Be+Radiance : Duo Palettes - Set+Glow+Highlighter & Color+Glow Duo Blush+Highlighter

Whether we want to get dolled up or go for a natural look this party season, blusher, powder and highlighter are our three must-haves here at The Amazing Blog. Happily, one of our favourite French natural cosmetic brands, Be+Radiance, sent us both their Set+Glow Duo Powder+Highlighter and the Color+Glow Duo Blush+Highlighter, perfect for adding a touch of festive glamour that will see us well into the wee hours! And if you missed our previous review of their Primer and Matifying Foundation, click here.

The Be+Radiance story starts with beauty expert Aïmara Coupet whose dedication to offering clean products for all skin tones is second to none. After years of working with major brands like L’Oréal, Sephora, and blackUp, Aïmara decided to shift her focus to providing people with inclusive skincare and cosmetics that would actually be good for the skin. With over 20 years of beauty experience and an innate passion for makeup, this Be+Radiance founder, has developed her cosmetics expertise, especially when it comes to the complexion. During the time, Aïmara was working as a consultant to explore the science of the microbiome, the natural bacterial ecosystem of the skin, and was able to work with a laboratory to create a silicone-free foundation. This creation is what prompted the launch of her brand Be+Radiance. As a mixed-race woman, she has pushed for the cosmetics industry to recognise plural beauty, and is determined to create diverse collections with makeup that is “healthy and sophisticated, luminous and universal.” In an industry that struggles to develop products with the right textures and colours for darker skin, she has committed her brand to formulate for all skin tones, and only using clean beauty practices. They make sure to have “equity in the choice of shades and in the adaptation of textures to different skin types.” The brand uses clean formulas, rich ingredients, and probiotics to create makeup that respects the skin. These products all contain probiotics to help strengthen the skin’s natural barrier and protect its microbiome. Their products avoid the use of silicones, parabens, and perfume to maintain the natural balance of the skin. As a clean beauty brand, their products are made in France, are vegan and cruelty-free with an R & D team that integrates raw materials with 85% - 100% natural ingredients to help keep skin healthy and beautiful.  

We loved using the Set+Glow Duo Powder+Highlighter and Color+Glow Duo Blush+Highlighter palettes. They’ve both been created using 95% natural ingredients and are also enriched with probiotics that positively colonise the microbiome to repair the skin barrier, resulting in stronger skin microbiota. These microorganisms also help retain moisture more effectively to keep skin hydrated, healthy, and smooth. The microbiota then offers rebalance and protection when these probiotics and prebiotics come together. The duos include a blend of organic oils rich in antioxidant properties, with moringa, sunflower and jojoba; plus organic shea butter, rich in linoleic acid, which when combined these both nourish and smooth the skin. These duo palettes are free from talc, mineral oil, silicone and fragrance making them suitable for all skin types. They harness the skin benefiting properties of probiotics, and as the brand says these are made to “respect the skin balance, let the skin breath and take care of the most sensitive skin.”

The Set+Glow Duo Powder+Highlighter is half matte powder and highlighter and comes in a selection of 17 shades. It is ultra-smooth in texture and helps set makeup or add a shimmering glow. We received this duo in the No 13 where the shades perfectly complemented each other. The fine powder is used to set the foundation and give a matte finish, whereas the highlighter catches the light and provide the skin with a radiant and glistening look. The way we applied the powder was to take a large powder brush and sweep it along the central panel of the face to help mattify any shine. Then with another brush, we applied the highlighter in an upward movement just above the cheekbones and with our forefinger blended a little on the brow bone to accentuate it. The brand also recommends mixing the powder and highlighter together for a dewy look.  

The second product, the Color+Glow Duo Blush+Highlighter, again, is half blush and highlighter and is available in a variety of 4 shades. The blush in the duo palette is highly pigmented and has been carefully curated to blend and modify and work with a wide range of skin tones. Whether it is a warm pink or a coral with gold undertones, we found the choice of colours blends well. The highlighter works with the blush to create a balanced shimmering effect. We used the duo palette in the shade 02 and found that the blush was perfectly pigmented to bring out a warm rosy look in our cheeks, and the highlighter topped off the look with its illuminating finish. We applied the blush along our cheekbones and a little into the centre of our cheeks, adding the highlighter just above, and a dab also along the brow bone. 

Both these products are another of our festive #amazingfinds. Whether you're looking to buy for yourself or as a gift, they’re available from the Be+Radiance French website here. Or you can also purchase the Set+Glow Duo Powder+Highlighter for £26.40 here and the Color+Glow Duo Blush+Highlighter for £26.40 here.  

