trilogy cream cleanser

I remember when I first decided I was going to set up a natural beauty blog. It had been on my mind  for a while so I’d started tearing out ads for natural products from magazines and bookmarking things online that I thought I might want to review. The first thing I tore out to save was an ad for Trilogy Face Care cream cleanser. Funnily enough, eighteen months later I never got around to purchasing it. But when I was offered the chance to try some products by the folks at Apostle I spotted this and decided it was about time I tried it!

I’ve been using this cleanser for a couple of months now so have given it a good and long trial. And the verdict? It’s a great cleanser. I wouldn’t say it’s the best cleanser I’ve ever used but I do like it a lot. The consistency is a light cream which is dispensed from a pump at the top of a brown glass bottle. It effectively removes makeup, including eye makeup, and dirt quickly and thoroughly, without stinging or irritating, although I find I need two or three pumps at least to clean my skin completely. I use this as I do most cream cleansers – apply to dry or damp skin, massage in, and use a warm, damp muslin cloth to remove. My skin is always left feeling completely clean and soft. What I love about this, and other cream cleansers, is that you’re never left with tight or dry skin after rinsing.

Trilogy cream cleanser contains some lovely ingredients too: organic rosehip oil, evening primrose oil, almond, carrot seed and jojoba oils, aloe vera leaf extract, grapefruit seed extract (which I happen to take as a supplement if I’m ill or coming down with something as it’s antibacterial and helps support the immune system) amongst many more. There aren’t any nasties in here either such as parabens and it smells very pleasant. See the full ingredients below.

Aqua (Purified Spring Water), Glycerin, Rosa Canina (Rosehip) Seed Oil, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Cetearyl Wheat Straw Glycosides & Cetearyl Al, Cetearyl Alcohol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Oil, , citrus aurantium amara (bitter orange) flower, Xanthan Gum, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Leaf, Polysorbate 20, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Parfum, Citral, Geraniol, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, *Components of Natural Essential Oils

The one thing I don’t really like about this cleanser is the packaging. Visually it’s fine but the glass bottle has its drawbacks. For one, it’s not good for travel and I also feel nervous about keeping it on my bathroom sink in case I send it flying and shattering onto the floor or bathtub (as I did not long ago with a Neal’s Yard glass bottle, sadly). It’s also difficult to get the bottom bit of the product out of the bottle as it stops pumping effectively as you get about four-fifth’s of the way down and since you can’t squeeze it out, it’s a bit stuck. But glass is better for the environment and for protecting the product so it’s a toss up of priorities really.

All in all, I’ve enjoyed using this cleanser. It comes as a close competitor to my other favourite cream cleansers – Liz Earle, Green People and Pai Skincare – although the packaging does let it down slightly and in terms of overall performance the others also just have the edge. Nevertheless there’s no doubt it’s a good product that cleanses thoroughly yet gently and would be suitable for all skin types.

Trilogy cream cleanser costs £22.50 for a 200ml bottle, available online at Apostle. If used once a day as I do it should last between 2 and 3 months.

The products in question are from a company called Bodycare Luxuries, which you can find on Etsy. You’ll see on the site there are lots of delicious, good-enough-to-eat looking goodies and I got to try two of them. Yippee! First up, the Rose Bath Truffles which are little fizzy balls of smelly goodness. As I ran the hot water and dropped one of these in it immediately started fizzing away like a lemon sherbert, but with the more relaxing and sophisticated scent of rose. There are dried petals in the truffles too which float in the bath as it dissolves, making it look rather romantic. This lovely product contains simple ingredients too, making it a guilt-free pleasure: sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), corn starch, parfum, rose petals and citronellol. You can really notice the shea butter in there – while in the water and when I got out my skin felt silky smooth. It can make the tub a little slippery though so be careful!

rose bath truffles

The next product I had to play with is Bodycare Luxuries’ Rose Soap. This came beautifully wrapped in grease-proof paper, covered with pretty green netting and a simple label, selotaped together, which I thought was charming as it makes youfeel this is a truly handmade product. Inside, the soap is a gorgeous pale pink colour with dried rose petals on the top. It’s shape reminds me of a slice of cake, which almost made me want to eat it, but it definitely smells soapy, so I didn’t. I love it as it has such a lovely, authentic look to it. It smells delicious too (rose again, of course) and works just like a soap should without being too drying.

