Herbal Dynamics Beauty - Acai & Mango Sugar Lip Scrub with Volumizing & Smoothing Rapid Lip Mask

Wishing all our readers a very Happy New Year! Let’s kick 2020 off with looking at lip products as we know that the key to any fabulous full-on red lips or just a healthy-looking pout is a quality lip scrub and mask. So imagine finding products that smell good enough to eat! Enter Herbal Dynamics Beauty ’s. Their Acai & Mango Sugar Lip Scrub contains only natural oils and extracts. Yummy as this might sound, we at The Amazing Blog do not advocate eating it! Instead, it’s best to use for exfoliating dead skin, paired with their Volumizing & Smoothing Rapid Lip Mask to help achieve plumper and healthier looking lips.

Herbal Dynamics Beauty is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was founded just a few years ago with the core belief that ‘what you put on your body is of the utmost importance’. Natural ingredients, like acai extract and pistachio oil, are combined with botanicals, such as xylitol and vitamin E, to create the Acai Lip Scrub and Volumizing Lip Mask Duo. Cocoa butter and pistachio oil add an extra layer of hydration and reduce inflammation with the scrub while peptides in the mask increase hyaluronic acid for plumper lips. This 'science-meets-nature' approach results in useful products that are gentle for sensitive skin and as we mentioned, smell amazing. Both products also are free from sulphates, parabens, phthalates, and are also cruelty-free.

The duo is perfect to use when you have time at night or when you want to pamper yourself. The sugary texture of the lip scrub allows it to work with just the slightest pressure from your fingers and creates a base for the lip mask to be most effective. A small coat of the lip mask should stay on your lips for about 3-5 minutes before removing and revealing more full lips ready for the next day or some lipstick. The company prides itself on making products for ‘consumers seeking affordable options’. It’s £24 for the Sugar Lip Scrub here and £21 for the Rapid Lip Mask here. This price point may appear high, but a little goes a long way and they’re something you will only use 2-3 times a week.

UXB - Shower Creams

After a tiring day, nothing feels more refreshing than stepping into a steamy, hot and aromatic shower. The Amazing Blog has reviewed a variety of shower products and certainly weren’t aware that hard water showers could actually strip away natural oils until UXB warned us. This company has given this matter a lot of thought and strives to combat this issue with its handmade line of nourishing Shower Creams. The steam from the shower activates the ingredients formulated in these Shower Creams, allowing the skin to become porous and absorb the rich oils and ingredients. This British brand was founded by Simon who found his inspiration on holiday in Turkey: “Cleansing is the cornerstone of skincare. Without clean skin any other actives you apply will not soak in. Also, when the skin is wet in the shower or bath it is more porous and receptive to actives...  It took a year of formulating and a lot of mistakes to come up with our first shower cream range. We’ve purposefully made a liquid cleanser for ease of use.”

Inside the creams are vitamin-rich oils, specific for each skin type that heal and trap moisture. Whether you suffer from dry, oily, mature or polluted skin, UXB has designed a shower cream targeted for you. Simon very kindly sent us all four of his shower creams to try. The first one we tried was the Frankincense & Argan Shower Cream fights dry and ashy skin. The formula uses argan, avocado and tamanu oils to soften rough areas. Combined with frankincense and black peppers, the essential oils continue to restore skin, producing a healthy glow; and also consists of glycerin that keeps moisture. This formula proved to be great hit with the boys in the office as it has quite a robust fragrance. We also like that when you breathe in the essences of frankincense, black peppers, rosemary, with a hint of the bergamot citrus, it helps to aid relaxation. All products have a pH level of 5/6, the natural acidity of the skin. Purchase a bottle here for £6.

Those of us with slightly more oily skin tried the Brown Rice Milk & Raw Honey Shower Cream. This is made from Dead Sea salt to cleanse with its antioxidant properties. The raw honey is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory that opens blocked pores. The combination of low comedogenic oils still locks in moisturise, while reducing existing sebum. It helps the skin feel less oily without drying it out or going into hyper oil production. This caramel and sage-scented product is deliciously moreish, it almost smells good enough to eat! Buy here for £6.

Next the Juniper & Açaí Berry Shower Cream, this aids polluted and sun damaged skin by strengthening it with the benefiting properties of acai, juniper and black cumin seed oil to mop up stubborn pollutants. This has some of nature’s most powerful antioxidants for this cream and it went on holiday with one of the team. It was reported back that this cream wash was so gentle that it soothed her sunburn and kept the skin flexible and moisturised allowing it to healing and recovery. This is definitely the one to pack for your sunshine holidays. What we also liked was the invigorating yet subtle zesty fragrance from tangerines and oranges. You can buy a bottle here for £6.

Finally, the fourth shower cream: Rosehip & Comfrey Shower Cream which is designed for more mature skin to hydrate, moisturise and revitalise.  Rose oil is both hydrating and soothing, while hints of vegetable glycerine locks in moisture and helps to plump the skin. The warmed dried comfrey (rich in Allantoin which protects and softens) and gotu kola leaves soaked in pure sunflower oil (which has been used Indian skincare for centuries for its toning properties) give this shower cream it’s richness. The rosehip oil regenerates the skin and primrose oil builds a barrier that creates plumper skin. The combination of rose, ylang ylang and lavender essential oils give the shower cream a floral fragrance and more of an aromatherapy twist than the others. This particular bottle was a great hit with girls in the office. To purchase see here for £6

All shower creams should be applied when skin is damp. Just lather a generous amount all over your body, leave for a few seconds and then wash off. They all left us feeling squeaky clean but none of these UXB Shower Creams dried out our skin, which in turn meant we economised, no need for body lotions or oils!

Proganic

Proganic’s Superfruit Health Drink is one of The Amazing Blog’s favourite new juices. Each 100% Pure Organic Fruit Juice contains health benefits dependent on the fruit. For example, Acai is unusually high in manganese and rich in potassium. These attributes can help reduce the risks of diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Another example is the 100% Pure Organic Mulberry juice, which we got the opportunity to try recently. Pure Organic Mulberry is extremely high in iron. Interestingly, each 125ml bottle of Black Mulberry Juice contains the same amount of iron as an average sized sirloin steak.

These juices have no added sugars, water or GM ingredients, so they are great for an everyday fruit drink with a meal or even on-the-go. Not only are they refreshing and very healthy for you, but they are also bursting with flavour. These juices are filled with nutrients your body craves on a daily basis, and most of the flavours are even low-calorie.

Some of their other amazing fruit flavours include Cranberry, Pomegranate, Honeydew Melon, Sour Cherry, and Fig Juice. These fabulous juices can be found in certain wholesale shops or online. They come in 125ml, 250ml, 500ml, and 1 litre bottles. With the New Year rapidly approaching, what better way to get a healthy start by ditching the soda, and trying one of Proganic’s Superfuit Health Drinks - we promise you won’t regret it!