Be + Radiance : Velvet Touch Primer Natural and Breathable & Cucumber Water Matifying Foundation

We all know how difficult finding THE perfect foundation can be. With so many different foundations available and seasonal colour changes with our skin, it’s always a challenge. Luckily for us at The Amazing Blog, we were able to try out this duo of primer and foundation with the Velvet Touch Primer and Cucumber Water Matifying Foundation from the natural skincare and cosmetics brand Be+Radiance.

Aïmara Coupet is the visionary behind this French brand Be + Radiance. Aïmara has been working in the cosmetics industry for over 20 years as a makeup expert. Through her experiences working for L’Oreal, Sephora, and blackUp Cosmetics, she’s gained the expansive cosmetic knowledge that she now puts into Be + Radiance. After working in a laboratory during her consulting days, Aïmara was able to create a silicone-free foundation which pushed her into creating Be + Radiance. With her plural heritage, she has personally felt challenged to find the right products for her skin. She wanted to design a “collection of shades to represent the diversity of women” and to provide a product that anyone could use, and has a passion to “create a new art of makeup: healthy and sophisticated, luminous and universal.” Beyond creating the inclusive shades for anyone, Be + Radiance utilises natural ingredients to treat your skin well. Each product uses clean formulas, natural ingredients, probiotics, and other rich active ingredients to help the skin. In particular, they wish to make the skin healthier and more beautiful without clogging the pores or masking it with heavy pigments. The researchers and formulators at Be + Radiance understand that the skin has a delicate balance to keep it healthy. The formulas all contain probiotics to help strengthen the skin’s natural barrier and protect its microbiome, the natural bacterial ecosystem of the skin. The protection of this barrier helps to keep our skin healthy.  The brand's cosmetics are made in France and are vegan and cruelty-free.

Let’s start with Velvet Touch Primer Natural and Breathable, this is designed to prepare the skin before applying makeup. This natural and breathable primer helps to reduce the appearance of pores while prolonging the wear of makeup. It helps to smooth the skin for that ‘blur’ effect. This primer is silicone, paraben and fragrance-free, and made up of 97% natural ingredients. The formula uses pomegranate extract for its antioxidant properties, which helps restore the skin for optimal hydration. The blackcurrant extract soothes, softens and strengthens the skin, while the shea butter promotes skin regeneration, hydrates, and nourishes the skin. The use of sunflower oil also nourishes and softens the skin. What we like about this primer is that it’s natural as well as lightweight and velvety smooth to apply. It also marries well with a serum or foundation (like their Matifying Foundation) and worked well on the eye area too.

We followed the primer with the Cucumber Water Matifying Foundation, a natural, water-based foundation that’s lightweight while also providing good coverage to even out the complexion. This foundation uses organic cucumber water to make this a fresh and natural product. They use 85% natural ingredients, like organic cucumber water, because of its soothing, hydrating and antioxidant properties. There are no parabens or phenoxyethanol, and it doesn’t contain any mineral oils, phthalate (from petrochemicals) or fragrance - making it ideal for even the most sensitive of skins. For the non-natural ingredients, Be + Radiance provides full transparency by listing each ingredient with their use and origin, which can be found here. This foundation is available in seventeen different shades that match a variety of skin tones. We were sent shade 13 which was a good colour match. Again it’s a silicone-free formula and super light leaving an almost veil-like finish, perfect for those wanting natural-looking coverage. This Cucumber Water Matifying Foundation is perfect for oily skin, combination skin or sensitive skin. We have quite dry skin so the primer was definitely needed prior to application, we loved how it gave a really good matte finish with no need for a quick dusting of powder to remove any shine. Our only ask for the brand, is to put an SPF in either your primer or foundation - then these would be perfect for us! Both products are available for purchase through Be + Radiance’s website here. Or the 30ml Cucumber Water Matifying Foundation is available for £21.85 here and the 30ml Velvet Touch Primer Natural and Breathable is available here for £20.05

Eden's Gate: CBD English Breakfast Tea, and CBD Chamomile Tea

If you’re like us and reach out for a pick-me-up mid-afternoon, then keep reading on. This is when tea is our preferred drink of choice, and at The Amazing Blog, a comforting cuppa is just the ticket. Regular readers will know that we're big fans of all things hemp and CBD, and today, we're introducing to you another of our #amazingfinds with these refreshing and delicious CBD-infused teas from Eden's Gate.  

