Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome xoxo
Natural and organic make up reviews and swatches – Green Life In Dublin
A quick post for today, a collection of my green beauty make up swatches (and links to the reviews where apt) I have had over a course of few years. Be prepared for way for swatches coming your way on my IG, Facebook, & Pinterest too – after spring cleaning my stash I collected all the samples I own, and instead of just throwing them away, why not be of service for all of us and post a series of natural products swatches? I myself find them crucial, because vast majority of my make up comes from online – from LoveLula, Citrine Natural Beauty Bar, GlowOrganic Brighton, PureAnada, and a few other retailers.
Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome xoxo
Love Lula Beauty Box February 2019
As you might know, Love Lula* is not only awesome online shop, but they do their own monthly beauty box – which feels like Christmas or Birthday present each month, mind you! I don’t know about you, but I certainly am looking forward to getting it each month.
Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome xoxo
Sarya Couture Makeup review
How are all of you, I hope you are well?
I had my eye on Sarya Couture MakeUp as soon as the brand appeared in Love Lula* – it is a couture cosmetics line created with the finest natural and organic ingredients, so naturally it called my name. Imagine my delight when Love Lula asked me if I’d like to try some of the products – are you guys kidding me, yes please! After a little while of testing the products, here I am with my first impressions review and a make up look. Want to know more? You are in the right place!
If your skin is (winter) stressed as mine, I have just the BEST thing for you! Please step forward Rapid Repair Elixir by Bella Aura*. This product is a part of not-so-newly launched Custom Care Collection that came out just a couple of months ago, and as one lucky duck I am, I got the privilege to try it. (therefore I should mark it as an #AD). As we all know, my love for Bella Aura Core Collection has no bounds (see here), and I touched on it in this Custom Care First Impressions Review here, and now that I have tested/ used it for a couple of weeks already, I can give you more rounded review. So shall we begin?
Welcome back! And welcome, if you are new here xoxo
Love Lula products – Weleda Hair Tonic, Tabitha James Kraan Dry Shampoo, Nature’s Wish Joy
How are all of you, I hope you are well? Now that the weather is getting warmer by day, I hope everybody feels alright? If you follow me for some time, you might know I am one lucky duck also known as a part of Love Lula* Accredited Bloggers, and each month we have an opportunity to choose products we want to review.
Welcome back! And welcome, if you are new here xoxo
Natural make up look with Lavera
How are all of you? Now that the weather is getting warmer day by day, I was in the mood for new make up goodies – all natural of course! So imagine my delight when Lavera came forward wanting to send me a few make up goodies from their newly launched Spring 2019 collection – that was a sign, no less 🙂 Yes please!
Oh, please excuse me, but I have to add this disclaimer before we start:
As per new rules for bloggers, all the products sent to us for our consideration are now classified as an [AD] – nonsense if you ask me, but who’s asking me. If you have been following me for some time you know I always disclose what products were sent to me, but this does not make it an [AD] – an AD is advertisement post where you would actually be paid to talk about those products, am I right?
So we would be on the same page – this post features products both sent to me (marked with *) as well as bought with my own moolah. I am not paid to do this post, this is all my own doing, and the opinions are mine and mine alone.
Lavera Make Up
Let’s just start with introducing Lavera as a brand for those of you who might have not heard of them – it is a brand widely known here in the Europe, but not so much in the US, I find? I have so much respect for the brand founder Thomas Haase, who made it his mission to make organic and natural cosmetics accessible for everyone everywhere – and that was more than 20 years ago! One of the true green beauty pioneers, no less.
Defying all his critics, Thomas started developing effective cosmetics with a 100% natural basis, founding the company Laverana and the brand lavera on November 23, 1987. The company name Laverana already reveals that the brand and company are inextricably connected, as “lavera” stands for “true” and “na” for “natural cosmetics”. In a time when everything revolved around chemicals, Thomas discovered his lifelong dream and dedicated his life to a vision of “organic and natural beauty care for all”. Since 1988, he has been developing the natural personal care market and leading Laverana as its founder and executive partner. The driving force behind Laverana since its foundation remains its goals of democratization, differentiation, and internationalization. Mr. Haase isn’t interested in only being a short chapter in a book: he wants to make history, as well as a lasting impact on the world of personal care products. Does all this make your heart sing? It sure does for me!
