Byre Bodycare: Skimmed, Semi-Skimmed & Full Cream Body Washes

It’s nearly the end of summer… and now the time for us at The Amazing Blog to look for pampering body products in preparation to help protect and hydrate our skin. We were curious to try a set of natural, milk-based body washes from Byre Bodycare. These are not only gentle on the body but also good for the environment with their recyclable bottles and tops.

The CEO Alicia Chivers and MD Quentin Higham of Byre Bodycare believe in supporting British farming as a vital industry, especially at this time of Covid19 and Brexit. After all, farm produce is at the heart of most of the food that we find on our table, which is why this brand values every single component from dairy farming, in particular, the whey. This is considered to be a waste product in the dairy industry with an annual waste of 870,000 tonnes as a by-product of milk and cheese production. Byre has taken this byproduct of whey to use as a key ingredient in their trio of luxury Byre Body Washes, which also contains 96% of naturally derived ingredients. We were impressed to learn that Byrne Bodycare supports the  Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution by donating a percentage from their annual sales to help supports farming families in adversity, which is why we’re delighted to talk about their natural range of bodycare today. 

There are currently three Body Washes in the range – just like milk they come in Skimmed, Semi-Skimmed and Full Cream. They are natural and all free from parabens, silicones, synthetic colours and mineral oils. They are very sensibly priced at a very reasonable £5 each.  Let’s start with the Byre Body Wash Skimmed, they say this is light, airy and creamy, and we couldn’t agree more. With its fruity fragrance, the sweet whey protein powder here contains collagen and amino acids which help maintain the skin’s elasticity and firmness. It is an antioxidant protecting against free radicals and helping to delay the signs of ageing. Whey protein also slows down the degeneration of muscles and also considered as a deep cleanser. It holds antibacterial properties that help in fighting acne and will restore the pH balance. This body wash is enriched with aloe vera known for being an excellent moisturiser and a fast wound healer. Also rich in vitamin A and C and these help to hydrate dry skin. The blend also includes poppy seed oil, a deep moisturiser that also reduces any inflammation. This natural body wash will condition and nurture the skin, leaving it feeling velvety and smooth. The second product in this range is the Byre Body Wash Semi-Skimmed which is smooth and whipped, slightly creamier than the Skimmed, with what we think is a meadowsweet/ floral fragrance. Alongside the whey powder, it contains aloe vera and vitamin E which will protect you from UV sun damage, calm and hydrate the skin. The poppy seed oil is beneficial for people suffering from skin ailments such as inflammation, eczema, prickly skin. Whereas vitamin C will even out skin tone and get rid of dark spots. This Semi-Skimmed Body Wash will stimulate your skin’s healing process keeping it smooth and rid it of rashes thanks to the richness of vitamin B5 and B6.  Just like they say, we are saving the best for last. The third product in this range won a silver medal in the 2020 Global Makeup Awards with their Byre Body Wash Full Cream. This is a rich, thick and creamy body wash and smells divine with its buttery vanilla fragrance. The key ingredients here are the nourishing sweet whey powder, aloe vera and poppy seed oil and oatmeal extract. The latter has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that will help treat dry skin and get rid of dead skin cells. It contains a natural component called saponins which makes the oatmeal a deep cleanser. Some customers have testified to it being a great product to use if you have skin conditions such as eczema or atopic dermatitis. We were impressed with how hydrating these all are and will certainly be buying more! You can find the trio of Byre Body Washes here for £5 each for 250ml  

Conscious Cosmetics - Lavender & Sage Deodorant & Underarm Care

With these long humid summer days, we struggle to keep smelling fresh. There is nothing worse than being on London public transport and getting a whiff of someone else’s stale body odour! That’s why at The Amazing Blog, we want to talk about a natural skincare and cosmetics brand Conscious Cosmetics that has impressed us with their gloriously fragranced Lavender & Sage Deodorant & Underarm Care.

Founded in 2010 by Malene Rosenberg Hansen in Canada, where she is a product developer and purveyor of natural, organic, cruelty-free and vegan beauty and skincare products.  Her Danish-Canadian company develops natural beauty products that are rooted in the Scandinavian way of life, with particular attention paid to the health and wellbeing aspect.  This holistic, ethical and artisan brand only makes in small batches with the finest and most natural ingredients sourced from all over the world. The primary mission of Marlene is to create products that are both delicious for the skin and good for the environment. Having come from an international background and lived in Europe, West and Central Africa this has helped her connect to nature, where she holds a deeply rooted appreciation for sustainability, simplicity and most importantly, functionality. Her products reflect her philosophy by mindfully selecting fresh botanicals and minerals to use in harmony with the incredible powers of colloidal silver as their natural method of preservation.