Just look at how delicious it looks…

Bodycare Luxuries Rose Soap

I’m very glad I finally got around to having that bath and will look forward to the next one now that I have these gorgeous treats. I definitely recommend these products – really simple but totally indulgent and delightful. Find more Bodycare Luxuries products and order on their website.

Tiger Balm

The first thing I picked up was an essential really while in Thailand – Tiger Balm – essential because I was covered in mosquito bites and desperately needed something to relieve the itch. Mosquitoes are obsessed with me; it doesn’t matter how much bug spray I use they fight their way through and feast on my blood. It must be tasty. Anyway, Tiger Balm is fantastic for soothing bites so I always pick it up when I’m in Thailand, although it’s pretty easy to get hold of here too. They have two types: one that heats up and one that cools. I like the cooling one (clear/white coloured) for bites. The brown (warming) one is good for muscle injuries I’m told. The strong menthol smell is also good for clearing your airways if you have a cold. I urge you to buy some if you haven’t tried it!

Organic coconut oil

Next I bought some coconut oil from a market stall in Hua Hin. I thought it’d be useful for removing eye makeup and general cleansing. The 200ml bottle only cost me a few pounds, and if I didn’t have haggling fatigue by that point I’m sure it’d've been even cheaper. It claims to be 100% organic too so that sounded perfect. I used it a couple of times while away and it was great for taking off my waterproof mascara (which I wear only on holiday as it’s such a pain to get off). However, it didn’t survive the journey home as the temperature in the aeroplane hold seems to have completely ruined its consistency. I didn’t really think it through before flying as I am aware that oils change consistency with temperature, although being 200ml I wouldn’t have been able to take it as hand luggage anyway. It has now turned from a clear liquid to a white solid which won’t pump out. I could run it under hot water but I think it’s permanently ruined as it looks so funky. Ah well.

Fruity soaps

Wondering around Patpong in Bangkok (not to see a ping pong show I can assure you!) I purchased two delicious smelling soaps from a lovely woman stall owner. They are handmade glycerine soaps containing herbal extracts and essential oils. Beautifully packaged and absolutely yummy scents – I went for pomegranate and jasmine.

Healing Oil

Last is a Hong Kong purchase which I picked up in the airport as we had time to kill and I was fascinated by the medical and beauty isles – I just had to buy something. It’s called Banjemin Jaminton Healing Oil, recommended for bruises, minor cuts, muscular aches, minor burns & sprains. It comes in what looks like a little whiskey bottle and is the colour of whiskey too, although it assures me it’s for external use only! I haven’t used this yet but am very intrigued so will review it properly when I come to put it to the test.

I’ll leave you with some holiday snaps taken on my crappy 3GS iPhone as my camera decided to break on the first day out there. Enjoy!

View from the Grand Hyatt

A scorching day to see the Big Buddha

View from the top of Big Buddha mountain

Fishing village, Hong Kong

Bangkok long boat trip

Thailand Hong Kong Haul

Last week I returned from a ten day holiday in Asia – first stop to Hong Kong and then for a few days in Thailand. It was amazing, unsurprisingly. Now I won’t tell you what I ate and drank as it wasn’t very Healing Beauty at all. But I will tell you what products I took with me and what I picked up while I was out there. I didn’t do a lot of shopping (which took considerable restraint) but I did buy a couple of interesting bits and pieces.

First of all, what was in my suitcase?

Neal’s Yard Lemongrass Sun Spray

Neal's Yard lemongrass sun spray

I was sent this product by the nice people at Apostle, a site selling a fabulous range of natural beauty products. I hadn’t heard of the site before they got in touch so it was a lovely surprise. Neither had I tried many Neal’s Yard products before, which is slightly surprising as it’s a well established organic brand in the UK. Maybe that’s why I haven’t felt the need to buy something in there yet; I know where the stores are so feel confident I can put it off until next time I walk past.

