Posts tagged ‘organic’

April 24, 2010

Newsflash: Clarins Organic Gentle Beauty Cleansing Soap

I was first introduced to the Clarins brand as a teenager. I was obsessed with their foundation, and can still remember the thrill of opening up the red packaging, and the sweet scent of the product itself. Yes, I am aware that I’m a weirdo. I’ve never really been exposed to their skin care range, but the new Organic Gentle Beauty Cleansing Soap looks like it could be a good start for me.

Time for some fast facts about the Clarins Organic Gentle Beauty Cleansing Soap:

- Gently cleanses the face and body, eliminating all toxins and impurities, while preserving skin’s natural hydration.
- Natural citrus fruit essential oils give a subtle, fresh, delicate fragrance.
- 99.9% ingredients of natural origin.
- 83.5% ingredients obtained from organic farming.
- Suitable for all skin types.
- Gives skin a wonderful feeling of suppleness and comfort, thanks to the combination of Shea Butter nourishing benefits and Hazelnut Oil anti-dehydration properties.

What do you think? Will you be trying out the new Clarins soap? Have you tried this product out, if so what did you think of it? Clarins Organic Gentle Beauty Cleansing Soap is available for purchase for $25AUD from Adore Beauty

February 20, 2010

Product Review: Grown Vanilla & Orange Peel Hand Cream

If you have not yet been exposed to Australian organic skincare brand Grown – please head right over and check out their website. The philosophy of the brand is that “beautiful healthy looking skin comes from a profound understanding of nature’s power”. Sound like your cup of tea? Yeah, me too.

What is great about this product…

Well, let’s begin with the ingredients. The Vanilla & Orange Peel Hand Cream contains goodies such as antioxidants from grape seed, wheatgerm, camellia seed oil and rose hip oil. If you’re not already aware, I am in LOVE with rose hip oil. (see here, and here) It’s an amazing product, and to find a natural hand cream that uses it as an active ingredient makes me extremely happy! This is a natural hand cream, so it contains none of the bad stuff like lauryl sulphate, petrochemicals, artificial fragrance, animal dervatives and parabens. Grown is a company dedicated to the love of nature, so the packaging is recyclable. (bonus points!) So all of this sounds like the makings of a really great product, but does it work? Joy of joys – yes, it does. The Grown Vanilla & Orange Peel Hand cream is a rich and heavily moisturising cream that sinks in easily to skin and does not leave any oily residue. I have found this really great to use when I’m at work because I can apply it and then get right back onto the keyboard without having to worry about leaving any greasy marks, or my fingers slipping off of the keys. The smell is very pleasant too, strong but not overwhelming – a sweet orange smell, but not too citrusy. I love this product so much that it has earned itself a place in my beauty cupboard, and is now one of my HG hand creams. Exciting!

What is not so great about this product…

The only thing I didn’t like about this product, (and it’s a completely personal thing to me) is that the smell of the cream tends to linger. It is a delicious smell, but it lasts quite a long time, so if you’re sensitive to scented products like I am this could bug you after a while.

The Vanilla & Orange Peel Hand Cream 65ml retails for $24.00 AUD. Grown products are available for Australian purchase from David Jones, Myer and other selected outlets. Check the website for a stockist near you.

February 4, 2010

Noni Juice Challenge

NOTE: The Fiijan Noni juice made me vomit this morning, so the Noni Challenge is on hold! At least until I can try out some of the Tahitian Noni, which is apparently ‘flavoured’ with grape & blueberry juice to make it more paletable. Not impressed!

I have been curious about Noni Juice after reading countless articles with Miranda Kerr raving about the stuff. I may have a love/hate relationship with Ms Kerr (or at least her public persona, it’s not like I know the girl personally) but I don’t doubt the fact that she is health conscious and is passionate about organic produce and skincare. The girl has fabulous skin and hair, and somehow manages to keep a schedule that would knock most of over for dead. So what is this Noni Juice she is always raving about?