Eden's Gate is a family-run British business established by Tyler Woodward in 2018. Apart from their own brand, they are also an online store that supplies various CBD brands and products. Fueled by his love for nature and all of its remedies, Tyler launched Eden's Gate sharing his passion for effective and safe CBD products that provide all of nature's benefits without using any synthetic compounds. Tyler told us, "We strive for clarity, whether it's the CBD itself, production methods or the knowledge of our users. We're not hiding anything - transparency is key!" This is where Eden's Gate provides clear and detailed information on all of its products. They are also triple batch tested with lab test certification for each one. In addition, they pride themselves on being ‘from seed to shelf’ and are GMO and cruelty-free, and contain high-quality, broad-spectrum CBD sourced from the most reputable US hemp farms that have organic plants grown without pesticides. Eden's Gate uses CBD that is extracted through super-critical CO2 extraction. In this process, carbon dioxide (CO2) pressure and temperature are manipulated until it's in a liquid-gas form known as ‘super-critical liquid’. The method allows Eden's Gate to safely extract only the purest CBD while leaving behind bi-products such as THC, waxes, and chlorophylls. This resulting CBD is solvent-free, meaning that no extra compounds or chemicals are involved in the extraction process, making this CBD environmentally friendly too!  They are quick to point out that they use their own equipment and oversee every aspect of production without any 3rd party involvement.

We were sent two of Eden's Gate's CBD teas to try, the first being their CBD English Breakfast Tea with 300mg of CBD. Each tea bag contains 20mg of broad-spectrum CBD combined with black tea, resulting in a rich tea with a full-bodied English Breakfast black tea. Eden's Gate uses unbleached tea bags made from cellulose fibres, meaning that they don't contain chemicals like dioxin or microplastics like polypropylene that are harmful to both your body and the environment. Being  broad-spectrum CBD means that it has no detectable THC levels, but does have dozens of the different isolates and terpenes naturally found in the hemp. We imagine that the broad-spectrum CBD here will be a water-soluble CBD distillate (Eden’s Gate, please correct us if we’re wrong!) ideal for infusing into beverages. It also makes use of the "entourage effect", as these compounds help the CBD work better, so you're getting all the goodness of the hemp plant without the THC. The tea leaf becomes black tea and gets its dark colour from a lengthy oxidation and fermentation process. The tea leaves and picked, and then left to dry where they are either rolled and cut and left the oxidise. It’s a process that helps to develop the flavour and aroma changing the colour from green to brown. Let's not forget that black tea itself also has a long list of benefits; it contains antioxidants that decrease the risk of chronic disease, boost heart health, reduce blood pressure, and improve alertness and focus. So when combined together with the CBD it helps to provide reduced stress and anxiety and a whole host of other benefits too. The process of brewing CBD Tea also allows your body to ingest more of the CBD than other forms like drops so that you can get the same intense effects with a smaller dosage. All we did was place a teabag in freshly boiled water, brew for 3-6 minutes and added oat milk. it has a good rich flavour of English Breakfast tea, but it does take a little longer to infuse than a regular black tea, but well worth the wait! What does it taste like? Well, like black tea, but very mild with the slightest hint of fruitiness from the hemp. Delicious and great for keeping away those mid- afternoon blues! It is pricey compared to your everyday cuppa, so we tended to drink this as and when. To purchase the English Breakfast Tea 300mg here at £16.99 for 15 bags.

The second tea we tried was the CBD Chamomile Tea 300mg. Each unbleached tea bag contains chamomile sourced from the Nile River Valley in Egypt, lemon balm, and again 20mg of broad-spectrum CBD, so you're still getting the same complete CBD health benefits as the English Breakfast Tea mentioned above. Chamomile tea is thought to reduce inflammation and menstrual pain, slow down osteoporosis and lower blood sugar. We general drink chamomile tea to help with sleep and relaxation. So what could be better than getting the amplifying relaxation effect when the two are combined here! The chamomile flower is not alone; the lemon balm also has mood-boosting properties and improves cognitive function, turning this into quite a potent mix. Again, recommended brewing between 3-6 minutes like the CBD Black Tea. Since Chamomile tea doesn't become bitter if you leave the teabag in it for too long, we steeped it for up to 6 minutes to fully reap all the benefits and enjoy its sweet floral (no hemp taste) chamomile and lemon-y flavour. It’s the perfect choice for a nighttime cuppa, and sent us swiftly off into the land of nod. To purchase the CBD Chamomile Tea 300mg see here at £16.99 for 15 bags. 

MamaSia: Desert Date Oil

Let’s keep it simple – at The Amazing Blog we want to take about the versatility and purity of oils. They’ve been tried and tested for centuries, and we find more and more people are returning to using only minimally-processed oils as part of their skincare routine. Today, we are trying out a Desert Date Oil from MamaSia . 

