Lanolips Lovely Lanolin Intense Body Balm Review

MY skin gets a bit of a battering these days.  As I'm running more frequently, I'm having to shower a lot more than I used to and for me (and my girls) baths and showers are, undoubtedly, one of the causes of dry skin due partly to the REALLY hard water we have in our area.  I regularly use a body lotion in the evenings just to keep on top of things and this Lanolips Lovely Lanolin Triple Buttermilk Body Balm is the perfect thing to put the life back into very dry skin.

The Lanolips body care range features Lanolips medical-grade Lanolin which is ultra pure.  Unlike the other ladies in my family, I'm thankfully not allergic to lanolin so I can really make the most of its highly moisturising and repairing properties. Lanolin has been used for eons as a nutrient-packed moisturiser - even Cleopatra swore by it!  The result of the Lanolin on your skin is a veil of protective moisture that sits on the skin and leaves it feeling smooth and soft - it's a great feeling and isn't greasy or heavy but, for a little while after application you are aware it is there.

Other active ingredients include Vitamin E and milk which are there to make this body balm into a rich, thick and luxurious treat.  The lotion smells sweet and comforting, a little bit like a traditional soap; I actually look forward to applying it before bed (often making the time for body lotion can feel like a chore).  In the few weeks that I've been using Lovely Lanolin, I've noticed my legs and arms feeling a lot less scratchy even after running.

And some of the greatest news for me is that this intense body balm isn't also padded out with nasties - its free from mineral oils (yay for my sensitive skin) and parabens and is also sulfate-free.  If you read through the ingredient list you can see all sorts of fascinating natural ingredients including shea butter, almond oil and even carrot seed oil.

At £13.99 for a 170ml tube, I think this Lanolips body balm is a great beauty buy.

Salcura Bioskin Review

Lara and Holly have both being using Bioskin Junior bathtime products for a while as they are incredibly gentle on their super-dry skin.  This past month I've had the opportunity to try out a couple of grown-up skincare products for very dry skin by Salcura Bioskin - a daily moisturising serum and a daily cleansing wash.

The Salcura Bioskin DermaSerum is made from 98% natural ingredients - it is a light gel-lotion which you apply to your face as a moisturising serum after cleansing.  Unlike many thick moisturisers, the DermaSerum is suitable for use on facial skin which suffers from acute dry skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis and psoriasis.  These days, I do still suffer from dry skin (but nowhere near as badly as I did during the first few years of motherhood!) and from occasional stress-induced psoriasis on my body.  I normally use a thicker moisuriser on my face but I've been reasonably pleased with the moisturising results when using DermaSerum.  I'm actually more impressed with how refreshed and relaxed my skin feels after application.  It's almost uplifting!

DermaSerum from Salcura Bioskin is great for applying to patches of dry, itchy skin and I can understand how its soothing effect would help prevent itching.  I think the relaxing, soothing feeling is intensified by the natural scents from the oils of eucalyptus, tea tree and sea buckthorn.

DermaSerum costs £11.99 for a 50ml bottle.

Sea Buckthorn is one of the primary ingredients of the Salcura Bioskin facial cleanser, giving it an intense orange colour!  This cleanser is a foaming face wash which I have been using in the mornings to wake me up.  Often I find that a facewash can leave my face feeling stripped of all its goodness but I think, because this is a largely natural product with a very low level of foaming (due to it having no SLS or parabens), this facewash doesn't have such a strong stripping effect.  So, even if you are not a sufferer of dry skin, this facewash is a great alternative to soap.

I'm not a big fan of the smell of the sea buckthorn in this cleanser (I know from cookery programmes on TV that its a bit of a love-hate thing) but the scent is certainly very distinctive and Salcura Bioskin products depend upon the skin-healing properties of sea buckthorn berries.  

I think its a great store-cupboard cleanser for me to use on a daily basis.  I can see that, if you are an acute dry skin sufferer, it must be really hard to find a facewash or cleansing lotion that can clean the skin without making the suffering worse.  I'd definitely recommend trying this product if you've struggled to find a suitable cleanser in the past.

The Bioskin Face Cleanser costs £12.99 for 200ml.

World Vegan Month - Lavera Cleanser and Toner Review

You know me, I love a good cleanser and toner combo and what better way to celebrate World Vegan Month this November than with a Vegan Society registered skincare routine from online eco retailer, Big Green Smile.

