Desavery – STELLAR Daily Serum

At The Amazing Blog, we love when our skin care products have a great scent. It makes us feel better and more ready to conquer the day. What if your skincare products had ingredients that were scientifically proven to boost your mood and improve your focus? The STELLAR Daily Serum from Desavery does just that while leaving your skin looking brighter than before.

Andrea Dinnick founded Desavery in 2017 on four principles: feel good, look good, be good, and do good.These principles encapsulate Dinnick’s mission of creating ‘fantastic skin care that’s as good for your skin as well as your mood and mind’. Desavery uses ingredients that are effective in improving your skin, but also positively affect your biochemistry. Of these ingredients, many are sustainable such as the brand’s staple prickly pear and vetiver, and five per cent of the company’s profits go to supporting the women who pick and process the prized prickly pear.

This serum is part of the Desavery STELLAR collection, which is intended to give you a ‘rise and sparkle’ feeling and after trying it, we can see why. The formula is packed with antioxidants that stimulate collagen production and cell renewal for smoother skin. Prickly pear, rosehip, and camellia oils further brighten and improve skin plumpness. The ingredients are all certified-organic, but the ones that stood out to us were the mood lifters: clary sage and bergamot. Clary sage, a plant used commonly for its medicinal properties, has been found to have anti-depressant effects and balance hormones. Bergamot is a citrus fruit known to improve alertness, cognition, and lower cortisol levels to make you feel calmer. We have to say that some of us here who tried this serum in the morning reportedly felt most clear-headed and uplifted. We found that it absorbs quickly and is best when used on slightly damp skin.

The product is very aromatic, and you are intended to take deep breathes to capture the beneficial elements of the plants while you perform your skin routine. It also comes in a modern reflective dropper bottle, so it’s stylish enough to leave next to your mirror and reach for every day. You can purchase the STELLAR Daily Serum (20ml) here for £65. A little does go a long way.

Les huilettes - Mon huilette night

After a long and tiring day, we at The Amazing Blog can’t think of anything better than taking off our makeup and applying a soothing night serum. What makes  a night serum stand out for us from other skin care products is that they’re jam-packed with ingredients that nourish and brighten your skin while you sleep. We can never get enough of serums, as each one has specific properties to enhance the skin, such as anti-ageing from les huilettes we are referring to, of course, their very special mon huilette night serum. 

The brand was started in France in 2015 by two long-time friends, Pascale Gal and Claire Auzouy. Gal was a pharmacist with a degree in Aromatherapy while Auzouy had a background in luxury gastronomy. Gal desired to ‘return to a simpler beauty, essential and without sacrifice, summed up in a few principles and gestures’. The pair combined their unique experiences to start a cosmetics company that is 100 per cent natural, vegan, and botanical. Les huilettes is also committed to the environment and partnered with Up2green Reforestation, a French nonprofit organisation that helps replant fruit trees in communities affected by deforestation. 

The Mon huilette night serum is made for all skin types to smooth and enhance your skin’s suppleness. Overnight, it leaves your skin looking more radiant overnight and repairs any signs of anti-ageing such as wrinkles and skin dullness. The formula of a ‘plant synergy of essential and vegetable oils to be effective without fluff’makes the night serum stand out. Essential oils like Italian helichrysum have an anti-inflammatory benefit while myrtle and bourbon geranium have therapeutic aromatherapy effects to enhance positive well-being. Argan and avocado oils deeply moisturise and plump your skin while prickly pear cactus prevents the formation of premature wrinkles and lightens dark circles. These elements result in a light-feeling oil serum that melts evenly into your face and neck and doesn’t make you feel greasy. 

A little goes a long way, and you only need 3-5 drops per use. You should purposely but gently massage the serum into your freshly cleansed face for optimal results. However, for extra pampering and an at-home massage, we suggest you watch their serum application video here . On top of it all, rose and white flower leave a tangy and therapeutic scent on your face to relax you before bed. You can join ‘tribe of huilettes’ and amp up your night skin care routine by purchasing the mon huilette night (15ml) here for 45€

Virginia Stone – ‘Eyes’ for Kavesi

When you’re searching out skincare items, often the three categories you’ll see are ‘dry’, ‘normal’, and ‘oily’. They’re appear all encapsulating, or so it seems. Some of us with ‘combination’ skin at The Amazing Blog and frequently struggle to find the right cleanser or moisturiser that won’t make our skin greasy or dry. The latest product we tried is from Virginia Stone it brings about the idea that finding the right products for your skin may be based on your skin tone rather than these three general categories.

Virginia Stone built her brand on the foundation of ‘passion, purpose, and an unyielding desire to innovate and inspire’. She set out to revolutionise the skincare industry by creating a sustainable luxury brand and adhering to three core values of people, planet, and passion. Virginia Stone, as a company, dedicates itself to global social and environmental sustainability and all of its products are fair-trade, eco-friendly, and vegan. What drew us to this brand was its ethos. It felt simple categories like ‘dry’, ‘normal’, and ‘oily’ do not account for certain skin-tone-specific characteristics such as skin density and sensitivity, SPF requirements, and potency tolerance levels. So, Virginia Stone created three collections: Kavesi for fair skin tones, Jasari for medium skin tones, and Odaja for dark skin tones. We felt these groupings were less arbitrary and more encapsulating, especially if you have ‘normal’ or ‘combination’ skin. 

