Lavera – Organic Lip Balm and Matt n Stay Lipstick

It’s not always easy to find an organic long-lasting matt lipstick or an organic lip balm with an SPF. That’s why we at The Amazing Blog have combined two lip products to review from one of our favourite organic beauty brands Lavera. As regular readers will know we’ve recently reviewed their Powerful Lashes and their SOS help lip balm so when we saw they had two new lip products Lip Balm and Mat’n Stay lipstick, we had to try them.

Lavera’s Organic Lip Balm range is composed of 3 different lip balms: The Protect and Repair made from organic pomegranate and argan oil, The Pearly Pink, Sun Care Lip Balm with an SPF of 10 and Basis Sensitive made of a green Hydro Protection Complex. We tried the Lavera Organic Lip Balm - Pearly Pink, which wowed us with its light pink shade that stays on the lips. The formula is very rich and will moisturise and nourish your dry lips. The lip balm is organic and free of mineral oil with active ingredients like almond oil and mallow to moisturise and help prevent irritation to sensitive lips. Their New Green Beauty Complex consists of active ingredients like coconut oil which prevents lips to cracked, cocoa butter which nourishes the lips and shea butter which moisturises and soothes dry lips. We like using this as it gave a subtle blush of colour and stopped our lips from feeling dry.

As for New the Lavera Matt'n Stay Lips is 2 in 1. Indeed, they all give a lovely colour to your lips and while at the same time, they soften and moisturise. The matte lipstick has only natural pigments all of which give them their pretty colours. It is made up of a flower butter composed of rose, mallow and linden all to aid moisture and nourish the lips. The range is composed of 6 colours: Plum, Pink, Berry, Rose, Peach and Red. We tried the Lavera Matt'n Stay in Rose and loved it. The application is effortless thanks to the pencil lipstick, we applied first at the centre on our lips then move outwards.

We highly recommend both these products and you can purchase the Lavera Organic Lip Balm - Pearly Pink in 4.5g for £4.95 here and New Lavera Matt'n Stay Lips - Matt'n Rose in 3.1g for £10.90 here .

Sofia Latif - Face Oil

As busy people working and living in London, we’re constantly looking for ways to make our lives a little less complicated. We want to pamper both ourselves and our skin but are often too tired to conduct a daily extensive skincare routine. Therefore, simple is always best and that’s why we were excited at The Amazing Blog to experience the great multitasking Sofia Latif Face Oil.

Created with a holistic approach to skincare in mind, Sofia Latif believes in the importance of using our me-time to reconnect mind to senses, soothing the mind and skin at the same time. Now that’s a philosophy we can get behind. The founder, Sofia Latif created the signature face oil to combat her personal skincare issues with pigmentation and sensitivity. Fearing her skin would be further damaged if she used prescription creams or steroids, she spent 15 years perfecting the blend of her face oil. The Sofia Latif signature Face Oil was shortlisted for the Beauty Awards in 2018 .

We love how many amazing ingredients are contained in this signature Face Oil . With the powerful anti-oxidant properties of moringa seed oil, the elasticity improving marula seed oil mixed with rosehip oil with natural retinol action and pomegranate seed oil for skin regeneration; this is truly an all-in-one product. The organic sweet almond oil seals in moisture while jasmine flower works to balance and Bulgarian rose flower refines. We’re also happy to report that this Face Oil is vegan and doesn’t contain any synthetic ingredients, palm oil, mineral oils, phthalates, SLS / SLES, and silicones.

The Face Oil is made in small batches in London, so it’s always fresh. We suggest applying it at night on cleansed skin or adding a drop or two to your moisturiser or primer to give skin an extra radiant glow. Wanting to give back, Sofia Latif provides microfinance loans linking with non profit Lend with Care to female entrepreneurs who are working their way out of poverty by starting their own small business, to date they have give over 20 loans since 2017. An amount of the sale from each product goes towards the investment in these women’s future. The Sofia Latif Signature Face Oil 10ml can be purchased here for £20.00 or for 30ml for £45.

Repêchage – Triple Action Peptide Serum

The Amazing Blog brings you once again, another pearl from the sea, with the brand Repêchage. We’ve written about quite a few of their products from Repêchage serums to moisturisers. However, today we want to talk about their new launch, the Triple Action Peptide Serum which promises to help give us a brighter, firmer and more hydrated complexion.