Anyway, I tried this sun spray before I left for holiday on one of the 30 degree days we were blessed with in June (feels like a distant memory now doesn’t it?). I was very impressed with the results. A) I didn’t burn at all but did develop a nice, natural colour. B) The application is easy and effective: a fine spray of product which evenly distributes on you skin but doesn’t fan out, creating a sticky mess around you. C) It leaves absolutely no white residue or stickiness on your skin, absorbing quickly and easily. D) It smells yummy! (of lemongrass, as you’d expect). So, after this initial road test I was excited to pack this product in my suitcase to help protect me against the strong Thai sunshine that I knew I’d be soaking up.

Well, unfortunately there’s a sad end to this story. On the first day away when I needed to use suncream (the day after the wedding reception we attended, the main reason we went out there in the first place) I was feeling a little worse for wear after partying until 5am and partaking in our Hong Kong friends’ penchant for drinking copious amounts of shots (it would have been rude not to). And so we were heading to the pool to try and clear the cobwebs and while gathering up my towel and bikini, my Neal’s Yard bottle hidden in between the two, I inadvertently sent it flying and crashing onto the tiled floor. Needless to say the beautiful blue glass shattered into a thousand pieces and my barely used product was wasted. Very sad But, I’m confident that even after only one use this is a product I will most definitely be purchasing and using again.

Neal’s Yard Lemongrass Sun Spray is made with 27% organic ingredients and costs just £5.70 for 50ml from Apostle. See their website for full ingredients list and directions.

The essentials: the Gel and Emu Oil

I’ve written about both of these daily essentials before (read all about the Gel here and emu oil here), so I won’t go into too much detail again. I absolutely can’t travel without these two though. Both I use morning and night on my face as healing treatment/moisturiser combo. The Gel is also brilliant for taking on the plane as a refreshing eye treatment to help wake you up when you arrive and an emergency spot treatment (I tend to break out when I’m travelling – probably due to bad food, lack of sleep and poor air circulation). Plus, both products mixed together are the ultimate aftersun – healing, soothing and hydrating skin from a deep level.

Liz Earle Botanical Fragrance No.1

liz earle fragrance

Again, I’ve reviewed this already, so read on here if you want the full review. Although there are some flaws with this product – mostly that it wears off too quickly – it is really refreshing when you’re hot and bothered. I kept this in my bag while I was away and spritzed throughout the day whenever I felt hot and sticky and potentially less than fresh smelling! It’s a botanical scent with a balance of citrus and earthy tones – not at all sweet, which is the last thing I want when I’m hot and sweaty. I have to be honest though; at £40.35 a bottle, I doubt I’ll be repurchasing as the scent really doesn’t last long enough on my skin to justify the cost. I was using it more like a body spray than an EDT.

Murad Vitamin C Cleanser

murad vitamin c cleanser

I got this cleanser free in a magazine a while back (can’t remember which one now). They say: ”Packed with the antioxidant vitamins A, C and E, Essential-C Cleanser provides all the antioxidants that you’ll need to battle the free radicals that increase in your body and on your skin from today’s environmental factors.” The reason I took this gel cleanser with me as opposed to one of my more frequently used cream cleansers is that in hot weather, especially when you’ve been by the beach or pool, I think it’s nice to cleanse with a liquid/gel cleanser and finish with a splash of cold water. You just don’t get that real feeling of refreshment from a cream or oil. This cleanser does the trick pretty well. It smells mildly citrusy which is refreshing and although it doesn’t foam much, it works well with water to lift off dirt and leave skin feeling clean. I’ll be reviewing this in full soon on the blog so will go into the details then.

Badger Cuticle Care Balm

badger cuticle balm

I’ll also write a proper review of this lovely product soon. Containing shea butter, olive oil and castor oil, beeswax, plus lots of lovely smelling things like mandarin and lemongrass, this is almost good enough to eat. And it’s USDA certified organic – yay! I used this to prep my nails before painting them but also all over my hands if they felt dry and on occasionally on my knees and elbows.