The Lavera Gentle Cleansing Milk is a creamy cleanser but it isn't thick - just thick enough to stay put on a cotton pad.  It is a very mild cleanser so is suitable for sensitive skins; I've found it effective at removing the general grime of the day from my face but I've yet to give it the challenge of a full face of make-up.  The active, soothing ingredients include organic almond milk and organic mallow flower.  I like it, its everything I look for in a cleanser and, combined with the Lavera toner, makes a perfect first step in my daily cleansing routine. This cleanser currently costs £7.50 at Big Green Smile for a 125ml bottle.

The Lavera Purifying Facial Toner is intended for oily to combination skin but I think it is gentle enough to use on most skin types.  This toner is packed full of ingredients known for their soothing and cleansing properties - ginkgo bilbao, witch hazel, aloe, grape and calendula.  It has a soft, planty scent and leaves my skin feeling gorgeous afterwards.  A great toner like this always leaves your skin feeling a little tighter than normal after its astringent properties (probably the witch hazel in this case)  closes down the pores to protect against dirt. Lavera Purifying Toner currently costs £7.90 for a 125ml bottle at Big Green Smile.

If you are looking for vegan-friendly skincare products then Big Green Smile have a whole host of products from moisturisers and make up through to toothpaste and deodorant.  There are also lots of cleaning products in the Vegan Society registered range of products that includes soap, laundry detergent and dishwasher powder.

Mypure Natural and Organic Running Remedies #bbloggers #naturalbeauty #organic #review

This month, I decided to base my MyPure natural and organic cosmetics review on running remedies.  Having started running in June, I'm now building up my distance and my speed to get me through my 10 mile challenge; after every run my body feels like it needs a pick-me-up so what better way to test out some of the MyPure range of organic bodycare products?  For a relaxing post-tun bath I chose the Skin Blossom Therapeutic Bath Soak and for some TLC where my aches and pains need it most, the Bentley Organic Muscle Balm.

Skin Blossom Therapeutic Bath Soak

Skin Blossom is a new brand for me - I like the look of all of their products but the Therapeutic Bath Soak called me.  My post-run bath is a bit of a ritual and I've been on the lookout for something that would not only help me wind down in the evenings, but also help my legs on the way to recovery.  The combination of Lavender, Rosemary and Ylang Ylang essential oils makes this a beautiful-smelling bubble bath although I've noticed that the smell quickly disseminates and I don't really get the benefits of the scent once I'm in the bath.

Aloe Vera and coconut oils make this a gentle and kind addition to the bath with no irritants for my skin.  With over 98.8% organic ingredients it ticks most of my boxes. It is, of course, free from SLS, SLES, ALS, Phylates and Parabens, synthetic colour or fragrance.  The Therapeutic Bath Soak from Skin Blossom is a relaxing bubble bath but I think the short-lasting scent lets it down.  It costs £5.96 from Mypure.

After my bath, I would normally apply a body lotion but recently I've had some really really achey legs.  The tops of my legs feel stronger but this comes with a sacrifice after each run!  I've also struggled with the strength in my lower legs, ever since I twisted my ankle on holiday so the Bentley Organic Muscle Rub is a godsend.  It is a highly aromatic balm blended with natural oils with healing, relaxing properties for body and mind.

Bentley Organic Muscle Rub

The scented oils of camphor, mint, cinnamon, clove and cajeput (similar to tea tree) are blended with sunflower oil, beeswax and shea butter.  The balm is soft and easy to apply and you can feel it getting to work instantly; a gentle warming sensation.  This organic muscle balm is exactly what my legs needed and I'm feeling so much more alive after my runs since using it.  Mind you, the cat isn't so much of a fan and runs away from me after I've applied it!  The Bentley Organic muscle balm costs £7.20 for

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Edition Edelweiss Cosmetics Review

I am a self-proclaimed lover of luxury cosmetics AND also an enthusiastic user of natural, organic and gentle cosmetics - quite often these two loves are at loggerheads with one another and it is unusual to find a luxury cosmetics brand that I feel pulls off the 'natural' or 'organic' thing well.  I think this Edition Edelweiss range of luxury skincare products is about as close as I have yet come to an effective, luxury skincare regime that ticks plenty of the natural cosmetics boxes.

