Pure Anada - Fresh Cucumber: Hand & Body Wash and Cocoa Body Butter

As regular readers will know, at The Amazing Blog natural products are our thing. And in the wake of the global pandemic, we ‘ve noticed that more consumers are now mindful and ingredient aware when it comes to making their skincare purchases. We’ve also recently received lots of enquiries asking us to advise on the best natural skincare to buy etc. So, in our search for something new to share, we’ve turned to one of our favourite online stores Live In The Light; where they kindly sent us a selection of products from an organic transatlantic brand, the first of which we’re featuring today, meet Pure Anada.

For Candace Grenier, the Canadian founder of Pure Anada, it all began in 2003, when she started a family and changed her way of living into a more environmentally friendly one. This began with changing her household cleaning products and went right the way through to all her cosmetics. Candice discovered a niche in making her own, “I made colours for myself, friends and family.  I was surprised to learn how many ladies were sensitive to traditional cosmetics.  It seems as if our bodies are just saying…’enough already with the chemicals’!  Even more fascinating was that the products I was creating from organic botanicals, and food-grade minerals didn’t irritate their skin at all!” Having always been passionate about creating her own products, she went on to launch a very successful business, making a variety of organic household and personal care products. Candice has high ethical standards when it comes to her products and ensures that there is no child labour or discrimination against women. Pure Anada avoids using toxins and other ‘dirty dozen’ and try to maintain a clean formula with each product they make. All their products are free from common allergens and are derived from natural or plant-based origins; as well as cruelty-free, they don’t test on animals and most of their ingredients are vegan. They have an open appreciation for nature giving their brand transparency through all their products. Today we’re featuring  Pure Anada’s Fresh Cucumber Hand & Body Wash and Fresh Cucumber Cocoa Body Butter.

The Fresh Cucumber Hand & Body Wash is free from silicone, artificial ingredients and fragrance. What we love in this Hand & Body Wash is that this has biodegradable surfactants that are derived purely from sugar and coconut oil making it rich in elements that help to heal dry skin. This gentle Fresh Cucumber cleanser also contains cetearyl olivate extracted from olive oil, which is not only an excellent antioxidant but also a brilliant skin protector. There’s sunflower oil which acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and contains fatty acids like the omega-6, vitamin E. Finally, the other more unusual ingredient here is the leuconostoc/radish root ferment filtrate which provides mild protection against bacteria, mould, and yeasts. Radish root is a great natural alternative to synthetic preservatives. There is no overpowering scent in this Hand & Body Wash, we could only just make out a subtle cucumber fragrance. It applied like a milky lotion but created a good lather to clean and left our skin soft and moisturised. It comes in a convenient 300 ml size and costs £9.50 here.

Next, we have the Fresh Cucumber Cocoa Body Butter which echoes similar ingredients to the Hand and Body Wash. it’s super-rich in sunflower seed and coconut oil, as well as shea and cocoa butter; which will provide your skin with all the protection and moisture it’ll need. Deeply hydrating, it’s the perfect partner to go with the Hand & Body Wash. We loved using both in equal measures - so no particular favourite here. With the summer now upon us, we suggest starting your day by using these in tandem, that way you stay fresh and fragrant all day long! The Fresh Cucumber Cocoa Body Butter in 125ml costs £8.00 here.

Bao-Med UK - Pure Skin, Scalp & Hair Oil and Food Supplements: Hair Skin & Nails

They say that hair is a woman’s ‘crowning glory’ (a phrase that dates back to Biblical times) and we at The Amazing Blog couldn’t agree more.  After all, when you have a full head of shiny and voluminous hair, it makes you feel glamorous and feminine. Today we’re going to introduce you to two products that will help to put that va va voom right back into your hair with the main ingredient focus being from the baobab fruit.  Meet The Pure Skin, Scalp & Hair Oil, and the Food Supplement: Hair, Skin & Nails from Bao-Med, they both work well alone or when used in tandem.