So those are a few of the things I packed in my suitcase to see me through 10 days in the sunshine. In my next post I’ll tell you about the things I brought home with me – that’s if I can read the labels

balance

I had an email from a reader recently asking, amongst other things, my reason for blogging about Aveeno products when they aren’t completely natural or organic. A very fair question which lends itself to something I’ve been thinking about recently: what is Healing Beauty?

When I started this blog my primary intention was to track my journey of switching from using chemical ridden products to more natural and organic ones. So perhaps the name was always too ambitious. As I mentioned to this reader, there are only a very small number of products I’ve used and talked about on here that I think are truly healing. Only three or four to be precise. I’ve realised that if I wrote only about healing products I’d have very little to write about!

Although I try to be picky with things I review (you won’t catch me talking about a run of the mill bottle of Radox or Nivea), I’ve become a little more relaxed as time’s gone on. What I’ve found is that while I do want to use 100% organic and natural where possible, sometimes in reality it’s near impossible, especially if you don’t plan well ahead. If you run out of body lotion for example and need to pick something up on your lunch break you’re unlikely to find a good organic product on the UK high street. Aveeno would be one of the few semi natural brands that you’ll be able to choose from (apart from in the very big Boots stores or specialist pharmacies). Or, say you were at the airport and realised you’d forgotten to pack that mineral sunscreen you forked out on from a speciality organic boutique or online store. You won’t find Neal’s Yard or the Organic Pharmacy at the airport my friend. Not the ones I’ve been to anyway.

So I suppose what I’m saying is that life is complicated, busy, challenging and unpredictable – and sometimes we just have to be realistic with ourselves. The best we can do in these situations is make the most positive choice we can and choose the product with the least amount of toxic chemicals and the most amount of good things in it. It’s not ideal, but until natural beauty becomes more mainstream, easily accessible and affordable to the masses, it’s just realistic.

And there’s another important point to mention here and that’s performance. As much as we inform ourselves about harmful chemicals absorbing into our skin and blood streams, as much as we want to avoid parabens and sulphates and everything in between, we must, above all, still use products that work. At least I must. I for one am not willing to walk around with greasy hair because my organic shampoo doesn’t clean it properly or be embarrassed by stinky breath because my natural toothpaste doesn’t freshen it properly. Just as I refuse to give up some of the foods I love like ice cream, even though I know that sugar is bad for me, I make a choice to indulge once in a while in order to feed my soul as well as look after my body. Life is too short to give up on every treat and everything that makes us feel comfortable, beautiful and at ease in our own skin. And unfortunately that doesn’t always fit in with a completely natural/organic/green lifestyle. It’s all about balance in my opinion. That’s the Libran in me I suppose but I think it applies to us all. The best we can do is try to be as good as we can most of the time, and when we slip up, forgive ourselves and try to do better next time. That’s just life isn’t it?

So, perhaps my blog should be called ‘healing-beauty-in-an-ideal-world-or-else-the-best-alternative’. But that wouldn’t be very catchy would it?! I really hope though that no one feels I’m being misleading with either my blog title or the products I review on here. I try extremely hard to be completely honest in my opinions about a product’s performance and spend significant time doing my research when it comes to analysing the ingredients. Aside from an obsession with balance I’m also a compulsively honest person so wouldn’t ever try to mislead anyone intentionally, so I hope that this post helps clear up my perspective on natural/organic products, balanced with the reality of life.

My hope is that through this blog, at the very least, I encourage people to question the skincare and cosmetic purchases they make, perhaps taking the time to read ingredients lists before they buy and not taking every over-zealous marketing claim as gospel. I hope that the more people read, the more they reassess the products they use every day, realising that there are other options out there which could help reduce the amount of toxins that they put onto and into their skin and which they might really love using. And I hope, above all, that you enjoy reading.

