How are all of you, I hope you are well? I myself am still shaken to the core – I witnessed a car crash unfolding right before my very own eyes yesterday & still can’t shake it the day after.
I am due loads of reviews by the end of this month, but please allow me to take the easy route with empties post right now.
As I mentioned in (rather colossal) last empties post here, I will be splitting my empties into three categories right now with pretty much self explanatory titles, so I won’t have to go into too much details of why I am repurchasing or not repurchasing some product or the other.
My love for them is infinite, the best green beauty has to offer, full stop. See full review here. I never want to be without them!
*Update on why I no longer stand by this brand, even though I still think their products are fantastic here, scroll down to the very end.
Elsa’s Organic Skinfoods x2
I find they work great and keep me stink free, when sooooo many other natural deodorants failed at that. Baking soda free too! See this post to know my thoughts – they are a fave for a reason!
DrHauschka Rose Day Cream x2
I don’t know what’s with me and running out of things in twos, but yeah, that happened. Another fave for a good reason – my dry and dermatitis prone skin just loooves it! See full review here – I swore by this before I discovered Bella Aura, even though I found it a bit too greasy for summers. A must in winters though, that’s why I had two – I like stocking up 🙂
A staple for the last four years or so. See here to learn why it is my favourite. As you can see, already repurchased.
Terra Nova Cordyceps
Fabulous stuff for boosting immune system, I now swear by it!
KIKI Health Body Biotics For Children 650mg Chewable Tablets
A must for my 6yr old princess. Took care of her tummy and toilet troubles (sorry for the TMI) and I don’t want to switch to any other brand. They taste like sweets, so kids will definitely love them.
Neals Yard Remedies Vitamin C
Repurchasing come next fall. I also really love their elderberry syrup & thyme and honey syrup, brilliant for persistent coughs.
Solgar vitamin D
One of my weapons against dermatitis, I take 2500iu daily. Your ideal level might be different, check with your doctor first. But one tip though – research optimal vitamins and mineral levels versus RDA, your life will be changed forever. And you can thank me later 🙂
NYR Thyme & Honey Syrup
Just like I said, amazing for coughs. I am stocking up every winter.
Manuka Honey
One more thing I can’t live without! I use it as a medicine and also for masking, see my 12 DIY manuka masks with super simple ingredients you already have in your kitchen here.
Great natural items I won’t get for now due to the size of my stash
Fat & The Moon All Cream
Very natural and minimalistic, I simply don’t need so many creams I have right now. Came from Live In The Light, see this review of the online shop if you want?
Meadows Lip Balm
Great natural Irish brand I’d reviewed here. Not repurchasing for now, have eight or so lip balms and one more came in the Love Lula box 🙂
Inner Senses Frankincense Essential Oil
A big fan and now ambassador of the brand. Adore their body oils, esp Awakening (review here) & Quiet Earth mask (review here)
By the way, if you are like me and find yourself with lots of products nearing their expiration date, see my blogger friend Bryanna from The Eco Logical post where she list all sorts of creative ways of using up your products.
Madara Peel
Passed to my friend due to having too much of the exfoliating products. Might get again once I will reduce my stash, who knows?
Phb New Gentle Moisturiser
As you can see, I finished the whole lot, but as a hand cream, it wasn’t really suitable for my face.
Green Beauty Items I a not repurchasing ‘cos they weren’t suitable for my needs/ didn’t work for me
Madara Plant Stem Cell Age Defying Sunscreen SPF30
Got this in the hopes that it will be my W3LL People Bio Tint replacement, which I adore but am running out of – fast! Sadly this didn’t work out for me for a few reasons, was too orange and dark (and I chose light shade!), way too scented & it broke me out. Tried ten times and had to give up. My friend who got this loves it to bits however.
Benecos Lip Pencil
The dark raspberry colour didn’t suit me, nothing wrong with the formula.
Leahlani Meli Glow
Good product, but it irritated my dermatitis patch, so that’s the reason I am not repurchasing.