TAHITIAN NONI™ Juice supports your immune system, delivers superior antioxidants that help rid the body of harmful free radicals, increases energy, is cholesterol-friendly, and allows for greater physical performance levels. Ancient tradition and modern research both testify of the power of noni. A must for those concerned with overall wellness.

I was at the Health Food Store this afternoon and picked up a bottle of Fijian Noni Juice. Now, I have no idea if the Fijian Noni and the Tahitian Noni are different in any way (if you have any information about this, please let me know!) but it was there, so I bought it. Miranda has raved about how this has helped her energy levels, her skin and her general wellbeing. So I am going to try Noni for a month, and see if it makes any difference for me! I will take it orally in the morning and night as recommended, and try soaking a cotton ball in the juice and applying it to my face at night. Here is my “before” (please note, I have no makeup on in this shot – so go easy on me kids) -

It’s a practical impossibility to take a picture of yourself without looking like a total moron, so please excuse my daft expression! I will take another photo in a couple of weeks to see if the Noni has made any difference to my skin! Wish me luck – and anybody who wants to join me on this challenge, feel free!
February 1, 2010

Product Review: KOSMEA Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil

I love Rose Hip Oil. It is a definite must-have and staple in my beauty cupboard. I use it on my face and body, and over the years that I’ve used it, it’s evened out my complexion (minimal redness now) and helped to fade scars and stretch marks. I was lucky enough to be sent some of the KOSMEA Skin Clinic Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil to review, so here we go…

What is great about this product…

The first thing I noticed about the oil is that it is a darker colour than the Rose Hip Oil I have used in the past. After doing a bit of reading up on the product, I came to realise that this is due to the face that the KOSMEA Oil uses the entire fruit – which in turn captures all of the vital anti-ageing ingredients and accounts for the dark golden colouring of the oil. Which is obviously great for your skin. The KOSMEA Rose Hip Oil is certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is grown wild on certified organic soil without the use of fertilisers or pesticides. Also, as mentioned above, the oil is extracted using the whole fruit (including the seeds and skin of the rose hip) in a way which does not compromise the essential vitamins or minerals. When using a product like this the major results will occur over time, but I tend to use the Rose Hip Oil every one or two days to keep my complexion fresh & glowing. The price point, as with all KOSMEA products is very reasonable. $24.95 for 15ml which will last you quite a while, as you only need 2-3 drops of the product per application.

What is not so great about this product…

I’ll be honest here and say that the smell is definitely not for everyone. I’ve actually had friends admit that they stopped using Rose Hip Oil due to the odd smell of the product, which can sort of linger around for a while after applying (as the oil sinks into your skin). I think that the benefits of the product far outweigh the scent, which is really hard to describe but I guess I would call it a musty sort of essential oil smell? See? Hard to describe. Definitely persevere though, because the product itself is amazing.

KOSMEA’s Skin Clinic Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil is available to Australian customers through David Jones, leading pharmacies and health food stores. Australian and International customers can purchase the Rose Hip Oil online via the KOSMEA website

January 28, 2010

KOSMEA – Q&A

I was lucky enough to be sent some amazing products from Kosmea this week, to trial and review. I will be posting about these products sometime next week after I’ve had a good chance to test them out and see what I think. In the meantime, I was able to participate in a Question & Answer session with a representative from KOSMEA.

Organic Rosehip Oil is the central product in the Kosmea range. Can you tell us a little bit about what Rosehip Oil is, and what are the benefits of using it on your skin?

KOSMEA Skin Clinic™ Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil is naturally very similar to the skin’s own lipids, giving skin an instant radiance and delivering long-term skin-boosting benefits. Rose hips are processed into oil using a super-critical extraction process that uses the entire fruit, capturing all its vital anti-ageing ingredients and accounting for the rich, gold colour of the oil. It is the skin of the fruit that contains the high lycopene antioxidant content.

Rose Hip Oil is rich in essential fatty acids, Vitamin A, lycopene and carotenoids, working in synergy to bring the skin back to balance, improving collagen and elastin condition, resulting in firmer, younger looking skin. Rose Hip Oil will also assist in the healing of acne and scarring, help treat dry and sensitive skin, reduce skin pigmentation, soothe cradle cap and nappy rash and may help reduce the appearance of stretchmarks.

What are some of the more popular products within the Kosmea range?

KOSMEA Skin Clinic™ Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil is a best seller and is like a ‘multi-vitamin’ for the skin. Another really popular product is KOSMEA Moisturising Lotion SPF 30+, an amazing light weight sunscreen that uses ‘encapsulated technology’ to ‘wrap’ the active sunscreen ingredients in a microscopic beeswax bubble. This prevents the chemicals being absorbed into the bloodstream and provides broad spectrum protection from the sun while delivering the moisture the skin needs for health and vitality. It is the perfect base under make-up and never has the heavy ‘greasy’ feeling that many sunscreens have.

The Eighth Natural Wonder Revitalising Facial Serum is a breakthrough product from Kosmea – can you tell us a little bit about this product, and what it does?

KOSMEA Eighth Natural Wonder Revitalising Facial Serum contains the breakthrough ingredient Myoxinol®. Derived from the hibiscus seed, this incredible natural ingredient is proven in scientific studies to reduce wrinkles by inhibiting the muscle cell contractions that cause wrinkles, it is also a natural antioxidant, protecting the skin from mechanical and biological stress. It reinforces the skin’s natural defence against the damaging effects of free radicals that accelerate biological aging.

In a nutshell, Eighth Natural Wonder boots the skins natural defences against wrinkles and aging while enhancing the skin’s condition and boosting natural radiance. According to top international make-up artist Nicola Burford it also makes the perfect make-up base for HDTV, adding a healthy glow to skin without the shine of traditional moisturisers.

Kosmea is an Australian company – are your products available to international customers? If so, where are they available for purchase?

KOSMEA is available to purchase online at www.kosmea.com.au and KOSMEA are happy to ship internationally. KOSMEA is also distributed in the US, Canada and the UK.

You can read about the history of KOSMEA or do some browsing or shopping over at their website. From what I’ve seen of these products so far, I love them. I look forward to posting the reviews soon!

September 2, 2009

Product Review: Organic Island Lipbalm

The lovely people at Organic Island Australia have sent me one of their beautiful & unique shell lip balms to review!

OrganicIslandLipbalm

My experience with the product so far

So far, I am really impressed. I have applied the balm at least 10 times since receiving it, not because I needed re-application, but because it’s such a gentle product and it’s making my lips feel so good! The balm itself is very light, non-greasy & has a very faint honey smell. (which I am guessing comes from the beeswax)

What is great about this product…

The balm is housed in a real shell. “Our shells are 100% REAL and not man-made. We source recycled shells and damaged shells which have been washed up and collected for re-use.” So not only are they gorgeous to look at, but they are eco-friendly. The shell compact also comes with a handy mirror inside – perfect for touch ups.

The balm itself is made from naturally derived ingredients such as coconut oil, rosehip oil, mango seed butter, beeswax, macadamia oil, jojoba oil and lanolin wax. Which means that it is a 100% natural product offering you the benefits of hydration, protection against UV rays, lightened pigmentation, and most importantly a natural lubrication for dry lips.

The brand is dedicated to carbon reducing & recycling. This is something that I am personally passionate about, so to find a brand that supports the same ideas as me is always exciting. To read more, click here.

What is not so great about this product…

To be honest, not much. The only problem I’ve had has been the fact that my daughter has become obsessed with the “pretty shell” and won’t give it back to me! Also, it could prove a problem if you happen to take it with you to the beach, and leave it behind on the sand… But that isn’t too likely to happen!

These gorgeous balms are available for purchase online (international shipping is available) from the Organic Island website.

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