We have introduced Bao-Med previously on in our features here, where we have written about their Pure Soap and Pure Oil Bodywash. So, we were excited to try out more from this brand again. Bao-Med offers natural products with baobab fruit as its key ingredient. Baobab is known as a ‘superfood’ because of its highly nutritious values. The baobab powder is very rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, and vitamin C, making it an ideal choice for your hair health. The baobab tree can live for up to 3000 years and Bao-Med practices sustainability by only collecting the fruit that has already fallen on the ground, thus not damaging the tree. By doing this, the tree will continue to be a great source of the fruits for many years to come. Bao-Meds’ Pure Skin, Scalp & Hair Oil recently won an award in The Beauty Shortlist Award in 2020. What we particularly like about this brand is that all their products are organic and come with international certification. As mentioned previously, Bao-Med's products are made from pure baobab seed oil and vitamin and mineral-rich white powder from the fruit which is used in their Food Supplements. The oil from the nut of this fruit has softening, protective and restructuring properties and which are excellent for skin and hair, often used for stretch marks or dry and damaged hair. This brand’s products have been created to help promote healthy skin, scalp, hair and nails; as the baobab seed oil is renowned for its hydrating and healing properties.

Let’s start with the Pure Skin, Scalp & Hair Oil which is extracted as a cold-pressed oil from the baobab seed. Golden in colour, with the addition of a light fig fragrance, it’s made up of 99.8% baobab and 0.2% of natural fig perfume.  They tell us that 33% of the baobab seed consists of oleic and linoleic acids to soothe and protect.  We found it to be a bit of a ‘wonder oil’ where it protects, heals and repairs with its multipurpose use. Apart from scalp and hair (where it did very efficiently come to our aid of split ends and itchy scalps) it’s also great for skin, nails and lips; where we found it relieved dry skin and quickly absorbed leaving it deeply moisturised.  The oil is rich in omega 3, 6 & 9 and it has the added bonus of these great anti-ageing properties. We loved using it to rehydrate dry and frizzy hair working it into the ends after washing, and lightly massaging into the scalp to help reduce itchiness. You can purchase your Pure Skin, Scalp & Hair Oil, which comes in a 30ml bottle here for only £ 25.00.

Then we have the Food Supplements: Hair Skin & Nails, which helps to maintain a balanced body. The key ingredient again is the baobab powder which is combined with other ingredients such as biotin, zinc and, folic acid, making it the ideal supplement for healthier hair. Biotin, in particular, is critical to healthier hair growth, keeping it strong and shiny. This Supplement is rich in prebiotics too, which helps with gut health and supports a good digestion. Did you know that the baobab powder has four times vitamin C than oranges? Which when you put all this together with potassium and calcium for the wellbeing of kidneys and bones, plus the magnesium which balances the metabolism and prevent diabetes and osteoporosis; by taking just two capsules a day with food - you get full body benefit with just one supplement! You can buy the 60 capsules of this Food Supplements: Hair Skin & Nails here for only £ 25.00. 

Cleanse & Cure - 100% Organic Gold Sea Moss

It is always hard to find the right elements to help us maintain a healthy lifestyle. Today at The Amazing Blog we’ve found something slightly different …  It’s a pure ingredient from the Irish Sea brought to us from Cleanse & Cure.  We discovered from them, that this Organic Gold Sea Moss is thought to be a bit of a natural miracle worker, which is why we wanted to try it.

Sea Moss has been played an integral and medicinal role in both the Jamaican and Irish traditions.  This type of Sea Moss can be found on the Atlantic Coastline of North America, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. It was used by the Irish as a type of medicine in the 1800s and helped to feed the population during the potato famine. Irish Sea Moss is considered as a great digestive aid. Cleanse & Cure use a traditional recipe with wildcrafted raw sea moss, spring water and a little citrus juice to cleanse and flavour. With its gel-like texture, it makes a great agent to heal and soothe the mucus membrane in the body like the respiratory and digestive systems. It can get rid of bad gut bacteria; therefore, it has a prebiotic effect. Sea moss can improve your thyroid functions with its high concentration in iodine, an element used by your own hormones to regulate metabolism, mood, and much more.

