A’kin Jojoba & lavender light conditioner review

A’kin is part of the purist company from Australia, you can find more info about the company and products on their website http://purist.com/products.php they use the purest botanical ingredients in their products. All A’kin products are free from sulphates, ethoxylates, parabeans, silicones, petrochemical cleansers, & artificial colours.  

I have been using A’kin products since the end of last year, so I knew what to expect with this product. The jojoba & lavender conditioner is formulated for “normal, fine, & oily hair” on the bottle it promises “light conditioning & natural lustre whilst improving the vigour of your hair and scalp. Your hair will have body be silky soft, shiny & manageable”. The artwork on the packaging feels very polished, a hand drawing of the plant, and script font with a description. The back has the usual directions, info, and ingredients.

I have been testing this product with the A’kin Lavender dry & damaged hair shampoo and the L’oveaBio L’Argan Shampooing brilliance for over 3 weeks. With A’kin’s shampoos it is a must to use a conditioner after shampooing your hair, because it tangles really badly when you wash the hair.

The conditioner has a nice creamy texture and the scent of lavender is natural and not artificial, I love inhaling the scent it’s such a nice feeling. The bottle is dark green and with a pop cap. I once left a bottle of shampoo underneath the bed and all of the contents leaked. So be careful with where you store the product. The conditioner instantly detangled my hair from the A’kin shampoo, with the L’ovea shampoo my hair was not tangled after washing, and the combination gave my hair some extra shine. This is the only conditioner I have used that advise you to massage into the scalp. The problem with this conditioner is that it did not give me enough softness, hydration and made my hair greasy quicker then usual.

After styling and blow drying the hair, the condition seem normal, it left a moderate shine to my hair. After 2 days my scalp started to smell and started to get greasy quicker then usual. I have used the other A’kin conditioners in the past and have not experienced the same problem compare to the light conditioner. My hair is normal to dry and has many layers and the length is just above my shoulders. This product promised silky soft hair but unfortunately I did not achieve such results.

Here is a picture of my hair after washing it with A’kin shampoo and conditoner.

 If you have normal to dry hair like me use the Avocado & calendula re-moisturising conditioner, it works far better and does not leave the hair greasy. Although I personally will not repurchase this conditioner I do highly recommend A’kin Lavender shampoo and A’kin avocado & calendula conditioner for normal to dry hair.

A 225ml bottle cost £7.49 and is available from my pure http://www.mypure.co.uk/akin-hair-care-b2/jojoba-lavender—conditioner-p13

EOS Lemon drop spf15 Lip balm review

EOS stands for evolution of smooth

eos lip balm is 95% organic, 100% natural, and paraben and petrolatum free. Packed with antioxidant-rich vitamin E, soothing shea butter and jojoba oil, eos keeps your lips moist, soft and sensationally smooth.

I saw this lip balm been used by a few guru’s I watch on YouTube, they really hyped the product. In the UK it is rare to find this in stores; I brought mine from urban outfitters for £6. I think it might be discontinued now.

http://www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk/EOS-Lip-Balm-Ball/invt/5763466561000&temp=tellafriend&bklist=

I brought the lemon drop version with SPF15; the packaging is very unique compared to other lip balms on the market. When i whip this out i do get asked “what is that?” An egg shape dome with a twist top cap, unscrew the cap and the lip balm is also moulded to a round shape. All you need to do is glide the product onto lips; it does smooth on application but dries my lips in a matter of hours. The smell is gorgeous it reminded me of lemon bon bon sweets or lemon drops. I have been testing this for over 3 weeks but found my lips dried out more and cracked, although this product is 100% natural it just didn’t work for me. The lip balm is 0.25oz (7g) in size.

Topshop Kohl eyeliner in Coal review

I finally got my hands on some of topshop’s makeup range eyeliner, I was always debating if I should take the risk and give the product a try, I really glad that I have. I brought 3 eyeliners and also got a free make up bag.

The eyeliner cost £4, 1.27g in size and has a PAO of 36 months that’s 3 years. I had to buy the eyeliner from Oxford Street; most Topshop branches do not stock the full range of makeup. Westfield was totally out of the Coal colour, when I visited.

The full ingredients of Kohl coal eyeliner

Khol - Frost, Coal
CONTAINS: HYDROGENATED POLYISOBUTENE, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL, SYNTHETIC, WAX, ETHYLHEXYL PALMITATE, POLYMETHYL METHACRYLATE, CERA ALBA (BEESWAX), DIPENTAERYTHRITYL, HEXAHYDROXYSTEARATE/HEXASTEARATE/HEXAROSINATE, CERA CARNAUBA [COPERNICIA CERIFERA ( CARNAUBA ) WAX], OZOKERITE, LECITHIN,
TOCOPHEROL, ASCORBYL PALMITATE, CITRIC ACID

MAY CONTAIN: IRON OXIDES (CI 77499), IRON OXIDES (CI 77492), ALUMINUM POWDER (CI 77000), BLUE 1 LAKE (CI 42090), ULTRAMARINES (CI 77007), CHROMIUM, HYDROXIDE GREEN (CI 77289), CHROMIUM OXIDE GREENS (CI 77288), TITANIUM DIOXIDE (CI 77891), MANGANESE VIOLET (CI 77742), YELLOW 5 LAKE (CI 19140), BISMUTH OXYCHLORIDE (CI 77163), CARMINE (CI 75470)

I will be comparing this to MAC smoulder eyeliner, swatching on my hand both eyeliners are a very intense black. Once smudged I notice Smoulder is more of blue black like a carbon black, and Coal is more of a matt black. On my eyelids, MAC smoulder is slightly more intense then Topshop’s Coal. In photos the coal eyeliner looks great in photos. I had a real struggle looking for eyeliner that can photograph well; especially nights when I go out, some eyeliner looked like I have no eyeliner on.