Lavera promises 100% Natrue certified natural cosmetics – free of synthetic preservatives and fragrances. 100% of their products are tested for skin compatibility and are dermatologically approved. Never tested on animals though, Lavera is against animal testing. Every product is researched, developed and produced in Germany. All ingredients are fully declared on packaging, INCI card or website. I suggest you go over those, as Lavera is fully transparent with what’s important for consumers, they clearly state if the product is vegan, gluten free, suitable for pregnant ladies use, etc.
I am very excited to let you know that Lavera added 59 colour cosmetic product to the range of existing ones. You can expect new formulations, new design and completely new products! 22 new face products, 21 eye product, plus 16 new lip products – exciting, huh?
Now, let’s get into the post and my first impressions of the product – I have had about a week to play with the new goodies, but the good news is, make up isn’t like skincare where you would have to test it for 4-6 weeks to see results and make your opinion on it. Shall we get started? I thought you’d never ask 🙂
First thing first, foundation – I applied this new Lavera Soft Liquid Foundation (in Ivory Light)* which has this Green Anti-Pollution Complex, promising to protect skin cells from air pollution and counteracts the effects of free radicals with natural anti-oxidants and organic algae, which should lead to a fresh, radiant skin. I agree, the skin definitely looks radiant. The consistency is similar to a light runny lotion, but please have in mind you will have to work rather quickly blending it in – it sets fast. The shade is ever so slightly too dark for me right now, but I reckon it should be a pretty good colour match for me in the summer. For now I just make sure I blend it down my neck too. You might need to set it to avoid it settling in your pores, and I should also add there’s fragrance in this foundation too, which is kind of strong at first, but fades away eventually. Please keep that in mind if you are avoiding fragrance. It is suitable for vegans, contains no carmine or lanolin, no gluten either. Suitable during pregnancy. Staying power is pretty good. I will list all the ingredients of all the products, as well as swatches at the end of this post if that’s OK with you. Next I moved on to the eyes and did a super simple, one-shadow-all-over look. I applied Beautiful Mineral Eyeshadow in Light Sand* – perfect for a daytime if you ask me! Next I applied Soft Eyeliner in Black and Natural Definition Mascara – it has an interesting brush, something I have never seen before. It has twice shorter wand with spiky bristles, see the photo down below. The description promises definition, volume and separation, and while I love the look it gives me (long and definitely separated lashes), I don’t see much volume if I am honest. That’s totally fine, I will go on to get a different mascara next time, probably Intense Volumising Mascara or Butterfly Effect Mascara? With my eyes done, I applied Soft Lipliner in Pink 02 to outline my lips, and the last thing I do is apply a Beautiful Lips Colour Intense Lipstick in Coral Flamingo both on my lips and cheeks, sort of like a multiple. I didn’t have any Lavera blushes on hand, and this is one easy way to have a pulled together look in no time. The lipstick is nicely pigmented, creamy and easy to work with, but for some reason it pulls brown on me, not coral. I added a bit of the eye shadow as a highlight too. I will admit, this a bit out of my comfort zone with this look, especially having in mind that these photo are untouched. You guys know I don’t do Photoshop or even filters, what you see is what you get with me. I do it for you, see how much I love you guys? Not the easiest thing to do for a woman on the (very) wrong side of 30s with dermatitis prone skin! See how much I love you guys? Do you like this look?
New Lavera Soft Liquid Foundation with The Green Anti-Pollution Complex (swatched)
LAVERA SOFT LIQUID FOUNDATION WITH THE GREEN ANTI-POLLUTION COMPLEX
Have you tried Lavera natural cosmetics? What is your favourite product? Please tell me so I could check them out! One little side note, their So Fresh Mineral Rouge Powder in Columbine Pink is close dupe to Nars Orgasm – see this blog post to see 20 more natural versions of it. With swatches and everything! I worked hard on that post 🙂
P.s. Please make my day and subscribe & share this or any of my blog posts on social media – it helps to get the green beauty word out and for that I Thank You!
Green Life In Dublin, green beauty and lifestyle blog
Enjoy my content? A tip into my PayPal Tip Jar - will get You my eternal gratitude and more awesome green beauty reviews Your way! I weed out all the greenwashing products so You won't have to.
Hello hello hello there, how are all of you? Hope this new year is treating you well?
I’ll be honest, this “musings” post is not about green beauty or products, so if this is what you are looking for, you may exit here, no hard feelings, promise! I started this section of my blog to let you guys into my personal life more, or my head if you will – these types of post will be more about what’s going on in my life or my thoughts, but always with intentions to be helpful – no ramblings here, promise! I am extremely grateful for you, my readers and the time you take out of your busy days to read my posts, so the last thing I want is to waste your valuable time!
Now that the Holidays are well and truly over and I am coming out of my social media break – in all honesty I got burnout. How do other bloggers do that? I found myself working at all hours of day and night, from answering emails and DMs, some people demand to know the best cleanser or whatnot at two am, and if I don’t reply within two seconds, I find five follow up DMs telling me how rude I am ignoring them! Hello, how about I was sleeping? Are we becoming so accustomed with everything available 24/7 that we expect people to be on 24/7 too, forgetting they are actual people? Do we actually understand that this “instant-download” life style is not what life actually is and not how the world works? That’s something I need to work on in this year, setting clear boundaries on blog/ work/ family time.
So what’s going on? First and foremost I decided to take a leap and to fix my health, so I signed up for a course of TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine course of treatments to try to fix lots of things that are wrong with me. I went in with the intention of fixing my rhinitis (permanent sinusitis) and very soon I got answers to the health questions that were bothering me for a while too – as soon as the doctor felt my pulse she asked do I have problems with my lungs (yes) and do I have problems with the weak and painful joints (yes), do I feel tired all the time (yes) and do I have a compromised immune system(yes)? Turns out the dampness that is in to air gets into your body and wreaks havoc on multiple levels – how did I not figured that out? The doctor also said that I live in the wrong climate, somewhere hot and dry would be perfect for my constitution. Yes, I instinctively knew that, and I keep telling to my husband that I’ll move to Spain for my retirement, you know, once your life’s work of raising good children, planting trees etc will be done – I am adamant my retirement years should and will be spent enjoying myself in my house seaside. I left the practice with lots of questions swirling in my head, how do I make sure I do not get in this state in the future? How to stop that damned dampness getting into my body, what foods do I eat to nourish my lungs, and is that enough? Do I run my dehumidifier at all times? Do I have to save a ton of money for a course of treatments for next fall and winter and try to help myself this way? These and more questions are swirling in my head at the moment, if you have any info to help me out, drop me links, that would be appreciated! The doctor also suggested the same treatments for my younger princess for asthma treatment, but I know she’d jump off the table at a first sight of the needle or cup and I’d never be able to bring her back there ever again – what do I do? Only time will tell I think?
I am not the one to make New Year resolutions – I think we are always making our aims too high and setting ourselves for a fail, so why do that? Slow and steady is a better way, once you built up a new habit, you can move on onto the next. Doing a big (too big) list of improving yourself on every possible level, like you know, drop X dress sizes, save X amount of money, start driving or speaking another language by X month, be a better wife/ GF/ daughter/ mother/ sister/ friend, do a dry January while completely overhauling your diet to raw/ vegan/ goodness knows what – does that not sound too unrealistic and too taxing? How about we set ONE DREAM and ONE GOAL for ourselves? Wouldn’t that be much more realistic and achievable?
Chilling new studies on children’s cancers linked to vaccines + autism what are we doing to ourselves and our kids? How the world got so twisted that these new breed of vaccines are forced on us by law when they were never proven safe in the first place? My heart aches over this!
That’s all for now, see you here very shortly. Sorry for a bit rambly post – in all honesty winter SAD (or winter depression in other words) has me in a tight grip unfortunately. Plus all these doctors visits are a sure way to get even the cheeriest person down, let alone me. It is fair to say I am only muddling through and counting days until the Spring and Summer. I hope you will bear with me xo
Green Life In Dublin, green beauty and lifestyle blog
Enjoy my content? A tip into my PayPal Tip Jar - will get You my eternal gratitude and more awesome green beauty reviews Your way! I weed out all the greenwashing products so You won't have to.
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