Organic Wednesday - Plant Love II: The Review

I already said a fair bit about Plant Love during the makeover part of Organic Wednesday, so this won't be a long post!  I've tried a few ranges of organic colour cosmetics recently, and I have to say that Plant Love is definitely a cut above as far as I'm concerned.  The colours in the eyeshadows are strongly pigmented, they're easy to apply and blend plus the colour selection is wider than the usual round of sludge colours you get in some organic/natural ranges. Genna has stated that the Parakeet e/s is one that she's going to use on a regular basis, she liked it so much!

I like the easy to apply lipsticks too, the one we had  (Joshua Tree) was shimmery without being frosted which is spectacularly difficult to pull off, staying power seemed about average, it had to be reapplied after a couple of hours, but we didn't have any issues with dryness.

For me though, the stand out product has to the Natural Baked Illuminator.  There are three of these in the range: Earth, Wind and Fire.  Earth is a selection of bronzing shades, Wind has a hint of subtle pink blush with the bronze and Fire has a gorgeous bright pink blush in there.  I have Wind (if you'll pardon the pun) and I've used it every single day since it arrived, it's perfectly pigmented, and makes your skin just glow, I adore it, and it's now a makeup staple of my very own.  Just swirl your blusher brush over the marbled powder and either use it as you would your blusher, or use as you would a bronzer (for Earth and Wind) for a brightening effect.

I do have to say that I think the packaging is a bit of a misfire, I love the fact that it's all vegetable based and compostable, but these are actually serious cosmetic products, and whilst the pink packaging is pretty, it's a little too "girly" and makes the items look cheap.  That said, I'll be investing in at least the other two illuminators, and a couple more of the lipsticks, pretty soon.  I've discovered that blusher is a lot more important to my make up bag than I ever previously suspected!  The range starts from £10 and is exclusively available from Puresha

Organic Wednesday - Makeover Special!

So, something a little different this week.  As promised, every Wednesday I'll be seeking out and reviewing organic beauty goodies, but this week I'm bringing you a makeover first, and a full review later.

I've heard a fair bit about Plant Love over the last few weeks, and when Puresha offered to send me some of their range of cosmetics to try in a makeover, I jumped at the chance!  Plant Love is vegan, free from paraben, phthalates, petro-chemicals, and synthetic dyes and fragrances.  I love the fact that all the packaging is compostable, and is manufactured under carbon-neutral conditions, it makes my inner hippy happy.  I don't let my inner hippy out much, she tends to disagree with my inner control freak, but I'm digressing a bit here.  So, on with the makeover!

Meet Genna:

Genna's been offering to sit for a makeover session for weeks, but as she's a vegan I've been waiting for the right opportunity to come along, Plant Love seemed like an ideal fit.  Genna already has an excellent beauty regime of her own, but when we were planning this session one idea kept coming up: "California Beach Babe", and as that's what she wanted, that's what she got ...

First off, we used Genna's normal foundation as a base - looking tanned and glowing doesn't necessarily mean looking like a tangerine, then started straight in using PL's eyeshadow in Parakeet:

It's a lovely coppery shade, that makes Genna's blue eyes a lot brighter.

 

Once that was in place, we defined Genna's top lid with PL's eyeshadow in Sparrow:

 

Then we added a layer of eyeliner in bronze to her lower lids:

A layer of Genna's usual mascara (sadly, the Plant Love line doesn't carry a mascara, which is a real shame judging by the quality of the rest of the products), and we also added a little definition to Genna's eyebrows:

Genna's eyes were now finished, and we were ready to add more colour.  Using Plant Love's Natural Baked Illuminator in "Wind", which is a bronzer, blush and highlighter in one, I used it on Genna's cheekbones and temples, then added just a touch to her nose and chin for a bronzed effect:

Naturally, no look is complete without lipstick so we added a (very light) layer.  For this look we had chosen Joshua Tree which is a lovely shimmery pinky-brown:

And we're done!  Here's the finished look:

Subtle, simple, and softly glowing, I think it looks great.  Have a look at the before'n'after:

If you click on any of the pictures, you can see an enlarged version of them, please do! I'd like to thank Genna for being so patient, Puresha for being so generous, and the lovely Neville Fenn for taking today's wonderful pictures.

Full reviews of the products used will appear tomorrow, but I can let slip that both Genna and I have adopted at least one of these products as new daily staples, they're great!

Organics - A new series

Long gone are the days where I could slap just any old thing on my skin and pay no heed to the consequences.  Too many years of recklessly painting myself with the most chemical-laden and powerfully-perfumed old muck - then using the equivalent of paint stripper to take it off - has left me with a face that breaks out and flares up into welts and red scaly patches if I so much as look at certain skin care ranges these days.