Lots of Love,
Renata.
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Love Lula Beauty Box April 2019
Firstly, let me just say that Love Lula is the only subscription box I am getting, and I am really happy with it! I’ve been getting it for around a year and a half maybe, and I have to say they do a very good job at including a good variety of products, apart of a few tiny missteps of too many scrubs or face oils in a row, other products were a delight to discover, and I have to say I am looking forward to each new month in anticipation to what’s to come – Christmas or Birthday present for yourself each month, anyone? They ship worldwide, and the price is 14.95£ monthly recurring for UK customers, and for us international gals there are two options of three months (52.50£) or a year (210£) including post and packaging. Green beauty boxes are a great way to discover new items you might have missed otherwise, and I love that anything coming from LoveLula is cruelty free and guaranteed not to have any toxic ingredients – they have very strict criteria for any product they accept, and that is taking the guesswork off your shoulders. International boxes sometimes differ from the UK ones due to Love Lula not being able to ship nail polishes or perfumes.
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Love Lula Product Picks – Kimberly Sayer, Natura Siberica, Organii, Alteya Organics, Hurraw
How are you keeping? I hope you are all well?
If you follow me for any amount of time, you would know that Love Lula (sadly no more) is one of my absolutely favourite online shops – and for a good reason! Thousands and thousands of clean beauty products to choose from, natural skincare, hair care, body care, tools, make up – they have everything! I have been a satisfied customer for years and years before being accepted into their blogger family, and I am so happy to report that my experiences as customer Renata and blogger Renata are equally good! I always got what I ordered without a single mistake ever, all my queries were answered promptly and clearly, happy to say they have the best customer service ever and they treat everyone with respect. Continue reading “Love Lula Picks & Reviews – Hurraw, Alteya Organics, Kimberly Sayer, Natura Siberica, Organii [April 2019]”
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Clean Beauty Tag
How are all of you, I hope you are well?
Today I will do a bit of a different post, a Clean Beauty tag one. I was watching Andie’s The Green Queen Clean Beauty Tag video (here) and it turns out the tag was created by the Conscious Bee (see her video here) whom I just discovered in a series of serendipitous moments. Loving what I saw, I self tagged into it, because that’s how I roll 🙂 Both ladies did Youtube videos, Get Ready With Me style, but since I am a blogger, not a Youtuber, I will improvise a bit – I will answer questions first and will link to some of the make up post after, pretending I was sort of doing make up all along. There are quite a few I’ve done lately, what can I say, I have rediscovered my love for make up 🙂
See my Natural Beauty interview with adorable Andie here and let’s get into the tag, shall we?
CLEAN BEAUTY TAG:
1. When did u switch to green beauty and why?
That was around a decade ago, after accidentally discovering Janey Lee Grace’s book Imperfectly Natural Woman – I was looking for some light read for the weekend and that book changed my life! Many years later I managed to get Natural Beauty interview with Janey Lee Grace, see that post here. Funny story with that book, I had to buy it not one, not two, but four times, because after reading it I started lending the book to everyone around me and I didn’t get it back a couple of times. So I had to buy it for myself again and again, and it was the exact same book I did my very first Instagram giveaway with 🙂 Before that I was naively assuming that all the products on the shelves go through rigorous testing for safety and ingredients aren’t harmful for humans in any way shape or form- oh boy, how wrong I was! I was sick to my stomach to find out how many harmful ingredients are in our skincare (formaldehyde in babies products for God’s sake, don’t get me started on this!!) and I started switching out my products there and then. But the trouble was, clean beauty products were soooo hard to find back then – most people (millennials) will have a hard time believing this, but there were NO online shops back then, so I was having the hardest time switching my products. Yes, you read that right, no Detox Markets, no Love Lula or anything. In fact, I can credit Janey Lee Grace for my blog too – I was having the worst time finding not only my best natural products, but any natural products around me at all, so I remember thinking to myself “this is nuts, what if someone is going through the same transformation and does not know where to start or where to go, I better blog about this to let people know”. So that’s how my blog started, out of desire to help out fellow green beauty sisters – and that’s still a driving force behind my blog to this day! I was here before it became popular and way before PR and marketing was happening. Up until two years or so ago I was purchasing all the products myself, so if that doesn’t prove I am not in it for the money, then I don’t know what will. Fortunately the green beauty scene exploded since – and that makes me very happy! I kind of made it my mission to help all the ladies (and gents) to switch to natural and organic products. Clean beauty world has an answer to any conventional product out there, and it is a proven fact the products work – and they work even better! Just check my post on more than 20 natural dupes for Nars Orgasm here for example – I worked really hard on that post 🙂
