Lavera - Sweet Moments Body Lotion & Body Wash

We’re well aware of how difficult the quest can be to find effective, organic and sustainable skincare products. That’s why, at The Amazing Blog we’d like to reacquaint you with one of our favourite brands Lavera, which is an organic, vegan and 100% certified natural skincare.  Regular readers will know how much we love this brand, with many of their products featured here. Their mission is a simple one, and we particularly like that they practice what they preach.

The founder of Lavera, Thomas Haase dedicated his life to achieving his vision of producing organic and natural beauty. Over forty years on, it is still a family run business with their production in Germany. The range now has over 300 plant-based products, with organic ingredients sourced from all around the globe. Lavera is a multi-award-winning brand, which serves as a testament to their hard work and success.

We were very kindly sent their latest collection of Sweet Moments Body Lotion & Body Wash which we tried, tested and loved by all. The elegant duo pack comprises of a refreshing Body Wash as well as a nourishing Body Lotion. As we’re into the winter months, they couldn’t be more perfect to help nurture and protect the skin from the cold weather. Enriched with organic plum and vanilla, our skin felt pampered and healthy - the warm, inviting and subtle fragrance is an absolute treat for the senses. Both products nourish the skin, the Body Wash gently cleanses, while the Body Lotion quickly absorbs giving the skin suppleness. Also to quickly to mention with both these products, a little goes a very long way. Why not treat yourself or your loved ones to this body care duo this Christmas, at a very affordable £15.95 see here to purchase.

The Facial Box by Michaella Bolder

With Christmas just around the corner, the pressure of getting your loved ones the perfect gift is burning up and we can all surely feel it! A knitted sweater that might not fit or a bag that they may just have to pretend to like, but later return? Here at The Amazing Blog, we can do you one better and introduce you to the Michaella Bolder’s Facial Box that will surely put a smile on the recipients’ face!

Michaella Bolder has created The Facial Box by putting together a brilliant selection of products that take on a number of skincare challenges leaving you with beautiful, radiant and glowing skin. With over 10 years of experience in the beauty industry, Michaella has gained a reputation as a truly iconic facialist and tanning expert. Appearing regularly in leading international publications, she is now the go-to person for many celebrities including Dame Helen Mirren, Naomie Harris, Olivia Munn, Noomie Repace, Nick Grimshaw and Frankie Bridge to name but a few. Further, she is also known as a ‘facial expert’ for global skincare brands L’Oréal Paris, Time Bomb, Romilly Wilde, Rodial & Fusion Mesotherapy, alongside her tanning and skin finishing skills for St.Tropez and Vita Liberata. Thus it isn’t farfetched to say that the items included in The Facial Box will surely be effective and worthy.

The Facial Box by Michaella Bolder includes eight magnificent products. It includes two items by the brand Rodial from their Pink Diamond range. The first is a Cleansing Balm with vitamin E and diamond powder that works towards removing make-up and dirt helping to transform the skin. The second product is the Magic Gel Day which is a lightweight cream-gel targeting dehydration and fine lines for an instant glow. Thereon, the box also includes two items the organic skincare brand, Weleda which is a cream called Skin Food for dry and rough skin. This is formulated with plant extracts traditionally used to sooth the skin. There is also a Skin Food Light sample sachet which is an intensive instant moisturising skin cream for the face. Furthermore, the box includes the reputed Lactic Acid 10% by The Ordinary which visibly targets uneven tones, textural irregularities and fine lines. It is a high strength lactic acid superficial peeling formula that truly does wonders. Then there is the Self Tan Purity by St. Tropez which is a bronzing water face mist that results in natural glowing skin. Up next is the multipurpose soothing balm by PawPaw for lips, skin, cuticles and beauty finishing. Last but most certainly not the least, is the SPF 30 High Protection Face Moisturising Anti-Ageing Sun Protection by Ultrasun specifically for sensitive skin with antioxidants and ectoin®.

These eight products will certainly help your recipient’s skin for the better considering they were all put together by the knowledgeable and esteemed Michaella Bolder. Michaella’s expertise and knowledge of the beauty industry is endless and ever-growing. You can find her treating clients in some of London’s leading hotels, including The Mandarin Oriental, The Corinthia, The Ned and currently even Harrods and John Frieda Salon Mayfair.

