Jinmee - Hydrapuff

Have you found yourself with more product on your hands than on your actual face? At The Amazing Blog we certainly have, and it’s just such a waste! Meet Jinmee who have pioneered a new way of thinking about cleansing with something sustainable, practical, and high quality. They have developed a product called Hydrapuff, the new super absorbent skincare sheets.

Founded by Karen Hong and produced in Korea, Jinmee was created when she realised the amount of product wasted on hands or cotton pads particularly as these thick pads soak up more product than it is actually applying to your skin.  She came up with these clever Hydrapuff sheets which are super thin and multi-purpose. They hydrate the skin, maximise product use, reduce waste, she came up with the Hydrapuff, as an affordable and high-quality product that works through simplicity, honesty, and self-care.

Hydrapuff are super-absorbent skincare sheets that come in a double-layered sheet. For the first step of your routine, keep your Hydrapuff intact, folded in half to give it extra thickness, it can be used with all your favourite skincare products. These sheets not only hydrate the skin but also as mentioned reduce the wastage. Once you add a skincare product to a sheet, it transforms into a gel-like tissue that adapts to your skin, which means applying the entire product onto your skin, not on the cottonwool or bin! You can apply your choice of toner, cream cleanser or oils, start by cleansing your face with the Hydrapuff sheet and your chosen product, and then gently wipe away your makeup or daily grim. Hydrapuff can also serve as a mask, by applying a serum or product onto the sheet and split the Hydrapuff in the middle. Then, place with your product on cheeks or the desired area allowing it to sit for 5 to 10 minutes (remove them before they get dry), pat your skin gently and done!

Hydrapuff is suitable for all skin types, made from a natural rayon and pulp blend with 60 sheets in a box. The sheets are vegan, cruelty-free, bio-degradable with recyclable packaging,  making them tick all the boxes and getting the thumbs up from us. We loved this multifunctional product which has saved us up to 50% less waste with our serums, cleansers and toners. Get your Hydrapuff here for only £6.50.

Friday Favourites – Shampoos with a difference

Shampoo is a product nearly everyone uses, but how do you know you’re using the correct shampoo for your hair? I know that here at The Amazing Blog we are very particular about the type of shampoo that we choose to lather up with. Some of us use shampoos that are organic, vegan or to help stimulate hair growth. And with so many options, we find that it can be an overwhelming choice to find the right one for each of our hair types. For this week’s Friday Favourites, we have three new and different shampoos that are our #amazingfinds to share with you.

The first shampoo is the Reseed Ginkgo & Sabal Fortifying Shampoo. Reseed was created to help people achieve stronger, fuller and healthier hair. Reseed understands the impact that both hair loss and thinning can have on self-confidence and created their hair care line to help combat this. The products all use natural actives that work to prolong the hair’s lifecycle. We love that they use essential botanic extracts, pro-vitamins and minerals - all which strengthen the hair follicles.

The Reseed Ginkgo & Sabal Fortifying Shampoo restores the structural fibres of the hair while simultaneously increasing its density and nourishing from within. We liked the fresh, fruity fragrance of the Reseed Shampoo! It’s enriched with vitamins B5, B6, E, F and Zinc to support the scalp’s natural functions.

The Reseed Ginkgo & Sabal Fortifying Shampoo is suitable for all hair types. We’d certainly recommend this for anyone has either hair thinning or loss, or who just wants to prevent it. If you’d like to purchase the Reseed Shampoo it is £18 for 250ml and can be purchased here or it’s also available at Lloyds Pharmacy and Selfridges too.

Our next Friday favourite is the Lavera Neutral Shower Shampoo this is ideal for anyone with fine hair. Lavera has won over 350 awards, proving that natural hair and skincare products can be both sustainable and innovative. In Latin, Lavera means ‘the truth’, and at The Amazing Blog we’re big fans of this brand and know first hand that a brand name like Lavera can be trusted. All their products are 100% natural and have cruelty-free ingredients, we think that Lavera is a brand name that you can really get behind.

