Insatiable skin? Go Naked with Naked's 24 Hour Body Butter!

Naked is a brand with which I associate hair care having tried some shampoos and conditioners from the range, so when I was asked if I would like to try the Coco De Mer Body Butter I jumped at the chance.  

The cream arrives in this huge 300ml tub and everything you need to know about the product can be found written somewhere on the tub, for example you are told it is 97% natural* and that it gives 24 hour moisture for skin with an insatiable appetite.

This is Coco De Mer body butter uses creamy coconut extract, Shea butter and passion flower oil and the scent is, as you can imagine, absolutely stunning, it is a happy mix of being quite floral but also a little bit tropical too when it comes to describing the scent.  I wasn't too sure whether to apply it onto my skin or drink it!

 Described as follows:

"Naked 24 Hour Coco de Mer Body Butter gives 24 hour moisture for skin with an insatiable appetite. Creamy coconut extract, enriching shea butter and passion flower veil your skin in an intoxicating scent, so you can be sure your skin feels caressed day and night.

Naked truth: There's so much care and thought in a naked product because we cram in naturally derived ingredients and leave out as much synthetic stuff as we can. This is goodness in a bottle".

It retails for around £5.45 in Boots and as a 300ml tub it is quite large and you only need the smallest amount at any one time because the cream is quite thick texture wise, so a little goes a long way. 

I use mine after showering in an evening, before going to bed and when I wake in the morning, the scent is still noticeable on my skin and it is really hydrating, it leaves me with soft, smooth skin which feels really moisturised and in this ever changing weather that we have right now, it is definitely something my body is in need of.

Have you tried any products from the Naked range? If so what do you recommend?

*Every Naked product is 97% natural and free from sulphates, parabens and petrochemicals so each one is packed full of natural goodness.

Monu Cleansing Balm

I am quite new to the world of cleansing balms having only ever used one in my entire life, so when the chance to try and test out the Monu Essential Care Cleansing Balm I jumped at the chance. Monu is a brand that I have come to really like and one I have mentioned on my blog a few times now.

So the cleansing balm is said to be "An indulgent melting balm that works to cleanse skin and remove make-up for an instant boost of radiance and vitality" and is suitable for all skin types. What you get inside this rather luxurious looking box is a 150g tub of the balm and a muslin cloth which is really soft and smooth and so white I didn't want to use it.

When it comes to use it, you are told to warm the balm in the palm of your hands before gently massaging it over your face and neck with your fingertips.  As you do this the balm is said to efficiently melt into the pores to dissolve all traces of make-up and any impurities. You then add water to emulsify the balm into a luxuriously rich and creamy milk that is said to leave your skin feeling vitalised, conditioned and utterly flawless from morning to night.

This balm smells absolutely amazing, it combimes the aromatic secent of Rose and Geranium essential oils which awaked your senses and work to stimulate their skin.  There is also Evening Primrose, Blackcurrent and Rosehip Seed Oil, all of which work together to help 

"maintain a youthful suppleness and elasticity to the skins appearance, helping you to look and feel refined all day long. The added effects of comforting Wheat Germ, Apricot and Almond oils will help calm and clean the skin".

As soon as I began to massage this into my skin I loved it. Not quite as solid as I was expecting it to be considering it is called a balm, it is quite runny so you don't need to use very much at all, it is definitely a case of a little goes a long way, the scent is simply divine, more so than I can describe to you, but think spa-like scent and you are almost there. What it does do is everything it claims to do and that is dissolve every ounce of make-up on your face including any bits of dirt and grime that you didn't think was there! Trust me, it finds it and dissolves it and that includes the quite stubborn to remove They're Real from Benefit, literally nothing gets in its way.

Then when it does come into contact with water, it emulsifies quickly and completely and washes away without leaving any residue on my face, my hands or in sink, which I am thankful for, infact the only dirt that is left behind is on poor old Mr Muslin cloth which you can put in the washing machine anyway.  As for my skin afterwards, my face is so soft and smooth I don't feel the need to run for my moisturising cream and cover myself in it, but old habits are hard to stop and as i always would do, I apply my moisturiser, safe in the knowledge that there are no nasties on my skin stopping it from doing its job.

So, if you are on the look out for a cleansing balm that will do exactly what it tells you it will do, is paraben free, not tested on animals, has no animal derivatives and consists of a 100% natural fragrance then you are reading about it right here, right now and it costs £38 for this huge tub and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Pineapple Express from Bomb Cosmetics

A few months ago I was lucky enough to win a package from Bomb Cosmetics which you can see HERE and within that package was a Bomb Blaster called Pineapple Express and tonight I got round to using it for the very first time.

With the following description:

"Everybody's laughing on the Pineapple Expressed! Juicy fun and freedom with pure bergamot and grapefruit essential oils to pick you up and post you happy!Sweet & zesty pineapple with hints of Lemon & Orange. Creamy Vanilla comes through the base notes to close"

All I can tell you is that it smells exactly like that and if like me you love fruity scented products for your bath, then this would be perfect and it is only £2.09 - worth every penny.

