King Brown Pomade - Matte

Hair is vital to complete a slick look. It doesn’t matter if its day or night, at work or relaxing with your mates, it never hurts to look smart. The Amazing Blog recently learned of a great modern wax that keeps your hairstyle in place. King Brown Pomade, based in Australia, uses the history of men’s grooming in their favour. Its product withstands time, not trends, according to King Brown Pomade. 

King Brown Pomade embodies both tradition and quality in its formulas. The Matte Pomade, made from clay and beeswax, gives it an excellent consistency for a natural look, textured styles, matte-look classics, and a light to medium dry hold—a tricky balance to find! Malt extract is added for hair conditioning, too. We love how easy restyling can be with this product, and because of its clay and wax base—no crunchy residue is left behind. The Matte Pomade works for all hair types at any length. It also has a light enticing scent with notes of rosemary, bergamot, cedarwood, basil, and leather, which drives us wild!

You can purchase the King Brown Matte Pomade 75g here for £14.95.

VOYA - Softly Does It Hydrating Body Lotion

Summer is here, and The Amazing Blog team has taken all sorts of measures to ensure that our bodies have been pampered and taken care. In preparation for this season ahead, we received the Softly Does It Hydrating Body Lotion from VOYA to try. As our regular readers will know, we have a bit of a penchant for Voya, you will see here from the past review of their Bright Eyes Brightening Eye Cream. VOYA was founded in 2006 by husband and wife team, Mark & Kira Walton. They focused on the natural power of seaweed, VOYA is an Irish niche brand that has harnessed the incredible soothing skin properties of the 'seaweed baths.'

At the core of VOYA is the love for seaweed-based products. The Softly Does It Hydrating Body Lotion is richly infused with hand-harvested Fucus Serratus extract. This is a type of seaweed that filters ocean water for nutrients to survive, so it becomes dense with the anti-oxidants and minerals our skin loves. The next two key ingredients are Shea Butter and Prickly Pear Oil, helping to deeply nourish, moisturise, heal, and protect the skin—evidence that nature always has our back. Our favourite part was the uplifting scent of lime and mandarin. It left a subtle fresh aroma on our skin throughout the day. We couldn’t get enough of it.

This body lotion naturally helps to prevent signs of ageing and cellulite and improves the skin’s tone and elasticity. We have noticed instantly hydrated and smooth skin, even on those days where our skin has seen some dryness. This unique blend of 80% organic ingredients has our skin craving more. They are also Halal certified, free from mineral oils, synthetic colours, preservatives, and are cruelty-free. The Softly Does It Hydrating Body Lotion from VOYA is available for purchase here for £28.

Zglow Blueberry Antioxidant Mask

Today, The Amazing Blog has quite the treat for you all. This intensely hydrating Blueberry Antioxidant Mask from zglow is so deliciously scented that we’re almost tempted to take a taste! Instead, we let our skin drink up this treat made of 100% organic ingredients. Zglow is a US skincare brand that cares about what ingredients are absorbed into the skin, the environment, and our animal friends. This is something that always sparks our interest, particularly since they proudly boast to be organic, paraben, chemical and BPA free, vegan, non-toxic, and never tested on animals.

This creamy face mask is filled to the brim with ripened blueberries and white tea, which do wonders for cell rejuvenation and the removal of dead skin cells. Blueberries are little antioxidant powerhouses and this face mask is full of all of their skin-loving vitamins. It is highly recommended for dry to normal, sensitive or mature skin types. Our favourite way to use it is as a base for our makeup, especially those of us who struggle with pesky dry patches that can cause your makeup to appear flaky. We simply apply a pea size amount all over the skin, let it soak in for a few minutes, and continue on with our make-up routine.

This mask glides on and over dry patches to make our skin brighter, while helping to reduce redness. When we really need to pack in a punch of serious hydration, we exfoliate the skin in the shower and then apply a generous amount over the face and neck.  Relax for 10-15 minutes, as the mask works its magic. Then simply rinse and follow with your regular moisturiser. We also used the Blueberry Antioxidant Mask overnight. Just remember to always wipe away any excess before hitting the pillow. Of course, our favourite part is the fact that it smells just like blueberry pie. The Blueberry Antioxidant Mask is available for purchase here on the US website for $27 plus international postal shipping charges of $14.

