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 .

L’Araboutique® Skincare

Today at the Amazing Blog we’d like to share with you some natural treasures from Arab world. The Middle Eastern cultures have some of the best kept beauty secrets, and we’re going to introduce you to one of them. Meet the natural and organic skincare brand L’Araboutique who have an array of exotic ingredients including: Extra virgin olive oil from Palestine and Syria, mineral-rich Zamzam water from Saudi Arabia, the finest royal green hojari frankincense from Oman, fragrant pink roses from Madina and rich organic sidr honey from Yemen.  And these are just a few of the wonderful pure ingredients found in their products.

L’Araboutique® was created by Dr. Samira Zaidan and Dr. Mona Alyedreessy (a mother and daughter team) and they claim to be the only skincare and haircare brand to make natural products with Zamzam water. These products are handmade in the UK, are organic, chemical-free, cruelty-free, halal, eco-friendly and vegan (apart from those containing camel milk, beeswax and sidr honey) they are also UK and EU tested approved and certified.

They very kindly send us a selection of products to try, and the first products we used were their soaps. The Oat, Sidr Honey & Madina Rose Soap can be used on the skin or hair to soften and hydrate. The combination of oat, sidr honey & Madina roses calm and moisturise the skin. The Arabic Gum & Bay Leaf Soap has a strong anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties while simultaneously stimulating the skin’s collagen production. One of our team even noticed that their skin appeared brighter after using this bar. Next we tried the soap Arabic Coffee, Ginger & Cinnamon. Did you know that coffee is the number one natural product to combat cellulite? No neither did we, but we loved how energising this scrub left us feeling.

Then there is The Madina Rose & Saffron Face Cream which dates all the way back to ancient Egypt when Cleopatra discovered the beauty benefits of rose water. This luxurious face cream has three key ingredients: Iranian saffron flowers blossom, mineral-rich Zamzam water infused with fresh Madina rose water and oil. All of which help to reduce hyperpigmentation. This was our Editor Edwina’s favourite. Staying on a rose theme, we also tried their Madina Rose Deodorant  which is a 24-hour deodorant cream made from organic cold-pressed coconut oil that helps to  fights bacteria. It also has turmeric to lighten dark patches and pigmentation on the underarm area and smells divine.

Finally, we come to The Sutanah Face Lift Mask a recipe apparently only shared between Arabian royalty. Made with pomegranates, Moroccan rhassoul clay and aloe vera juice, this mask instantly tightens and lifts the face – this powder you simply mix with water. Best of all, we like how the brand contribute 50p from every sale to a charity that helps to build wells around the world. The Water Project charity provides essential clean water to families and communities where it’s needed the most. 

L’Araboutique® can be purchased here with skincare prices starting from £15. We think they are a wonderful new discovery, where the ancient and modern worlds meet and we can’t wait to try more for this brand.

Friday Favorites – Natural Deodorants

Late summer is probably the best season of the year here in the UK, still light evenings and gently balmy nights… However, not always is so nice in rush hour on the tube when packed with hot sweaty bodies and it’s 25+ degrees. You leave home smelling fresh but when you reach the office, you look and feel like you’ve run a marathon. Today at The Amazing Blog we thought it an opportune moment to share with you our four favourite natural deodorants that will help to keep you smelling sweet all day long.

First up is Scence’s natural deodorant balm. With three different scents, Scence has you covered. The Cornish-based artisan skincare brand cares about what you put on your skin in the same way as cares about the planet. If it harms the planet, it harms us. Formulated with natural and organic ingredients, get ready to enjoy fully nourished skin. Scence was founded by Krista Taylor who clarified the brand’s message: “I have always been interested in natural oils and the efficacy of herbs and felt frustrated that so much of the natural skincare on offer was packaged in single use plastic containers and applicators. I was making balms for family and friends that needed help with eczema and sensitive skin as well as developing a really effective deodorant that didn’t use questionable ingredients like aluminium.” 

Their Cool Rose, Juniper Berry and Cedar Fresh deodorant balms are made for everyday use and are designed to last up to 3 months. Mainly composed with organic coconut oil, mango butter, essential oils, baking soda and arrowroot; they absorb moisture and are made into a stick for easy application. Because it is a natural product with fresh ingredients, it is recommended to use within 12 months of purchase to maintain the optimal qualities of each of the elements.

Our favourite was the Cool Rose stick which melts as soon as it touches your skin, making it very easy to glide and releasing the scent of rose geranium. Each stick is packaged in a fully recyclable tube and all deodorants are paraben and cruelty-free. Get your Scent Deodorant Balm here for £12.00.

