“It’s not nice. It’s amazing!” - A quote from my 6 year old nephew. The topic?Sheabutter cottage’s afro shampoo bar.

Where have I been? I am nearly 10 years late to the shampoo bar game. I’ve always been recommended it, but just never bothered. I was a Fool.

Let me tell you. For less than £5 a completely natural shampoo, that lathers and cleans your scalp perfectly without drying your hair out. My hair was so soft. I loved the nutty sweet scent of it. Way easier to use than regular shampoo for me since I wash in sections. Just rub on your head! My sister a Lather lover loved it since it lathers up really well.

I just can’t get enough. I’m buying a bar for my mum, my sister in law and for anyone else! I’m recommending it to EVERYONE!

I’ve bought Sheabutter cottage products for other people (see my post on Sheabutter cottage’s soaps) but silly me has only gotten round to using something for myself.  I am now on it like sonic.

This soap is vegan and is described as

Fragrance-free with murumuru to help with lifeless curls, avocado to nourish and carefully balanced with agave nectar for the softness.

Ingredient and product info



SBC is fair-trade, ethical, what’s not to love? There are “prestige” or “salon” brands that are triple the price, full of filler and dodgy business practices.  Or hair shops where steroids are stocked on the shelf, stuff is out of date plus poor customer service and sexual harassment is a given every time you step inside. I think it’s so important to support products made here in the UK for us and by us that tick every box. I hope brands like SBC can continue to grow and flourish because they are needed.

End of rant

SBC had me at hello shampoo bar

Milani Color statement lipstick review. Teddy Bare and Plum rose

My new favourite Nude! Yay!

I cannot say how much i love these lipsticks. They are fabulous. The Milani Teddy Bare is great if you have dark lips like me and want a brown nude with just hint of pink. It is extremely hard to find in a lipstick and i'm always having to mix and match when i want something i can just drag across my lips in one fell swoop!

 I also picked up the plumrose shade. Again a great pink for darker skintones. I wear both regularly and have done so for weeks. Teddy Bare is my everyday lipstick.

They smell like in the words of Beyonce "watermelon", they smell exactly like jolly ranchers( which no longer exist in the UK) or any other watermelon scented sweet. They are very creamy and don't dry out your lips.

Per the Milani site the shades come in Pearl, matte, shimmer, vinyl, metallic and cream.

http://www.milanicosmetics.com/p-153-color-statement-lipstick.aspx

The only con? They are not readily available. I bought these at an Afro hair shop or BSS as they are known called Juliets in Peckham. I don't even know if they sell them anywhere else! They also came with the whole behind the counter testers, no testers for certain products, personal space being invaded that happens at so many of these stores. Come on Milani get it together! Roll out your new products in ALL Afro hair shops and have some sort of directive on how they are displayed and sold!

Anyway they cost £3.99 each and i will buy LOADS.

Teddy Bare no flash

TeddyBare Flash

TeddyBare 

Plumrose no flash

Plumrose flash

La Roche-Posay Effaclar K review

Yes my packages are dirty, cos i use em!

Tag line- it works kind of.

Well well well. Effaclar K, you served me well but it's going to be a no.  La Roche Posay has a great reputation and in the UK its products now easily availaible in Boots are fast becoming "cult" classics. I used the sunscreen a couple of years ago and then hopped on the Effaclar range bandwagon.

What i liked:

It got rid of three clumps I had on my cheek that weren't spots, i don't know what they were but they were tiny and only effeclar moved them.  I also felt that my cheeks were kept relatively clear

However my head would not respond and the breakouts there just continued unimpeded. I also want sure how to use it. It has a tiny amount of retinal in it, so I choose to use it at night only. It says it's a good base for makeup but it's not clear what it is exactly. I also wasn't impressed with the ingredients. For the price it's a whole lot of filler, and though i don't greatly mind filler, i'm not paying £20 for it.

I think if you have very mild spots and pimples and by mild i mean mild it'll work for you. But its not a strong treatment lotion.

Alba Botanica Leave-in conditioner

Now the only hair moisturiser I use. Creamy, moisturising and thick. Yet affordable. Over here in the UK most natural leave-ins imported from the states will cost in the double figures. If you have a lot of hair or are a frequent washer it just won't make any financial sense.

Thats why i love this product.

For years I have been searching for a moisturiser I can get easily at a good price and that performs well and thats what i've found. Anyone with natural afro hair/very curly hair, who likes a thick emollient cream with fantastic ingredients, this is it. The only downside according to my sister is that it "smells like bum". I have no problem with the odour and my hair definitely doesn't smell like bum, the natural smell disapates in seconds lol, so don't worry about it. If you prefer heavily fragranced products this probablky isn't for you, but i love it. I've repurchased it three times and will continue to do so. I LOVE THIS STUFF!

It costs £6.29 at bath and unwind 

 Bath and unwind

Serums, Serums and more serums

It is now winter, so dry skin is a given for many people. For the past couple of months I have been experimenting with serums.  Although serums have been around for a while, us skincare muggles have probably only heard about them recently.  To be honest I was sceptical about them, aren't they just ANOTHER product being touted as a "necessity" for women.  I still don't know if they are a necessity and some sort of brilliant product but I have seen some small yet noticeable differences. 

Serums are a skincare product that has a higher amount of certain ingredients whether that be anti-age, acne and so on. The molecules are smaller so can penetrate the skin better. Apparently.

I have dry skin, so I usually buy skincare products that are targeted to the mature age group. I don't care who its targeted to as long as it works. I actually picked up my first serum because as an acne sufferer it contained Niacinamide, a great ingredient for spot prone skin as well as, just a great overall skin care ingredient!   