2. Do you remember your first green makeup product? Did it work well for you?
Yes I do – it was a Dr Hauschka mascara and for then-unemployed me it cost me eye wateringly amount of money, I remember wincing when parting with my cash – and to make matters worse, it didn’t do anything apart from making my lashes black and it started crumbling in the first week. I remember thinking “oh no, what if all the natural products are so expensive and work so bad?”. Fortunately I was able to find a Holy Grail product in every single category since, you can see them here. I sifted through a ton of products to find good ones that work amazingly well. And they are at all price points too – you don’t need to spend a ton of money in every single category. I choose to splurge on skincare (I am five minutes to forty after all, I kind of need to) and am quite happy to save on body care for example. No money? No problem, use coconut oil as your body moisturizer! Make up? I have it at all price points starting from just 2.50€ going to up to 50€ for a palette. I think that is quite reasonable, no?
3. Have you noticed a change in your skin/overall health since the switch?
Yes! My skin was a disaster before the switch – dry, super sensitive, reactive to every single product I have tried and more and more adult acne as the time went by – and amazingly I never attributed my skin’s conditions are caused directly by the products I was using. I guess I was blindly falling for the “I am worth it” marketing hype – oh the naivety of me! Insert face palm emoji here 🙂 I see history repeating itself with my elder daughter, who’s is convinced she needs certain ingredients and products for her skin to look good. She buys her own products (oftentimes conventional, resistance to parents, sigh) but she reacts to them more often than not, so I am strategically suggesting natural alternatives and am doing a happy little dance every time she does not reject something. I have to say she and I started on the wrong foot with all things natural – I gave her my own DIY deodorant and it burned her pits – turns out she is allergic to baking soda! not only in deodorants but in toothpastes and dry shampoos, everything 🙁 She rejected all natural products for a couple of years since then, and I can’t say I blame her. Slowly but surely she is coming to our side, but we have a long way to go. I do not push her in any way shape or form, I am not one of those green beauty bullies with scare mongering tactics, you might notice that in a way I blog too – I simply let people know about amazing natural stuff and let people think and choose for themselves.
Whoops, Renata, get back to the question, will you? Yes, my skin balanced itself in a month when I switched to natural products and the acne never came back – amazing or what?
4. Is there anything you wish was different about the green beauty space?
Yes, a few things come to mind. Price points for one (a whole topic on it’s own, for another time maybe, there are few things worth their price point, but not all) limited shade ranges when it comes to make up; scare mongering tactics needs to go, as well as greenwashing.
5. What is the nr 1 ingredient you avoid in cosmetics?
Fragrance, parabens, bismuth oxychloride, phenoxyethanol – although the latter is increasingly hard to avoid, it is everywhere!
6. What are your favorite 3 make up products you discovered thus far?
Well, if we are talking about make up only, my first love would be Peachy Keen by Inika – it is a natural and more gorgeous version of Nars Orgasm, even though it does not look like much in most of online shop photos. Trust me, it will get you all heart eyed once you will get it and put it on. Very concentrated, so the jar will last you for years, I promise! Nars Orgasm was the last product I switched, but having found Peachy Keen, I haven’t looked back.