Edition Edelweiss cosmetics are made by cosmetics company Siin in Austria using the iconic Edelweiss flower (organic, of course).  The Edelweiss plant was chosen for its naturally occurring active ingredients which have an antibacterial effect, are high in antioxidants. This rare and protected plant species includes ingredients which help with skin tightening and stimulate blood circulation and encourage cell renewal - perfect for reducing the signs of ageing.  An added bonus is that the products are free from parabens so suitable for sensitive skins.

I tried out this duo travel set of cleanser and moisturiser to get a feel for the Edition Edelweiss range.  Both products had that 'feel' about them that a luxury skincare brand does - a silky special feeling that reminds me of the very first bottle of big-brand cleanser that I saved up my hard-earned pennies for.  The Edition Edelweiss Milky Cleansing is a very gently foaming face wash which is perfect for use at the start of the day.  A facial wash has been part of my skincare routine for a very long time and this is as good as any I've tried, leaving my skin feeling squeaky clean, tight and ready for the day.

To follow up the cleansing wash I've been using the Edition Edelweiss 24 Hour Essence Cream which is almost mousse like in texture.  It is recommended as both a day and night cream (boasting 24 hour moisturisation) but I think I most prefer to apply it during the morning because it is such a light moisturiser that I barely feel that I have it on. Beyond the alpine spring water and edelweiss extract, this Essence Cream boasts aloe vera, olive tree, goji-berry, wheat germ and jojoba oil.  The ingredients are all clearly there to help kick start your skin into doing the things that it needs to do to start combating the signs of ageing.  So, while I don't come away from my Edelweiss experience feeling like this is the most effective moisturiser I've ever tried, I do have confidence that it has changed my skin over the past few weeks and that I've got a new bounce to my skin (but that may of course be the 2 stone I've lost this summer and the new energy I have from running!!!)

You can find out more about Edition Edelweiss on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Korres Santorini Body Milk and Shower Gel Review

Here at Mellow Mummy we are big fans of BigGreenSmile.com, a fairtrade, natural and eco cosmetics hub; this summer they wanted to introduce me to the Korres Santorini range of vine products which they felt were particularly summery.

The Korres Santorini Vine Body Milk is a light yet rich body lotion which is fab for this time of year when you don't really want to be sitting around waiting for a thick unctuous body cream to soak in.  The smell of the lotion is quite phenomenal - the sweet, fruity smell of grapes.  The Korres range is made from grapes that grow on vines on the volcanic ash fields of the Greek island of Santorini and it is the rich soils that give the vines their particularly sweet aroma.  When I first tried the Korres range all I could think of was the smell of fruit pastilles!  It is ultimately summery and reminds me of holidays.

I love this body milk, it suits me well although I wouldn't say that I have noticed any particular improvement in the moisture levels on the skin of my arms or legs, it seems to do an acceptable job of maintaining my current skin moisture levels.  This body lotion is 87% natural and is free from mineral oils, phthalates and parabens.

Alongside the body milk is the Korres Santorini Vine Shower Gel which gets rave reviews.  It is quite unusual to find a natural shower gel with a scent quite so strong as this.  Getting out of the shower after a vine shower gel experience is like opening the door to a room full of fruit!

The Korres Santorini shower gel feels great and smells great and it is also made from 87% natural ingredients.  It foams well (it does contain SLS) and rinses off cleanly.  I would say that after a shower I'm a little overwhelmed by the scent and probably wouldn't choose to follow a Korres Santorini shower with the body milk.

You can find the Korres Santorini range (and lots of other scrummy natural and organic cosmetics brands) at BigGreenSmile.

Salcura Bioskin Junior Bath and Skincare Review

Bioskin Junior is a new range of natural skincare products for babies and children by UK company, Salcura.  The Bioskin Junior range is aimed specifically for children with eczema and severe dry skin which you know by now are occasionally troublesome for both Lara and her little sister Holly.

The Salcura Bioskin Junior range contains at least 92% natural ingredients which means they are a far more natural alternative to steroids and emollient creams. The products are suitable for children and babies from three months upwards and both my 2 year old and 5 year old have been using them for the past few weeks.

Lara and Holly quite enjoy their baths these days and they like to have a nice smelling bath but most bubble baths aren't appropriate as they irritate their skin.  We tried out the Salcura Bioskin Junior Bath Milk which is designed to cleanse, soften and soothe the skin.  It takes the edge off bath water (especially in our hard water area) but unlike some of the grown up bath milks I use, this one doesn't leave a slippery scum mark on the bath afterwards!

