Aldi Lacura Aloha Bronzer - Is it a dupe for Benefit Hoola?

One of my favourite bronzers is Benefit Hoola, it is one product I have repurchased over and over again and every time I stray away and try something new, it is Hoola that I always come back too.  As Benefit has over the years introduced new members to the Hoola family (review here), it is the original I always opt to use because it is just so versatile and for me, works just as well as an eyeshadow as it does a bronzer.

I have made no secret that I find myself giggling away in the much coveted middle aisle in Aldi where you can find everything from Zoflora to an entire garden seating set and every so often there is a beauty product or two that grabs my attention.  Last time it was the Nip + Fab Glycolic Cleansing Pads Dupe and this time it is the turn of the Aloha Bronzer and as you might have guessed from the title, could it be a dupe for Hoola by Benefit?

The biggest giveaway that there are some similarities starts with the packaging.  Whilst one might be pink and the other purple, there are some very obvious dupes on the lid from Aldi with the canes and flowers.  Again, inside the box, we have a mirror in the lid and a brush sitting inside a plastic holder. The one major difference at this stage is the Benefit Hoola box is of much better quality and less flimsy than Aldi's option.

The brushes at a first glance are almost identical, Benefit is blue and Aldi is pink and whilst I do love the colour pink, it is the bristles of the brush which are important and again, for me, there is a huge difference between the two.  Firstly, Aldi packs a lot more into their brush but in doing so, they are not as soft as those offered by Benefit and it is one of the few brushes that comes with a product that I have liked to use, so to find a dupe is quite something.  Sadly, just because there are more bristles doesn't make it a better brush.  It applied the bronzer fairly well, but it is patchy because it just doesn't grab enough and that is whether I use Aloha or Hoola.  With Benefit, you get a much smoother and much more even application and it blends seamlessly, unlike the Aldi option.

When it comes to the actual bronzer, this is where the duping continues, but not in the way you might think.  Both Aldi and Benefit offer 8.0g of product and again, nestled inside the square pan of the box is the bronzer.

At first glance, from Aldi, the bronzer looks much deeper in colour than Benefit and much less smooth but all of this is arbitrary because what really matters is how the shade sits on the skin and below is a finger swatch, unedited onto my wrist and I have kept it as simple as possible because having read previous posts on the Aldi Lacura Aloha bronzer, the one thing I've never found is a swatch.

I found both Aldi and Benefit bronzers really easy to use and swatch, I didn't need to try multiple times to pick up some colour to do the swatch and this is the swatch.

If you want to find out which swatch is which then you will find that answer at the bottom of this post but as you can see from the swatches, the top swatch is lighter and there is a slight shimmer to it whereas the bottom swatch is much more muted. The bottom swatch also has much less of a red undertone than the top swatch, so would probably suit those with a very pale complexion.

For me, whilst there are some nominal differences between the two products as shown so far, the ingredients used are quite interesting.  One thing Aldi is known for is their cruelty-free beauty and there for everyone to see is the Leaping Bunny symbol, something that Benefit does not have.

There are some ingredients which appear in both products and right at the top of that list is Talc for both Aloha and Hoola, they both have ingredients referred too as CL 77491 which is a synthetic red shade, CL 77492 which imparts a purple shade and CL 77499 which is a black Iron Oxide and although Aldi Lacura Aloha says 'may contain' these ingredients they do appear on the label.

So with all of that taken into account, does one bronzer do a better job than the other? For me, I like to mix and match my products and that often includes my bronzers.  Overall for me, Benefit Hoola is my preferred shade and it is the one I find much easier to work with, the one I find easier to blend and the one that works better with my skin tone.

Aldi Lacura Aloha Bronzer retails for £5.99 when it is on sale and if you are curious, then it is well worth grabbing because it does work as a bronzer, it just takes a lot more effort when it comes to blending and building up coverages.  However, it is £20 cheaper than Benefit Hoola which currently retails for £26 (here) and of course, it is cruelty-free, which I know for some is the most important issue when choosing cosmetics.

So which swatch was which?  The answer can be found below - did you guess right?

Have you tried any of Aldi's beauty products before?

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page.