MamaSia is an established natural skincare brand, launched in 2012; it has traditional African beauty and wellbeing products, all with a modern twist. They are based in the UK and co-founded by Maame Opoku.  With her dual heritage, Maamie is of Ghanaian descent, and born in England.  She spent time in Laraganga, Ghana, where she learnt about local ingredients and production methods from women in the community. After years of experience in the beauty industry, she realised the uniqueness and value of the traditional African beauty practices she’d gleaned and decided to create her own brand MamaSia, now a business made up of more than forty Ghanian women. All products are formulated by Maame and Sam, the company’s co-founders. Where their collective objective is to help the local communities, especially women, by acting in a socially responsible way to ‘Share, Inspire and Assist’ (this acronym ‘SIA’ is found in the brand name). All of its product ingredients are sourced from its family lands in Senegal and Ghana. As Maame said, “MamaSia is an experience rather than a brand, many people have never heard of some of the natural botanicals found in our products range. So, it is an experience from that standpoint, not forgetting our customers get to experience how our ingredients are grown on our communal lands to how it is re-purposed by us. That is why we say ‘From our Lands to your Hands’, it is direct from soil to hands.”  MamaSia produces a range of hair and skincare products and superfoods such as raw purple sea moss. However, what interests us are the superfood oils in her collection, which are pure, unadulterated and good enough to eat! They are now getting the brand recognition that they deserve and recently won The Afro Hair & Beauty Association AHBA Award for Brand Excellence. 

We couldn’t wait to try the Desert Date Oil , an all-rounder that is beneficial and suitable for all skin and hair types. It can automatically adjust and balance your skin or hair’s pH level, leaving your skin and hair smoothing and glowing without being greasy and won’t clog the pores. It is derived from Desert Date’s seed kernel, a fruit that thrives in dry conditions and is high in natural non-volatile fatty acids (46%), helping rejuvenate skin cells and reduce fine lines. As an ideal food ingredient and a cosmetics component, it contains naturally occurring, highly concentrated vitamin E and omega 3 &6 fatty acids. Vitamin E provides an excellent healing and nourishing effect that strengthens and moisturises the skin. At the same time, omega 3 &6 serves to regulate the skin's oil production and calm inflammatory reactions and skin breakouts. This is the first time we’ve used 100% cold-pressed Dessert Date Oil (balanites aegyptiaca) where we tested it out night and day, and as directed by the brand to ‘dab or pat not glide’ a little goes a long way. We loved how hydrating and protective this felt on the skin (used in chilly February). This is good for the hair tips to seal split ends, and with a drop rubbed into the palm of our hands, then smoothed over the crown, it also keeps frizz at bay. This is simplicity at its best, suitable for all skin types and one oil we’d certainly buy more of. The humble date is probably one of the most sustainable botanicals around, with its fruits and leaves which can be eaten, the kernels used for oil, and the vines and twigs crushed to help build local structures! To purchase this 30ml Desert Date Oil for £10, you can buy it here. 

Good Gym

Do good, get fit. This is the mantra of GoodGym, an organisation with the goal of combining fitness and community activities, with encouraging runners to spend time helping others. As we sometimes struggle with the motivation to exercise at The Amazing Blog, we think this is an excellent solution.

In a nutshell, GoodGym’s concept is to make the most out of the time spent running. This is in the form of running to and from activities, whether that be to help an elderly person who need’s a lightbulb changing, or running to a group gardening activity at a community centre. The motto of Good Gym? Why waste your energy at the gym when you could use it to improve other people’s lives?

Winning first prize in 2008 at the Social Innovation Camp, GoodGym was formed as a non-profit organisation in 2009. The company itself is commissioned by local authorities and the NHS, testamant to the benefits of getting involved. Over 1 million people aged 65 and over admit to always, or often feeling lonely, and recruiting volunteers has become increasingly difficult as a result of busy work and private lives. This is where GoodGym noticed a niche, focusing on creating an easy method of committing to a long-term project.

GoodGym provides three different types of runs. On Mission Runs, you run to help older people with every-day tasks, such as gardening, or changing a lightbulb. It gives you the chance to run different routes each week, while having a significant effect on someone’s life. On Coach Runs, you see an isolated person on a regular basis. This only claims about 20 minutes of your week, and besides giving someone something to look forward to, having a commitment can also increase your likelihood of completing exercise. On Group Runs, you get the chance to run with other people from your community, completing tasks such as planting trees for your local park, running back together to stretch with a qualified trainer. All this is completed within 90 minutes, fitting easily into your daily routine.

In terms of commitment, there is no specific pressure, GoodGym aims to achieve your fitness goals, while helping the community. How often, and where you do this is, is up to you, but if you sign up to visit an older person, then it is understandable that this commits you to at least one run per week. Mission and group runs are more flexible, and can be attended whenever you like. There really is a solution for everyone here, with support available from qualified trainers at all times. Signing up is easily achieved online, and although membership is free, there is a voluntary donation of £9.95 per month if you so wish. Visit the GoodGym website for frequently asked questions, here.

Currently operating in 47 areas, with a futher 73 in proposal, you’ll be sure to find a local group (especially in London). Check out the availability in your area on the GoodGym website here.