I’ve been very pleasantly surprised therefore that the majority of the natural cleansers I’ve trialled so far I have really liked. Many I would repurchase and if I didn’t have a blog, perhaps I would’ve stopped looking. I could easily live on Green People‘s Gentle Cleanse or Liz Earle‘s Cleanse & Polish for the rest of my days. Pai Skincare‘s is another fave. However I do have a blog and feel obligated to try more! I’m always on the lookout for new really effective facial cleansing products, ideally with quality natural ingredients. Currently I have half a dozen (at least) which I’m in the process of experimenting with. So I’m going to do a series on cleansers over the next few weeks, at the end of which I will create a ‘league table’ of my favourites (including the ones I’ve already reviewed).

First up: Nutriganics Bodyshop Softening Cleansing Gel

bodyshop nutriganics cleanser

I haven’t shopped in Bodyshop for years but I was in there recently buying a friend some baby shower gifts from their baby range (hard to believe my friends are having babies already but that’s another story!). Of course when a new ‘organics’ range caught my eye I couldn’t help picking something up for myself too. All in the name of research for you lovely readers of course!

I say ‘organics’ in inverted commas because I just assumed it was based on the name (‘Nutriganics’) and the ECOCERT logo in the top right corner of the packaging. Although I confess I reached for this without really looking at the ingredients because I was in a rush. Having gotten it home however, that’s the first thing I went to do, but found the ingredients weren’t on the back; they are hidden under a peel-back sticker.

That annoys me to be honest. Especially when it comes to purchasing organic and natural ingredients, customers should have full and easy access to ingredients information in my opinion. Now I suppose I could have peeled back the label in the shop althoughI doubt very much they’d have appreciated that. So why hide the information Bodyshop? If you’re proud of your product you should display your ingredients openly.

When you do pull the label back you’re faced with difficult to read (small, light grey) text. But here’s what’s in it. It’s just lucky I have 20:20 vision otherwise there’s no way you could read this. I’m actually really straining my eyes to type this but here goes:

Pelargonium Graveolens Flower Oil*, Citronellol, Arginine, Buddleja Davidii Extract*, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Flower Extract*, Foeniclum Vulgare (Fennel) Oil*, Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin Orange) Peel Oil*, Vanilla Planifolia Fruit Extract*, Litsea Cubeba Fruit Oil*, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (orange) peel oil*, Sodium Bensoate, Thymus Vulgaris (Thyme) flower/leaf oil*, Potassium Sorbate, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil*.

*ingredients from organic farming.

Ouch. My eyes actually hurt now! I think I need a nap.

Now not only have I given myself sore eyes for this review, I’ve also looked all these ingredients up in the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Database to check their toxicity rating. Most of the ingredients get a thumbs up: either 0 or 1 on the scale – meaning no known toxicity properties to worry about.  There were two ingredients which came out on the ‘moderate toxicity’ scale though:

Citronellol (a “naturally ocurring scent ingredient derived from plants such as rose, geranium and lemongrass”) comes out at a 4 ( safer end of the ‘moderate hazard’) – potentially an irritant but not a real nasty.

Potassium Sorbate came out at 3. It’s used as a preservative. According to the Skin Database it’s a potential allergen and there’s ‘strong evidence’ it’s a human skin toxicant. The good thing is it comes towards the end of the ingredient list meaning the quantities are presumably quite small. It also fairs better than parabens – the most common type of preservative used in cosmetics – most of which which are ranked at 5 on the scale.

The product claims that 45% of the total ingredients come from organic farming (the ones with stars above) which are certified by ECOCERT; and that 99% of the total ingredients from natural origin. It’s a bit confusing though when you look at the list above as the overwhelming majority are starred, meaning from organic farming – so 45% seems strange. It must mean that there is quite a high concentration of the two non-starred ingredients which come near the beginning of the list – one of which is Citronellol – so that’s not ideal. But in general I’d say there isn’t anything to really worry about with these ingredients. It’s more the fact they don’t openly disclose them which annoys me.