Next would be my trusty workhorse for many many years, a product used and appreciated daily; I have stuck with it going through branding and packaging changes – please step forward Hynt Beauty Duet Perfecting Concealer! By far the most full coverage concealer in the green beauty or not green beauty and it is something I keep coming back to no matter how many other products I have tried. I have not one but two reviews of it on my old blog (see here and here) so I won’t be going into too many details here. So well worth the money, I have my last jar for well over the year and I am yet to hit pan or see a change in the formula (as in going bad) when my newer concealers are starting to smell a bit off after six months. I can’t praise it enough, really. Just one teeny tiny thing, dear Hynt Beauty, if you are reading this, please introduce a shade in between of Light and Medium – those two shades need to have a love child, pronto! You have introduced a shade in between for the darker shades, now please do so for the lighter ones too, pretty please? As you can guess, I happen to be in between the shades and would love to be able to buy just one jar instead of two at a time. The formula is very impressive, so that’s why I keep buying two shades, but I have heard many and many ladies say the same thing. Once again, Hynt Beauty, pretty please?
Do you guys know how hard this question is?? I have to say both moisturizers and Antioxidant Booster by Bella Aura Skincare (review) – I can’t live without them!
*Update on why I no longer stand by this brand, even though I still think their products are fantastic here, scroll down to the very end.
8. What brands do you really want to try but still haven’t?
My wishlist is probably two miles long, haha! The first brands that come to mind are Okoko Cosmetiques, Lovinah, Osea, Live Botanicals, Blue Beautifly, De Mamiel, Odacite, Mayia Chia, Aether Beauty, Laurel, Antonym, Amly – do I need to go on? 🙂
9. What type of product do you buy the most of?
Toothpaste, rinse, body wash (mostly soap, Black African soap preferably). Body Oils. Shampoo. From beauty products, mascara. Same like a regular person, really.
10. Do you like trying new skincare products or do you keep a certain routine?
A bit of both really. My uber sensitive and dermatitis prone skin does not allow me much room for wriggle, I am most likely to react to any product, even to the ones everyone is raving about. Having found my perfect skincare in Bella Aura, I kind of don’t want to test or try anything else, plus having put my skin through a marathon (and burning it more than once!) for the sake of judging in the green beauty awards (see more on my IG), I don’t really want to try anything else for the time being. But still there comes a product from time to time that calls my name organically and I get that magical experience – I am talking about May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon as an example, see more in my recent Favourites post here.
11. If you could only buy from one brand, which one would you choose? Pick one for makeup and one for skincare.
Skincare, easy – Bella Aura! Make up, it would have to be between Inika (amazing blushes and mascara) and Hynt Beauty (concealer and lipstick Holy Grails), but W3LL People are also very high up there – oh, what to do??
12. What do you love about makeup? What about skincare?
I love that make up lets me create the best version of myself – isn’t that amazing how much more confident you feel when you look great? Skincare is my everyday treat to myself, my “me time”, my self care. What’s not to love, am I right or am I right?
13. Name your favorite thing about the Green Beauty community?
The support! I am so so grateful to green beauty community for welcoming me with open arms. Up until then I was kind of not belonging or should I say not feeling welcome anywhere really, and this is where I feel at home and feeling like I am contributing to a great cause. Andie’s comment about other women struck a chord with me, all the backstabbing in my life came from other women, even close friends, so I was kind of floating around in life not feeling that love, support, girl or sister power, up until I discovered the green beauty community. Huge thanks each and every one of you!
(ps. catty behaviour still happens in the green beauty world, this is an industry like any other industry. Fact of life)
Now that all of the questions are answered, let’s pretend I was doing make up at the same time 🙂 I will link three of my last make up posts, so check out the one which look you like the most – I didn’t mention any make up in my recent Favourites post, but any product from those posts below is still a strong favourite to date. Or skip them all together. Your call. Thanks for reading anyway!
