Eloise - Get Glowed Illuminating Drops

In gloomy, rainy and grey London, seeing a bit of sunshine is a blessing as well as a surprise. While we at The Amazing Blog may miss the bright and shining sun in the sky, who’s to say your face has to lack the perfect glow as well? We’d like to introduce to you The Get Glowed Illuminating Drops by Eloise. Regular readers may remember that we’ve previously written about the Eloise Queen Eyeshadow Palette as well as her well-reputed glamorous Brushes here.

Eloise Beauty was founded in 2017 and has become a brand known for producing unique and innovative products. Taking social media by storm, the brand quickly grew to be loved by many beauty enthusiasts. All products are exclusively designed and created by Eloise Beauty, which instantly makes them stand-out in a very crowd market place. Cleverly they cater for all skin tones and ages, ensuring that they steer away from the mundane and typical run-of-the-mill products and makeup. Their products are also very aesthetically appealing, and dressing table-worthy as well as delivering impeccable results!

This time, we’re fortunate enough to review the Get Glowed Illuminating Drops (in the shade of Ice Queen) and can say with utmost confidence, that Eloise Beauty has in fact delivered, yet again, another quality product. These drops can be added to any liquid foundation, concealer or primer to customise your make up and give you even more of that radiant goddess-like glow.  We used it not only on our face but also on our décolletage and shoulders, to accentuate and highlight. This multipurpose illuminator can be used to enhance any and every look, be it subtle and dewy or dramatic and bold. The Drops are richly pigmented to give you that long-wearing and luscious finish. Did we mention the fragrance? it has a delicious, subtle and hypnotic powdery scent. BTW our favourite way to use these Drops is straight from the bottle to accentuating our best points!

Available in ten colours and shades such as Ice Queen, Copper Bae, Snowflakes etc., the Get Glowed Illuminating Drops will certainly get you to glisten and glow in front of your mirror. Priced at only £28 for 20g, these drops are a must.  See here to get your very own.

Sweet Mary Jane – CBD Infused Luxury Body Lotion

All types of cannabis-infused beauty products are hitting the market here in the UK, ranging from cosmetics to ingestible. Today at The Amazing Blog we’re excited to share with you a budding (yes, pun intended) CBD skincare range.  Sweet Mary Jane is a luxury CBD infused skincare brand based in the U.S. Aside from the hydrating benefits of Sweet Mary Jane’s CBD Infused Luxury Body Lotion, the benefits of the CBD are numerous providing relaxation, help ease anxiety, and reduce inflammation. For those of you less familiar with CBD see our recent couple of features here.

Sweet Mary Jane was founded in 2018 by Dr. Sam Musallam who saw the benefits of CBD as a natural aid to help his patients. Musallam teamed up with his ex-wife Dee Morales to search for locally sourced small-batch products, before eventually creating their own line. Dr. Musallam sadly passed away before the launch of Sweet Mary Jane’s first product, but Dee and her daughter, Mallory are committed to providing their customers with quality, luxury CBD products. Dee has a background in sports broadcasting and Mallory is a gym obsessed sports fan, saw how there was a gap in the market for a unisex CBD skincare, and so part of their mission was to create gender-neutral products. We discovered Sweet Mary Jane at a trade show, and recently learnt that it has already received some beauty industry recognition.  They were named by Beauty Independent as one of the “10 Cannabis Beauty Brands You Should Know” from Indie Beauty Expo - New York in 2019.

Sweet Mary Jane uses a full-spectrum CBD that is processed in small batches in a US health department compliant facility, where all stems and seeds are removed by hand.  As many of you will already know CBD, is short for cannabidiol and as this range is full-spectrum CBD it contains THC.  However, Sweet Mary Jane’s products are legally compliant for the UK and contain less than .02 per cent THC. We’re fans of CBD as we believe that it can help aid ailments such as pain, anxiety, inflammation, acne and insomnia. The other key ingredients included in the Body Lotion are citrus peel, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, squalene, frankincense and extract white tea leaf.

Sweet Mary Jane’s Body Lotion is for all skin types. They suggest liberally applying the lotion for hydrated skin and the many benefits of CBD. The product can be used in the morning or night, but we think that it would be perfect post-bath and before bed to get the benefits of it being as a relaxant. It has a citrus and bergamot scent and contains 150 mg of CBD. If you’re interested in a great body care that will take you from winter to spring, whilst reaping in the many benefits of CBD, then this Sweet Mary Jane’s CBD Infused Luxury Body Lotion is for you. At 14oz (approx 400ml) it can be purchased for $38 here.