We tried their ‘Eyes’ for Kavesi in Sand , a 3-in-1 superfood cream with five layers (Butter, Nectar, Tea Syrup, Corrective Complex, Elixir) of antioxidants, vitamins, and nutrients. The formula is also pH balanced and oxygenated to protect your skin from UV rays and pollution, improving your skin’s elasticity and lightening dark shadows. It is designed to stimulate cell renewal, increase blood flow, and improve circulation specifically for fair skin, which is highly sensitive and allergy prone. When we used it, we saw diminished fine lines as well as less puffy and brighter skin like we had used a jade roller. But what stood out to us was the cream’s texture. It’s solid, and you can’t dip your finger into it, but the warmth of your finger picks up the right amount of the product that feels smoother than butter and leaves your skin feeling the same way. The cream is oilier than typical moisturisers, yet it doesn’t feel sticky and spreads well. It leaves your skin feeling smooth and matte, which makes the cream perfect to use as a primer during the day, and nourishes for night time use. 

Finally, we cannot go through this post without mentioning the intricate packaging. The cream comes in a cube that Virginia Stone calls ‘The Luxador’. It’s 100 per cent recyclable concrete stone and has thermal insulating properties to protect the cream’s active ingredients and maintain its longevity. The Luxador is engraved with the company’s simple logo and pattern and has a magnetic stone lid. It’s quite solid and heavy, so be careful if you travel with it or keep it on your bathroom counter for décor and safekeeping.

You can buy ‘Eyes’ for Kavesi (15ml) here for $185. The price is quite high, but you don’t need very much and could spot treat certain areas rather than put it all over your face. 

Alexandra Soveral - Sweet Orange & Rosemary Shampoo

We’re always wistfully wishing for thick and more luscious looks here at The Amazing Blog but the goal of achieving this is easier said than done! While many haircare products claim to nourish and strengthen hair, the reality is that many contain harsh chemical cleansers that actually strip the hair and scalp from all its natural oils, making it brittle and dry. That’s why we were thrilled to discover Alexandra Soveral’s Sweet Orange & Rosemary Shampoo’s with its nourishing natural and organic formula, which is why it is one of this week’s #amazingfinds.

Cult facialist Alexandra Soveral’s beauty and fragrance brand launched over than 10 years ago, all with the ethos of delivering natural artisanal products produced with cutting edge science. All Soveral‘s products contain natural raw ingredients that are hand-blended in small batches here in London. They strive to ensure sustainability, and have been awarded the Positive Luxury Butterfly mark for its clean formulas.

Their balancing Sweet Orange & Rosemary Shampoo have no parabens, animal products, harmful chemicals or fragrances and most importantly no sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS). This shampoo is enriched with organic essential oils like sweet orange to vitalise the hair and rosemary to leave hair shiny and bouncy. An added bonus is that these oils give the shampoo a zesty, rosemary scent for a reviving smell every use. It doesn’t dry the scalp and is enriched with anti-inflammatory properties making it perfect for those who have an itchy or sensitive scalp. Since it doesn’t contain this drying foaming agent, the shampoo doesn’t lather as much (no SLS’s) as others might. With all these organic ingredients ensure hair is left shiny and luscious.

As the products are hand-blended and comprised of organic ingredients, the consistency and fragrance of the shampoo can vary depending on the season it’s produced. However, the ‘organic, antioxidant and multi-vitamin formula’ still remains the same.  We used the Sweet Orange & Rosemary Shampoo, as a frequent wash shampoo. We’re very happy to report that it not only helped to balance the pH of our hair and scalp, but is also suitable for coloured hair too – a big bonus in our eyes! To purchase a 250 ml bottle of the Sweet Orange & Rosemary Shampoo for £30 see here.

Boost Protein Balls and Butters

During a busy day here, some of us have so much on our to-do lists that we don’t always have time to take a lunch break. Realistically speaking, most of the time we at The Amazing Blog are surviving off of quick snacks that we keep at our desks. However, during these hectic days we try not to compromise on our healthy eating. Step forward our new delicious pick-me-up, Boost Protein Balls let us introduce you to our new nutritious discovery…

Essex-based Boost Ball launched its range of protein balls with the idea of ‘less ingredients, more protein.’ Available in four different flavours, their Boostballs are made with seven natural ingredients and are entirely gluten, soya and refined sugar-free. They are instead high in protein and contain natural sugars for a healthy snack perfect for boosting your energy for either a day at the office or a gym workout. A new twist to a protein bar, each Boostball is enriched with Vitamin A, B, E, B12, Calcium, Iron and Zinc. The raw ingredients are not baked or refined; they are cold-pressed making these protein balls an indulgent snack - without the guilt. The first flavour we tried, Lemon Drizzle Cake, contains Dates, Rice Protein, Cashews, Cashew Butter, Coconut, Maple Syrup, Vanilla Extract and Lemon Oil  making it a great zesty snack. The Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Boostball contains a whopping 23.3 g of protein and a mixture of gooey and moreish. Next, we tried the tropical and creamy Coconut Fudge Cake flavour which was by far one of our favourites out of the four.  The last of the Boost Ball flavours, Maple & Cinnamon Roll, was a great spice-filled yet sweet snack for those extra-long days at the office.  The Boostballs are available to purchase on here for £17.99 for  x 12 packs of 36 Boostballs.

We mustn’t forget to mention that Boostball has JUST released a new line of Palm-oil free protein butters, Boostbutter. These are to put on any snacks or foods you desire (or to eat straight from the pouch!) The Protein Nut Butters currently are available in Caramel, Chocolate Brownie and Sweet Maple and are each packed with 11 grams of protein and offer a healthier, smoother and more flavourful alternative to something like peanut butter. Conveniently in a squeezable pouch, we’ve been spreading the protein butters on toast, porridge or adding them to our smoothies. Yum! As of now they are not available but will be coming soon on www.boostball.com.