The Lavera Neutral Shower Shampoo leaves hair feeling clean with a healthy, natural shine. It’s perfect for anyone with sensitive skin or fine hair because it contains extremely mild cleansing ingredients. It’s also a 2-in-1 product that doubles as body wash, which is perfect for packing in your weekend bag to save on products. We love that it contains organic evening primrose oil, to soothe easily irritated skin and sea salt to stimulate hair growth. Need a break from harsh fragrance or ingredients? Then purchase Lavera Neutral Shower Shampoo here for £8.95 per 200ml.

Finally, we‘ve chosen the Foamie Hibiskiss Damaged Hair Shampoo Bar. This is a completely plastic-free design and also we like how the interesting design of the Foamie Shampoo Bar which is made as an easy-to-hold shampoo bar. Simple to use, just run the bar under water until it lathers up and you get a good amount of foam on your hands to massage through the hair, then rinse out. Simply hang it up on its loop to dry after use.

We love the simplicity of this bar making it ideal to travel with and perfect for holiday hair. The hibiscus and nettle extract combat brittle and tired-looking hair, they also help to strengthen and nourish from root to tip. It adds shine and structure to the hair while leaving an amazing floral fragrance. Think outside the bottle, with this Foamie Hibiskiss Damaged Hair Shampoo Bar available here for £7.00 a bar here. 

Whether you’re looking for plastic-free, multi-tasking or something to just boost your hair, we think we’ve got you covered.

Friday Favorites – Natural Deodorants

Late summer is probably the best season of the year here in the UK, still light evenings and gently balmy nights… However, not always is so nice in rush hour on the tube when packed with hot sweaty bodies and it’s 25+ degrees. You leave home smelling fresh but when you reach the office, you look and feel like you’ve run a marathon. Today at The Amazing Blog we thought it an opportune moment to share with you our four favourite natural deodorants that will help to keep you smelling sweet all day long.

First up is Scence’s natural deodorant balm. With three different scents, Scence has you covered. The Cornish-based artisan skincare brand cares about what you put on your skin in the same way as cares about the planet. If it harms the planet, it harms us. Formulated with natural and organic ingredients, get ready to enjoy fully nourished skin. Scence was founded by Krista Taylor who clarified the brand’s message: “I have always been interested in natural oils and the efficacy of herbs and felt frustrated that so much of the natural skincare on offer was packaged in single use plastic containers and applicators. I was making balms for family and friends that needed help with eczema and sensitive skin as well as developing a really effective deodorant that didn’t use questionable ingredients like aluminium.” 

Their Cool Rose, Juniper Berry and Cedar Fresh deodorant balms are made for everyday use and are designed to last up to 3 months. Mainly composed with organic coconut oil, mango butter, essential oils, baking soda and arrowroot; they absorb moisture and are made into a stick for easy application. Because it is a natural product with fresh ingredients, it is recommended to use within 12 months of purchase to maintain the optimal qualities of each of the elements.

Our favourite was the Cool Rose stick which melts as soon as it touches your skin, making it very easy to glide and releasing the scent of rose geranium. Each stick is packaged in a fully recyclable tube and all deodorants are paraben and cruelty-free. Get your Scent Deodorant Balm here for £12.00.

Next is Elsa’s Organic Skin Foods’s Deodorant. Founded by Henrietta, The brand’s name Elsa is inspired by her mum, who is an environmentalist and advocate that has been producing artisan skincare for decades. Henrietta has a teen daughter who like all of us when she comes back from school, she is a little less fragrant than when she left… Henrietta refused to use any roll-on or sprayed deodorants that are chemical based and found it quite hard to find natural deodorants. This is why she decided to specialise in deodorant creams with ingredients that you would only find in a kitchen. Thus, Elsa’s Organic Skin Food’s was born.

With a range of four signature deodorant stick fragrances: Dew, Ocean, Sensitive and Love. All key ingredients are coconut oil, arrowroot powder, shea butter, magnesium oxide, candelilla wax, vitamin E, bergamot oil, geranium oil, patchouli oil, and a few other essential oils. They each certified organic and some are even winners of The Beauty Shortlist Awards and Green Parent Natural Beauty Awards.