Fushi Pomegranate Oil 80%+

I absolutely love a good oil within my beauty routine and often use bath oils if my skin is feeling really dry, hair oils for added shine and a face oil in my skincare routine and as with all other aspects of using an oil, depending on how my skin feels, will depend on which oil I use. Earlier this week I reviewed the Fushi BioVedic Collection which I have loved using and today is the turn of the Fushi Pomegranate Oil 80%+.

I have used a pomegranate oil in the past and loved how it made my skin feel. From Fushi we have an oil which is said to be a new powerful antioxidant oil that is challenging the way Pomegranate oil is produced to boost its Omega 5 content to a minimum of 80% in order to promote age-defying benefits for the skin and health.

Known also as Punicic Acid, Omega 5 is a unique yet beneficial fatty acid and it is considered to be one of the most natural potent antioxidants. At the same time, Pomegranate is known to be one of the only plant-based sources of Omega 5. Putting all of this together, Fushi's Pomegranate Oil 80% is believed to be the first pomegranate oil on the market with a guaranteed minimum content of 80% - hence the name. Did you know that Punicic Acid boasts a whole plethora of health and skin benefits, many of which I had not known about until this oil was kindly sent to me. For example, it helps to promote heart health owing to the seed oil being a good source of phytochemicals, mono- and poly-unsaturated fat, increase immunity and for the skin, because it is packed with powerful anti-oxidants and flavonoids, it helps to repair skin damage, promote flawless skin, unclog pores both on the face and scalp, it helps to calm redness, heals wounds and it can help with preventing premature ageing by deeply nourishing the outer epidermal layer. 

Fushi Fresh Pressed ® Virgin Pomegranate seed oil is sustainably sourced and produced by mechanical extraction using cold pressing method of the ripe, virgin pomegranate seeds. This oil is also filtered to produce even more clarity within the oil. Fushi Fresh Pressed ® Virgin Pomegranate seed oil is sourced from a small town in South Africa, solely created to ensure sustainability by making use of the entire Pomegranate fruit. During the production of this oil, the aril is separated from the pith and skin to produce pure Pomegranate juice. Fushi Fresh Pressed ® Virgin Pomegranate seed oil is produced by making use of parts of the fruit previously thrown away, namely, its seeds, from which a beneficial oil for skin and health is extracted. This increases the fruit's potential contributes to the sustainability of the oil.

Along with its long list of benefits comes a list of how best to use it and again it comes down to your own personal preference. You can use it internally in quite a few ways and the options are to either take 1-3 teaspoons daily with food, you can drizzle it over a salad or add it to a smoothie. On the skin, you can massage it onto the areas of your skin which you feel need some help.  My own personal preference is to use it on my driest areas of skin and massage it onto my skin and allow it to absorb slowly because it is a fairly thick oil and I have adapted how I extract the oil by using an old pipette from another product because this bottle comes without one and I find it tricky to pour because there is always too much when you need just a small amount.

I love having this oil in my routine and I love the number of options available to use it. It has a shelf life of two years and must be kept out of direct sunlight and somewhere cool otherwise rancidity could occur.

Have you ever tried a pomegranate oil before?

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page.

Nixplay Iris WiFi Cloud Frame

I live hundreds of miles from my family and I venture back 'north' once or twice a year, so I do miss out on quite a lot of family milestones.  I have 4 nieces and 6 nephews and rely on Facetime and WhatsApp for updates.  Not too long ago I would have been nipping into Boots to have my photographic film developed to put into an album to treasure, but those days seem long gone because everything else has become so instant and your photo album because your phone or your iCloud, assuming you remember the passwords to log in. I had a digital photo frame some years ago and everything was controlled by an SD card and if you ever wanted to make updates, you would need to remove the card, add the new photographs to it, re-add it to the frame and then upload them, all of which got boring very quickly.

I have got one or two photographs in frames around the house, but as the mister and I have no children of our own and instead have three cats, it is nice to be able to display some semblance of family links somewhere, even creating something that can become someone else's memories in the future.  This is where the Nixplay Iris can make a whole world of difference to your life and it brings together the ability to display your photos whilst using technology to create how you want to show off your snaps.  

Meet the Nixplay Iris WiFi Digital Frame
The perfect combination of sophisticated design with cutting-edge technology.
It’s stylish and sleek, with a stunning display. And keeps you close to the people you care about.
Discover your photos in a new light.