When it comes to using this Bath Blaster, all you need to do is ensure there are a good few inches of water within the bath and then drop your Bath Blaster in to a bath of warm water and watch as it fizzes, releasing its perfume and essential oils, while the Bicarbonate of Soda softens the water.  Once you do place it into your bath, this is what happen:

This Bath Creamer is full of lovely ingredients and I always like to look at what is something before I use it, it fascinated me for years and this particular product includes: 

• Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter - both know for their ability to moisturise the skin,
• Bergamot Oil - has an uplifting effect on the mood and can also help deal with stress, tension and that fed up feeling,
• Grapefruit Peel Oil - has an uplifting effect on the mood and helps with stress and depression. It is used with great success to combat muscle fatigue and stiffness while stimulating the lymphatic system and thereby clearing the body of toxins. It helps to clear congested oily skin and also assists with acne, while toning the skin and tissues.

There are other ingredients included within this Bath Blaster which are listed on the Bomb Cosmetics website.

The water that you immerse yourself into feels really soft on the skin, that is the best way for me to describe it, the Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter are incedibly moisutirsing and I almost felt no need to add anything else to my skin because it is all there in the water. However with this cold weather, my skin is quite dry on my legs, so I did exfoliate, but then rather than use anything else, I used what was in my water and once out of the bath, my skin was soft and smooth to the touch and it smelt totally amazing.

It is worth nothing that within this products the little stars, silver balls and the fruit pieces all float about your bath, mainly to add some decoration and fun, but there is a warning to always rinse them away from the bath after use to avoid and prevent any staining.

All of the products from Bomb Cosmetics are formulated to be free from Parabens, or Paraben based preservatives.

Have you tried anything from Bomb Cosmetics? Do you have a favourite product?

Ruby Red Cosmetics Natural Skincare

Ruby Red is a company I came by after an opportunity arose in an email and I have to say, if you want a product to make you go "Wow" then read on.

The brand Ruby Red is a combination of Mike’s surname (Ruby), the owner and Red for their London roots. Ruby Red as a company believe that healthy, radiant skin needs vital nutrients from the outside as well as the inside. Their Skin and Body care ranges are full of plant nourishment combined with distinctive pampering aromas made from oils without SLS, parabens, sulphates, petrochemicals and dyes as well as never tested on Animals.  

I was sent two products in the form of a Reviving Body Cleanser** and a Renewal Shea Skin Cream** which as you can see below arrived really well packaged and inside two very different containers.  

The Body Cleanser, which was a finalist in the Best Shower Gel category at the 2014 Beauty Shortlist Awards is described as follows:

"Botanical glucosides found in sugar and coconut makes an effective cleansing agent which does not irritate the skin; botanical extract of Aloe Vera soften and soothe the skin. A warm, invigorating, citrus aroma of Lime, Red Mandarin, Coriander and Cedarwood boost circulation while toning and refreshing the skin"

The first thing about this cleanser is the scent, it is absolutely phenomenal, one of those scents you need on a morning when you feel really sluggish, annoyed that you have had to leave your bed and a morning when no amount of caffeine is going to wake up - well this product will! To use you simply apply a generous amount onto your hands or onto a cloth and then massage over your damp skin whilst in the shower, as soon as the clear looking gel leaves the bottle the scent wakes you, but when it hits the steam you become more alert than you probably have done in a long time, after wahsing you simply wash it off, again using a damp cloth and it leaves your skin not only squeaky clean but smelling so good and the scent lasts pretty much all day, even as it fades it is still wonderful. it is also worth noting that this Reviving Body Cleanser can also be used as hand cleanser, something I am yet to try.

The second product is the Renewal Shea Skin Cream which is in this 60ml glass jar and when I first removed the jar, I didnt find what I was expecting. I was expecting to find a runny cream not a solid, so I was very much intrigued to use this. It comes with the following description:

"The healing enzymes in Lemon and Honey work together to improve cell renewal while Vitamins A, E, & F in our pure, hand processed organic Shea butter help to restore the skin’s elasticity lost through dryness or sun-exposure. A small of cream amount will moisturise, softening and smoothing the skin".

Even though this skin cream contains lemon and honey, the scent isn't as strong as the body cleanser, but it is subtle enough for me to absolutely love it. To use you simply warm a really small amount in your hands and on the Ruby Red site they make a point of stating that by small they mean no bigger than a raindrop, the reason being that as soon as it comes into contact with your skin it begins to melt, so it literally absorbs without no amount of effort on your part and as you massage it into the skin, the lemony scent comes to life and reminds me of sherbet lemons, a scent I happen to adore. Once massaged onto the skin, within a matter of minutes there is no trace that anything was actually there, instead you have soft, smooth skin. If like me you spend a lot of your working life, days and sometimes evening dealing with paper, I find it dries my hands out, hence my love of hand cream, well I have been using this for the last 2 months and it is a perfect remedy for my dry hands, not to mention I use it on my shins, elbows and feet as well.

These products I cannot rate highly enough, they have caused no adverse reactions to my skin, they smell more wonderful than I can give them credit for and I absolutely love using them.  You can find more information about Ruby Red on their website which is HERE and their products can be bought online through the Ruby Red shop or from places like Amazon, Fortnum and Mason and soon to launch in Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge.