Beauty

Skin in Motion – Exercise Friendly Skinwear

In the forthcoming months, we’re looking forward to returning back to the gym. However, we do like to look our best without being puce in the face or with smudgy mascara. We’re rather ashamed to admit to the damage that we’ve probably already done to our delicate skin, working out with layers of heavy makeup left on! Many of you may be unaware of the fact that exercise can break down the skin's collagen, causing premature signs of ageing. Particularly when you use products such as foundation or bronzer which clog up the pores and often lead to breakouts, this is why at The Amazing Blog we were very curious to try out the exercise-friendly beauty brand Skin in Motion who claims to address all of these issues.  

The revelation for us is that with  Skin in Motion, is that you can wear breathable and sweat-proof makeup to the gym. It’s a lightweight solution that is easy to apply and remove after any workout. The co-founders Gia Mills and Sophia Lahlou cleverly spotted this niche addressing the need for workout friendly beauty. Gia is a London based celebrity makeup artist with well-known clients including the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Cara Delevigne and Julia Restoin Roitfeld. She’s also long been a yogi, marathon runner, cyclist and racer and so understands the physical and mental benefits of working out.  Sophia Lahlou, a marketing professional with 17 years of experience in beauty brands, joined forces with Gia helping to help make them an unstoppable team. The idea came about when they discovered many women don’t go and work out because they were concerned over their appearance. This spurred them on to develop a range of cosmetics to not only make women look better, but feel better too. Skin in Motion has three main goals: encourage women to exerciseboost women's confidence, and donate to female empowerment charities like This Girl Can and we love how they’re advocates for causes such as Breast Cancer too.

Their current products include the Lift It Mascara, Work It Tinted Moisturiser, Cool It Mist and Clear It WipesLet’s start at the beginning of a beauty regime with the Clear it Wipes which remove all the dirt and sweat from the pores. The wipes are thin but loaded with salicylic acid and pomegranate enzymes. These ingredients help clear any harsh ingredients from the skin’s surface while moisturising and balancing. The pot comes with 40 pads and is 100% vegan and cruelty-free. Apply the wipes before and after the workout to clear clogged pores. This product helps cleanse the face and dissolve sweat and also promotes balance in the skin. The Clear It Wipes can be purchased here for £16.00. Next, we have the Work It Tinted Moisturiser which comes in three different and matchable shades: light, medium and dark. With plenty of coverage, the product manages to cover the skin while still maintaining a lightweight and matte finish and best of all, it looks completely natural when applied. The Tinted Moisturiser comes in a 30ml bottle and is cruelty-free, vegan, and paraben-free. It's nourishing and sweat-proof for even the most intense workouts. The product is incredibly smooth in texture, is best applied with a beauty blender and has a subtle citrus scent. The Tinted Moisturiser is a non-comedogenic formula and contains Argan oil to help hydrate and protect the skin. With fast-drying ingredients, you can take comfort in knowing that your makeup will stay put.  Work It Tinted Moisturiser can be purchase for £25.00 here. Something we find difficult to be without is mascara, and we know we’re not alone here. The Lift It Mascara is infused with beautiful Japanese berry kernels from the Sumac tree, the waterproof and smudge-proof mascara is cruelty-free and manages to lengthen and define even the sparsest of eyelashes. For a flawless look, apply the mascara at the base of the eyelashes and wiggle side-to-side in an upwards motion. The mascara comes in an intense black and is available for retail price £20.00 here We all know how our skin tends to get irritated when combined with sweat. Here is where Skin in Motion has created a face spray that helps hydrate and calms the skin. The Cool It Mist has a subtle floral fragrance, the bottle is 50ml and has 95% natural ingredients that are vegan, cruelty and silicone-free. To use just shake the bottle and hold 5 inches away from the face with your eyes closed and spray. Apply a liberal amount and wait a few seconds before leaving for your workout. The mist has hydrolysed hyaluronic acid to deeply hydrate, mint to help cool and glycyrrhizic acid (liquorice extract) to calm the skin. The mist is lightweight and easily absorbed. the Cool It Mist can be purchased for £20.00 here. Lastly, we want to mention the rather fetching transparent neon orange and pink Gym Friendly Pouch For Life which is perfect as an on-the-go make up bag, or for taking with you in your gym kit. The Gym Friendly Pouch for Life you can buy for £15.00 here.  Or, if you are like us you can buy their Complete Beauty Care kit for £82 here. We think that they have struck on a genius idea and can’t wait to see more products in the range.

