks at night so your skin can soak up the ingredients while you sleep. You should use the mask after you’ve cleansed and toned your face (you can also throw in an exfoliating scrub and serum too). After 20-30 minutes, you can gently remove it and rub in the excess essence before following with a moisturiser.

Our two personal favourite masks were the camellia and soy bean. Camellia contains more natural antioxidants than practically any other botanical oil and the results are noticeable. The vitamins and omegas of the mask quickly absorb and instantly reveal more nourished and moisturised skin. While a soybean mask doesn’t sound as lavish as some of the other types Mitomo has to offer, it greatly reduces skin irritation, evens rough spots and texture, and fights any sun damage. After using this mask, your face instantly feels calmer and smoother. These were our favourites, but the line of masks offers a huge variety and each was made with a high quality that you can see and feel.

 You purchase a single sheet mask here for £3.49 and you can also purchase each in a pack of four for £12.50.

The next line of face masks we tried were also from a beauty and skin care brand that we’ve tried, BeautyPro. Previously we’ve tested their Rejuvenating and Brightening Collagen Masks, both of which are for anti-ageing like all of BeautyPro’s sheet masks. Their masks are intended for use by both women and men and are cruelty-free and dermatologically tested in South Korea, the heart of the Korean skin care movement.

Unlike the above Mitomo masks, these BeautyPro’s Natura Sheet Masks are targeted speficially for anti-ageing. They have a range of six naturally infused types for your various skin needs. They each have a unique combination of marine collagen to nourish skin with key vitamins and herbs and botanicals to even skin complexion. The types include Avocado (hydrating and repairing), Rose (soothing and redness reducing), Turmeric (protecting), Multi-Grain (complexion boosting and firming), and Herb (pore minimising and rebalancing). The line of sheet masks also has a Potato & Parsley Under Eye Mask.

While each sheet mask created fast-acting results, the Natura mask that stood out the most to us was the Eye Mask. We don’t often think of ordinary potatoes offering such nice skin effects, but we are sold now. The potato brightened our under eye area, making us look more awake and alive on Monday mornings, while the parsley reduced the puffiness and dark colour of our eye bags. The masks worked so well that we received compliments from our family members on our more ‘awake appearance’.

The sheet masks are available here for £4.95 and a set of three Potato & Parsley Under Eye Masks here for £5.95.

The next sheet mask we have for you is MILU’s Mud Sheet Mask. While the thought of slathering mud onto your face does not sound very enticing, we can assure you that this is a luxe product that isn’t messy and leaves your skin feeling nourished, purified, and soft.

What draws us to this brand’s ethos is the fact that MILU is like a friend who wants to help you with all your beauty and skin care woes—and better yet provides solutions to enhance your natural features. The radiant and glowing skin of Korean women inspired the company to create products that are additions, rather than replacements, to your daily skin care routine and contain ‘skin loving ingredients’.

Of these skin-loving ingredients that are found in the Mud Sheet Mask, a few jump out at us namely the two types of clay used. Bentonite clay extracts impurities from pores and reduces skin blemishes while kaolin clay minimises and deeply purifies pores. With these benefits, it’s no surprise why these clays are the main or key ingredients in many face masks currently on the market. However, many of these masks only use one of these clays in their formulas, not both like this sheet mask. Together they create a dynamic combination that softens, tightens, and evens your skin. The mask also has soybean to soothe your skin and rose flower to reduce pollution effects, and it has been dermatologically tested for sensitive skin.

For smaller and smoother looking pores, put the mask on for 30-40 minutes until it dries then peel it off. Remove excess mud with warm water. You can purchase the Mud Sheet Mask here for £9.

Finally, to complete our Friday Favourites, we have the Oh K! Mix Your Own Gold Dust Peel Off Mask. After testing their Cooling Eye Pads and Coconut Water Face Masks, we couldn’t wait to see what else the Korean mask brand had to offer.

Using the expertise, skills, and passion of Korean dermatologists, Oh K! creates high-performance skin care essentials for every type of skin. Did we mention their products and masks also come in cute packaging? The Cooling Eye Pads came in panda-shaped packets and the Gold Dust Peel Off Mask came in a vibrant yellow box with bubbly letters and gold powder on the front.