We’ve chosen to review the Lavender & Sage Deodorant not only for its natural and organic ingredients but for its heavenly scent!  It instantly soothes, conditions and nourishes the skin. There are far too many chemically made deodorants on the market which are known to not only harm your delicate underarm skin but can cause rashes or worse with ingredients like aluminum. This is a unisex deodorant, which is fresh, pure and alcohol-free and will leave you feeling confident and smelling fragrant. It truly does neutralise any unpleasant odours caused by bacteria and has their hero ingredient of Colloidal Silver Water which is considered to be a natural preservative because it is pure and clean. Let’s talk about the other key ingredients here which include the organic virgin coconut oil that will nourish and condition, leaving underarm skin smooth. It is also known to having a plethora of vitamins, antioxidant and antifungal properties. There is cold-pressed avocado oil, known for its ability to quickly and deeply penetrate the skin with the benefit from the vitamins A, D, and, E as well as potassium and fatty acids. The lecithin acts as a humectant and cold-pressed castor seed oil that has healing properties and has been used as far back as the Egyptians. This stimulates the production of collagen and elastin and is rich in vitamin E, Omega 6, and, 9. One of the other essential elements here is shea butter to protect your skin from environmental damages as it is rich in vitamins A, E and, F. This magical ingredient will also protect from sun damage and contains nutrients necessary for collagen production and is very compatible with keratin which will strengthen and give elasticity. It is also considered as a balancing agent. Furthermore, there is arrowroot powder which will eliminate toxins and help calm and get rid of shaving rashes. Organic beeswax contains vitamin A and provides long-term hydration which will soothing irritated skin, making it ideal for those with sensitive skins. Among other ingredients, there is the powerful and pampering aloe vera gel naturally rich in protein, calcium, magnesium, zinc as well as amino acids and skin rejuvenating enzymes. The two key botanicals here are the lavender and sage essential oils. The first one will add not only smells wonderful but will also calm the skin while the second will act as a toner, effectively tightening pores and firming the skin. Finally, the tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil combine their cleansing and healing powers helping to refresh and deodorise. A top tip that they gave us, is to keep it in the fridge during hot days that way it will last longer!

We’re over the moon with this natural and organic deodorant – there are other natural ones here in the UK but we’ve found them to be too waxy or they leave behind a white residue on clothing– not this one! When I finish this – I want to buy another. Please Conscious Cosmetics, come and sell directly into the UK soon! We can’t wait to try more from this brand. If you can’t wait to try this like us, you can buy it here for $28.00

Budslife – CBD Patches

The girls at The Amazing Blog are big fans of all things CBD and have finally persuaded me to try some. What harm can there be, I thought, only good things can come from the wonderous hemp plant. I think I would be right in saying that many of us have been feeling a little stressed with the possibility of yet another lockdown and the current uncertainty – so something to potentially ‘take the edge off’ was most welcome. I didn’t want to take any of the sublingual CBD (I’m not good at ingesting things that taste a bit strange!) So they found me the perfect solution with some rather innovative skin patches – yes, patches! They’re the newly launched CBD patches by Budslife which are scent-free, flavourless and easy to use – just unpeel and stick it onto clean skin – et voila!

Budslife founder Shaun Williams came up with the CBD patches concept at the time when his daughter was going to university. She was about to face new challenges all alone, and that’s when her stress and anxiety kicked in. Instead of taking pills and medications, Shaun came up with the idea to create these CBD patches, which helped her cope to feel more relaxed and focused; which is when he realised that many others could also benefit from these CBD patches. 

These CBD patches come in a box with two silver foil sachets (eight patches to the sachet). Budslife sources their Full-Spectrum and 0% THC CBD from Holland, which is then impregnated into the patches which are made up of pressure-sensitive medical glue and penetration enhancers (antioxidant, hydrocarbon C5 / C9 and copolymer). The patches have a slow release of over 8-10 hours with each patch being infused with 16g of CBD. They are designed to release safe and measured levels of CBD throughout the time of wearing. Conveniently this could be night or day (I preferred to stick my patch on at night) where they are absorbed trans-dermally. This is thought to be quicker to get than into the bloodstream than through sublingual application. I have to be honest and say the 16mg patch was not enough for me and so I was advised to double up with 2 x patches = 32mg. Which BTW is perfectly safe. I believe that Budslife is about to launch the next range with 32mg and a 64mg range of patches. Upping the CBD dose did make a difference to me, I would say not immediately but accumulatively; by night 3, I was feeling more relaxed despite having had a rather stressful day. So if like me, you dislike the taste of hemp, but are curious to try CBD, then these are definitely for you, a box of 16 patches is £14.99 here.

Flaunt Body: Ingrown Hair Mask | Five Treatment Set

Summer finally looks like it has arrived and we’re getting ready for a seaside visit and our staycation here in the UK. This, of course, means that we need to think about getting bikini-ready and the dreaded hair removal. However, due to the issues with lockdown and no beauty salons open, for us at The Amazing Blog it’s been a case of waxing or epilation at home. Something that we all agree on (and a common issue here) is what to do when we get a razor rash or ingrown hairs? There is nothing worse than when the skin gets irritated with angry red bumps or peppered with unsightly little black dots as the hairs try to push through. So imagine our joy, when we were recommended to try today’s Ingrown Hair Mask | Five Treatment Set by Flaunt Body which won the Indie Beauty Expo Best in Show 2019.