Sanda – Rose & Cardamom Aromatherapy Eye Pillow

Sometimes with this ever-changing world in which we live, it’s hard to remember to stop, take a moment, be mindful and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. Today at The Amazing Blog we’re excited to introduce you to something new with the Sanda Aromatherapy Eye Pillow. These therapeutic and calming eye pillows focus on evoking feelings through their scent. The calming and uplifting scents produced help to relieve stress and anxiety, perfect for this #stayathome moment and their Aromatherapy Eye Pillows are also very eco-friendly

Jo Bennett, the founder and designer behind Sanda, started the company after working in the textile industry and becoming a certified yoga instructor. This is when she had a light-bulb moment, deciding to merge her two passions, thus creating her Aromatherapy Eye Pillow. Launched this year, Sanda Aromatherapy Eye Pillows serve as a reminder to everyone to take time out of their day to decompress. We love that they’re handmade here in the UK in 100% organic linen, dyed botanically and contain only natural plant ingredients. Let’s not forget to mention too that their eye pillow sleeve is made from 100% recycled paper with vegetable printed inks. While the Eye Pillows are her primary product, Sanda also sells tote bags to store your eye pillow in or take to yoga class. Based on your preference, the pillows can be heated or cooled. To use warm - put the pillow in the microwave and heat for 20-30 seconds, and to use cold- let it cool in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. The pillows come in seven different scents such as the uplifting Orange & Cinnamon, Pine & Sage or Eucalyptus & Peppermint; or a relaxing Rose & Chamomile, Lavender & Rose, or Lavender & Chamomile.

We were sent the calming Rose & Cardamom eye pillow, and love its delicious smell of roses, which soothes and helps relieve anxiety. The cardamom helps to calm and promote emotional balance – which is rather timely for us at the moment! Upon touch, the pillow is incredibly soft and made up of only three ingredients: Flaxseeds, rose and cardamom. The linen cover is naturally dyed with madder root to give it a beautiful pale pink. Together these perfectly contour to the face and around the eyes, thus relieving tension and aiding relaxation. The pillow also stimulates meditation and peaceful sleep. There are both cosmetic and health benefits with the cooling technique as it helps reduce headaches and puffy eyes. We recommend adding this eye pillow, to help your relaxation technique during your day. Visit the Sanda to choose from one of their seven heavenly scented eye pillows. Or you can buy the Rose & Cardamom Aromatherapy Eye Pillow here for £22.00.

SKN-RG – Waterless Intensive Repair: Cleansing Ritual Daily Detox Cleanser & Night Therapy Oil

Our regular readers will know that at The Amazing Blog we’re fans of the organic vegan performance skincare brand SKN-RG, (you can read our recent feature on their Alpha Serum here). Today we want to talk about their range of  'Waterless Intensive Repair’ which features six products that are not only made with 100% natural and organic ingredients, but the packaging is composed of eco-friendly compostable bamboo, this separates from the other glass parts, making it all ready for recycling! The two products that they kindly sent to us to try were their Cleansing Ritual Daily Detox Cleanser and the Night Therapy Oil.

Winners of Beauty Shortlist’s 2019 Mama & Baby Awards with their Cleansing Ritual Daily Detox Cleanser this balm-like formula caught our eye. They say that this range is ‘no fuss, no mixing and plastic-free’ and we couldn’t agree more. This cleanser features key organic ingredients such as eucalyptus, safflower, babassu; together with hops, copaiba and astragalus which tackle breakouts, spots, oily skin and blackheads, all without drying out the skin. It has herbal adaptogens which are enhanced and energised by SKN-RG's award-winning method of extraction the Quanta® Wave Technology which is used for all of their products. The adaptogens help the body to resist stress whether physical, chemical or biological, enabling the skin to adjust, rejuvenate and restore. To apply, work a 2 pence sized dollop of the balm into the palms to activate, then massage over the face and rinse with a warm damp washcloth. The 30ml Cleansing Ritual Daily Detox Cleanser can be purchased here.

SKN-RG's Night Therapy Face Oil is designed to calm, soothe and de-stress and also aid in a restful night's sleep. With key ingredients such as macadamia nut, ylang ylang and blue chamomile; these lead to feeling skin rejuvenated when you awake. This oil provides deep overnight moisture while lifting, firming and fighting blemishes. This weightless, quick-absorbing oil can be used day or night, we suggest applying it before bedtime after washing your face with SKN-RG's Cleansing Ritual Cleanser. We think that this Face Oil is money well spent at £49.50 for 30ml, it can be purchased here

We applaud SKN-RG for their innovation helping to lessen the carbon footprint with their solar and green chemistry. They also continuously strive to look for alternatives like plastic or animal-free products, particularly with their packaging, which is approved by both the Soil Association and the Vegan Society. We’ll be reviewing more soon.