The mask is designed to give you a natural and radiant glow. The box comes with two gold dust sachets, two gold liquid formula sachets, a spoon, and a container. The gold powder is enriched with hyaluronic acid, allantoin, gold, purslane extract, gotu kola extract, and peppermint oil while the gold liquid is infused with collagen, gold, hyaluronic acid, and pearl extract. These luxurious and precious ingredients give the mask its nourishing, replenishing, and glowing properties. Hyaluronic acid, gold extracts, and collagen provide deep moisture, rejuvenate skin, and promote a supple, younger-looking complexion.

This mask offers the ultimate at-home pampering experience. In just 15-20 minutes, you peel off the mask and your skin has been transformed. After application, our skin looked immediately more luminous, radiant, and refreshed. It’s the perfect mask for anyone looking for a brightening boost. Just mix the gold dust and gold liquid in the mixing pot, apply it to your face, and enjoy having a golden goddess glow. The Mix Your Own Gold Dust Peel Mask is available here for £12.50.

Whether you want to perk up your skin, have some ‘me time’, or both, we hope we’ve helped you navigate the complicated yet exciting world of sheet masks. So, relax and let the sheet mask do all the work!

Totally Derma ® by Boley Nutraceuticals

We’ve all heard about how important is to incorporate sunscreens, serums and moisturisers to our daily routine as we get older, but Boley Nutraceuticals has totally changed the way we at The Amazing Blog are thinking about anti-ageing skincare. While a good SPF and retinol serum are great to have in your bathroom cabinet, Boley’s ground-breaking product Totally Derma® Nutraceuticals Collagen Drink Supplement focuses on working from the inside out.

Many brands today push for topical-only application of anti-ageing ingredients but Totally Derma® focuses on counteracting both the more aesthetic signs of ageing as well as the underlying physiological processes that are harder to see with the naked eye. Launched in 2017, Totally Derma® has been clinically-proven to increase Hyaluronic Acid (HA) in the body, and it contains Arthred®, a pre-digested and highly-absorbable bovine collagen, which contributes to skin firmness and elasticity. Even better is that the bovine collagen is so pure that it is hypoallergenic, therefore perfect for those who have digestive problems.

In addition, the increased levels of HA and Collagen have also shown improvements in not only skin, joints, hair, nails, bones; but also even in gut inflammation, bladder, urethra and vagina health too. Totally Derma® also contains other antioxidants like zinc, green tea extract and grape-seed extract to help collagen synthesis and ageing tissue. These health-boosting ingredients are taken once a day, from one level scoop daily into 250 ml of water or juice. After digestion, Totally Derma® is 95 % absorbed in the small intestine and then distributed to the skin to stimulate cells to produce more collagen and HA in the body. Even better about this collagen drink is easy to take and palatable, adding a little boost to your day and body. To purchase a tub of Totally Derma and start hydrating your body, see here for your 360 mg 30 day supply at £105.

Friday Favourites: Eye Products

We’ve almost finished our first working week of the year, and that means only one thing: it’s time for our Friday Favourites! At The Amazing Blog, we have to admit that we’re pretty lax when it comes to eye care. While we all agree that having a sparkle in our eyes is important, the constant strains of staring at a screen, working late nights, or even applying eye makeup, can take their toll. Today we present our recent finds that have helped us to look a little more awake - and ready to take on a New Year!.

Let’s start with Mitomo, a brand that provide high-quality beauty and health care products, all of which contain ingredients sourced in Japan. Their Eye Masks serve you with natural moisture, giving a unique treatment to the under eye region. We tried both the Snail + EGF Gold Mask and the Gold + Bee Venom Mask (both of which sounded very intriguing), and we were more than pleasantly surprised with the results.