Repêchage was founded in 1980 by Lydia Sarfat, a renowned aesthetician, who created this salon brand out of her passion for skincare. All Repêchage products are made with sustainably harvested seaweed from Maine, USA. This is then processed through an extraction that retains at least 12 vitamins, 18 amino acids, 42 trace elements/minerals, and phlorotannins; all perfect ingredients for deep surface hydration and balance.

Their new Triple Action Peptide Serum is made with powerful peptides and marine seaweed extracts. The palmitoyl tripeptide 1, 5 and 7, in this serum, will help reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines by firming and smoothing it.  That’s not only it, but other ingredients found in this serum are acetyl hexapeptide-8 which has a water-binding function that aids the reduction of wrinkles. It also has Laminaria digitate (seaweed), aloe vera, sweet almond, chrysin and mirabilis Jalapa extract. These ingredients are rich in vitamin B12, C, E, K, beta carotene, amino acids, minerals and enzymes which smooth out our skin by providing elasticity, removing imperfections like dark circles, dry skin and again, by hydrating your skin, it will feel firmer, brighter and more youthful. Suitable for the face, neck and décolleté just massage eight or so drops twice a day into these areas. Let it settle for about ten minutes and then you can keep applying your creams or make up etc. We found that this serum layered easily with our other skincare, it didn’t feel greasy and absorbed well. So, if you’re looking for a serum that has advanced skincare science with natural ingredients, then this potent seaweed and peptide-based serum is for you. Make this Triple Action Peptide Serum from Repêchage part of your daily skin routine by getting it here for £75.00.

Friday Favourites – Eye Products

We always like to stress the importance of caring for your skin, and today we want to talk about the eye area. The skin around the eyes is thinner and more active than the rest of the face, particularly with all our squinting, frowning and laughing. This eye area doesn’t create hydration or replace moisture and is an area that we’re constantly touching or rubbing, making it more prone to dryness or worse – wrinkles! We at The Amazing Blog know what you’re thinking, that eye creams are just more expensive moisturisers in a smaller bottle. Well, this assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. Please read on.

Eye creams are specifically formulated for the thin and delicate skin around our eyes. They are more intense and moisturising than a face cream, plus have more active ingredients aimed at protecting and hydrating the eye area. So, here dear readers we have a new selection of eye care recommendations that we can’t wait for you to try too.

The first eye cream we have for you today is the Tiiya Alanoud Alattiya Epiphany Concentrated Eye Cream.  Alanoud Alattiya is a couturier by trade and because she’s related to royalty, knows all about the finer things in life. The Concentrated Eye Cream was specifically designed to fight signs of ageing around the eyes. It works to fight signs of stress and fatigue, leaving you with brighter and youthful skin. We recommend applying it every morning and night to clean skin for best results. The cream contains Phytocelltec™ Alp Rose, Swiss flowers that grow at high altitudes, forcing them to adapt to extreme conditions. When used in skincare, it helps to maintain the characteristics of skin stem cells and protects the cells against UV-stress. You can purchase the anti-ageing power of the Tiiya Alanoud Alattiya Epiphany Concentrated 30ml Eye Cream here for £96.

Next up we have the Viliv e - Shape Your Eyes Rich Eye Cream. Viliv was created by the expert Dr. Felix Bertram, a specialist with an international reputation in dermatology, skin surgery and beauty treatments based in Switzerland. He is an authoritative voice and sought-after in the field of wrinkle treatment, aesthetic medicine and cosmetics; so, we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the Viliv e -Shape Your Eyes Rich Eye Cream has been created by someone with great knowledge and expertise.