I LOVE the scent of the Bioskin Junior bath milk, it is a light, summery scent of the active soothing ingredients Lavender and Chamomile.  The bath milk is ideal for really really sore skin conditions because it helps to fight off infection from open sores and helps to soothe the pain.  I can also smell the calendula in this bath milk which reminds me of the summery smell of my garden right now which is packed full of beautiful yellow calendula plants.  The bath milk costs around £7.99 for a 300ml bottle.

We have also tried the Salcura Bioskin Junior Conditioning Shampoo for babies and children.  Shampoo is a big issue for us because most gentle baby shampoos aren't really very effective now that both girls have quite a head of hair to clean but most of the brightly coloured high-street brands of kids shampoos are packed full of chemicals which definitely contribute to the dry skin on Lara's back and arms.  After a couple of weeks of use, I didn't feel that the Bioskin Junior shampoo was effective on my eldest daughter's hair (it left her hair very tangly) but I think it is great for my youngest daughter as has much shorter hair which doesn't need as much conditioning.

The shampoo also smells of Chamomile and Lavender (but quite as strongly!) and it leaves Holly's hair smelling gorgeous.  It very gently foams on the hair and is easy to rub in to the scalp.  I think it would make a perfect baby shampoo as you can tell it is light and gentle as you use it.  The soothing properties of the natural ingredients would help to soothe cradle cap or dry and itchy scalps in young children.

The Conditioning Shampoo costs around £6.99 for 200ml.

Salcura skincare products are available in pharmacies and online.  The Bioskin Junior range also includes a gentle non-soap cleansing facial wash.  You can follow Salcura on Facebook.

Barefoot SOS, Natural Sensitive Skincare Review

Barefoot SOS is a range of natural skincare products specifically designed for people with REALLY sensitive skin or conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.  The Barefoot SOS range is available from MyPure and this month I have been trying out a couple of these gorgeous natural skincare products as part of the MyPure blogger programme.

Barefoot is a brand I've known about for some time, one of the biggest names in natural skincare, but for some reason or other I've never tried them before.  Although my skin is far less sensitive than it was a couple of years ago, I've got into the good habit of using natural facial skincare products so the Barefoot SOS range seemed perfect.

The Barefoot SOS Soothing Face & Body Wash is a very light, non-foaming lotion which I use as a daily face wash to cleanse my skin in the minutes after I've woken up each morning.  You can also use it as a gentle all-over body wash and in fact, it is suitable for even the most delicate of skin types so I could use it for the girls as a body wash as they both suffer from eczema.

The Barefoot SOS face wash smells totally heavenly with a mix of zingy lemon tea tree oil and floral geranium scents which is one of the reasons why I enjoy using it in the mornings so much - it makes a good pick me up!  Other active ingredients include evening primrose oil and jojoba oil for their moisturising properties and well as chickweed and burdock for their soothing, calming properties.  The ingredients are 98% natural.

Initially I was a little worried that the face wash would be too liquidy and because it is non-foaming I wasn't sure how effective it would be at cleaning away the night's gungy residue from my face each morning.  But I needn't have worried - I think it is a pretty effective cleanser given that it is a natural product with as few irritants as possible.  I think it makes a great facial wash, especially if you have sensitive skin of any sort.  It costs £16 for 200ml.

Next up is the Barefoot SOS Barrier Hand Cream.  I LOVE this!  They call this hand cream "Safety Gloves" because not only does it sooth dry skin on your hands, but it actively protects them against further damage, just like a pair of gloves!

The hand cream is a really nice thick texture, and despite forming a "barrier" over your skin, it doesn't leave your hands feeling greasy, in fact, you can feel it getting to work straight away moisturising the backs of your hands.

As with all products in the Barefoot SOS range, the barrier hand cream is suitable for really sensitive skin conditions.  It is made with shea butter for helping to create that barrier against irritants and against drying agents but also with macadamia, sunflower and jojoba oils for extra moisturisation.

When I first used the Barefoot SOS hand cream I couldn't quite put my finger on the scent.  It isn't floral but then again it isn't really musky... to me it smelled of "plant"!  In fact, the pure essential oils that give it the sent are frankincense and lavender which are both for soothing and restorative properties for both the skin and nails.  The Barefoot SOS Barrier Hand Cream costs £13 for 50ml.

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