Gloh - Beauty Powder

What’s the secret to achieving glowing skin? We think a good place to start is from the inside out and here at The Amazing Blog, we love skincare that is made simple. Meet  Gloh who have a Beauty Powder targeted to bridge the gap between skincare and supplements, and which aims to help maintain a youthful appearance.

Gloh is a new Scottish supplement brand launching with its hero product ‘Beauty Powder’; which in simple terms, is a drinkable skincare product. ‘Gloh’ is an interesting play on words, promising to give a ‘glow’ and to be a real game-changer for anyone wanting to up their skincare regime. It’s a powder that comes individually wrapped in branded paper sachets, all presented in comment-worthy and elegantly styled peachy-pink box, making it very pleasing to the eye. This digestible skincare has key ingredients of hydrolysed marine collagen peptides (therefore not suitable for those who have fish allergies) and hyaluronic acid. The other goodies included are vitamins like B7 (D Biotin), B2 (riboflavin) B12 (cyanocobalamin), B6 (pyridoxine) and A (retinol). These combine with citric acid, natural peach aroma, beta-carotene and steviol glycosides

As regular readers will know we’re fans of all things collagen, not only for our skin but also for our joints and bone function; so this product certainly piqued our interest. Gloh claims to have ingredients to support the skin giving it an appearance of being more firm and plump with a collagen boost that hydrates and supports cell health. To start, mix one packet daily into a glass of water, it tastes like sugary peach water and can be drunk alone or added to juices and smoothies. We experimented by adding this packet to a plant-based banana smoothie which gave an added burst of fruit. It doesn’t matter if your skin is oily or dry, the powder is ideal for all skin types. The Gloh box contains 28 sachets for a 28-day supply. Suitable for almost everyone (with the exceptions in FAQ here ) and yes we’d recommend this, although with only a 28 day supply to try, it’s difficult to say if we saw a difference. We think that you probably need three months-worth of the product to see proper results.  Why not treat yourself and get your skin ‘Gloh-ing’, available here for £24.99. If you hurry, as of today they have 20% discount!

SOS - SPF 50 Sun Serum

Despite only being allowed outside our homes for a limited amount of time, at The Amazing Blog we know how important it is to protect skin from the dangers of the sun. Today we're talking about SOS SPF 50 Sun Serum where they use only simple, effective non-irritating and simple ingredients. Regular readers may remember that we wrote about their hero product the gentle cooling and repairing SOS Serum here.

Scientist and chemist, Bruce Green founded SOS Serum and has contributed to the formulations of many cosmetic brands in the UK & North America, and he also sits on several EU advisory committees. With a long dedication to the skincare industry, although he is now semi-retired, his fascination with skincare still continues, particularly with his understanding of skin sensitivity which is a common problem for most people. Which is why he set out to focus and create on his own range of skincare with this issue in mind. All of the SOS products are made in the UK and are cruelty-free and vegan 

Based on science, this unique SOS SPF50 Serum formula is significantly higher with the SPF and has fewer ingredients than its rivals. Not forgetting to mention that in our experience it's hard to find a high SPF sunscreen that is designed for all skin types, including extremely sensitive or eczema-prone. This is where SOS SPF 50 steps in, it’s made primarily with a combination of mineral-based filters (zinc oxide & titanium dioxide) and plant stem cells, which protect the skin from the harmful rays. With its key active ingredients such as soybean stem cells to help reduce wrinkles and increase the skin's firmness and vitamin E to soothes and calms, these two essential ingredients attack free radicals on the skin, whilst protecting skin from further sun damage. 

SOS SPF 50 Serum has a non-greasy and white-free application suitable for the face or body and all ages (including children), the product is also fragrance-free, without parabens, SLS, or mineral oil. Sun protection isn't the only benefit; with the moisturising hyaluronic acid (vegetable - low molecularweight) it can help eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, bites, wind-chapped and sun-damaged skin or allergic flare-ups. The product blends directly onto the skin and without a trace and with the leaf extracts combined with peppermint provide immediate relief upon application.  We recommend using this product in the morning for day-long protection, it's easy to use and perfect for providing good moisturising relief. The retail price for the 50ml serum is £15.00 and found here

There are three other products in this line such as the SOS H2O Day Serum with anti-ageing properties, the SOS Protect a broad spectrum hand sanitiser and SOS Serum (which we previously reviewed) for skin repair.