Another perfect gift for a loved one, as well as the perfect treat for yourself, hop on over to the official website to purchase The Facial Box for £49.99 here to make your Christmas a little easier, happier and brighter. Hurray now, as for a limited time only there is a special offer of 30% off!

La Sultane de Saba - The Rose Facial Set & Pouch

La Sultane de Saba walks you through the timeless beauty secrets of women who have passed these down through generations of mothers and daughters. This French spa brand has been created around ancient and proven beauty rituals, thus creating the perfect alchemy between beauty, wellness and authenticity. Here at The Amazing Blog, we discovered the enchanting properties of this brand when we reviewed their popular trio of products in their  Hammam Ritual Kit last year. With their range of products, La Sultane de Saba takes you on a ‘journey’ harnessing rare and precious ingredients that are sourced from all over the world.

The founder, Vanessa Sitbon inherited these beauty secrets from the Hammam that belonged to her family at Fes, in Morocco. She has carefully curated her brand, where each of the ingredients used is based on its unique and magical authenticity. We love that this natural skincare brand delivers products with a multitude of scents, colours and ingredients. And that it has been a recipient of a number of awards including the reputed CosmetiqueMag Award, The Beauty Shortlist Awards and the H. Pierantoni Innovation Award. 

Today we are reviewing The Rose Facial Care Pouch it harnesses the subtle yet mesmerising essence of rose, with a collection of skincare that helps to plump, repair and intensely moisturise the complexion. It includes three beautiful products, the BB Rose Bride’s Day Cream, Rose Night Balm and Bride’s Elixir. The BB Rose Bride’s Day Cream works as both a beautifier and a concealer for all imperfections and promotes an all-day healthy glow. With ingredients such as shea butter to nourish and heal, the sweet almond oil feeds and softens the skin with the vitamins A, B & E, while the rose offers calming, soothing and toning. The Rose Night Balm blesses the skin with a comforting and rich yet silky texture with sunflower oil, sugar and Damas rose essential oil all revitalising and nourishing. This product penetrates through the skin easily leaving it feeling reinvigorated until the next morning. Last but not the least, the Bride Elixir is a spritz to promotes a clear and glowing complexion courtesy of its natural ingredients which include rose geranium for balancing, calming and acts as gentle astringent, while the orange blossom is refreshing, hydrating, toning, anti-inflammatory. The combination simultaneously leaves an enriching rose fragrance on the skin and can be sprayed directly onto the skin or on cotton wool then applied.

This is an artisan brand with natural and certified organic products, they assemble each product by hand, and wherever possible they are packaged in glass.  All products are free from parabens, silicones or microbeads and are cruelty-free.  La Sultane de Saba also prides itself on working primarily with fair trade co-operatives. We think that The Rose Facial Care Pouch is the perfect gift for this Christmas to give to a loved one, or even to yourself! Its magnificent effects will leave you feeling pampered and looking your very best this festive season. This is one of our favourite gift sets and can be purchased for £79 here or each of the products can be purchased singularly.

Mathmos Pod

With Christmas coming, at The Amazing Blog we love searching out all manner of interesting new gadgets and gizmos to bring to you, our loyal readers. We also can’t resist a spot of nostalgia either … and when we get to mix the two, it makes our day! So, for a minute step back in time to the 1960s and a symbol of Pop Culture at its best - the Lava Lamp, a staple requirement in any up to minute interior, with its dayglo colours of the rainbow playing a hypnotic symphony as it proudly sits centre stage.

The company behind the original lava lamps was called Crestworth, and the inventor who made it all happen went by the name of Edward Craven Walker who was actually working on his concept for a new kind of egg timer when he came up with the product that would change his life, and become synonymous with the Swinging 60s - and indeed the 70s. In the late 1980s however, interest fell, and so the next few years saw a period of rebranding when Edward and his wife Christine teamed up with a couple of young entrepreneurs, Cressida Granger and David Mulley. The came up with a new company name – Mathmos, which refers to the bubbling force in the sci-fi cult 60s movie Barberella, and the second wave of popularity for the lava lamp began, which continues today.