Next is Elsa’s Organic Skin Foods’s Deodorant. Founded by Henrietta, The brand’s name Elsa is inspired by her mum, who is an environmentalist and advocate that has been producing artisan skincare for decades. Henrietta has a teen daughter who like all of us when she comes back from school, she is a little less fragrant than when she left… Henrietta refused to use any roll-on or sprayed deodorants that are chemical based and found it quite hard to find natural deodorants. This is why she decided to specialise in deodorant creams with ingredients that you would only find in a kitchen. Thus, Elsa’s Organic Skin Food’s was born.

With a range of four signature deodorant stick fragrances: Dew, Ocean, Sensitive and Love. All key ingredients are coconut oil, arrowroot powder, shea butter, magnesium oxide, candelilla wax, vitamin E, bergamot oil, geranium oil, patchouli oil, and a few other essential oils. They each certified organic and some are even winners of The Beauty Shortlist Awards and Green Parent Natural Beauty Awards.

Elsa’s deodorants are very simple to use. Apply it onto clean and dry areas for a few seconds, swiping up and down 1 or 2 times. Your body heat will soften the stick allowing it to slide smoothly on your skin. Because its composition is very rich in minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids, it automatically becomes a 4-in-1 deodorant. It is disinfectant and antimicrobial, blocks odour, absorbs wetness, and soothes your skin, keeping it nourished.  We gave Love a go and of course it smells amazing. It releases scents from roses and patchouli and keeps your skin odour-free all day. All products are It is vegan and suitable for all skin types. Purchasing your 45 ml deodorant stick here for £12.00 each.

Onto Logona, an established German beauty brand which has been trading for over 40 years, with huge expertise in the natural products sector all products come with the NaTrue or BDIH seal.  From makeup, nail polish to natural shampoos, and many more products, Logona has been a pioneer brand winner of several awards including having received distinctions from Öko-Test particularly for their Daily Care Organic Aloe & Verbena Deo Spray.

This Daily Care Organic Aloe and Verbena Deo Spray, is a deodorant that ensures long-lasting freshness to combat body odour successfully. With verbena and aloe as main active ingredients, this deodorant has a lemony verbena fragrance and soothes irritated skin by nourishing it and moisturising it.  We quickly want to mention that although it’s a very gentle deodorant, it also fights against bacteria with all the antioxidants it contains.

We love this alternative spray deodorant because it gives ultimate freshness, protects the planet and our skin. Get your Logona award-winning deodorant here £8.95.

Last but not least, is We Love The Planet. This Dutch brand has developed a series of deodorants that consist of 100% natural ingredients. They are NC and EcoControl certified, meaning they only make products with natural ingredients. Their key organic ingredient is coconut oil and We Love The Planet stick deodorants have no synthetic fabrics or aluminium added, meaning it is harmless to you and the planet. Sometimes, when using a high street brand of roll-on deodorant, we find that it takes time to absorb and clogs under-arm pores, but this does not happen with We Love The Planet. Like our other natural deodorants, it acts as a moisturiser and soothes your skin in a matter of seconds. Also, like some of the other natural deodorants mentioned in this feature, one single stick can last up to 3 months. Amazing.

We Love The Planet have created six different scents for their deodorants; Forever Fresh, lovely citrusy and pure spice odour; Lovely Lavender, wonderful smell of wild and tame lavender; Mighty Mint, a blend of mint and rosemary scents; So Sensitive, ideal for extra-sensitive skins since it is hypoallergenic and had a delicate and mild smell; Original Orange, another citrusy hinted deodorant with a touch of mandarin; and Sweet Serenity, a subtle scent of rose, honey and spices. No matter which one you chose they will be equally effective. Each stick is made out of 100% recyclable materials and the deodorant is made with coconut oil, baking powder, corn starch powder, caprylic acid, and beeswax. These ingredients deodorise, moisturise, calms irritated skin, reduce the excess of oils and perspiration and help skin restoration. Beeswax used to keep the consistency of the stick and allows it to slightly melt when it touches your skin.  Our favourite fragrances from this range were the Forever Fresh and Lovely Lavender sticks, they are so easy to carry around in a handbag to apply and top-up during the day. Just push the bottom a little bit for the stick to go up and swipe it on each armpit a couple of times. Purchase your stick now for € 11,50 here.

We hope we have given you a perfect solution to help ‘keep fragrant’. We are so thrilled to discover so many great natural deodorant brands and hope that we have persuaded you to try something new too. Which was our favourite? That’s a hard one, we’d have to say that we loved them all!