Friday Favourites: Perfume boxes

The scent of a perfume often reveals a person’s personality. Finding the right fragrance that embodies who we are is a struggle. With so many fragrances out there, it can feel impossible to narrow it down. The Amazing Blog has rounded up some fantastic fragrances that we are sure you will love. Whether you prefer a sensual, floral or bold scent, there is something that will suit you. These Discovery and Sample sets are also the perfect gift!

JO LOVES FRANGRANCE DISCOVERY GIFT EXPERIENCE

The famous Jo Malone rules the fragrance market, and for good reason! Jo started her fast-growing company, Jo Malone London, in her London kitchen. This scent mixologist gained huge recognition for her accomplishments, leading to her selling the company to Estée Lauder Companies in 1999 where she worked as the Creative Director until 2006.

Jo Malone is back with her new company Jo Loves, inspired by her beloved memories. We are so excited to see new beautiful and high-quality fragrances from her! The Jo Loves Fragrance Discovery Gift Experience is a wonderful way to explore some of Jo Malone’s long-lasting incredible scents to find one that best suits you. The Fragrance Discovery Gift Experience consists of ten 2ml vials. The best part? Jo Loves will send you your favourite fragrance in the form of a 50ml bottle of Eau de Toilette. The fragrances include Pomelo, White Rose & Lemon Leaves, Mandarin, Smoked Plum & Leather, Red Truffle 21, Shards of Cedar & Red Thyme, No. 42 The Flower Shop, Gardenia, Pink Vetiver, and Green Orange & Coriander. With this wide array of aromas to test and choose from, you are sure to fall in love with at least one!

Our go-to of the bunch has to be the Smoked Plum & Leather, but you can purchase the set here for £105 to see which one you fancy.

SANA JARDIN DISCOVERY SET

Next up, we’ve got the Sana Jardin Discovery Set. Sana Jardin is the first socially-conscious luxury fragrance brand. They strive to create social change through commerce called The Beyond Sustainability Movement. This movement aims to make female entrepreneurs agents of change in their communities while preserving that commnicity's skills. This set comes with seven vials of 2ml Eau de Parfums. The first fragrance is Berber Blonde No. 1, which has a slightly musky aroma with beautiful notes of Moroccan orange blossom and North African neroli. Tiger By Her Side No. 2 is just as seductive as the name suggests. It has notes of amber, Moroccan rose, patchouli and Somalian Incense. It is the perfect scent for those who want to get in touch with their wild side. Savage Jasime No. 3 is a rather heady, musky scent as well, but with a floral twist from the infusion of Moroccan jasmine.

Sandalwood Temple No. 4 is a blend of East Indian Sandalwood, cedarwood, Madagascan vanilla, neroli, and Haitian vetiver. It all comes together to create a wonderfully seductive scent that is sure to turn heads once others get a whiff. Celestial Patchouli No. 5 has an intense and rich aroma with notes of patchouli, leather, sandalwood. Not only that, there are floral hints of rose and jasmine with a touch of cinnamon bark for an invigorating experience. Nubian Musk No. 6 is another musky scent that is amplified by a bit of vanilla, jasmine, rose, and grapefruit flower. Revolution De La Fleur No. 7 is a tropical and floral fragrance comprised of Moroccan ylang-ylang and frangipani.

If these fragrances have caught your interest, you can purchase the 7 x 2ml vials of Eau de Parfum from Sana Jardin Discovery Set here for £30.

APRIL AROMATICS

One of our newest discoveries is the Deluxe Sample Set from April Aromatics. Founded by perfumer Tanja Bochnig in New York, April Aromatics perfumes are free from animal ingredients (besides beeswax), certified organic or wild-crafted, and contain 100% natural ingredients. In addition, the packaging is recyclable! The April Aromatics 7 Chakra Oil Set was a winner of the 2018 Beauty Shortlist Editors' Choice Award. 