However, in the spirit of continuing to research and develop, as their founders did, Mathmos have come up with a new type of lava lamp for us the Mathmos Pod which sits proudly alongside their full range. Standing at 240mm tall, the Mathmos Pod exudes all the quality of Craven Walker’s original - the bright glowing colours of globulous intensity which rise phoenix-like in slo-mo up the illuminating tube, surrounded of course by the heavy cast iron metal keeping everything safely grounded.

However, the clincher here is that these fabulous new lamps are not powered by electricity, but by the humble tealight, which sits happily burning away in its burrowed tessellated hexagon-shaped base, heating up the Mathmos gel, and creating the effect we cannot ignore. NB: The pod will take up to 20 minutes to heat up before you see all the magical colours interspersing. It’s spellbinding, with a modern elegance that is undoubtedly going to see this beauty jump off the shelves at a phenomenal speed as we head towards Christmas. If you’re quick, the first 100 have a unique limited edition number making them even more of a prized collectors item. They cost £44.00 from here they also have a current promotion running whereby if you order more than one, you get a 20% discount.

Friday Favourite – Cookbook for Christmas

Whether you are looking for inspiration for this year’s Christmas catering or for a gift for a loved one, today at The Amazing Blog we’ve narrowed down three of our favourite new seasonal cookbooks just for you.

Having watched the series, and enjoyed the twists and turns of the Crawley Family on the big screen, we now have the chance to channel our inner Mrs Patmore and bring a flavour of Downton to our own humble kitchens in the form of The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook. Fans of the show will salivate over the sumptuous pages of their favourite series dripping from every page - not just full of tempting recipes, but also bon mots as can only be delivered by Dame Maggie herself, along with historical facts of catering for such a house in those times. The writer behind this surefire bestseller is Annie Gray, one of Britain’s leading food historians, who brings the stories of both the upstairs, and the downstairs to life for us in her detailed research of recipes of the period. Alongside  such mouth-watering options as ‘Veal Chops Périgourdine’, which would have appeared on the upstairs menu, we have the equally tempting ‘Toad In The Hole’ which would have been served downstairs in the Servant’s Hall, both with the relevant side notes of why they would have been popular, and how the ingredients would have been sourced.

Apart from the surge of culinary excitement to try favourite recipes out, this encyclopedia of food history and knowledge will be snapped up by fans of Lord and Lady Grantham, and foodies alike. Served up at £25.00, we can all secure ourselves a slice of this delicacy from all good bookshops including Waterstones and BooksEtc here.

If you or your guests diet is more plant-based, then a festive treat comes to us from Scandinavia, Karoline Jönsson who has put together the ‘Happy Vegan Christmas’ after the success of her online cooking blog which attracts 20,000 visitors every month, and the first all-vegetarian cooking show to air on Swedish television, of which she was the host. Karoline gives us five different sections to take us through the Christmas period, including the obligatory “Leftovers”, which is a definite ‘must read’ as it not only offers up the irresistibility of ‘Sun-Yellow Energy Soup’, but also craft projects to keep us all engaged over the holidays. Priced at £14.99, and published by Pavilion Books you can find it here.

Remaining on the vegan theme, we move onto the next course on today’s menu, which is the pudding section - ‘Incredible Plant-Based Desserts’. Written by Anthea Cheng, whose blog and social media account entitled ‘Rainbow Nourishments’ has inspired this fabulously colourful cookbook to give us all options on the desserts trolley from the vegan perspective with recipes including gluten and without gluten, with refined sugar and without. With mouth-watering methods to create ‘Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies’, ‘Baklava Custard Tart’ or the intriguingly named ‘Rainbow Pear Tart with a Cardamom Coconut Cream’, this must be high on every vegan gourmand’s wish list. The colours of Anthea’s desserts jump off the page and are very effective in drawing us in to try our hand at making them - with such a successful online presence in the marketplace, she has a firm foundation on which to build a even greater fanbase. Anthea takes us through everything we will need - not just the best ingredients, but also the correct kit required, and her book is a joy to read - the fact we get to enjoy the secrets to her success is an added and welcome bonus. Available at £16.00 from Waterstones here whether you are vegan or not, the colours of this rainbow are for everyone.