Flaunt Body is a US brand founded in 2018 by Cameron Alexis Moore, who has a very interesting story behind her success. As Moore explained in a recent article, she was about to go on a romantic date, but whilst getting ready, she used an old razor where her skin experienced immediate irritation. The first thing that came to mind was to grab a face sheet mask and apply it to the irritated area, which helped.  It was then that she realised that there must be many other men and women who equally experience the same razor bumps, irritation or ingrown hairs. That is when she started her research and came up with this brilliant Ingrown Hair Mask | Five Treatment Set.  We also applaud Flaunt Body for their giving back policy of donating 5% of their profits to organisations like Love146.org who help to prevent human trafficking.  

The Ingrown Hair Mask is a gender-neutral, vegan and cruelty-free body mask which helps to soothe the skin, reduce irritation, hyperpigmentation and ingrown hairs. It is a unisex product and can be used for all skin types, in any area such as underarms, inner thighs, bikini line, chest or around the neck. Created to address ingrown hairs on any of the sensitive areas of the body, it is made of plant-based bio-cellulose which feels light and flexible almost like a second skin. The Ingrown Hair Mask contains a soothing serum rich in key ingredients like aloe vera, cucumber, chamomile, and glycolic acid.  There’s also polygonum cuspidatum root extract which is a good source of resveratrol which protect skin's surface with significant skin-calming properties that may help minimise the look of redness. scutellaria baicalensis root extract used in China and known as Huang-Qin, it's used for skin allergies, skin infections and inflammation. Horse chestnut seed extract is used for reducing swelling and skin sores where the preparations made from the tree's bark. Glycyrrhiza glabra (Licorice) root extract is for an anti-inflammatory, which means less redness and irritation for inflamed or irritated skin and finally, the rosemary leaf extract helps to reduce swelling and puffiness, heal burns and soothe the skin. The combination of which is quite a potent mix for helping to calm and heal the skin!

Thanks to all the plant-based ingredients (above), it not only smells divine but also deeply moisturises 5 x times more than a typical serum, where in particular, it repairs the skin’s appearance ridding it of unsightly red bumps. They recommend using this Mask immediately after shaving or 1-2 days after waxing. All you do is remove the protective top and bottom mesh layers to the mask, then apply it to the area where it’s most needed. Leave in place for up to 15 minutes to infuse with the skin, then remove the Mask and gently massage the remaining serum until fully absorbed – no rinsing needed.  You can purchase your Ingrown Hair Mask | Five Treatment Set here for $ 35.00.

Vedic Essentials: GoodNight Food Supplement

Here is a question for you; how are you sleeping at the moment? With the global pandemic 2020 has been a year of uncertainly and we’re all feeling very sleep-challenged! Because we value our beauty sleep, here at The Amazing Blog, we’ve been searching for calm amongst the chaos and trying out a new remedy, meet Vedic Essential with their GoodNight Food Supplement.

Vedic Essentials is a new brand established in 2019 here in the UK, with their main focus around the ancient practice of Ayurvedic medicine, which has been used for over 3000 years in India. Vedic Essentials continue this Ayurvedic legacy but with a bit of a twist, as they infuse it with modern science too. They believe that ‘without health, nothing else matters’ and instead of letting someone else take control of your well-being, it metaphorically speaking puts you behind the wheel with their supplements. They specialise in producing high-quality supplements and remedies, and unlike modern medicine, they focus on the body’s power to heal itself using natural ingredients and herbs. In the practice of this Ayurveda, there is order and disorder in nature and the body. Therefore, good health is considered as order, and a disease is a disorder. Thus, to help maintain this balance in the body, Ayurveda focuses on the mind, body and consciousness to get them to work in harmony to maintain a balance. 

We were excited to receive their GoodNight Food Supplement that we are going to be talking about today, which we subsequently learned have been flying off the shelves! These capsules have a blend of six key natural ingredients. First, we have chamomile known for its ability to reduce anxiety and stress, therefore promoting better sleep. Chamomile has long been recognised for its calming properties. Then there is soothing blend in the ashwagandha one of the most important herbs in Ayurveda, apart from helping the body manage stress and anxiety, it is probably best known for fighting insomnia and stimulating the brain against depression. The reishi mushroom here is to boost the immune function and help with fatigue. Schisandra berry is proven to reduce cortisol levels in the body (the stress hormone) and is effective in controlling changes in serotonin and adrenaline providing you with a goodnight's sleep. The fifth element in this blend is the Maca which will improve your mental well-being and mood, and finally, there is Hops extract, which promotes a better sleep cycle. Besides these six key ingredients, this GoodNight supplement is rich in 5-HTP derived from griffonia, which has been proven to increase the feel-good hormone serotonin and is a naturally occurring amino acid that induces a calming effect on the brain. There’s magnesium, known for its ability to relax the mind and contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue. Last but not least, it contains vitamin B6, which helps in maintaining a positive and relaxed mood. 

We took one capsule in between supper and bedtime, the effect was gradual where it took about three or four days to kick in and have an optimum effect, quietening the mind and offering a better quality of sleep. We’d recommend these as an excellent aid to help the body and mind regulate and rebalancing itself, this GoodNight Food Supplement is suitable for vegans are gluten-free and non-GMO, and you can find them here for £17.99.