The Eye & Nasolabial Mask with Snail Extract and EGF helps to regenerate damaged cells, both under the eyes, and around the nose, with natural components that improve your overall skin condition. The use of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) helps to regenerate new cells, encouraging your under eye area to look brighter and smoother. On the other hand, the Anti-wrinkle Eye Mask with Gold and Bee Venom does exactly what it suggests, helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. By promoting the production of collagen and elastin, this mask helps to create a radiant glow, deeply moisturising the area and promoting skin elasticity. Both masks are best applied for 20-30 minutes, and to make the most of the ingredients, the excess should be gently patted into the skin. You can buy each pack seperately for £3.29, the Snail and EGF mask here or the Gold and Bee Venom here. Alternatively each mask is available in a pack of 10 for £29.61.

Our second step for perfect eye care is Elizabeth Grant’s Supreme Cell Vitality Victory Eye Serum . We’ve reviewed Elizabeth Grant’s products before, namely her Suprême Cell Vitality Neck Creme. We were therefore keen to try an eyecare product, hoping it would prove equally moisturising and luxury. We were not disappointed!

The Supreme Cell Vitality Victory Eye Cream is a lifting and energising serum for the delicate eye area, perfectly suitable for all skin types. Inducing anti-ageing effects, it contains natural actives to reduce the appearance of under-eye puffiness, creating tighter feeling skin, while making the eye-area look more youthful. Leaving your skin plumped and nourished thanks to Elizabeth Grant’s own innovation Torricelumn, vitality is produced in a bottle, and dark shadows are reduced. To apply, pat a small amount around your eye area both morning and at night. Containing CoQ10, this product also promotes collagen renewal, revitalising your under eye area. To purchase your own 30ml bottle for $70, click here.

Now our under eyes are suitably moisturised, it’s time to turn to our eyelashes. We discovered Apraise, a brand providing an exclusive collection of professional eyelash and eyebrow products. They particularly specialise in water resistant and smudge proof tints, but have equally turned their hand to lashcare. This is the area that interested us most, with the use of Optiplex growth technology. We tried their Power Serum, a product promising thicker and stronger eyelashes in just 15 days. We were keen to put this to the test!

This serum contains active ingredients that stimulate hair follicles, leading to fuller and stronger lashes and brows. All too often, similar products do nothing but moisturise your eyelashes, and although this is no bad thing, we were pleased to find that this Power Serum has real (and visible) results. By reducing the loss of eyelashes, your lashes look healthy and full, and as it is packaged like conventional mascara, it is simple to apply. Apply a thin coat over your lashes and brows twice a day (mornings and evenings) and you won’t have to wait long for baffling results! To try this product for yourself, visit the Amazon website here, where you will find the Power Serum available for £9.99.

Last but not least, nothing completes an eye look quite like a good coating of mascara. On our quest to find a new favourite, we discovered the brand Lavera, and were keen to try their Powerful Lashes product. Lavera provide certified natural cosmetics, with the use of high quality ingredients, packaging and production processes, so we were keen to see whether their mascara would live up to the high performance ethos.

The Powerful Lashes mascara is organic and vegan, leaving your lashes looking fuller and longer. Unlike many mascaras, this formula is multi-purpose, giving your eyelashes the benefit of a volumised, defined and lengthened look. Additionally, thanks to the rubber brush, our natural curl is held, catching each lash seperately, giving optimum volume without clumping. Being ophthalmologically tested, this product is also suitable for contact lense wearers, and thanks to the dermatological testing, you can be safe in the knowledge that your eyes will not react to the ingredients. There’s nothing worse than streaming panda eyes! To purchase Powerful Lashes, visit the Lavera website here where you will find it available for £14.90.

There you have it - our newfound products for a New Year eyecare routine. Give them a try, and be sure to let us know how you get on!

Ellactiva Collagen Chews

Our mothers have always encouraged us to take our vitamins, and here at The Amazing Blog, we take that advice very seriously! We recently came across, Ellactiva, a UK based company who provide Collagen Soft Chews that are easy to take on-the-go. These chews are boosted with 2.5g of bioactive collagen peptides, improving your skin from the inside, and making it feel as smooth as ever, in just four weeks.

With three different flavours (blended with minerals and vitamins), the Collagen Soft Chews not only make you look great, but you will also feel healthier. They give you all the energy you need from within, strengthening your immune system, and improving your bone health simultaneously. Additionally, the three different flavours provide benefits that go beyond skin depth.

