British skincare

Evese London: Si'Nekra Mud Mask & Hydra'Moist Daily Moisturiser

Evese.jpg

We all need a little pampering at the moment, and at The Amazing Blog with Christmas fast approaching. we’ve found a luxury skincare brand that offers just that with Evese London.

After growing up around women and hearing their discussions about their appearance, founder Andreas Samiotis wanted to create a luxury skincare brand of his own. He was curious about the multitude of skincare products that he had witnessed growing up and wondered what made each one special. After much research, he decided to try and find a way to take the very best ingredients from each product, and then put them into one. Thus, Evese was launched in 2019, where Andreas has created a brand of natural skincare that performs, is cruelty-free and has a low carbon footprint. The environmental impact of the ingredients has been a paramount factor when creating the brand and bringing it to market. Today Evese London has six spa-grade products in its premium skincare range, and even offer a short questionnaire here to help the customer find the right product for their individual skin type.

The two product that they kindly sent to were their Si’Nekra Mud Mask and The Hydra’Moist Daily Moisturiser. Let’s start with their hero product Si’Nekra Mud Mask which translates from the Greek as the ‘Dead Sea’ Mud Mask. This mask extracts toxins from the skin, giving it a healthy and glowing appearence. It helps reduce fine lines, minimise pore size and replenish the skin with vital minerals and vitamins. This mask we found is best used as part of a weekly routine applied on face, neck and décolletage area only (avoiding the delicate eye area). In this grey mud mask, the three most active ingredients are dead sea mud, volcanic ash, and kaolinite, which all work together to cleanse and refresh the skin. Dead sea mud works to get rid of impurities, the salt and magnesium here help boost skin elasticity. Volcanic ash has cleansing, purification and exfoliating propertiesKaolinite gets rid of dead skin cells and absorbs impurities from pores. Other key ingredients include tea tree oil, titanium dioxide, shea butter. With slightly more unusual chondrus cripus (Irish moss) which apart from being packed full of vitamins and minerals is also a conditioning agent and often used as a to regulate the viscosity of a product. The allantoin here is extracted from the root of the comfrey plant, it is a gentle, soothing and protects the skin. We found that unlike other liquid face masks, that dry almost instantaneous when it is applied, this stays moist (the shea butter perhaps?) We let it sit on the skin for 10-15 minutes then gently removed it in circular motions with warm water. It left our skin feeling fresh and super-hydrated with the hint of a citrus fragrance. Evese suggests following this step with their Hydra’Moist Daily Moisturiser, which we duly did.

All skin needs to be hydrated; whether you have dry skin or an oily complexion, good hydration is vital. The Hydra’Moist Daily Moisturiser is for all-day full-on hydration. This moisturiser helps protect the skin from pollutants with the three actives, opuntia streptacantha (prickly pear extract), ophiopogon japonicus (snake’s beard root extract), and panthenol (provitamin B5) that all work together in the formula to give maximum hydration. Prickly pear provides soothing properties, ideal for acne-prone, dry and sensitive complexions. It’s also age-defying and can improve overall skin tone. Snake’s beard root boosts the skin’s moisture-retaining ability which in turn protects it from dryness with its enhanced skin barrier function. Whereas provitamin B5 has a calming effect on the skin – again it increases skin hydration and creates a protective barrier. We found that when applied, this Hydra’Moist felt silky and soothing, and offered more than adequate protection against the cold winter elements. Best of all, we think that the Hydra’Moist makes a great primer for makeup allowing foundation or powders the perfect canvas for an even application. So, why not treat yourself (or others) with this luxury skincare duo for good skincare protection for the winter. To purchase the 250g Si'Nekra Mud Mask for £40 see here. Or the 50g Hydra’Moist Daily Moisturiser for £41 see here. There is even an option to purchase them as a bundle here for £72.

Cosmetics of London Chelsie - AHA Exfoliating Mask

chelsea.jpg

At The Amazing Blog as you’ll know, we like to champion new indie brands – particularly with cosmetics and skincare. Today we’d like to introduce a brand that has just launched and is one of our latest #amazingfinds, it’s a British skincare Cosmetics of London Chelsie.

The founder, Chelsie Benjamin, spent nine years as an aesthetician, skin practitioner and acne specialist working with some of the leading skincare companies.  With her passion for skincare, she decided to create her own range which has been over three years in development. Chelsie said: “We have created a solution-based skincare that will not only enhance a client skincare routine at home, but will also be effective in helping them maintain their treatment routine at home.” She went on to say, “although Cosmetics of London Chelsie has only just launched, we believe in giving back to charities and our communities, so we’ve made our prices affordable for everyone and will be seeking to work with different charities throughout this year.” We can’t wait to see more of their products and think that Chelsie’s new skincare is one to keep on our radar! 

We tried their first product the AHA Exfoliating Mask which is unisex, vegan, cruelty-free and comes in a reusable glass jar. As well as being an ethical product, we found it to be both effective and great to use.  The texture is creamy, and the fragrance is a subtle geranium (which is one of the oils used). The mask contains active ingredients from fruit acids that help to treat acne, dehydration and fine lines. It also includes key essential oils grapefruit, geranium flower and cedarwood oils to aid inflammation, redness and damaged skin. Although the mask gently exfoliates, helping to reduce acne and wrinkles it does contain lactic (from the decomposition of citric acid), malic, citric and glycolic acids (the latter being the holy grail for exfoliation). So we’d suggest a patch test first (waiting 24 hours before using on face) and always avoiding the eye area. We found that it did a good deep cleanse and left the skin soft, fragrant and hydrated. Chelsie suggests leaving the product on for 5-10 minutes and then rinsed off with warm water. It can be used 1-3 times a week; however, after using, it’s recommended during the day to wear an SPF 30 or 50 to protect the skin after this exfoliation. It is suitable for normal to oily skin (but not recommended for sensitive complexions) and we found our face looking brighter, pore size reduced and skin tone more even after only two weeks use. You too can purchase the 100g AHA Exfoliating Mask here for £23.99.