Cannabina – CBD Bath Bomb Trio

Here at The Amazing Blog, we highly recommend soaking away 2020 and welcoming in the New Year with a nice relaxing bath, and a CBD infused Bath Bomb. Today we are featuring the deliciously scented CBD Bath Bomb Trio collection from Cannabina.

From growing up in sunny Jamaica, Cannabina’s founder Gemma McKay already had a knowledge and understanding of cannabis with all its properties and benefits. Which is why she recently launched this British brand with its hemp-based THC-free broad-spectrum CBD ingredients. These products have been created for everyone to enjoy the healing and soothing benefits of CBD. Which is where Cannabina offers a variety of CBD infused items from bath bombs and skincare to tinctures and edibles. McKay’s passion and interest in cannabis are the motivating factors behind the brand’s mission to improve the quality of life for their consumer, through this incredible plant's relieving and healing properties. Cannabina is an all-natural CBD brand where the products are free from harmful chemicals, pesticides, solvent residues, chlorophyll, fats and lipids. There are no preservatives, sulphates, mineral oils, parabens, artificial colouring, flavours or perfumes. The brand’s products are also cruelty-free and are tested and certified by both US and UK laboratories. Cannabina also has a strong sustainability ethos with its recycling and asks customers to return their product empties, for which they are rewarded with a 5% discount on further purchases.

The CBD Bath Bomb Trio is a collection of all three bath bombs. Each contains 100mg of broad-spectrum CBD and Epsom salts and are formulated with a specific combination of essential oils for a specific purpose. Let’s start with our favourite; this was the Purple CBD Bath Bomb we used this bath bomb when we were feeling particularly restless and wanted to soak-out a stressful day. With key ingredients of lavender flowers and oil, we knew we’d get a good night’s sleep. It dispersed slowly into the bath and filled the room with a glorious scent that left us feeling relaxed and aided towards a good solid seven hours sleep. Next, the Red CBD Bath Bomb which they described as ‘sensual’. It’s made of ylang-ylang, patchouli, rose geranium and orange essential oils. Ylang-ylang is known to calm the nervous system and offers a feeling of euphoria. Patchouli helps boost circulation and has a soothing effect on both the body and mind. Orange helps ease muscle pain and is also considered an aphrodisiac. Whereas rose geranium is often used to treat anxiety, depression and insomnia. There were rose petals that floated in the water when this bath bomb dissolved and the four oils when combined offered a sweet slightly fruit/rose floral scent - we’d say that this is mood-enhancing and relaxing. The third Bath Bomb is the Yellow CBD Bath Bomb which comprises of cypress, lavender, chamomile and lemongrass essential oils. Cypress has strong antiseptic qualities, lavender is relaxing, chamomile an anti-inflammatory and lemongrass relieves aches and pains. It has a robust, zesty lemongrass/cypress scent, where we found it more invigorating than relaxing. We think it’s best used after a run or a hard session at the gym with its great anti-inflammatory qualities. 

Quickly added, all three of these Bath Bombs are designed to ease tension in the body.  The Epsom salts found in each Bath Bomb are not ‘salts’ they are comprised of magnesium sulphate and oxygen. Magnesium plays a number of roles in the body, including regulating over 325 enzymes, reducing inflammation, helping muscle and nerve function, and prevents hardening of the arteries. Sulphates improve the absorption of nutrients, flush out toxins and soothes headaches. As a rule, we don’t consume enough magnesium in our diet, and these Bath Bombs release a good ratio of magnesium ion as well as CBD and essentials oils. Which when combined in these Bath Bombs and melted into the bath, are then absorbed into the body helping stimulate its healing process. We highly recommend giving these a try, not only will your bathroom smell amazing, but your body will unwind into a state of blissful tranquillity. The CBD Bath Bomb Trio are each 200mg, and you can buy them here for £20.00.

Acqua di Stresa – Roburis Eau de Parfum

If you’re still in a quandary as to what to get him or her for Christmas, then we at The Amazing Blog all agree that fragrance is the way to go. Personal and useful, plus if you know, the genre of fragrance notes that they love – this is a sure way to please. When you get it right, perfume is one of the most memorable presents you can give. As regular readers will know we like to patronise unique artisan brands and Acqua di Stresa is one that we’ve recently uncovered that will help you out on your Christmas mission.

Acqua di Stresa was created in 2002 by Giovanni Castelli (former Fashion designer), and Andrea Patrucco. They wanted to share the scents of the thousands of blossoms from their Castello di Ripa’s garden, that stands on the Lake Maggiore shores, facing the Borromeo’s Islands. After almost 20 years of capturing the lake’s green and floral essences, the brand now has six core Eau de Parfums in their collection. These have also given rise to sets of reed diffusers with an additional three new fragrances, and now a hand sanitiser. With boxes, flacons and caps decorated with their refined wave motif, what we love about Acqua di Stresa is that it exudes both luxury and poise.  