Tesco  Skin Wisdom age delay treatment serum  is £7 for 30ml, I however purchased it during a half price sale.

It comes in a pump format and looks quite pink and shimmery when you first disperse it onto your skin. However this shimmer does not appear on your skin when you rub it in and it goes on smoothly and has a pleasant fragrance. My routine was wash>rosewater glycerine>serum>moisturiser.  I used this   for around three months and would have repurchased it, but my local Tesco doesn't really stock the same thing twice. 

In terms of results, I definitely feel that  my skin held moisture in, and also my hypo pigmentation has been reduced ( light spots).

The only reason I didn't reuse it, is because it was no longer available on store ( I was not about to order it online.online. I don't need Tesco knowing even more about me) and because I am now following a more "intensive" I guess skin care regimen ( which I will be writing about with pics soon!)

After not being able to find the Skin wisdom serum, I instead bought L'oreal age perfect extraordinary serum. I bought it because it was £5 on offer down from I think the usual is about £11-13.

I liked the fact it came in a dropper format and came in a  darkened glass bottle. I didn't like the smell which was sour and if you accidently put too much it becomes greasy. It also irritated my  skin if i accidently put too much on and I didn't see any visible difference to my skin.  It's not bad, but it's not great.  I will not be repurchasing and will give this to my sister.

Tesco skin wisdom ingredients: 

Ingredients: Aqua,Cyclopentasiloxane ,Niacinamide ,Glycerin ,Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate ,Polyacrylamide ,Dimethicone ,Phenoxyethanol ,C13-14 Isoparaffin ,Calcium PCA ,Polysorbate 20 ,Oleyl Alcohol ,Mica ,Pentylene Glycol ,Imidazolidinyl Urea ,Dimethicone Crosspolymer ,Disodium EDTA , Lactobacillus/Cucurbita Pepo Fruit Ferment Extract ,Parfum ,Laureth-7 , Dimethiconol ,Sodium Hyaluronate ,Dioscorea Villosa Root Extract ,Glycine Soja Sterols ,Tocopheryl Acetate ,Sodium Hydroxide ,Rhodiola Rosea Extract ,EDTA , Butylphenyl Methylpropional ,Limonene ,Hydroxyisohexyl 3-Cyclohexene Carboxaldehyde ,CI 77891 ,CI 77491

L'oreal extraordinary serum ingredients:

Shea Butter Cottage Mungala and Pasuca Soap Review

I bought the soaps below  for my neices who have eczema and very dry skin and for my sister. (Well not for her but she uses them anyway)


Mungala Black Soap

Pasuca Black Soap


I haven't used them but i will paraphrase her answers to me.

They're big bars of soap (Bang for your buck!)
All natural ( Yeah babay!)
Unlike commercial soap you don't get that weird film you get in the bathtub ( yeah, what is that? Soap Mucus)
Unlike commercial soaps they do not dry out your skin (Fantastic!)

She loves em! If you're looking for natural soaps, that don't irritate and dry out your skin check them out, amongst the treasure troves of goodies at


http://akuawood.x-shops.com/

( A dummy like me didn't take any pics before giving them to my sister, and i don't want to be sued!)

The curious case of L'oreal and Liya Kebede's missing Lipstick.

Are "we" worth it?

I'm sure you've seen the ad here in the uk, but let me just give you a refresher.

The L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Collection Privée

The L'Oreal Paris Color Riche Collection Privée

L'oreal TV AD- Click me baby

This is the ad currently airing in the UK. There are different versions on youtube as i understand different lipsticks are being released in different territories. There has been fanfare that L'oreal have designed a nude  lipstick for all skintones.  Their L'Oreal Color Riche Collection Privée range. I was excited to read about this colour range online and i thought the next time I'm at the L'oreal counter I'll swatch Liya's shade and buy! ( Barely Moka nb7 by the way) But something strange happened. In shop after shop i could not find Liya's shade, i at first blamed it at these concession stands being small ( every other shade Cheryl Cole, Eva Longoria, Doutzen Kroes, Freida Pinto and Julianne Moore was there) but i finally saw Liya's shade in a Superdrug. Alas the tester compartment and section was empty. Totally empty. Hmm maybe it's all sold out i thought. I asked the sales assistant. She actually went into the back and began looking for the shade. It wasn't there, ( she had wheeled the box the lipsticks in to me) and she confessed she HAD NEVER seen the lipstick there at all. Ever.

I called Boots customer service. The lady there couldn't even see the lipstick on the system. Then she asked one of the online staff. It was online only. OH. So no if i wanted to get the lipstick i would have to buy blind. No boots store will be stocking it, in stores.  I emailed L'oreal asking if it were available anywhere in store. As of today still no reply. ( I wrote to them on the 12/9/13)

So Why would L'oreal go to the trouble of creating a lipstick, advertising it and then making it unavailable in stores? What would be the point?

More troubling is that they decided that every other skintone could be stocked in store but not Liya's.  I visited 7 stores and did not find Liya's shade. If it is available in stores ( most probably Superdrug or independent Chemists, as boots aren't) then it must be one or two in London. Even in a heavily "ethnic minority" area, it wasn't stocked. Lets not even get on to the fact that Fan Bing Bing's lipstick isn't stocked over here when there is a sizable East Asian community in the UK

It just baffles my mind. Why advertise the fact that the shade is available but make it online only? Making the inevitable sales figures  low. Most people are not willing to A- Buy blind or B- traipse all over London in pursuit of one lipstick they may or not buy. Then when the next time L'Oreal think about stocking darker shades or ranges, their data says it doesn't sell. Its a vicious circle.

L'sigh. People wonder why i like to purchase from brands that actually cater to me ........