The first, Collagen & Energy, contain bioactive collagen peptides that help improve the skin's structure and elasticity. They also include high levels of vitamin C and chromium picolinate, which maximise collagen synthesis, as well as prebiotic fibre and resistant starch, reducing hunger cravings and supporting energy release. What makes these chews even more irresistible, is that they come in a sugar-free orange flavour, to enhance our taste buds and boost our energy levels at the same time.

The second superpower is the Collagen & Healthy Bones pack, which comes in a sugar-free caramel cream flavour. With a base of bioactive collagen peptides, they help to give a younger look to our work loaded faces. Additionally, vitamin C maximises collagen synthesis, and with the help of calcium and vitamin D, we are packed with all the good stuff and are ready to take on the day.

The last powerhouse is the Collagen & Immunity package that helps to maintain the skin’s structural integrity and firmness, due to its blend of bioactive collagen peptides and prebiotic fibre. With the aid of zinc, selenium and vitamin C, our immune system gets the boost it needs to keep us healthy and fit, even on the coldest of days in the UK. The best part? These chews have a fruity blackcurrant flavour.

The elegant and light packaging makes it easy to take your vitamins on the go, helping you to live a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. The collagen infused chews give us back what we have lost over the years, allowing our skin and bones to strengthen, reversing the degenerating collagen process. If you want to take your mother's advice seriously, and treat yourself to some vitamins, then the three packages (including 60 sugar-free soft chews) can be purchased here from £29.99.

Ashley Juhl - Anti-Ageing Range

We’re always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in woman’s skincare, especially when it comes to anti-ageing techniques. The Amazing Blog came across Ashley Juhl Skincare, a luxury American skincare range formulated by medical aesthetician, Ashley Juhl. Ashley opened her first skincare clinic at 24 years old and has devoted her career to helping people attain beautiful skin. Her dermatologist-formulated and tested skincare range is designed to have clinical results. Each product includes medical and botanical ingredients and is intended to correct, restore, and protect the skin. We we fortunate to have the opportunity to try four of their products.

Firstly, we gave the Ultra Benefits Firming and Brightening Moisturiser a go. This is an antioxidant-full moisturiser that helps to prevent and reduce visible ageing changes. As well as its hydrating and evening skin tone abilities, this moisturiser contains Chromabright, which decreases the appearance of age spots and uneven pigment. It also contains peptides that help to strengthen the skin’s collagen and reduce the appearance of fine lines. The added bonus? It has a lovely floral-scent.

Next, we tried the Advanced Retinol Wrinkle and Skin Tone Corrector. This serum is packed full of retinol, phospholipids, and glycolipids, ingredients which help to firm skin and reduce the look of wrinkles and pores. What makes this serum unique is the use of lipids, which do wonders to decrease dryness and repair the skin’s moisture barrier, preventing dry and irritated skin. This serum also contains advanced retinol, a combination of retinol, bioidentical phospholipids and glycolipids. Hello, younger-looking skin!

Ashley Juhl’s Vita Soothe Protective Replenishing Serum effectively smoothed our skin, giving it the extra plumping that it sometimes needed. This serum contains vitamins E and F which provide the skin with a beautiful glow. It can be used on all skin types, including acne-prone skin. One of its most important ingredients is the lipochroman antioxidant which protects the skin from ageing caused by UV rays, toxins, and pollutants. We loved the silky feel of this serum on our skin.

Lastly, we tried the C-Stem Concentrated Anti-Ageing Serum. The lilac stem cells help to lessen inflammation and give the serum a light floral scent. The vitamin C and marine extracts help to brighten the skin, as well as diminishing deep lines and pores by decreasing the skin’s ageing protein. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution to slow down ageing, then this is the serum. What caught our attention, is the ability for this product to reactive genes, once again helping with the production of collagen, hyaluronic acid, and elastin.

If these products sound like they could help you, then they can be purchased here. You can also use the code AmazingB15 for 15% off when you purchase a skin system, or 3 or more products. Happy shopping!