The Nixplay Iris comes in a choice of colours, peach cooper (as seen in this post), silver and then burnished bronze and it plays photos on a 4:3 high-resolution IPS display.  It is 8inches in size and you can choose whether you want it to display landscape or portrait photographs and because the power cable also doubles up as a stand, you can place the frame around your home but as the power cord does stick out a few inches from the outlet, you will need to ensure there is a gap between the wall and the furniture to plug it in.  I have mine on my desk in the office and it is a nice afternoon distraction.

Designed to fit any home environment intelligently, the Nixplay Iris will dim and brighten its panel to best display photos according to your ambient light level. It also has what is referred too as an 'activity sensor' which means the frame will detect sound in the room display to your most recent photos first and if it is quiet, it powers off again until someone makes a noise.

When displaying a photo that doesn’t match the frame’s orientation, the Iris fills the background with a blurred version of the image, but there is the option to select “fill to frame” in the transition settings, something I have done and continue to do.  One of the issues with using your phone as a camera is that the choice between a photo being landscape or portrait is important when using it with this frame.

As well as photos, this frame has built-in speakers, so it is compatible with videos too and for me, this is such a great feature, more so because I have videos of my nieces and nephews singing like angels (ahem) and it is something I want to keep (haunt them with) and have on show.

I am incredibly impressed with the colour quality, it comes with 8GB of built-in memory, so it does hold a lot of photos and at the last count, mine had well over 150 and still counting. I access my frame via WiFi and the Nixplay App and it makes life so simple to send photos and videos in just a few clicks.  It took seconds to set up and just as long to figure out how it works.  The Iris is also compatible with Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, Alexa, Dropbox and Google Photos.  The use of the app means you can simply drag and drop photos onto your Iris really easily.  I have folders set up for my Iris and each one has a theme - cats, for example, features my three boys in different poses from Kitten to adult, then I have the family, the mister and other memories.  Once you have chosen where the photos are going on the Nixplay app, the frame, once connected to WiFi, will automatically download those photos and instantly start to display them. 

As well as choosing which photos to display, the Iris gives you a few different display options and this includes choosing how long to leave each image up, whether to zoom in on photos which don't match the frames orientation and the type of transition between photos.  As well as using the Iris itself, you can also make all of these decisions using the Nixplay app.  The frame also comes with a handy remote control which gives you the option to turn the frame on and off, adjust the brightness, navigate through the menu and fast forward through the photos.

The best thing about this frame, other than being able to have more photos on my desk than anyone else in the office, is just how easy it is to use.  As soon as the frame is hooked up to a power source, the on-screen welcome video essentially helps you set up your frame in a matter of minutes, including adding it to your WiFi connection, creating a Nixplay account and how to pair the frame with your photo via the app.  It is so simple to use, I was uploading photos within minutes.

This frame is priced around £169.99 from Amazon (here*) and it is worth every single penny, I absolutely love how easy to use, the colour which is obviously on trend and the chance to now have photos and videos for my own perusal on my desk.

Have you ever tried a frame like this?

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page.

Foreo UFO mini smart mask treatment

One of my favourite gadgets for facial cleaning is Foreo and I have amassed quite the collection over the last few years (review here). Foreo is a Sweden based product and their aim is to empower you and brighten your life. Every product they release has a bold or bright colour and they rely on the feedback of people like you and me to constantly improve their designs. Whether you have dry skin, oily skin, combination skin or none of the above, there is a device for you. 

The newest product to my collection is the Foreo UFO Mini Smart Mask Treatment and when it first arrived, I sat and looked at it wondering what the flip it was because I had seen nothing like it before and nor had I used anything like it before, but given it was a Foreo device, I had high hopes it would be amazing and it is, after all, described as being the beauty world’s most advanced smart mask.  

Despite looking like a spaceship, UFO actually stands for UR Future Obsession and it is designed to be used with FOREO’s mini sheet masks, developed exclusively in Korea and combining plant and fruit extracts and botanical oils. 

So you can see, the one mention of Korean Beauty and I am more than excited.