Elsa’s deodorants are very simple to use. Apply it onto clean and dry areas for a few seconds, swiping up and down 1 or 2 times. Your body heat will soften the stick allowing it to slide smoothly on your skin. Because its composition is very rich in minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids, it automatically becomes a 4-in-1 deodorant. It is disinfectant and antimicrobial, blocks odour, absorbs wetness, and soothes your skin, keeping it nourished.  We gave Love a go and of course it smells amazing. It releases scents from roses and patchouli and keeps your skin odour-free all day. All products are It is vegan and suitable for all skin types. Purchasing your 45 ml deodorant stick here for £12.00 each.

Onto Logona, an established German beauty brand which has been trading for over 40 years, with huge expertise in the natural products sector all products come with the NaTrue or BDIH seal.  From makeup, nail polish to natural shampoos, and many more products, Logona has been a pioneer brand winner of several awards including having received distinctions from Öko-Test particularly for their Daily Care Organic Aloe & Verbena Deo Spray.

This Daily Care Organic Aloe and Verbena Deo Spray, is a deodorant that ensures long-lasting freshness to combat body odour successfully. With verbena and aloe as main active ingredients, this deodorant has a lemony verbena fragrance and soothes irritated skin by nourishing it and moisturising it.  We quickly want to mention that although it’s a very gentle deodorant, it also fights against bacteria with all the antioxidants it contains.

We love this alternative spray deodorant because it gives ultimate freshness, protects the planet and our skin. Get your Logona award-winning deodorant here £8.95.

Last but not least, is We Love The Planet. This Dutch brand has developed a series of deodorants that consist of 100% natural ingredients. They are NC and EcoControl certified, meaning they only make products with natural ingredients. Their key organic ingredient is coconut oil and We Love The Planet stick deodorants have no synthetic fabrics or aluminium added, meaning it is harmless to you and the planet. Sometimes, when using a high street brand of roll-on deodorant, we find that it takes time to absorb and clogs under-arm pores, but this does not happen with We Love The Planet. Like our other natural deodorants, it acts as a moisturiser and soothes your skin in a matter of seconds. Also, like some of the other natural deodorants mentioned in this feature, one single stick can last up to 3 months. Amazing.

We Love The Planet have created six different scents for their deodorants; Forever Fresh, lovely citrusy and pure spice odour; Lovely Lavender, wonderful smell of wild and tame lavender; Mighty Mint, a blend of mint and rosemary scents; So Sensitive, ideal for extra-sensitive skins since it is hypoallergenic and had a delicate and mild smell; Original Orange, another citrusy hinted deodorant with a touch of mandarin; and Sweet Serenity, a subtle scent of rose, honey and spices. No matter which one you chose they will be equally effective. Each stick is made out of 100% recyclable materials and the deodorant is made with coconut oil, baking powder, corn starch powder, caprylic acid, and beeswax. These ingredients deodorise, moisturise, calms irritated skin, reduce the excess of oils and perspiration and help skin restoration. Beeswax used to keep the consistency of the stick and allows it to slightly melt when it touches your skin.  Our favourite fragrances from this range were the Forever Fresh and Lovely Lavender sticks, they are so easy to carry around in a handbag to apply and top-up during the day. Just push the bottom a little bit for the stick to go up and swipe it on each armpit a couple of times. Purchase your stick now for € 11,50 here.

We hope we have given you a perfect solution to help ‘keep fragrant’. We are so thrilled to discover so many great natural deodorant brands and hope that we have persuaded you to try something new too. Which was our favourite? That’s a hard one, we’d have to say that we loved them all!

amaiaa - atma oil secrets of the soul & morning radiance facial elixir

The skin is the largest organ in our body and our face is what gives the first impression of us. Therefore, at The Amazing Blog being number one fans of natural products, we like to know exactly what the ingredients are, that we’re about to put on our faces. As winners of 2019 Beauty Shortlist Award amaiaa, a natural skincare brand with Indian methodology, caught our eye, they have everything that we value with their ethos and quality botanical ingredients.