Green Life In Dublin, green beauty and lifestyle blog
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Six months of natural and organic empties
Umm, yeah, this happened 🙂 I used to be on top of my empties posts, every month or a quarter at least. You guys know my style, my posts are usually very long because I try to cover every single base I can think of, from company itself, to ingredients, to user experience, whether I liked it or not and why, plus linking everything, products, reviews; you know the drill. Couple that with other projects I’ve had, reviews, judging for a few clean beauty awards and the constant upkeep with the social media and you would understand why these posts became the pain-in-th-you-know-what to do. However I think it is important for me to do empties posts so you guys could see that the products I am using and the reviewing are the same products, plus you guys want me to keep these posts up – so there you go, this is for you lovelies. Something’s gotta give though, this blog is a passion project of mine, not a paid gig, so I don’t want to spend all of my time away from my family, blogging at all hours of the day. So no more links, instead of elaborate opinions and explanations of why I think something is great (or not), I will group them in categories of “Repurchasing” “Not Repurchasing” and if you have any questions, ask. Most of the products will have either reviews or mentions in some posts or the other, so be sure to hit that search box. Thanks for reading in advance!
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Bali Balm Review
How are you doing? I hope life is treating you well?
Today’s post is going to be short and sweet, all about a lip balm I love. Please step forward, Bali Balms*! If you follow me for some time or any time at all, you know I am a proper lip balm addict! As you could imagine, I have tested dozens and dozens of them, but it does not mean I like every single one of them – far from it! It is one area where it takes a lot to impress me, formulating a good lip balm is much harder than you think. Most brands just melt some oils, waxes and butters together, and while it is a correct formula for a lip balm, it does not mean it is any good. What I want from my lip balm is for it to have all natural ingredients (obviously!), be nourishing and also protecting my lips from elements, and perhaps most important factor for me is that it should STAY on the lips for good amount of time, and that is exactly where most of the brands fail. I don’t want to reapply my lip balm every five minutes, thank you very much! So long story short, there are just a handful of lip balms I consider good ones, and it is even tougher for them to end up in my Holy Grail Products list.
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Natural & Organic Spring 2019 Favourites – Green Life In Dublin
How are you all doing? I hope you are well? Now that the sun is out and my SAD has lifted, I feel so much better and feel the zest for life coming back. It also means I got interested in my products so much more, so therefore I have been testing lots, sifting through what’s good and what’s not – and sharing the best with you! Ready to get started? I thought you would never ask 🙂
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Love Lula Beauty Box March 2019
Umm, a little confession here – despite being so happy with the latest Love Lula beauty box (not one but two make up products, you people!) I am sort of late posting about it.. Insert blushing emoji here. Love Lula is the only subscription box I am getting, and I am really happy with it. I’ve been getting it close to two years now, and I have to say they do a very good job at including a good variety of products that are a delight to discover. Continue reading “Love Lula Beauty Box March 2019”
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Natural Products in TK Maxx
Today I am coming at you with a short post on what you can find in the beauty section in your local TK Maxx, or TJ Maxx for my US green beauty sisters. This has been my secret weapon for years, and I I hope more of you will discover this great place to shop and save a bit of money too. This is especially great for people like me, when you have no Wholefoods or Detox Market or any place indeed where you can get anything your heart desires under one roof in your city. A good few stores are now jumping on the natural beauty bandwagon, but when you actually look into the selection, it is oftentimes very expensive or just plain greenwashing brands and products. So what’s a gal to do? Apart from going online, check out TK Maxx! Continue reading “Natural Products in TK Maxx”
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Mother’s Day Natural Beauty Gifts Guide
So, with Mother’s day fast approaching, you might be wondering what to get that wonderful mom of yours? Let me help – I feel it’s best if I chose all products from one stop shop to save you time, and what better shop than Love Lula*? I will also keep this post short and sweet as not to take up too much of your time. I chose the products I love and believe would make a good presents. Most of them have reviews, and if they don’t, they are on the way. Existing reviews will be linked down below in the case you would love to read more in depth about products. Continue reading “Natural Mother’s Day Gifts – All From Love Lula”
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