Spring/Summer Green Beauty Swap 2015

I love taking part in Ria from NatuRia Beauty Green Beauty Swaps, not only do they introduce you to lots of fab green beauty brands, but they also help you get to know fellow green beauty bloggers better.

For this swap I was paired with the lovely Tamara from Rainbow Feet. It has been such a pleasure getting to know Tamara and shopping for her. I love to shop, but it still surprises me how much I love to shop from someone else – another reason why I love these swaps.

Tamara sent me some very lovely items and introduced me to several brands I have not come across before, including body care, hair care and makeup products.

The main items which Tamara sent me were a selection of natural and organic skincare products from Akamuti. I received African Red Palm Oil – a beautiful red oil widely used as a moisturising butter for dry skin. I am prone to dry skin so I am keen to see how this oil will help. It can also be used on hair, so good news for my dry ends.

The next Akamuti product was a tub of Rose Beauty Mask – a softening clay face mask to cleanse and freshen the skin. It contains Marshmaollow Root Powder, which according to Akamuti, is a fantastic cooling skin tonic to assist upset, aging or problem skin. I have been having some trouble with my face lately. I have just been diagnosed with Rosacea so this face mask really interests me. Hopefully it helps calm my skin problems.

Tamara also sent me Akamuti Cocoa & Almond Body Butter. This smells amazing, so amazing that it was the first product I tried. It leaves the skin feeling silky and smooth. According to Akamuti the body butter is rich in nutrients essential for skin health and will rehydrate & feed dry, hungry skin.

Next Tamara sent me a lovely travel kit from John Masters Organics. I have used some samples before and loved them so I was excited to recieve more products from this brand to try. In the pack is a blood orange and vanilla body milk and body wash, as well as a lavender rosemary shampoo and a citrus and neroli detangler, all of which smell amazing.

I took these on holiday with me to the Lake District last week. It really is an excellent travel pack and I especially loved the body milk, it came in very handy for soothing my sunburn.

The next item, and my favourite from this swap is the W3LL People luminous taupe mineral eye shadow (Elitist 87). I love the colour and the shimmer, Tamara really has picked so well for me. I really like a mineral eye shadow and I have been collecting a few lately.

I am a huge of natural lip balms so I was glad Tamara sent me a few more to try and add to my collections. She sent me Hurraw! black cherry tinted lip balm, which I already have but it’s nearly finished so I am very glad to receive another. This is one of my favourite lip balms as it leaves a lovely tint to my lips. The Amazingy balm is a lip friendly and earth friendly balm. This is a lovely lip balm with a sweet scent of coconut.

Tamara also sent me Marble & Milkweed Rose and Chamomile Cleansing Nectar – a cleanser for dry, sensitive or mature skin.

And lastly a collection of samples to try including Pai Geranium & Thistle Rebalancing Day Cream, Vapour Organic Beauty Siren Lipstick, Kjaer Weis Cream Blush in ‘embrace’ and ‘lovely’ tint, a soap and some Pukka tea. So far I have tried the cream blushes and I love them. I have never tried a cream blush before so I am definitely going to try a few more now. If anyone has any cream blush recommendations, please let me know.

I think Tamara choose so well for me, I just hope she likes the items I have sent her as much as I like what she has sent me. As an extra special treat the very talented Tamara also sent me a painted postcard. This lovely image, painted by Tamara herself, now has pride of place in my office. I put it up just below a picture of Alfred Vogel, which I think is rather fitting since Echinacea was and still is one of his best and most popular remedies.

I would like to say a big thank you to Ria for organising another fab swap and to Tamara, it has been a pleasure getting to know you better and thank you so much for these lovely treats.

You can check out what I sent Tamara and what she thought of her green goodies over at her blog post “Spring Summer Green Beauty Swap 2015“.

Have you tried any of these products? Or is there any which you would like to try?

{A Redhead’s Review} Klorane Nettle Shampoo and Bioderma Sensibio H20 Michelle Solution

Au revoir oily hair, bonjour cleansed skin…

For as long as I can remember my hair has always been prone to oiliness. When I tell my friends I have to wash my hair everyday they always seem shocked and then smugly (note the hint of jealousy here from me) tell me they can go at least three days or more without washing their hair!

You can imagine then how my interest was well and truly caught when a few weeks ago Escentual, the premier beauty website posted on Twitter that they were looking for bloggers to test an oil control shampoo from Klorane. I instantly thought that will do for me, so I virtually put my hand up and volunteered to get my oily hair under control.

Not long after that I received an amazing bundle of goodies from Escentual, not only containing the shampoo but also a cleanser for dry skin and lots of samples and extra goodies – it was like they had been a fly on my wall listening to me moan about my oily hair and dry face!

So first of all the Klorane Nettle Shampoo *(£4.50 for 200ml)

The first thing I noticed when I used it for the first time was the amazing smell of nettles. It might not be to everyone’s taste but it really brought back great memories of my childhood, running around the fields at the back of my house with my friends. I found that this smell of nature first thing in the morning was particularly refreshing and revitalising.

A gentle shampoo, it promises to detox your scalp and give you more time between washes, working to regularise the amount of oil your scalp produces while slowing its spread throughout the hair.

I noticed the difference straight away and after several weeks of using it in the morning by the evening my hair still looks and feels fresh (usually I would need washed again if I was going out at night – yip twice in one day!!!) and I have even been brave enough to go two days now without washing or using dry shampoo (miracles do happen!). It maybe isn’t three days like my friends but an extra day is amazing to me! And the more I use it the better the oil control seems to be.

I did notice my ends become a bit more dry, which is the only part of my hair that doesn’t seem to be affected with oiliness! I used a little more conditioner on my ends, and some argan oil to combat this, avoiding my roots.