A hot favourite with us all at The Amazing Blog, we particularly liked that Viliv e - Shape Your Eyes Rich Eye Cream felt gentle, soothing and hydrating on our skin. Dr Bertram alerts us to the day-to-day things that affect the skin from the environment to the foods we eat. Something that you probably didn’t know is that when sugar molecules enter the skin via food, they accumulate on collagen fibres, eventually clogging them up and making the skin increasingly inelastic causing wrinkles to develop. Happily, this is where the Viliv e - Shape Your Eyes Rich Eye Cream is specially formulated to help keep lines at bay by gently firming the eye area with ameliox with carnosine (more about this in a later feature on Viliv skincare). Other ingredients such as vitamin E and silymarin (from milk thistle) help to push cell renewal and keep the skin supple. Also, hyaluronic acid, cupuacu butter and macadamia nut oil all provide extra moisture, all leading to rehydrated and more youthful-looking eyes. This is a brand is not only full of biotechnology and science but is also 100% vegan, parabens, mineral oils, colourants, BHT, EDTA, fragrance
and cruelty free. Dr. Bertram gave us a quick tip telling us to keep the eye cream in the fridge during the summer, this makes it very cooling and refreshing when applied. Want to purchase this doctor-approved eye cream? You can get your very own 25ml pot of Viliv e - Shape Your Eyes Rich Eye Cream, for £75 here .

Finally, let’s meet Cinere, their mission is simple: Create pure, natural products made using only the finest ingredients. AEPC Laboratories (Amalgamated Euro Products Corporation) developed this skincare where they believe in using the timeless elements of nature and state of the art research to create unique products. This is another favourite brand with us, and we’ve previously written about their 100% Natural Cleansing Gel and Extra Rich Nourishing Cream. Cinere uses both their passion for natural ingredients and their expertise in science and dermatology. They have created products with some of the finest essentials oils and other natural therapeutic elements that all work at a cellular level.

The Cinerex Ageless Concentrated Eye Serum is a lightweight formula to help reduce dark circles, fine lines and puffiness around the eyes. This contains a unique blend of highly concentrated proteins and peptides, which work to put wrinkles on hold and reduce the signs of ageing. After all, who doesn’t want to look younger? Serums are great for this as they provide a concentrated amount of active ingredients and absorb quickly into the skin. Cinerex Ageless Eye Contour Serum, keeps eyes looking brighter and more rested. Want an immediate skin pick-me-up? Cinerex Ageless Eye Contour Serum 15ml can be purchased here for £28.

Which one will you choose?

Collagem – Beauty Supplement

While explorers never found the infamous ‘fountain of youth’, we at The Amazing Blog are ever hopeful that we’re one step closer with our latest discovery of Collagem. This beauty supplement has 12 active ingredients from collagen to vitamin C , all effective at delaying signs of ageing and improving the skin from within. They refer to it as: “ Your daily beauty dose”.

Kasia Devraj the creator of the premium Collagem supplement brand and owner of Beauty Boosters Ltd decided to create a collagen supplement after being unable to find one that would encapsulate all that she wanted, bioactive collagen peptides, low molecular weight collagen and antioxidants to help combat anti-ageing. More importantly, it had to be free of artificial preservatives and flavours, added sugars and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). She partnered with scientists and biotechnologist to launch Collagem initially into Poland and then the UK earlier this year.

Collagem is a powder supplement that comes in small packets with an orange flavour. The key ingredient is hydrolysed marine collagen. The other ingredients, bioactive collagen, beta carotene, hyaluronic acid, bamboo extract, CoQ10, and selenium all of which have properties to prevent premature signs of ageing and retain moisture. Additionally, the vitamin C helps boost the immune system while the MSM detoxifies and improves skin texture. When you pair the two together, they also help rebuild new cell tissues and r-alpha lipoic acid (R-ALA)stimulates bio-energy production in each cell. The formula not only has multiple ingredients working together to help create a more youthful looking skin, but has vitamin B complex that strengthens hair and nails as well as decreasing cellulite. We liked the taste, however, felt that we needed to take it for a longer period of time (3+ months) before we could see any real improvement in the skin or nails. Unfortunately the 14-day trial which we were sent was not long enough for us to see any visible results. What we particularly liked was that there are no added sugars, sweeteners, colours, preservatives, GMO, alcohol or caffeine.

The Collagem individual packets are a real plus, perfect for keeping in your handbag. Each box comes with 14 sachets (200-250ml)with the correct dose of powder in each. They recommend mixing one supplement package in water or juice after a meal daily for optimum results. We preferred to start our day with it at breakfast. You can buy a box here for £45.