We were sent Roburis Eau de Parfum to try. This is the perfect Christmas fragrance, even with the first spritz it took us on a winter promenade and journey into forests laden with berries and sweet-smelling bark. In fact, ‘Robur’ translates from the Latin as hard timber or oak and ‘Roburis’ is used metaphorically in Latin for ‘strength’. It is a rich and warming fragrance where you can almost imagine the warmth of the sunlight filtering through the leaves onto your skin. This is a robust scent with strong base notes evident with the tonka bean, leather, ambrette, and vanilla that linger giving a slightly musky aroma. That said, it is relatively fresh at the beginning with the top notes of juniper berries, cinnamon and blackcurrant. The fragrance becomes warmer with the middle notes cedar, cloves, myrrh, and then in time when the spices and smokiness mingle, the middle and base notes take the lead. We love its androgynous qualities, which in our view, make it truly gender-neutral and a ‘his and hers’ fragrance to share. You can purchase this 100ml mood-lifting winter fragrance for €78 here, it also comes in 50ml for €58. For further items such as Shower Gel, Body Lotion or Reed Diffuser from the Roburis collection see here. 

Kiskanu - CBD Face Oil

As we enter into Tier 3, here in London – the pandemic stress levels of 2020 are taking their toll on our skin. That’s why at The Amazing Blog we’ve been concentrating on find healing and soothing skincare to calm our complexions and help to stop our miserable skin-stressed breakouts. Our latest #amazingfinds is the CBD Face Oil from Kishanu which offers the perfect solution with this curative and multipurpose skincare. 

With over 20 years in the cannabis industry, Gretchen and Jason Miller run their family-owned and operated business, Kiskanu in California where they’re based within the Wiyot Nation ancient and sacred land. This is where they’ve put their knowledge and learnings into their product research and manufacturing. Using only organic ingredients, as well as whole-plant extracts, with virgin and cold-pressed oils as a base - gives their products both purity and simplicity. One of their goals is to be environmentally friendly by using organic farming, sustainability methods, and providing safe lab-tested products. Their paper tubes, cardboard boxes, and glass jars are all recyclable or reusable; they want to avoid as much plastic packaging as possible. This practice is carried through and implemented into their facilities by reducing paper products and usage, as well as no single-use plastic in production. Sourcing their CBD from the United States keeps a low carbon footprint, and their CBD products contain only 0-0.3% THC. Kiskanu said: “Rather than isolates or concentrates, we believe in the effectiveness of whole plant medicine to imbue healing qualities into our products that are palpable.” They currently offer a small range of CBD skincare, an intimacy oil, botanical drops, capsules and even a suppository!

The CBD Face OIl is encased in a sleek pale blue tubular cardboard casing, which when opened, reveals a stylish 30ml frosted glass spritz top bottle. We used this unisex Face Oil as a moisturiser, makeup base and even as a beard oil. Due to the 100mg CBD (cannabidiol) here, this Face Oil is for all skin types including sensitive ones, where it repairs free radical damage. The base is a combination of cold-pressed organic oils with sunflower, argan, coconut, and jojoba. These hydrate, soothe, moisturise and help to minimise ageing. The full-spectrum CBD is derived from hemp and has anti-inflammatory properties that are high in antioxidants that help to calms the skin. Other key ingredients are calendula (extracted from marigold flowers) which is primarily used for healing soothing eczema or irritated skin. Rose geranium and lavender essential oils help to brighten the skin by removing dead skin cells and reducing wrinkles.  Whereas, the wild carrot has carotenes and vitamin A which repair the skin’s tissues and offers protection against harmful radiation. The oil is light in texture, absorbs well and has delicious subtle fragrance notes of lavender and rose geranium. This is one of the best face oils that we’ve used in a long time; it felt both restorative and healing. It’s also so versatile, we used it morning and evening, alone and under makeup (and I even caught my partner sneaking a drop to rub into his whiskers!).  Whether for you or a loved one, you can purchase the Kiskanu Hemp CBD Face Oil here in two sizes 30ml for $40 or a 5 ml for $17.

Eye of Horus: Sacred Earth Palette

If you’re one of our loyal readers on The Amazing Blog then you’ll know, that if there is one natural cosmetics brand that we love, it’s Eye Of Horus, all the way from Byron Bay. We’ve reviewed several of their eyeliners, eye shadow palettes and mascaras previous here but today we’re featuring a new launch which is their Sacred Earth Palette which we think would make a wonderful gift for any make-up aficionados friends.

Eye Of Horus was born out of a passion for natural ingredients combining ancient Egyptian beauty secrets. They wanted to create make-up products that would perform and bring confidence to all women helping them to look and feel like goddesses! All products are inspired by these same techniques and key raw ingredients that have been tried and tested since ancient times. These include essential oils and natural waxes, where the brand is respectful of nature and the planet. Eye of Horus works hard to be as sustainable and ethical as they can be, with their production processes and by using recycled materials for their packaging. As some of you may know, most of their products are organic and vegan, and never tested on animals. However, just because their make-up is organic, sustainable and cruelty-free, it doesn’t mean that it has to have a limited number of exciting colours or products. This is where Eye Of Horus steps up by offering a new range with lipsticks, glosses, illuminators, cheek colour; adding to their already extensive collection of colourful eye pencils, liquid liners, mascaras and eye shadows. This is one of the reasons why they are a multi-award brand, their hero product the award-winning Goddess Mascara.