It is a great immune booster thanks to the potassium, amino acids, vitamin C and antioxidants. We included it in our version of an alkaline Green Smoothie: with a handful of fresh parsley, 1 x juice of a lemon, 1 x small cucumber (whole), and 1 x apples (whole), ½ a tumbler of spring water and a hand full of ice cubes, all blitzed up in the blender. The one to two tablespoons of this Sea Moss is recommended to take daily. We found it to be almost tasteless and it simply vanished in this smoothie. As a superfood, it can be used as a supplement and is said to contain 92 of 102 of the body’s natural elements, 80% of which are from the important ones. Just like any other natural product, it will deteriorate over time, therefore, Cleanse & Cure advises keeping it for no more than 2-3 weeks, but you can also freeze it for up to 3 months.

With all these nutriment benefits and with it's a gel-like quality its ideal for using as a face mask particular for those with eczema, psoriasis or with skin sensitivity. It is rich in sulphur and therefore is an antibacterial, reduces the excess of sebum oil in the skin and hence less acne breakout. It has all the elements when applied topically to help keep the skin hydrated and enriched in vitamin A, potassium, calcium, sulphur, magnesium, and vitamin K. It can also be integrated into your daily diet, be it for weight loss or other reasons since it contains fibre and is low in cholesterol and fat.  It also contains Algin which is a phytonutrient that has therapeutic values such as a heavy metal detoxifying agent. Cleanse and Cure offers two kinds of Sea Moss: The Organic Gold Sea Moss available in either 750ml for £25 here or 380ml for £15 here. The Organic Purple Sea Moss available in 380ml for £20 here.

Chuckling Goat Kefir Lotions

We’re fans of goat’s milk and one of us here at The Amazing Blog drinks it regularly on a daily basis. Did you know that unlike cow’s milk, the enzymes in raw goat’s milk aids the digestion process? Thus making it more tolerable for not only humans but dogs too! So, we’re pleased to introduce you to our latest #amazingfinds with Chuckling Goat and their Kefir Lotions. These are a series of four different skin lotions which are good for using on the face and body that contain the same award-winning kefir and raw goat’s milk.  

It all started when the founders Shann and Richard Jones were trying to find new ways in which to help their son Benji, who was suffering from eczema and chronic bronchial infections. This is when they discovered that by feeding him goats milk it helped his allergies, and so they went and bought their very first goat! The rest, as they say, is history and in 2014 Chuckling Goat was born. They have found themselves being hailed as gut health specialists, and now have 23 team members, 15 barn cats, 50 goats, and more than 200 000 pleased customers from 56 different countries from all around the world.  They are a UK market leader in the production of raw goat’s milk and kefir which for those of you who are new to kefir, it’s a great immune booster and contributes to functioning the nervous system. Not only that it maintains the normal function of bones and skin and also reduces fatigue and tiredness. We love that Chuckling Goat has already donated more than £100,000 worth of their products to the NHS as part of their appreciation to those on the frontline. These Chuckling Goat Kefir Lotions are all handmade, cruelty-free, and suitable for pregnant women and children over 3 years old. All products are unisex and are primarily composed of goat’s milk, kefir, Finnish oat oil, rice bran oil and olive oil, and are either pure or with a specific essential oil. They are made in small batches by hand on the farm and made from food-grade ingredients. 

First, we tried the Sensitive Kefir Lotion. Made with their raw goat’s milk, it contains valuable minerals, enzymes, and vitamins that help nourish your skin. Its key ingredients are goat milk, kefir, oat oil highly concentrated in antioxidants, and vitamin E, it softens and smoothens the skin. It also contains water and olive oil, this natural oil helps to decrease acne, hydrate, and moisturise the skin, and also contains antioxidant properties, therefore fights the bacteria along with other vitamins such as vitamin B5. This Sensitive Kefir is the only one of the lotions not to contain any essential oils (in case of skin sensitivity).