But enough about the ingredients; what about the cleanser itself, you’re wondering? Well, I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. I am not a big fan of the smell. I think it’s the vanilla which I find a bit overpowering and contrary to what they say, not very refreshing. Refreshing to me is zesty citrus not sickly vanilla, but anyway. The texture is a gel-to-oil, which is quite nice – soft and creamy. You are advised to apply to dry skin, moisturise in then remove with water. I find it’s not that great at removing makeup however and need to use a muslin cloth to feel I’ve cleaned everything off properly, plus remove my eye makeup separately first. And even then I don’t really feel very refreshed and clean.

So, it’s a bit of a ‘meh’ from me. It’s OK but not something I’d repurchase I’m afraid. I stuck with it for a week but after that have returned to old favourites which is a sure sign it’s not for me. Sorry Bodyshop, it looks like I’m not going to be paying a return visit any time soon I’m afraid.

In the meantime, you can read some more of my ramblings on a new blog I’ve started if you so desire; it’s about social media, so a very different kettle of fish to this one. It might not be your bag at all but I just thought I’d let you know anyway. Let me know what you think.

And see you soon for more healing beauty!

First up -

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Lotion

aveeno skin relief body lotion

Aveeno’s Skin Relief is designed for extra dry skin – especially for use during winter. Since my skin is always on the dry side and I suffer from Keratosis Pilaris on the back of my arms (little rough, red dots), I definitely need something very moisturising, especially in winter when the condition worsens and central heating also really irritates my skin. Skin Relief is a life saver for me. It’s the only thing I’ve found which calms the redness down on my arms and is an overall incredibly nourishing moisturiser.

This lotion contains shea butter which is known to soothe dry, itchy skin, plus their ‘triple oat formula’ of ‘naturally active oats, oat oil and oat essence’. It is fragrance free which is great for sensitive skin as much less likely to irritate. The formula is thick and rich and takes a minute to absorb, which I like as I don’t trust lotions which seem to get sucked into your skin, leaving no trace at all. I find something which leaves a slight tackiness or sheen is actually far more protecting and long-lasting. So this isn’t something that bothers me. However if you don’t have very dry skin and want something a bit lighter, especially in summer, this might not be for you. Which brings me onto the next specimen…

Aveeno Daily Moisturing Lotion

aveeno daily moisturising lotion

As a slightly lighter alternative to Skin Relief, I’d definitely recommend Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion. The two lotions are quite similar but this is definitely lighter and sinks into the skin a little quicker. So it’s a great everyday option in summer, or if your skin isn’t particularly dry.

This lotion also includes soothing and moisturising oatmeal extracts and emollients, which protect skin from the elements and prevent water loss, allowing it to replenish itself. It’s also claimed to help soothe eczema for up to 24 hours. It’s fragrance free and non-comedogenic so won’t clog pores (same as Skin Relief) so is great for sensitive skin. This gives me plenty of nourishment in summer and is great in the mornings as sinks in quickly, while still leaving you with the feeling you’re being protected all day long.

Aveeno Cream

avenno cream

Last winter I got quite run down with a cold, made worth with all the exposure to central heating, wind and cold, the skin on my face, especially around my rose, was red raw and flaking. I went to my pharmacy to buy some cold fighting supplements (Goldenseal if you’re interested) and was recommended Aveeno Cream. This is a similar formulation to the other above products but more concentrated and suitable for the face – it’s not greasy. I plastered this on my dry nose and cheeks; it didn’t sting at all and helped hugely in repairing and soothing my dry skin. I also felt it gave me a layer of protection which was preventative against the problem getting worse when I went out in the cold, windy weather. This would be a great product to soothe sunburn too – so not completely unseasonal advice!

I’m a big fan of all the Aveeno skincare products that I’ve tried. Despite branching out and trying many others, they’re still firm favourites. What are your favourite body lotions?

Aveeno skincare is available at Boots and is very reasonably priced, starting at around £5.

Eco Tools is a brand which sells a range of makeup brushes,  bath accessories and skincare products and holds the mantra Earth Friendly Beauty. This means their products are made with highly sustainable and recyclable materials which leave as little impact on the earth as possible i.e. they’re eco friendly. I was sent a number of their makeup brushes to trial, which were the first products developed by the brand; the skincare and other products came later.

