Hi Lovelies,

 

Welcome back! And welcome, if you are new here xo

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Today is the day I have to get over myself and bring out less than positive feedback on products and brands – even if it brings me out in rash! As a natural people pleaser I want to be nice to everyone around me, and I am always about support for fellow green beauty sisters! Green Beauty community is largely nice and supportive, and in my mind I would like everyone to get along well and be supportive of one another. But at the same time I know there are undercurrents in it, as any other industry.  This post is not about throwing people under the bus or some people’s or brands kind of nasty behaviour behind the scenes – although I could tell a few stories.

My own experience in it has been largely positive, and I am so so glad I have met so many nice people and experienced nice products!

Today, however we will talk about those exceptions. In my mind, natural products have to be not only natural, but work well as well – and there are so many wonderful products that do! But if your face cream promises you the world but in reality you are left with greasy face and spots, chances are you either have a wrong product for your skin type or it is just plain bad product. I was debating with myself whether or not I should post those types of posts here on my blog, as I think of it as “negative”, and I don’t feel good trashing products at all. I was thinking to myself of doing only those products posts that I enjoy, and those that didn’t work for me just let it slip and not mention them at all, but then again, done right way, as in “constructive criticism” way, it can actually be helpful to some people and help them avoid expensive mistakes? If I list the reasons why exactly I didn’t like the product, those might be the exact reasons someone will love the product, you just never know? We are all different and we might expect different things from products? Before we start, let’s just say that I have dry and sensitive skin and my hair is not coloured, fine, but there’s lots of it, and it’s mid-back length. My skin is normal to dry, but very sensitive and reactive and prone to dermatitis. I am on the wrong side of 30’s, so I can as well class myself as “mature” I guess? I also won’t be listing ingredients of everything (something I like to do) because I don’t want this post to be two miles long. After long talk with myself I decided to sort of split this post into two parts, firstly I will talk about about truly terrible (in my opinion) products, and the second part will list the products that didn’t work on my skin type/tone but it might work for someone else?

LightUp Skincare

Hmm, I don’t even know where to begin? I said no once or twice to this lady before accepting the package for my consideration – and I ignored my gut instinct in the process. I didn’t want to appear rude and ignore the brand, but the persistence should have served as a warning. I was very clear I am busy up to my eyes with various projects and I take time to review anything. I also told the lady my anxiety is through the roof at the moment, but she chose to ignore that all together. Having tried the products I didn’t like anything, but was still thinking of ways of how I can turn negative into positive, until a few weeks later I found myself bombarded with DMs that quickly went into passive aggressive territory. I am sorry, but that is not acceptable and I won’t be bullied into writing a review – having sent a few soaps and scrub cubes (large selection according to her) my way does not mean guaranteed review. Yes, I do understand her point of view, sending packages to bloggers do cost money, and yes, I didn’t came out with the review in like 5 minutes, but at the same time no one will bully me into reviewing things, and that is where I rest my case.

When it comes to the actual products, the soaps I found both drying and leaving uncomfortable residue on the hands, plus they are made form ready made soap base and not from scratch, dyed with dye and just pressed into nice molds. Scrub cubes didn’t do a thing, honestly, zero scrubbing action, and it felt like rubbing a piece of plastic on my skin – weirdest feeling ever. I persevered, but no to avail. Lotion bar came wrapped into a tissue paper, and after a couple of days I got a rather unpleasant surprise of it ruining my nice wooden heart plate – the oil seeped through and to this day, the plate remains ruined. I have tried oiling the whole plate in a bid to sort of save it and make it one colour, but it didn’t work. The lotion bar is semi solid, but it melts into oil on your body. Now, I love my body oils, you know I do, but this product isn’t good, I am sorry – it doesn’t sink into your skin, it is almost impossible to rub in, and it ruined a few of my clothes, I found the oil almost impossible to wash off. The lip balm does not last for more than five minutes and it is very crumbly – this formula needs a lot of tweaking.