With this set, you receive 10 out of the range of 15 fragrances that they offer. Each Eau de Parfum vial contains 2.5ml of the fragrance, which they say equates to about 28 spritzes. These scents are deliciously intense and super long-lasting. To make the choice a bit easier on you, for the summer evenings, we recommend adding Ray of Light and Rosenlust to your list. These two have unique and evocative aromas that we don’t want to ever run out! Ray of Light has notes of lemon, lime, pink grapefruit, and bergamot. A citrus infusion! Rosenlust contains a soft floral mix of tonka, ambrette, and sandalwood.

You can purchase the Deluxe Sample Set of 10 x 2.5ml vials of Eau de Parfum from April Aromatics here for €111.

EDEN PERFUMES SAMPLE GIFT BOX

If you are looking for an environmentally-conscious scent, then we recommend Eden Perfumes. Eden Perfumes is a family-run vegan company from beautiful Brighton. They say: "Botanical cruelty-free perfumes consciously crafted with respect to the planet and all beings." Their products are 100% vegan and not tested on animals. They have similar, not identical, scents to popular ones on the market with over 200 fragrances to choose from, all of the fragrances come in Eau de Parfum strength, not Eau de Toilette! Unlike many others, Eden Perfumes doesn't contain animal notes, such as musk, milk, and honey.

We tried a Sample Gift Box where you can choose your own three combinations. The one that Eden Perfumes sent us contained these three scents: No. 309 Daisy (a floral, woody musk), No. 420 Ispahan Oud (oriental floral; unisex), and No. 475 Neroli (subtly sweet and citrus aromatic; unisex). While those three scents are wildly different and luxurious, we were drawn to Daisy and felt that with its versatility, it could to be worn day through to night. Eden Perfumes has dozens of scents, all of which are very reasonably priced. We deeply encourage you to see the full range for a little spoiling fragrance spree.

Purchase an Eden Perfumes Gift Box of 3  x 10ml bottles of your choice for £21.60 here. Curious about the scents we highlighted? Then you too can purchase a 30ml bottle of No. 309 Daisy, No. 420 Ispahan Oud, and No. 475 Neroli for £18.00 each.

We'd like to give a special thank you to April Aromatics for sending us a 30ml bottle of Rose L’Orange, which we will be reviewing in August. We hope that we have inspired you with our choices. Now get spritzing! 

Mark. Epic Lipstick by AVON

We love to wear brightly coloured lipsticks in the summer and find that just a pop of colour to the lips can not only make us feel good but really makes us stand out amongst the crowd. At The Amazing Blog we have very high standards when it comes to finding lipsticks that we trust. Lipstick must be long-lasting, moisturising, easy to apply and have a smooth airbrushed finish. On that note, we are happy to share that mark. Epic Lipstick by AVON has certainly fulfilled some of our requirements!

Besides their bold colours, these mark. Epic lipsticks stand out to us for a variety of reasons. The first being that they have a built-in primer. This built-in primer offers three main benefits: Long-lasting colour, an airbrushed finish, and moisturised lips. In fact, with just one quick application these lipsticks lock in 36% more moisturise than by having bare lips. Instead of leaving lips feeling cakey, these lipsticks left our lips with a soft and balm-like feel. Their ‘precision tip bullet’ gave a simple clean application to the lips, and the  SPF 15 protection is for us a real bonus.

We were sent six different shades to try, although these mark. Epic Lipsticks are also available in 22 different shades. So no matter what kind of look you are going for, be it casual or for a night out, there is a shade for every occasion. All the classic reds and pinks are available but there are also some more unique colours such as blue, turquoise, grey and purple.  We fell for the shade ‘blue suede’ which is this bold slate blue shade (not for the faint-hearted) perfect with denim or just for taking selfies on Instagram. You can check out the 22 different shades of mark. Epic Lipstick by AVON online, including their two online exclusive lipsticks; ‘Wave Runner’ and ‘Grey Matters’ here each selling for £8.00.