Flow Cosmetics - True Expression Chakra Soap & Body Butter Bar

While make-up has the magical ability to brighten your eyes, contour your face and plump your lips. Enhancing your outer beauty, but feeling good on the inside can often be challenging. When you don’t feel at peace, refreshed and energised, it often reflects on your external appearance. Here at The Amazing Blog, we’d like to introduce you to Flow Cosmetics, a brand we recently discovered at a trade beauty show. They are made for your skin but with properties that impact your inner strength, peace and more specifically, your chakras.

Born in Finland, Flow uses active ingredients in its products which are native Finnish wild berries and herbs that are full of vitamins, antioxidants and northern robust energy. Nature has always been a strong and important part of Finnish identity. Finland has the world’s cleanest nature with blue lakes, free-flowing rivers, pristine forests and untouched wilderness. This unique northern energy is conveyed and Flow Cosmetics focuses on giving their customers bright and clear skin, a healthy body and a serene mind. All their products are activated with positive energy because the brand wants to help you empower and strengthen your own energy. Flow products contain therapeutic quality essential oils and the healing energy from crystals, hence making their products to be even more than just high-quality skincare. You can feel and sense the therapeutic effect throughout your body and being, providing care at all levels – body, mind and spirit – just like nature.

We tried out Flow’s new natural salt soaps and body butter bars that are inspired by the seven energy centres of the body. Each salt soap and butter bar represent one chakra with its aromatherapeutic fragrance and colour. Chakras are spinning wheels of energy/light and have the loving responsibility of taking in, incorporating and emanating energy to keep us functioning at optimal levels.

Let’s talk about the products we tried, the True Expression ‘I speak the truth’ Throat Chakra Aromatherapy Salt Soap which is twinned with the Body Butter Bar with clarifying Sage & Peppermint. When the throat chakra is in balance, it is easy to speak the truth and express your feelings clearly. This Chakra’s colour is azure blue and both products smell and feel amazing!

The gentle Salt Soap is suitable for daily use and for hair washing and is made from top-quality organic ingredients. It’s suitable for all skin types, especially for itchy and flaky skin. In addition to skin moisturising organic plant oils, the mineral-rich Himalayan rock salt and arctic wild blueberry seed oil to nurture the skin. Himalayan salt has skin cleansing, detoxing and moisturising properties whereas the blueberry seed oil offers antioxidant protection. The Butter Bar includes specific essential oils with peppermint, sage, roman chamomile and frankincense and is made with organic cocoa butter and organic coconut oil to nourish and soften dry skin.

Priced at €15 and €26 respectively, both the products will be sure to prove to be a worthwhile purchase. It’s a fun way to select from a range of Aromatherapy Soaps and Body Butter Bars is to choose the colour of the chakras that you’re drawn to,  see their official website here.

Ayumi – Turmeric range of Body Care and Shampoo

As you may remember from our Christmas feature, we’ve now been fans of Ayumi skincare products for a while. We previously wrote about their Sandalwood and Ylang Ylang Face and Body Care Range and now can’t wait to share with you their Turmeric Body Care Range.

Ayumi is an Ayurvedic and natural skincare brand that originates from a successful family run business called Fudco, which also happens to be one of the leading brands and suppliers in the ethnic food market. By using natural ingredients with spice infusions and essential oils, Ayumi creates the most magical and extremely effective products. The beauty of the brand comes from the source it was inspired by - the Ayurvedic principals. For those who don’t know, Ayurveda is an ancient Indian philosophy that many scholars believe to be the oldest healing science. Holistic healing is a balance between mind, body and spirit.

Ayumi kindly sent us their range of Turmeric body care and shampoo to review. Each product was excellent to use and their fragrance felt like a warm hug on a cold night. Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, turmeric has long been known as an extremely useful and effective ingredient for skincare problems. In fact, turmeric is often used to aid skin issues such as dark spots, acne or even Melanoma. The products from the range we were sent were Turmeric and Shea Butter Body Lotion, Turmeric and Argan Oil Body Wash, a Turmeric and Bergamot Body Scrub and lastly, Hibiscus & Turmeric Shampoo.

Let’s begin with the Body Lotion; made with turmeric, shea butter, papaya extract, argan and mandarin oil. This Body Lotion is a blessing for anyone who struggles with dry skin, as it is perfect for everyday protection and nourishment. Next up, we have the Body Wash also made with turmeric, argan and mandarin oil and papaya extract. It’s got a luxurious texture with an enchanting citrus finish. The wash left our skin deeply cleansed, refreshed and revitalised. The Body Scrub is a deep cleaning and exfoliating product for combination and blemished skin. It uses ground olive and crushed pumice stones to gently buff away dead skin cells and impurities leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and radiant. Last but most certainly not the least, we have the Shampoo for cleansing, stimulating and restoring your hair’s natural shine and health. The powerful natural ingredients will give fine and dull hair a new lease of life. The brightening properties of turmeric and the regenerative properties of papaya, and amla for promoting hair growth, will nourish your hair leaving it thicker, brighter and holistically healthier. With its glorious ingredients and luxurious set of products, Ayumi has outdone itself with its Turmeric range. You can find the products online on their official website. All the products are priced at an affordable £6.99 here.