The Sacred Earth Palette is part of the new Glow Collection, which is aimed at modern-day Goddesses. Especially those who need performing products that are quick and easy to use and fit into a tight schedule; as co-founder Holly Spiering says: ‘We created the Glow Collection for the busy everyday Goddess in mind. We wanted these palettes to be super versatile, easy to apply, with products that can be used on your face, your eyes, and your cheeks, to give you that really beautiful, youthful look, while still showcasing our EOH signature glow.” This 100% vegan palette is a must-have to create a fresh and sun-kissed everyday look, even in winter! Enriched with desert clay, moringa oil - the oil of Pharaohs – goldenseal and olive leaf extract it’s suitable for even the most sensitive of skins. This all-in-one product features their signature ‘Bronze Ochre’ bronzer and ‘Luxor Light’ highlighter, as well as two beautiful blush powders – ‘Persian Peach’, and ‘Sienna Blush’ – that can also be used as eyeshadows for a beautiful and youthful look. The ‘Persian Peach’ is perfect for a fresh-face look, while it can be used alone, you can also blend it with the ‘Sienna Blush’. This vibrant-looking pink colour has gorgeous gold undertones and therefore complements all skin tones. There are many ways that you can use this complexion palette, but for a simple everyday working Goddess look, here is what Eye Of Horus advises: Start by applying the ‘Bronze Ochre’ to define your cheekbones, nose, and any other feature you want to define. Then apply ‘Sienna Blush’ or ‘Persian peach’, or both blushes to your cheeks, highlight with ‘Luxor Light’ above the blush and anywhere you want to add extra glow. For the eyes, apply ‘Bronze Ochre’ into the crease, add ‘Sienna Blush’ on the lid, and finish off with ‘Luxor Light’ on brow bone, inner corner, and lid. When we used this Sacred Earth Palette, we remembered why we love this brand so much; all the colours complement each other to create a natural look, the colours are easy to apply, blend well and last all day long! Once again, well-done Eye Of Horus, with this Sacred Earth Palette. Want to bring out your inner Goddess for Christmas? Then purchase this complexion palette here for £48.

Jones & Modha: no. 1 Eau de Parfum

It’s December already – time really does fly by at The Amazing Blog, and we’ll all be happy to see the back of this terrible year... As we come in and out and in again with the lockdown.  To our horror, we’ve suddenly realised that there’s very little time left to find our Christmas presents. So for December, we’ll be giving you some great gifting ideas starting with today’s natural plant alchemy fragrance from Jones & Modha, which we think is just perfect for helping make life a little more fragrant!

The brand Jones & Modha are all about returning to natural plant alchemy, the ancient ways of perfume making. This is done very simply by blending only the purest essential oils from plants, without any synthetic or animal substances. Co-founders and friends Catrin MacDonnell and Hemali Modha who recently launched the brand said: “For too long there has been so little choice for anyone who loves our planet. Things are changing and more of us are searching for eco-harmony and integrity within the health and beauty industry. We wanted a natural scent that is not tested on animals, does not use any animal-derived ingredients.” With very little of this available, they decided to create their own with Jones & Modha. Their aim with this range is to offer the world unique scents that are mindful of people, animals and the planet all without compromise. Their fragrances are designed and crafted using exclusively natural essential oils, leaving out all chemical and animal-derivatives that are usually found in commercially manufactured perfumes. As sustainability is important to the brand they also paid much attention to the packaging, ensuring that no extra plastic or cellophane is ever used. Each component is recyclable or has a low carbon footprint by minimising travel and the use of fossil resources. We love that they also donate 2.5% of their profits to environmental charities. Something else that convinced us to try their fragrance, is that this perfume is gender-neutral, and so we agree with Catrin and Hemali who say: “Why should anyone be allowed to tell us which perfume we should buy based on gender?”

For its first perfume launch, the Jones & Modha No.1, brings us a fresh, uplifting and comforting sunny fragrance; we think it’s perfect for any city dwellers dreaming of an escape to the country. At first, it has citrusy top notes like lemon myrtle and bergamot giving a very fresh and elevating feel, but shortly afterwards these become less citrus and more spicy/floral with the middle notes of rose geranium, linden, ginger, and coriander in the blend; finishing with the woody base notes of cedarwood and rock rose, balancing the fragrance. This scent is quite long-lasting, and even though Jones & Modha only offer this one fragrance, for now, this certainly has a bigger enough scent personality to be a staring standalone. Each of us who tried the scent found it unique and different, meaning that it didn’t smell identical on any one of us. This complex blend combined with an individual’s skin scent created a unique and personal fresh fragrance that we all loved! This 50ml planet-friendly fragrance comes in an elegant but minimalist and completely recyclable packaging designed by artist Judith Archer, and is available for £69.00 here. What could be a more perfect and individual present, than to give this to your loved one?