Eco Tools makeup brushes

So what makes these brushes ‘earth friendly’? The brush handles are made with highly sustainable bamboo, the aluminium on their retractable brushes is made from recycled materials, and the bristles are 100% cruelty free (made of synthetic taklon).

Also, something which is really amazing and inspiring to me (other brands take note!), is that Eco Tools is part of the initiative 1% for the Planet, whereby they donate 1% of their revenue each year to environmental causes; they’ve chosen EarthShare^® and the Wildlife Alliance. Find out more about the charities and Eco Tools’ work with them here. This is a wonderful thing in my opinion and makes me like the brand ethic through and through. They’re clearly not just jumping on the eco band wagon as a sales tactic, but have really thought about how to make beauty products eco friendly and have a true commitment to preserving the planet.

But above and beyond their ethics and production techniques, what’s really important, as with any beauty product, is that it works! And I have to say I was seriously impressed. From the moment I opened my parcel I was oooo-ing and ahhh-ing at the lovely packaging, and from the moment I felt the brush bristles (the real crux of the product) on my skin, I was in love. They are the softest brushes I have EVER used! Beautifully soft in fact; they do not scratch or irritate my skin at all, even when blending in a heavy look on the sensitive eye area.

Beyond the softness of the bristles, the brushes are a delight to use in every way. They are beautiful to look at and to touch. Everything about the experience is tactile and graceful, making my makeup routine in the morning more pleasurable. And they are useful too. Eco Tools hasn’t just replaced the standard brush set you might have with an eco friendly version; they’ve gone beyond that and really thought about our needs when applying makeup and have come up with designs and products which reflect those needs.

Take their Smudge Eyeliner Brush for example. This little beauty not only has a lovely soft and very workable brush, great for blending smokey eye looks and softening eyeliner, the clever people at Eco Tools have also added a pencil sharpener at the other end with a removable lid that flips opens up so you can empty out your pencil sharpenings and prevent them spilling in your makeup bag when it’s closed. Genius!

eco tools eyeliner smudge brush

From the brush range I was sent the Smudge Eyeliner Brush (£4.99) mentioned above, plus the 6 Piece Brush Set (£15.31), and the Finishing Kabuki Brush, which I can’t seem to find on their website or on Boots but there’a  picture below. All of them are lovely and soft, beautiful to use and very effective. I suppose the one I don’t get as much use out of is the kabuki brush, as it’s just not something I’ve really used before. It is for applying bronzer, powder or blusher and the purpose is to give a very sheer finish; the bristles thin and fan out at the end so it’s a very light touch. It feels lovely on my skin but I don’t have much use for it as I don’t go for a very subtle look really (not that I overdo it but I do like contouring and a nice colour on my cheeks). I need something a bit more compact for applying my bronzer and blusher therefore, which the Blush Brush in the 6 piece set is perfectly suited for.

Eco Tools 6 piece brush set

Eco Tools Finishing Kabuki Brush

The 6 Piece Brush Set includes a Blush Brush, Eye Shading Brush, Eyeliner Brush, Lash and Brow Groomer and Concealer Brush and it comes in a hemp and cotton mix roll, great for travel. This is a great starter kit if you are in need of some new brushes and want to give Eco Tools a try. You can easily do a complete makeup look with those brushes alone. Plus £15.31 for 5 brushes and a carry roll is quite frankly a bargain. You’d easily pay that for one brush alone from most professional or department store brands.

So, there you have it. I highly recommend Eco Tools. They’re a pleasure to use and a brand whose ethics I really admire, which is a tough combination to find. Eco Tools products are available at Boots.com. Prices start from just £4.99.

Happy Birthday Blog

If I sound a little dispirited it’s because it’s with a twinge of guilt that I blog these days, as I know I don’t do it enough and haven’t accomplished what I wanted to by this point. Despite my best intentions I’m still only managing to blog at the most once a week (usually even less) and there is so much more I’d love to write about if I could find the time. I also really want to change the layout of my blog. When I set it up I went for something really simple thinking I could tweak it, but I’m too scared to mess with it without having a clue what I’m doing; I need to find time to sit down, read some tutorials and do it properly and I haven’t mustered up the effort to do that yet!