PARA’KITO®

There’s really nothing quite like a run around the pond in Hyde Park or an evening stroll after work around the boating lake in Battersea Park, refreshing, energising and invigorating. However, at The Amazing Blog, we’re all only too aware of the dreaded mosquito bites that come with the territory of being near still water. We may get a great workout but then return home covered in itchy bites. This is when we discovered PARA’KITO® to help solve the problem.

According to PARA’KITO®, the world is a wonderful place full of exciting adventures. They want you to embrace this world, go travel and explore - all free from the nuisance of mosquitoes! Hence, the brand has created a new generation of topical repellents to combat mosquitoes and ticks. Cleverly they have achieved the feat of combining a mosquito repellent with extremely effective natural formulations for optimal protection that you can trust.

After several years of research and development with a team of determined biochemists, the brand has created some unique formulations. While traditional mosquito repellents tend to resort to alcohol and chemical surfactants as binders, PARA’KITO®, has incorporated patented technologies with only natural formulations in water-based or dry oil formulas.

The brand has released two key ranges of products.  The first being a repellent for tropical areas and the second is a repellent for regions in Europe. These come as a roll-on and spray product, these include cellulose and clay (ClayCell technology) allowing PARA’KITO® to avoid the toxic impacts of active ingredients through the skin and potentially into the bloodstream. It uses a mineral (clay) and vegetal extract (cellulose) as binders, with no alcohol or synthetic surfactants. These are able to reduce the repellent actives’ penetration into the epidermis, enhancing product efficacy. Furthermore, PARA’KITO® also uses Citrepel which contains PMD in its products, thus setting the company apart from traditional repellent brands. Citrepel is a natural derivative of citronella Java essential oil. It has the highest and most stable concentration of PMD (p-menthane-diol), a repellent very effective on a wide variety of insects, especially mosquitoes and ticks. PMD is the only natural repellent that provides the most protection against mosquitoes. It acts on the sensory receptors of mosquitoes with a level of efficacy similar to the 3 other active ingredients which are synthetic chemicals (DEET, IR3535 and Icaridin). That’s all the technical stuff!

PARA’KITO® have quite a few different types of repellents, one is a Pellet filled with natural essential oils which is worn as a wrist or ankle band. Made of comfy neoprene and comes with two refills that diffuse as a unique cocktail of natural essential oils that effectively mask our olfactory signals. These pellets last up to 15 days and include ingredients of citronella, rosemary geranium mint, clove and peppermint essential oils.

The products we tried were five from the range (see above photo). Let’s start with the Family Spray and Roll On in the green range, which is for Europe. They provide complete protection for the whole family for 8 hours against tiger mosquitoes and 5 hours against ticks.  Whereas The Tropical Spray and Roll On is a stronger formula for up to 10 hours protection against tiger mosquitoes and up to 6 hours against the Anopheles (malaria vector) as well as 7 hours against ticks.  Both ranges come with a wristband too – best for full protection - see here both the Roll-Ons and Sprays start from £14.95 ea. They feel gentle on the skin and smell deliciously of citronella without a trace of anything chemical (i.e. DEET!) Each helps safeguard you against mosquitoes depending on the geographical region that you’re in. What sets these products apart is that they don’t use any artificial chemicals and serve as a brilliant alternative to chemical repellents.

They also have a mosquito and tick repellent in the form of a water-resistant Dry Oil. It has a 6 hour proven efficacy and can be used as a skin moisturiser or after-sun care. This product uses coconut oil extracts, vitamin E and organic vegetal oils, as these moisturising lipophilic compounds have an affinity with the epidermis. The unique HydraActive™ technology boosts the active’s repellence by achieving, at a lower concentration, with optimal and prolonged efficacy. The Dry Oil product is renowned for its moisturising and nourishing properties as well as with highly concentrated of  Citrepel® and extracts of shea butter and liquorice to smooth and repair the skin, priced at £14.95 for a 75ml bottle.  Our favourite from this range? The Dry Oil wins hands down! Head over to their official website here to buy the full range, and protect yourself against these horrible blood-sucking beasties!