SEA MAGIK - Pink Salt Shampoo and 3-Seaweed Scalp Mud

Raise your hand up if you have an itchy scalp, product build up, dehydrated or thinning hair. For these reasons, we at The Amazing Blog have given both these two hair treatments from Sea Magik a try, and we can happily say that you’re in for a lovely surprise.

The Sea Magik is a new discovery brand for us. It’s a family enterprise and is one of four award-winning brands under their umbrella company Finders Brands It also has a very unique story to the products. As it all started when the founder Kate Bunyan’s grandmother who took her father, Robert Czik, to visit the therapeutic natural salt lakes and caves in Hungary. These trips are what inspired Robert to create a professional spa brand. Nothing came easy as salty water has a unique chemistry which he eventually tapped into and creating the world’s first line of mineral-infused spa skincare.

Let’s talk about their Pink Salt Shampoo which is blended with three organic seaweed extracts and composed of Himalayan salt granules with lime, rosemary and cypress essential oils. This treatment shampoo exfoliates the scalp and remove product build-up. It is easy to use and just requires you to massage the salt shampoo into wet hair and scalp as a weekly treatment. Take your time to lather the product as you inhale the spa essential oils. Rinse and follow with your regular conditioner. The shampoo is SLS/SLES free, and even though the shampoo is granulated in texture, it is not at all abrasive and smells refreshingly of lime and left our hair squeaky clean pre conditioner.

Next is the 3-Seaweed Scalp Mud which is made up of three organic seaweeds, dead-sea mud and pure coconut oil. The mud is creamy and with a moreish coconut scent. It can be used as a daily basis as a conditioning treatment to soothe the scalp, (especially an itchy scalp) and the coconut oil helps to hydrate the hair. Replace your regular conditioner with the scalp mud and apply after shampooing and let sit for 1-5 minutes. Rinse with fresh warm water. It really did leave our scalps feeling deeply nourished and hair silky soft. A big thumbs up on this from us.

Both products are 100% vegan, cruelty-free, and free from harsh ingredients and silicones. Best of all they are kind to all skin and hair types. There are no sulphates, synthetic fragrances, parabens, petrochemicals, PEG’s, GMO’s gluten and dairy. The plastic tubes are made from sugarcane and is recyclable. So what’s not to like? Purchase Pink Salt Shampoo here 200ml for £11.99 and 3-Seaweed Scalp Mud here 150ml for £11.95. Get on board with healthy scalp and hair with these two products and begin your journey to beautiful hair.

CLĒ Cosmetics - Melting Lip Powder

With the anticipation of summer, we’re feeling a little bit more colourful at The Amazing Blog.  We’ve been getting ready searching out our lighter and brighter clothing to complement our range of statement lip tints and blushes. That’s when we were recommended CLĒ Cosmetic’s Melting Lip Powder which is versatile enough to be used on lips and cheeks, so we had to include it in this week’s #amazingfinds.

When US born Lauren Jin founded CLĒ Cosmetics, she wanted to craft every product with the ‘modern’ woman in mind. With the beauty brand’s minimalistic and multifunctional approach, we were intrigued when they kindly sent us the shade Hot Choco of the Melting Lip Powder to try out. Made with the Korean beauty technology, CLĒ’s Melting Lip Powder is like no other product we have tried. While we’ve tried many liquid lip and cheek tints throughout the years, CLĒ’s powder-to-stain tint is an innovative take to the cult-favourite.

While the lip powder looks dry in the bottle, when applied to lips, cheeks or eyelids, the Melting Lip Powder glides beautifully across the skin to melt into a smudge and water resistant matte tint. Like all CLĒ Cosmetic’s products, the Melting Lip Powder is entirely  vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free, has no paraben, or sulfates and contains nourishing elements like Vitamin E to ensure skin is moisturised and protected.  Some of the other key ingredients are:  Natto gum, hydrolozed hyaluronic acid, blueberry fruit extract, bamboo leaf/stem extract, saussurea involucrate extract (thistle), and coconut oil. CLĒ sources these ingredients with a holistic approach in mind and aims to develop a makeup formula that benefits the skin as well.  While the lip powder is a little messy when you open the cap, the doe-foot applicator makes it easy to control where and how much of the pigmented powder to apply. After applying the chestnut-hued Hot Choco to my eyelids, cheeks and lips, I was able to put together an effortless look in less than five minutes. To try CLĒ’s innovative Melting Lip Powder for yourself, you can purchase a tube for $20 on their website here or for £14.34 available here.

NB: CLĒ does warn that the powder can naturally compress over time, which in turn decreases the powder level.