But enough of the negativity. I am really glad I started this blog and although I haven’t learnt and done as much as I wanted yet, I have made inroads into changing my beauty routine to a more natural one, and have discovered some brilliant natural and organic brands in the process. Not to mention I’ve made some brilliant fellow blogging friends along the way!

So to commemorate (belatedly) this blessed day, I thought I’d tell you some of the most memorable and significant things which have happened during my first year of blogging.

#MacRodarte

Something that happened quite early on in my blogging career was unexpected to say the least. One Sunday I noticed a discussion happening on Twitter which caught my attention as it referenced the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, an area I spent months studying at university when writing my dissertation on the US-Mexico border area. It turned out MAC (makeup) had teamed up with fashion house Rodarte to create a makeup line ‘inspired’ by the area, which is infamous for violence, bloodshed, drug wars and the rape and murder of hundreds (possibly thousands) of women. (Apparently amongst all of that they found something beautiful about the ‘ethereal landscape’ that would translate well as a nail varnish.) Thinking this wasn’t the most tasteful of ‘inspirations’ for a makeup line, a few bloggers, led by @CarolineHirons , decided to write a blog post at the same time that evening in protest, hoping to get MAC’s attention. Of course I decided to join them.

Anyway, I won’t go into the whole thing again now, but it was a rather epic few weeks for me. I felt I’d somehow found myself at the forefront of a political battle, completely unexpectedly, and for once when it came to something political I actually knew something about it!  That made me feel that in a weird way, fate had something to do with it. It was such perfect timing that I’d recently joined Twitter, connected with loads of beauty bloggers and started my own blog, just in time to take part and give my two penneth on the issue. Because of all the research I’d done in the past, I also knew already of many of the main non-profit rights groups in the area, who I contacted to tell them about what we were doing and what MAC/Rodarte had planned. Hearing their gratitude was so touching.

If you missed the whole thing and you’re interested in finding out how the power of beauty bloggers and Twitter encouraged MAC to drop the makeup line and donate their projected profits to the women of Juarez, read the story here. You can also read my dissertation on the Women on the Border website if you want, which also has some brilliant articles and information about the violence against women in Juarez. I am also going to make it my mission this month to recontact those organisations and see if any of that money has made it to the places it was supposed to. I’ll let you know what happens.

Finding new natural brands

Since this was one of the main purposes of the blog in the first place, I’m glad to say I’ve been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to try and review some brilliant natural and organic beauty products from brands I may otherwise have never heard of over the past year. I will do another more detailed post on my favourite products and brands to date, but here’s just a quick list of some of the things which have become my beauty staples: Green People’s Gentle Cleanse, pretty much anything from Liz Earle, Balm Balm’s Baby Balm, Burt’s Bees lip balms, Naked Bodycare’s shower gels and hair products, RMS Beauty and Bare Escentuals makeup, Lavera Sun Spray lotion, Happy Hair Days shampoo and conditioner…amongst so many others. My routine isn’t 100% natural yet, but I am getting there and having a lot of fun trying out new things along the way.

Joining the beauty blogging community

One of the best things about starting a blog has definitely been ‘meeting’ so many brilliant people, sometimes in person, but often just via Twitter. There are some really special people who I feel I know, although have never met and others I have met, which is always weird but wonderful. I work in social media so my day job has always involved reading blogs and talking to bloggers (the best part about it), but there’s something very different and special about being on the ‘inside’. The support and friendship that I see on Twitter is amazing; it’s a really lovely community and I’m happy to be a part of it, even though I don’t have the time I wish I did to read and comment on blogs and chat on Twitter.

Goals for this year? Mostly I just want to blog more, to do which I need to make a bigger effort to fit it into my schedule. There are lots of products I am looking forward to reviewing as well as other things I want to write about, so I am determined to make the effort. Here’s to another, even better blogging year!