Now, you know why I sort of paused the review – I didn’t find the products working well full stop. All of these products are very simple to DIY, and what I make myself, I found working better than this – so how could I came out with a positive review, I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for all the ladies who start their own green beauty businesses – I wish them the best of luck! Same for this brand, just make sure to be nice to the next blogger you will seek the review from.

Jeez, typing all this I feel terrible, and this brings me out in rash! I stand behind every word I said, I found the products didn’t work for me, but even so I feel bad saying “bad” things – even though I know there’s nothing bad about constructive criticism, most creators take it into consideration to improve the products. Let me know your experience if you have tried this brand?

*Since airing this unpleasant situation on my IG stories, I got loads of DMs from other bloggers saying that they checked out the brand’s products and they got the impression of very DIY level products – thanks darlings, that makes me feel better it is not only me imagining things. The impressions are exactly right, and they feel the same way too. Glad to get support from people who know their stuff – you know who you are.

 

 Borne 07 COsmetics- whole range of products (from etsy)

Imagine situation – you just had a baby, and a few weeks later you are told the job you had no longer exists, so you are jobless and penniless, because all the savings went into preparing for the baby. Your husband also loses his job two weeks later. So you spend a year without any treats for yourself, and when your Bday comes around, you decide to treat yourself to a new make up. I got it via etsy beauty – l was looking for a clean ingredients and a good price, so after days of research l chose this company and l got full sizes of mineral foundation, concealer, blush and three or four eyeshadows. What a disappointment! Nothing from these products worked for me, the powder had no coverage, yet it looked terrible cakey (yes, that is possible!), the concealer creased like crazy and was way too light for me, when l wore the blush, l was asked if l got punched in the face (?!) – clearly wrong shade for me and l never touched this again. The eye shadows were terrible and lasted for 1 hr maximum. So imagine my state when l spent the last money I saved all year on this crappy lot! Even now, a few years later I still remember my bitter tears over this. And it made me scared of trying anything else from etsy beauty section for a long time. This is the biggest disappointment I’ve had when it comes to make up!

Dr Organic

I have tried a few products in my earlier days of natural beauty journey – purely for the reason of the brand being available locally to me, and not knowing at a time that natural products can really match the conventional products on every level when it comes to user experience – I thought I will always have to make sacrifices in this area. The ingredients aren’t all natural, in my mind this is not green but rather green washing brand. My experience from what I tried years and years ago – rose otto masks burned my skin badly, the face scrub felt like rubbing sand paper on my face, face serum in the same line irritated my skin, and all under eye cream did, was give me millia. I have tried all the shampoos from them, all left my hair looking worse than I started with.

Thankfully I found many and many truly natural products that really work ever since and haven’t touched the brand with the bargepole since.

 

Yes To

Different brand, same thoughts as above. Plus they keep coming and going in and out of cruelty free status – can somebody explain me how is that possible? I thought once you are CF, you are CF?

Shea Moisture

I have bought a few products as soon as they arrived at Boots about a couple of years ago – I was doing a happy dance at the thought of natural products coming to masses, but let’s just say this purchase of mine was a 49€ worth of fail. The shampoos are not moisturizing at all, it made my hair coarse and dry ? it is not the worst I’ve tried, but it didn’t blew me away in the way I hoped! It added shine, but that’s about it for positives for it. I got way too many flyaways than I usually do, plus they made my hair way too tangly and gave me dandruff. At the time Boots was stocking only six products from the wast Shea Moisture range, now they have over twenty. The leave in conditioner is better than the shampoos, but I sort of wasted it, I decanted it into a small bottle to use is as a detangler, and only used that, the rest was sitting on the bathroom shelf, and I found it frothed up next time I went to use it a few months later. I blame myself for it, maybe it shouldn’t be kept in the bathroom? I would repurchase it if it was sold in a smaller quantity, so I would be sure to use it up, but it is sold in giant tub for 18€, which is expensive especially if you know you won’t be able to use it all up. I am not sure if I will try any more products from them to be honest with you .Also one more thing, when I posted my haul on my IG page, Norvegian blogger ordered some products soon after and she sent me message saying that these products are heavily diluted compared to those she had from US, so she was very disappointed. I haven’t tried these products before so I can’t comment for myself, but shame on Boots and Shea Moisture if they diluted the products for the EU market. These are normal shampoo consistency, and I was told they should be so thick they are hard to squeeze out of the bottle. Please let me know if you have tried US products and if they are different from the ones here?