This aside after using this shampoo for several weeks my hair isn’t as oily, stays fresher for longer and I even noticed my hair being more fuller and bouncier than usual, another bonus. So if you have oil control problems like me, this is a must try!

Bioderma Sensibio H20 Michelle Solution* (£4.50-£9.99 – 100ml /250ml)

This little gift of a skincare product has officially revolutionised the condition of my skin and my face thanks it (and Escentual for sending me it) very much. I quickly realized that after googling this cleanser and reading positive reviews after positive reviews about it, why it is so popular!

So I am very happy to add yet another glowing review to the list!

A gentle cleanser which removes make up, it also contains soothing active ingredients to prevent the skin feeling irritated. As well as leaving my skin feeling clean and refreshed, it doesn’t leave my skin dry or tight like other cleansers have and also it has greatly reduced the redness of my face, which my usual cleansers bring out. The cleanser together with my Miss Polly Natural Skincare Facial Serum have made a noticeable improvement to my skin, making it less dry and I now don’t seem to be getting as many spots – result!

It’s really easy to use as well. Its non-rise, just soak a cotton pad with the cleanser and then wipe over face and neck. And extra joy, it even removes waterproof mascara. All in all this is an amazing product and its well and truly earned its top spot in my new daily cleansing routine. So if you are looking for a hypoallergenic, cleanser designed for sensitive skin and to reduce redness then this may be the perfect ‘solution’ for you.

*Please note I received PR samples of these products but my positive experience and opinions are all my own and have not been influence in any way.

{A Redhead’s Review} Miss Polly made my skin ‘glad’

A few years ago I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Twitter and my prize was, I am very glad to say, a Miss Polly product.  It was the first time I had heard of Miss Polly and her natural skincare range, even though she is a fellow Ayrshire lady! The product I won – her Repairing Foot Treatment, was not only my first ever natural product but the first of several Miss Polly products I would try.

So I may be showing my age here but when I heard of Miss Polly I automatically reminisced about watching one of my favourite films as a kid – Pollyanna, and her glad game!  However now whenever I hear Miss Polly mentioned it isn’t Hayley Mills whimsical charm that has me ‘glad’ but rather its Miss Polly’s amazing natural products!

Miss Polly Natural Skincare is dedicated to making wonderful skincare using the finest natural ingredients possible. Everything is handmade by Polly herself in small batches so you can be sure your skincare is fresh and long-lasting.  And every Miss Polly product is free from parabens, sulphates and artificial fragrances, as well as kind and gentle to sensitive skin – which is perfect for me.

In January Miss Polly had a sale so I decided to snap up her best-selling product and try it for the first time.  And I can say my dry skin is very glad I did!

A lovely blend of essential oils and natural plant oils, Miss Polly promises her Radiant Skin Rosehip Facial Skin (£16.95) will soften, nourish, repair and protect skin and I can gladly say it did just that for me.  If you have been reading my blog you will know that I have been battling a war on dry skin lately.  Since I turned 30 my skin condition seems to have changed dramatically and I have been trying to perfect my cleansing & moisturising routine.  This little moisturising  gem has proved its worth and fitted itself nicely into my new routine.  I now use this every night after I have fully cleansed and I am starting to really see the benefit of it, my face feels softer, more nourished and perhaps not radiant yet but there is a hint of a glow appearing.

A wonderful treatment for normal, dry and sensitive skin types the little 30ml bottle of joy contains some lovely oily goodness including rosehip oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam oil, apricot oil, vitamin E, lavender, geranium and rosewood essential oils.

This isn’t the first Miss Polly product I have used.  The first I tried, as I mentioned above was her Peppermint Repairing Foot Treatment (£12.00)

I often get dry cracked heels and when I used this for the first time I was amazed at how quickly it helped, even my other half started stealing it.

We both used it nightly and as promised it helped our feet get back into tip-top condition pretty quickly.  The 45g pot lasts for ages as you only need a small amount and ingredients include organic shea butter, cocoa butter, safflower oil and vitamin E.  The peppermint essential oil cools the skin instantly, while the organic shea butter and cocoa butter aids skin repair.

The next product after this that I tried was Miss Polly’s Lip Balm (£4.95) .  I went for peppermint, however you can also choose from Mandarin or Pink Grapefruit.

This paraben & petroleum free lip blam is great for dry and cracked lips.  I recently had problems with dry lips and some of my fellow green beauty bloggers reminded me of why I should be ditching my vaseline and I remembered how much I love Miss Polly’s lip balm.

Talking about lip balms, Miss Polly has just launched an exciting introduction to her skin care range – Make you own lip balm kit,  so instead of a new pot I think I may treat myself to this little kit.

You can choose from the following flavours: Tutti Fruity, Chocolate, Peppermint, or unflavored. The kit makes  5 x 10ml lip balms and includes 5 jars, full instructions and 5 personalise labels.  There is a SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER at the moment on the Miss Polly website.  You can buy the kit for ONLY £15 UNTIL FEB 28TH (£16.95  thereafter).

In my opinion Miss Polly skincare products are amazing, packaging charming, Polly herself is lovely and her customer service is so friendly, so if you haven’t discovered this great natural skincare collection already then check out her full range, you will be GLAD you did, I know I am!

Please note this is not a sponsored post, the items I mention have all been bought and used by me (except the make your own lip balm kit), photography is from Miss Polly website, because my camera wouldn’t take nice enough pictures.

Thanks for reading,

Annmarie x

Echinacea is spot on for skin care!

As a teenager I was lucky enough not to have spots as a problem.  Instead I was just pale and freckly!  So imagine my surprise when at the age of 30 I noticed I was experiencing spotty rashes across my cheeks that wouldn’t go away.  So off to the doctors I went to be promptly diagnosed as having adult acne!