Using a combination of technologies, the Foreo UFO mini turns what would usually be a 20-minute treatment into a 90-second treat and it does so using some of the following:

• The UFO utilises hyper-infusion technology, combining heating to open pores, T-Sonic™ pulsations to instantly infuse active ingredients more deeply into the skin and cryotherapy to seal the active ingredients and firm the skin.
• Flash Thermotherapy instantly warms to soften the skin and open the pores, infusing mask ingredients into the deepest layers of skin
• Flash Cryo-Therapy instantly cools to lift and firm skin, while diminishing the appearance of pores and reducing inflammation

Most importantly of all, the device works when connected to the Foreo Beauty App which you can download from your app store/Google Store. By connecting to the app, this gives you the chanced to build your very own personalised skin profile and you also get expert beauty tips and advice about which UFO Activated Mask is best for you. Plus, you can track your mask usage and set reminders so you never miss a chance to get gorgeous, glowing skin. If you are familiar with other Foreo devices, it won't surprise you to learn that the UFO device is made from ultra hygienic silicone which is not only easy to wash, but it also dries pretty quickly too and helpfully it has its own little stand to take its pride of place on your shelf.

The UFO Mini also includes a range of LED light therapy treatments to offer what are referred to as three photofacials, including anti-ageing (red LED), brightening (green LED) and anti-acne (blue LED) and to give them more of an explanation:

• Red LED light erases signs of ageing & stimulates collagen production for younger looking skin
• Green LED light Brightens a dull complexion and evens skin tone for an instant boost of radiance
• Blue LED kills acne-causing bacteria & stimulates blood circulation for a healthier-looking complexion using a combination of technologies, the Foreo UFO

So as you can see, this little device, which fits into the palm of my hand, already manages to do a whole lot more than two or three of my devices combined would manage.  Thankfully using it is a much easier process than I was expecting it to be and it even comes with a quick start guide which doesn't require a degree to understand.  

• The first step is to select your mask, there is a choice of 7 different masks to choose from including an Anti-Pollution & Hydrating Facial Treatment, Face Mask for Oily Skin, Face Mask for Dry Skin, Collagen Face Mask and an Enhanced Brightening Mask to name just a few. My current favourite mask is the Make My Day Mask which is the Anti-pollution and Hydrating Facial Treatment which used Hyaluronic Acid and Red Algae.
• The second step is to scan the barcode on the back of the packet and again, the cleverness of the technology takes over.  In scanning the barcode, the app knows exactly which mask is being used and it is from here the device knows which settings to use from those mentioned above.  The mask is pre-soaked mini sheet which is no bigger than a cotton wool pad.
• The third step is to secure the mask onto the UFO device and it is so easy to do, simply remove the small plastic ring, insert the mask and re-apply the plastic ring you have just removed.  I had expected it to be a little more difficult than it was if I am honest.
• The fourth step is to press start and place the mask onto your skin and then follow the instructions on your phone from the app.  Cleverly it tells you what movements to make, how long you have left and what I really like is that the light changes colour depending on what treatment you have chosen - red, blue or green.

Once your treatment is finished, after those 90 seconds are over, the UFO device turns itself off and all that is left to do is remove the mask, rinse the device with water and allow it to stand and dry.

So do I like it? No.  I absolutely love it.  Not only is this clever gadget a breeze to use, but it has also impressed me every single time I have used it. I love that it takes just 90 seconds to complete one treatment and whilst initially I wasn't too sure it would be the same result as something that takes 20 minutes, I have been proven wrong.  My skin absolutely loves the Make my Day Mask and after using it is immediately softer, much smoother and hydrated. I do need to try a few more of the masks because I have stuck to the one I really like, but they are available in packs of 6 and cost between £10 and £19 and at this moment in time you cannot purchase them individually, which I would really like to do or have the option to buy a mixture of masks in one box. 

The price? Well the Foreo UFO Mini retails for £159 (here) and is available in three shades: Fuschia, Mint and Pearl Pink. The slightly larger version retails for £249 and it comes with a 2-year warranty and a 10-year quality warranty and you can find it on sale via Foreo, Cult Beauty and John Lewis. 

The Foreo UFO Mini is suitable for all skin types. It comes with a USB charger, it’s lightweight to travel with and 100% waterproof.  Are you a Foreo Fan?

*this post contains PR samples and/or Affiliate Links unless indicated otherwise - you can learn more on my Disclaimer page here