 

Ruka’s Place Raw Shea Butter

Now, I am not a novice with shea butter, I have used it for many years, and I constantly rave about other brand’s shea butter in my other posts, but this didn’t agree with me. Every time I used this my skin would tingle, and I found it a bit odd. I once used it to soothe my freshly shaved legs, and it gave me bumps and red rashes plus irritating feeling, you know, exactly the sort of thing when you get once stinging nettle touches your skin, where the hair follicles would swell up, be red and all itchy? Yes, exactly like that. My hubby looked scared and told me he thought I got dermatitis all over my legs once again when he saw this, so I immediately washed it off and my skin calmed down soon after. (And no, it is nothing to so with the razor or shaving. I always use the same type of razor, fresh every time, and if I use coconut oil to soothe the skin, I am alright). I haven’t touched it ever since. Time to find a new owner for it?

*The brand calls their products or should I say single ingredients organic, but I haven’t found anything to support the claims. Products bought with my own money.

 

Ruka’s Place Rosehip Oil

Rosehip oil is my favourite facial oil, it is amazing and I am singing praises for it for a long time, it is so good for the skin, right? Not this sadly. This company says their products are all natural, but this left my skin irritated and red for some reason, and it never happened to me with rosehip oil before. I was careful not to use it on my dermatitis patch, my skin reacted in a wild protest when I tried to used it there. Don’t know why this is or why this didn’t suit me, but I can’t use it.

*Note – the brand now calls itself something else, and not remembering their new name I can’t find them on Instagram. Natural Products Emporium Ireland? Natural Products Ireland? Organic Emporium Ireland, something like that?

 

Now for the products that aren’t terrible products per se, it’s just they weren’t suitable for my sensitive skin.

 

Neal’s Yard Remedies Orange Flower Facial Oil

Despite loads of nice and nourishing oils in it, my sensitive skin didn’t like it and was irritated every single time I used it, and it was making my dermatitis patch much redder and worse looking, so that is exactly the reason I had to stop using it. In order for my money spent not to go to waste, I use it as my body lotion (rather expensive) booster. I don’t like products go to waste, and none of my girlfriends wanted it.

 

Neal’s Yard Remedies Frankincense Facial Cream

Same story as with orange flower facial oil, just instead of using it on my body I gave it away to one of my girlfriends with much less sensitive skin than mine when it was 70% full and she seems to enjoy it.

 

NYR as a brand I have a lot of respect for, they were far ahead of their time doing things the right way from the very start – they use sustainable and fair trade practices in their business rather than chasing a quick profit, they use as much or organic materials as they possibly can, and so on and so forth – they proudly state all about it on their website. Loads of their products ended up in my Holy Grail list, it’s just simply I have to accept the fact that my face can’t handle their skincare with essential oil added. Sensitive line I am fine with, the essential oils themselves are fantastic, far better quality than some others I have tried. Shower gels last for months, and ours is a family of four! Shampoos rival the Rahua, and I could go on! This confirms my theory that the good and bad products can be found in one brand.

 

I could go on – as my own green beauty journey is nearing a decade, so understandably I have had my fair share of products, good and bad. It’s just we are nearing 3000 words already, and this is my second post for the day – I am tired and need my tea break. So if you will excuse me, I will go on to have my camomile tea and hope that will calm down my anxiety.

 

 

What about you, have you had any bad experiences with brands and products? Please share , I would love to know!

 

That’s it for today, hope to see You here next Tuesday! Thanks for reading and have a great day x

Lots of Love,

Renata.

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