The longevity of Topshop eyeliner is excellent, I took a nap with the eyeliner on and it didn’t smudge, but I have noticed the colour starts to fade as the day goes.

My final verdict, the Topshop Kohl eyeliner in coal, is a great cheaper alternative to MAC’s smoulder which cost around £13. Although it is not as intense as MAC’s one, the Topshop eyeliner is my favourite for mid end range eyeliner and I will defiantly repurchase and buy back ups.

It’s a shame not all Topshop stock the eyeliner so you need to hunt for them, you can check out the full make up range online.

http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=33057&storeId=12556&categoryId=211496&parent_category_rn=208566&productId=1628035&langId=-1

Lovea Bio l’Argan shampooing brilliance review

Lovea is a company from France that specialise in sun care products and ha

s other ranges for the skin and hair. Lovea Bio is a organic hair care range.

Official website http://www.laboratoiresserval.fr/

The product I’m reviewing is the Bio L’Argan Shampooin

g brilliance; it contains 0.3% of

Morocco Argan Oil. Argan oil is known as liquid gold and is known to do wonders to the skin; it contains essential fatty acids, Vitamin E, sterols, polyphenols and other important antioxidants. It has nutritive, anti aging, properties.

Lovea products do not contain any, parabean, silicone, GMO,

PEG, phenoxyethanol, colorants and synthetic perfumes.

Packaging

A brightly coloured yellow tube, the

cap is secured on to the tube, with a sticker label, Lovea trademark fo

nt and a picture of the argan. If I was to past this product in a supermarket I would have thought it was sun screen. At the back of the tube it has brown text with French and English instructions. The product promises to bring health and vitality to dull lifeless hair. The tube is 200ml in size and the PAO is 12 months.

Consistency

The shampoo is transparent in colour and has a lovely tropical exotic scent to; it produces a rich lather in my hair. The consistency is quite runny and a lot of product comes out, I use roughly a golf ball size amount for my thick hair. Without conditioner my scalp and hair felt really clean, and my hair was full of shine, the shampoo left my hair more bouncy and fuller but after a day my hair turned coarse, so in my next few washes I added a conditioner.

Overall I like the smell of the shampoo it smells naturally good without any artificial perfume, on it’s on my hair was shiny, and fuller. As my current condition of my hair

is coloured and quite dry I had to introduce conditioners when I wash my hair, as it can look coarse after a few days. It’s been about a week and half of product testing and I think I might buy the conditioner to use with shampoo. It hasn’t irritated my scalp, or produced any dandruff which I’m very happy about.

A’kin Lavender Geranium & Jojoba Hand, Nail & Cuticle Crème Review

A ‘Kin’s is a natural company that uses 100% botanical ingredients’, parabean and sulphate free. If you have been following my blog you can find my other reviews of the brand. Plus you will see some of the products in my month’s favourites.

A’kin Jojoba & lavender light conditioner review

Akin Pure Rose Hydrating Mist review

A’kin Lavender Geranium & Jojoba Hand, Nail & Cuticle Crème is formulated with vitamin B5, Vitamin E and Shea butter. Shea butter is an excellent ingredient to keep the skin nourished and soft.

I love the smell and texture of this hand crème it is very lightweight, the smell of lavender is strongest out of the ingredients used. I use a 10p amount for both hands, the crème absorbs into the upper layers of my skin very easily without any greasy oily residue. It instantly improves the appearance of my hands. My skin is left soft and supple; I haven’t seen an improvement in the cuticles.

The packaging is nice and simple a cream/beige tube with Green writing, I like the way A ‘kin’salways have a pretty looking illustration of an ingredient on the front of their packaging in this case it’s a lavender plant. I actually really like this product and cannot find any flaws, I usually spend around£16.50 for my Loccitane Shea butter hand cream and the travel size version cost £7 for 30ml. In comparison [A ‘kin’s] Lavender Geranium & Jojoba Hand, Nail & Cuticle Crème is cheaper.

The hand crème is a 75ml tube and cost £7.99. You can purchase from mypure

Product Rave - Naked Brand 97% Natural

I have been using the Soft Touch Naked - Starflower Body Wash for over 3 months, and i been extremely impressed with the starflower body wash. It made my skin very soft for a couple of days. I have then moved on using the hair products, as you may have read my scalp started to get sensitive to SLS, and I have been using A

kin’s hair care range since last November. I

wanted to try another brand and thought of Naked because the shampoos are SLS free and all products are 97% natural!

I took advantage of Boots buy one get one free promotion and brought a whole bundle of hair products.

My locks were transformed into super shiny mirror look using the Naked Shine hydrating shampoofor normal to dry hair and Naked shine hydrating conditoner.

The Naked detox deep cleanse shampoo and Naked detox fortifying conditoner is great for keeping the hair super clean and to remove build up from hair products, I found this one gave me some extra volume which I loved.

The naked smooth silky shampoo and conditoner, made my hair straighter and a good blow dry using my Parlux hairdryer made it super easy to dry my hair straight without using a hair straightener!