Zao Organic Makeup

If you are anything like me, the mere mention of words such as ‘organic’ and ‘natural’ where makeup is concerned will send your eyes rolling so far into the back of your head they may never return to their normal position. However, sceptical as I am, I recently tried out Zao Makeup following its Highly Commended accolade in the Natural Beauty Awards this year. 

Fact is, until about 5 or so years ago because of all those nasty scare stories about such things as parabens in the Daily Mail and the like that sent the whole cosmetic buying public into an unnecessary frenzy, we really were quite happy with the selection of overly perfumed, and anything-but-the-essence-of-nature beauty products. Since then a whole slew of brands have come out that claim to have been untouched almost by human hands. That the angels themselves (who dine exclusively on pulses and the leaves of trees, of course) have fashioned together the purest and most chemically unadulterated makeup and skincare, which is free from practically everything. I am exaggerating somewhat here, but you get the drift.

However, in the so doing, alongside their zeal to appear not only to fix your dry skin, or colour your face, they occasionally removed all the ingredients that in fact made the products WORK! There were some shocking textures, and colours out there were there not?

“Why yes! It does feel like six day old porridge on my face, but at least I’m not getting any nasties into my system, and thank god it only lasts a maximum of 3 minutes otherwise the sheer joy of trying to scrape this unrefined goop onto my suffering skin 1000 times a day so you could actually see it would be totally lost!” You know the score ...

Well, mercifully there have been several improvements and some attention to details such as lasting power and texture over the last few years, and most of the brands have really upped their game as far as their efforts at claims of being ‘natural’. 

Zao, the new cosmetics brand, available from www.zaomakeup.co.uk I had not heard of at all, till they got in touch, I have to say.

It arrived in these very neat little cotton type bags, fuelling my initial pre conception that again, we were going to be looking at a bit of hippy style makeup. Upon opening them up, a loud ‘Oooooohh’ issued from my lips as the packaging is rather beautiful Bamboo. Not bamboo effect, but actual bamboo chosen for its ecologically sound growth rate and sustainability over say, wood. Almost all of the products incidentally, are refillable also, so points here for being ecologically minded.

To be clear on this, I asked only to see the products that I KNOW are notoriously difficult to get right in a ‘natural makeup’ context, and these would be foundation, lipstick, and mascara.

Firstly, I didn’t receive a foundation, but a compact powder. Fair enough, as I know these can sometimes fall prey to the slightly ropey end of the spectrum too. What can I tell you about this? It’s a powder. Designed to take away shine, is talc free and has a whole host of other ingredients in it that read like an Ottolenghi cook book. One of the most interesting here is Silver. Actual silver. This runs through the entire range incidentally (save for a couple of products such as nail colours) as a natural preservative. Silver I know also has some antiseptic properties so would be a good addition in principle. It goes on well although my only concern would be to use sparingly for fear of looking a little dusty. Overall, not a bad powder by any stretch.

Next up was the mascara. Again in this rather lovely bamboo covering, the Structuring Mascara has a very nice, small precise looking wand, and the formula is not too wet, and not too thick or dry.

Containing Acacia senegal gum to grip onto the lashes, and give it flexibility, and avocado oil to nourish, when on this took a while to dry. So if you use this, be aware of looking up too soon, and save yourself a job of getting it off the top of your eye area there. Getting it off was easy, and there were no reports of any of it falling off, or flaking either. It comes in two colours, black and brown.

Now the lipstick. I asked specifically for a matte lipstick, a) because there are not that many out there, and b) I was interested to see how a ‘natural’ brand would approach this. So, firstly, and call me picky, but the matte lipstick, is not matte. It is a creamy texture, meaning that it has some shine to it, not a lot, but some nonetheless. The colour I used was No 462, or ‘Old Pink’ as it says on the website. A SUPERB colour for a very subtle coat with a hint of pink in it. Would easily suit the most fussy of natural lip colour seekers, and felt really rather good. It lasted as well, is opaque, and was a very pleasant surprise!  The lipstick contains silver, as mentioned earlier, and also has cocoa butter, and pomegranate in it to nourish and also moisturise.

Overall, I am mightily impressed with Zao. The products I saw were of a very high standard, and were pretty much as described. For a brand that claims to be a natural brand, I would be happy to use this on anyone, without fear of having to retouch every five minutes, and also for anyone that is concerned about the contents of their makeup, I can recommend giving Zao a go. 

The website has been translated from the original French in a rather literal fashion, which can bring a smile to your face too ...

Zao makeup is available from www.zaomakeup.co.uk

The Fine Print: PR Samples
 
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Natural & Organic Products Show 2012

I spent yesterday at the Natural and Organic Product Show, and had a great time, this is the third year in a row that I've been, and I thought I'd share my day in pictures with you:

Source

Lovely cosmetics from Terre d'Oc

Nice to see that Lavera have expanded their cosmetics range too.

Yes To Carrots/Tomatoes/Cucumbers/Blueberries

I featured 100% Organics on my blog a couple of years ago, it's really good to see them going from strength to strength.

BM Beauty - lovely cosmetics from an ex-Pussycat Doll.  Very interesting to see that they've shunned airbrushed images in their advertising, too.

Melvita are bringing out a new range of rose-based products, they do roses exceptionally well.

Water-based nail varnishes, and a (scent-free) gel nail varnish remover from Suncoat.

Pretty, refillable palettes from Essential Care cosmetics.

Entirely natural nail varnish remover, based on a coconut solvent from Eden, can't wait to try this one!