I pay a lot of attention to the labels on my products now, and, chances are, if the label states it contains parabens (particularly in eye creams) or SLS (lauryl or laureth) then it's highly unlikely that I'll be able to give that product the time of day.   Cleansers in particular have been a mine-field, foaming ones burn my face and make me red and scaly, and creamy ones make me break out really, really badly. That's why I'm really happy at the moment that organic ranges of skin care are becoming a lot easier to find - and, as the organic revolution moves on, they're becoming a lot more affordable too.

With websites like Puresha making the more high end "cult" lines such as Pure and True or Pai (they are also the exclusive suppliers of Cargo's Plant Love range of organic make up - which is beautiful, and funkily packaged!) easier to get hold of, alongside a  proliferation of affordable ranges such as Organic Surge coming to the high street it's never been a better time to be a sensitive skinned soul.  So I'm planning on trying out a few products, and bringing you my reviews of them over the next couple of months.  Some of the brands you will have heard of, but some of them might be new to you, but it'll be fun trying them out, and letting you know what I think.  I've already written about Dr Bronner, which I adore, here

Since I moved to using more natural products, my skin has never been better. Instead of spots being a weekly (and multiple) occurrence, I now get maybe two or three a year. Them being more rare never stops it being a drama when they do pop up though, I have to say! And I only get red, scaly, itchy skin when I know I've been really neglecting my routine.  Welts are no longer a fact of life.  Of course, a large part of this is because I'm actually better at taking my make up off before I go to bed now, but, it can't be denied that when I go back to using the - expensive - ranges I was using before, my skin simply isn't as well-behaved as it is when I'm avoiding products with packed with cheap chemical fillers and heavy perfumes.

What are some organic products that you've used, and which really work for you?

Review - REN Rose Otto Bath Oil

It's been a funny old week. I got a job offer out of the blue, which caused much soul-searching as I've only just started a new job. This new job offer comes with a shorter commute, more money, and it's back in the industry I love ... A hard decision had to be made - do I leave my cushy new job, and go back to the private sector, or do I stay and spend the next six months wondering if I've made the wrong decision? - and I needed some help making it. After consulting everyone I could get hold of by phone, then asking my adorable Twitter followers what I should do, AND after talking to my boss, I was still at a bit of a loss.

So, I took a bath.

Now, I love baths at the best of times, but, when I'm a bit flummoxed, or just need to escape from the cares of reality for a couple of hours the bath is usually where you'll find me. I do a lot of my best thinking in there, it's a peaceful and comforting place for me. I actually find showers stress me out a little bit, funny but true.

Now, I wanted a nice bath, I needed a nice bath. Then I remembered that last week, I got a parcel of REN goodies from Puresha, so I decided to crack open the Rose Otto bath oil. I confess, I've had a bottle of this before, but it's good stuff. Beyond good stuff, actually. It makes your entire house smell like a rose garden just after a shower of rain, and the smell lingers for hours. It leaves your skin lightly moisturised, and, because the oil disperses entirely into the water, it doesn't leave a greasy ring around the bath, nor will you have an oil-slick on the surface of the water whilst you're in there. I hate that so much when it happens.

A couple of hours later, I had a decision made, and was feeling heaps better. REN don't make any claims for aromatherapy effects from this product, but it certainly helped me relax, and all in all, was probably better for me than the several glasses of wine that I would have ordinarily used to chill out ...

I took the job.

Bumper Beauty Week

It's been a great week for beauty here at Get Lippie, and I have some lovely things to talk about, but first of all I want to say a massive thanks to Jo Cruikshank who runs Puresha. On Twitter every day for a week, they ran a competion where just by adding #puresha to any of your tweets you could win a £100 eco-beauty voucher to spend on their simply gorgeous website, and I was one of their lucky winners!

After a wander through their site, I realised it was going to take me a while to decide what to buy, according to their website: "All of Puresha’s brands are handpicked for the way they look, smell, feel and perform on your skin and in the environment" and they stock products from suppliers as diverse as Jo Wood, REN and new celebrity fave rave Pure and True. In totally unlike me form, it took me two entire days, and many changes of basket, before I could make my mind up!

On Thursday evening, I finally got around to ordering Tsi - La natural perfume in Kesu, the Ren Rose Otto trio and the Pure and Simple trial set for normal to dry skin. This morning, Saturday, I was brought breakfast and a parcel in bed, and the goodies had already arrived! This is truly astonishing service! And look:



See that orange box on the top right? A completely unexpected bonus bottle (full size!) of rosewater by Duchesse Marden! I guess someone at Puresha had figured out I like roses, hmn? A lovely touch, none the less, and it's all the sweeter for me as I used to use REN's rose water spray that they had in their Rose Otto range and now seem to have discontinued. Inside that box, there was also a sample size of Duchesse Marden's Damascena Hydrating Masque, too!

So, thank you Puresha, I'll review the products individually shortly ... and I'll definitely be ordering more goodies from you too, I was so spoiled for choice!