Crabtree & Evelyn are a brand which silently but proudly portray luxurious British heritage. The brand stemmed from a family run business that made home-made soaps with an international themes which has since grown into a huge international company which is known for quality toiletries and they have stemmed into fragrances and even food. Crabtree & Evelyn are the ultimate hipster company as they made “natural” cool before “natural” was the in thing to do. Working in harmony with nature their products are inspired from a time when the garden played an important role in daily life and they use plant, fruit and flower essences for natural fragances and soothing solutions for the skin.

From two of the recent #BWB or Bloggers Who Bless Cape Town meets – we have been totally spoilt with their wonderful handcreams. The one I’ve been using on my paws is the Iris Hand Therapy. Firstly, it is small enough to carry around in your handbag, they certainly pack a punch in these harsh winter months. They touch your skin and are absorbed leaving you with wonderfully smooth and soft hands that have no left over residue or greasiness. A real winter-must have. On top of this they leave your hands smelling absolutely gorgeous and long after use they leave a very faint scent of beautiful iris. These hand creams are award-winning and its not hard to see why. They certainly win my vote for best winter handcream for 2014 that I’ve used so far ;) Have a look at the entire handcream range over here at their website.

For 50g this product retails at R180 but you use such a little product it can last you for ages so, its well worth the investment!

Crabtree & Evelyn are not only an easy solution for a gift for the special ladies in your life as their products will happily work in harmony with everyone, they are a healthy and smart choice for daily use.

What is your favourite Crabtree & Evelyn product?

Don’t forget to visit Crabtree & Evelyn’s website, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter @Crabtree_SA

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I recently received a sampler of the Dermalogica Precleanse at a Bloggers Who Bless event. I’d never actually tried any Dermalogica products, so I was keen to give it a go.

What it promises

Deep-cleansing oil melts impurities and make-up from skin. Achieve ultra clean and healthy skin with the Double Cleanse regimen that begins with PreCleanse. Thoroughly melt away layers of excess sebum (oil), sunscreen, waterproof make-up, environmental pollutants and residual products that build-up on skin throughout the day with skin fortifying Olive, Kukui and Apricot oils. Add water to transform this hydrophilic (water-loving) formula into a milky emulsion that easily rinses debris from the skin’s surface, allowing your prescribed Dermalogica Cleanser to penetrate even further for professional cleansing results. Formulated with conditioning Rice Bran and Vitamin E oils, this gentle blend can be used around the eye area to even remove waterproof mascara. Offers a deep cleansing ideal for even the most oily skin conditions. Formulated without artificial fragrances and colors.

The Review

This Dermalogica Precleanse is simply perfection. Luxurious, rich, and yet super gentle on even sensitive skin. When you put this on it smells like you’re in one of the poshest spas in the land. That smell of aromatherapy oils and herbs and generally all those larny expensive la-di-dah smells you experience in the middle of a facial.
If top of that, it leaves your skin feeling soft – none of that try tight soapy feeling. You apply it to dry skin and massage the day’s dirt and makeup slowly off, using gentle circular motions. A full face of makeup will literally melt away. Waterproof mascara? No problem. Then splash water on your face and you’ll see the oil turn a milky consistency. Rinse off, and you’re done. But those delicious smells and oils linger… You feel so relaxed and pampered.
If you’re wanting to try a cleansing oil I would definitely recommend this one. It lives up to its promises and this really does look after your skin. I can only imagine what using the entire range would do to your skin. Have you tried it? Let me know what you thought.
You can purchase Dermalogica products from Sorbet outlets nationwide.

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I did not know about this wonderful little brand until one of their gorgeous Hair Masques was popped into my first #BWB goodie bag, and we were informed not had the hair masques recently been relaunched and we were one of the first groups of people to get our paws on them. How exciting! 

The reason for the re-launch was to essentially create a product that was harder working, better quality and great value for money. Hair masques are a product which can be enriching and the more enriched the better, therefore the new ingridients added assist with conditioning and repairing damaged hair, enhancing shine and moisture and assists with a softer and glistening hair all round after using the product – it does this by treating the hair shaft and nourishing the hair from the source with no added chemicals and completely cruelty free.

 

If there is one thing that can be said about eras gone by is that everything that goes around, comes back around again. My generation, the millennium generation, may be under the impression that we were the only era to celebrate platform shoes circa Spice Girls but have a look around, they have come back in style again (not quite as bad as last time) but even before this, they were all the rage when my parents got married and their wedding photographs can vouch for this. The same can be said for beauty, fashion, style and even medicinally we often find ourselves looking to the past to see what they did right and how we have modernised things and completely made a balls up of how things should be by trying to be more efficient, and by efficient I mean commercial. Lining someone else’s back pocket while in severe cases we are exposing ourselves to harsh chemicals in the attempt to be modern and up-to-date.

Let’s move away from platforms and lets talk about organic. Organic is very in. Organic is very popular, whether it is what you are shoving down your throat or what you are smothering on your face, organic is better – its everywhere – like its a new thing but its not. Organic goods were the only goods before we started piling the artificial chemicals into everything to make life more convenient, to make things last longer and food to grow bigger.

The Victorian Garden is an unique company, their history is absolutely fascinating and compiled with modern research they develop the most wonderful traditional Victorian skin care recipes using only organic and natural ingredients and better yet, the products are made locally in South Africa.

 Retail: R95

I have been using the lovely Rosemary & Jojoba Hair Masque with Peppermint which slightly tingles the scalp when applied but leaves the hair feeling fabulous afterwards.

Excuse the no-makeup as this was captured while Skyping my nephew on Saturday my brother so happily got a screen shot – but check my hair – forget the makeup is missing or admire my dog.

 

If you are looking for a hair masque, they are R95 and available on The Victorian Garden’s website – be sure to check out their entire range as its completely fascinating!
Be sure to check out The Victorian Garden’s website, Facebook and Twitter @Victorian_Tweet.

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