Next up, we have the Soothing Kefir Lotion this has the inclusion of a rosemary essential oil that acts as a refreshing astringent that helps the skin cells contract and also balances the skin tone. It has an antimicrobial benefit on the skin which helps prevent future breakouts, as well as vitamin B5. The smell is a very subtle rosemary.

The third product to try is the Calm-Down Kefir Lotion which is differentiated from the others because it contains lavender oil. The latter works to kill bacteria on the skin and therefore fights acne and other skin breakouts, it also is known for its ability to soothe eczema and help with dry skin conditions thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties. This amazingly fragranced lotion is ideal dry skin and was our favourite with the lavender fragrance which is so calming.

Last but not least, Break-out Kefir Lotion contains the divine tea tree oil which is known for its focused anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties that can help to reduce swelling and aid in giving a smooth and crystal-clear skin. This fourth Kefir Lotion contains thyme essential oil, a true skin fortifier which offers itchy-skin relief. Studies have shown it to be was more effective against acne bacteria, than the chemical ingredient benzoyl peroxide. The tea tree oil is also believed to be highly antibacterial and is commonly used to treat acne, athlete's foot, lice, nail fungus and insect bites.

With all these lotions having raw goat milk and kefir, it makes them ideal for keeping the right pH balance of the skin with the added benefit of the good bacteria. Let’s not forget to mention that these are free from phthalates, petrochemicals, parabens, dyes or artificial perfumes. These four handmade all-natural Chuckling Goat Kefir Lotions, each comes in 2 different handy sizes, 50ml and 150ml, and cost £8.95 and £17.95 respectively. Or you can buy the full set of four here for £26.95.

Danilo Manco - Gustoso Organic Apple Vinegar

Summer is really here (in between the rain showers!) and what better way to enjoy our new outdoor life than with a gorgeous salad (or a cocktail*) with Gustoso Organic Apple Vinegar.  At The Amazing Blog, all the girls and I love to try new products that have a twist, and we certainly haven’t tried an organic apple vinegar before… 

Sent to us by The Olive Oil Company, this organic apple vinegar is produced by Danilo Manco in Italy. The term ‘vinegar’ actually refers to the two-step process of fermentation from a carbohydrate to an alcohol and then to acetic acid. Sugar is converted into alcohol, which is then fermented into vinegar. This vinegar comes from the wonderful Modena area in the Emilia Romagna region Italy; and has been made from organically grown apples and then stored in wooden casks.  This process concentrates the flavours while allowing the microorganisms necessary to convert the apples into vinegar to enter the barrels. The longer the ageing time, the better the end product is. The mother apple vinegar (a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops naturally during the fermentation process) turns the alcohol into acetic acid with the help of the oxygen present in the air. NB this is not apple ‘cider’ vinegar it is a pure apple vinegar made in the balsamic style. In order to maintain the delicious taste and natural antioxidant properties of the vinegar, it only contains the best selection of Italian organic apples. These are then turned into a concentrated apple juice and mixed with the mother organic apple vinegar.  The result is both yummy and healthy!  No wonder it received the Great Taste 3-star award in 2019.  

After all the baking and snacking we’ve been doing, a salad which only needs a dibble this apple-based balsamic vinegar is perfect for helping to shed the any extra kilos that might have crept on during our recent lockdown. You can taste the apple making it sweet, tangy and bursting with flavour. Dark brown in colour it is thicker than an ordinary vinegar and has the consistency almost of a balsamic glaze.  So a little goes a long way which is good as this is a luxury item. It combines well with scallops and prawns as well as adding it into strews.  Also, perfect drizzled on strawberries or in *cocktail such as this ‘Apple Vinegar Vodka Sipper.’  Take 30g of apple juice, 30 g of vodka and one teaspoon of GUSTOSO Organic Apple Vinegar. Add crushed ice and mix in a cocktail shaker, then serve and garnish with grapes on a cocktail stick. Delicious! So go forth and take the flavour of your next salad to a new level by buying a bottle here for £13.50 (200ml) of the Gustoso Organic Apple Vinegar.