amaiaa brand is based in the USA but was born in the Himalayan Mountains of India. Ashu the founder of amaiaa, who took on a soul-searching journey that drove her to her native land, India. Inspired by her mother and grandmother as well as the culture and history of the country, she began developing what we know today as amaiaa. The brand is known for two products, atma and saya facial oils. Atma, Ashu’s grandmother’s name meaning ‘soul’, embodies her grandmother’s knowledge as an alchemist to provide skincare through natural products. Both products are primarily composed with jasmine, rose and sandalwood which boost rejuvenation and restore your skin. With every ingredient carefully picked and blended, amaiaa’s products make you want to travel all the way to India to explore the mysteries of Mother Nature.

We tried their atma Oil which we think will soon become your new best friend. With ingredients like Argan oil known as liquid gold, it offers amazing source of hydration. There is also apricot kernel oil which has a natural anti-ageing properties, rich in vitamin C and E which enhance collagen production and skin elasticity. The jojoba oil here is packed with vitamin E and other antioxidants that boost cell regeneration. The avocado and jasmine oils remove blemishes; and finally the sandalwood oil a natural illuminator of the skin. atma oil’s formula will undoubtedly help to encourage great results for all skin types. We mustn’t forget to also mention the vitamins B1, B2, B3 and B5, all of which treat rosacea, acne, sun-damage and ageing with its cell regeneration properties that aid redness and inflammations.

We applied it in the morning as a face oil or serum, this oil absorbs easily which means you can follow it quickly with your regular skincare routine, if you so wish. atma is cruelty, fragrance, paraben, sulphate, alcohol, toxin, additive and gluten-free. It’s vegan, hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic, making it perfectly suitable whether you have dry, oily, combined or hypersensitive skin. What we particularly admire about amaiaa is their giving-back policy, with a mission to empower women and young girls to lead a life of dignity, the association with the Animedh Charitable Trust ACT, through a series of a projects, which stays true to their core ethics of sustainability. This trust helps Indian girls get an education – so by buying amaiaa’s award-winning atma morning radiance facial oil, you’re helping, too.

Why not pamper yourself and get your Atma Oil here for $75.00 (worldwide shipping) for a 30ml bottle which will give you nurtured skin for around 3 months, a little goes a long way. Also, enjoy a 15% discount off your first order using the code WELCOME15.

EliRose Skincare - Nourishing Organic Serum

As regular readers will know, we at The Amazing Blog team are particularly careful about the skincare products that we use, always erring on the side caution. Very happily, we recently discovered a new skincare launch:  EliRose Skincare, a luxurious British brand that is certified organic, vegan, and cruelty-free. Their niche area is to cater to those who suffer from excessively dry skin, eczema, and acne. The Canadian founder Claudia Bussieres wanted to find an 100% organic product, but felt deceived by so many products’ labels. Claudia commented it appeared that 'natural' beauty companies all prioritised product longevity, shelf life, and regulation for cash flow as being more important than the side effects. As a solution, she worked with a team of chemists for over six year, developing her first product the Nourishing Organic Serum, and the start of creating a line of skincare with trusted ingredients.

Since some members of our team have sensitive skin and eczema, they were thrilled to try EliRose’s Nourishing Organic Serum with the hope they would experience some relief. The lovely floral fragrance immediately caught our attention. The serum is loaded with beautiful organic oils, such as Bulgarian rose otto oil, evening primrose oil, jojoba oil, sunflower seed oil, pomegranate seed oil, jasmine essential oil, geranium leaf oil, and rosehip seed oil. Combining these oils has a balancing effect, which helps to maintain moisture, prevent hormonal acne, and increase collagen production. This non-greasy formula is a Pure Beauty Global Awards 2018 Winner and made without gluten, PEGs, GMOs, Parabens, silicone, mineral oils, and artificial fragrances. The Nourishing Organic Serum’s soothing formula also applies smoothly with quick absorption time.

You can purchase the Eli Rose Nourishing Organic Serum 30ml here for £68.00.