Suti is a brand I already know a little bit about, and they have some great products coming out this year.

Balm Balm (one of my favourites) have a range of pre-blended balms for therapists out this year, they smell delicious.

Absolutely adore the packaging of Blend Collective - about as far from the "hippy kitchen" image of most organic skincare ranges as you can get.

Also love the bottles from Napiers.

Lovely new gift sets and tinted lip balms from Pacifica.

Rollerballs from Pacifica too!

I first discovered Pai at the show two years ago, and it was great to see them back this year.  They're doing amazing things lately.

Another shot of Pai.

Tropic Skincare, the brand from former Apprentice contestant Susan Ma.  It was recently announced that Alan Sugar has invested in the range.  Wonder if he uses it?

 Hmn, I wonder ...

Pukka's new range of organic skincare has also really got the packaging right too - and they're good products.

Beauty Without Cruelty have also upped their game lately - I remember them from about 20 years ago, when they had brown eyeshadow, blue eyeshadow, tangerine blush, and frosted pink lipstick, and that was IT.

Samina makeup is very pretty too.

Organic fragrances from Florascent.

 I've got a sample or two from some of the ranges featured, and I'll be bringing you reviews of them when I'm done.  See anything you like?


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Organic Wednesday - Organic Surge

The Background:

A couple of weeks ago, I was one of the lucky winners of a competition run by the lovely people at Organic Surge.  The prize was a girly night out at an exclusive screening of Sex and the City, and, alongside plying us with wine and popcorn, we also all received a goody bag filled with their range of skincare treats.

The Blurb:

I had a great time, it was lovely to meet some of the people behind the brand, and chat to them about how excited and positive they are about the company and what they're trying to do.  The competition was to celebrate Organic Surge's nationwide launch at Boots, which they're very happy about, rather unsurprisingly!   Founder Alan McKenzie told us that it was his dream to produce a range of ethical skincare products untouched by "harmful" chemicals at an affordable price, and that for every product sold a proportion of the proceeds are used to support the Kenya Children's Home and Watoto charities.

What really interested me was that this is a budget range, and yet every product is free of

• Parabens, SLS, sulphates
• Synthetic perfume
• Chemical antioxidants mineral oils, petroleum, propylene glycol
• Aggressive foaming agents

All of which is more than good enough for me to introduce them as my first review for my Organic Wednesday review!  And yes, I know it's not Wednesday, but there have been some refurbishment issues here at Lippie HQ ...

 

The Review:

In my goody bag, I received (full size!) samples of their Eye Gel and Daily Cleansing Wash alongside a jar of their Blissful Daily Moisturiser for Normal skin, which is what I'll be reviewing today.

For what is basically a cheaper brand, the packing of all their products is surprisingly sturdy, the moisturiser comes in a decent size glass jar, which was a pleasant surprise.  Once you open it up, you're greeted with the cheery and uplifting smells of rosemary and lemon oils which is a nice way to start your day.

The cream, in the pot, appears thick and rich, but on application it's actually pleasantly light and is very easily absorbed (in my case, possibly a little too easily absorbed, about which more later).  It disappears readily into the skin, and doesn't leave an oily residue, which is nice.  I also found it had a slight mattifying effect on my skin which I think will be welcomed by some oilier skinned people.  The scent doesn't linger too long after application, which is good, there's not a lot worse than being able to smell your skin care products all day.

The Rating: 7/10 

It's cheap (currently £7.99 at Boots), does what it says it will, and smells lovely.  As a basic moisturiser, albeit one without SPF, it's a very nice one.  I have quite dry and sensitive skin, so I found that it wasn't quite moisturising enough for me, but I'd very happily buy the Super-Intensive Daily Moisturiser version of it instead.  I've been using it now for three weeks, and haven't had any issues with sensitivity or spots, so I'm sold!

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?

Dr Bronner

Alongside roses as a favourite scent, I adore the smell of peppermint, so upon stumbling across a display of Dr Bronner's "magic soap" in the shop nearest my office, my choice of which one to pick was actually pretty easy!

Dr Bronner's soap is vegan, organic, packed with essential oils and it's a fairtrade product too. Simply put, it couldn't tick any more trendy and/or politically correct boxes if it wanted to. However, although the fairtrade certification is new, the soap has been produced in more or less the same way it has been since the company was founded in 1948.


It's available in a liquid or bar form, but I prefer the heft of a decent bar of soap sometimes - that, and I'm currently over-run with bottles of shower gel for some unknown reason - so I decided to try a bar of the peppermint and see what I made of it.

It has a gloriously cool scent, with none of the sugary tones you get in some of the more recent minty products that have been released. Some of them make you smell like a packet of Softmints for some reason. Anyway, it lathers beautifully, and doesn't leave the skin taut or dry at all after using.  The scent, sadly, doesn't linger long on the skin, but that's likely not a bad thing, as it means any perfumes you apply later are less likely to clash.

Dr Bronner say you can use the soaps in around 18 different ways, including as a shampoo, as a laundry soap, and even as a toothpaste! I wouldn't go that far, but I did use the lather as a shaving cream and was delighted with the smooth and silky results! And no scaliness afterward, either.

I really liked it, I'd been put off the product slightly by reading some of the more, er, evangelical reviews about the product that are out there, but as a cheap bathroom treat (my bar cost about £2.79), it's a difficult one to beat.  And any soap that doesn't give me scaly shins after shaving them in the shower is a winner in my book.  I was also sorely tempted by the rose, or lavender, or the almond (smells just like marzipan!) varieties, and I think I might have to invest in a couple of those ones too ...