Say Yes To Carrots

During my last trip to Singapore, I came upon a counter in Watson’s in Ngee Ann city selling a very interesting brand - Yes to Carrots. I’d never heard of it before and there was a whole skincare and body range made with carrots! Yes, the orange vegetable!

I was actually looking for a day moisturiser and contemplated the Day Moisturiser from this brand because it felt light and absorbed well. Besides it is supposed to be paraben-free. (You can read my previous post on parabens)

Yes to Carrots combines vitamins and beta carotene from carrots and other orange based organic fruits and vegetables with dead sea water which is supposed to be rich in minerals. The formulation is light and they are created to be suitable for sensitive skins.
Continue Reading >> Say Yes To Carrots

Review: The Body Shop Relaxing Lavender shower gel

I don’t shop much at The Body Shop. There are only a few things I like from there - the Tea Tree Oil face wash is fast becoming a necessity - and this shower gel is one of them.

The Lavender Body Wash by The Body Shop is one of the nicer lavender based body washes or shower gels I’ve tried.

I like the smell of lavender. It relaxes me especially if I’ve had a long day at work. So, having a nice lavender infused shower gel is really useful. The smell of lavender in this body wash from The Body Shop is strong and smells pure not powdery. I realised that pure lavender oil has a sharp but soothing smell, after purchasing a bottle of pure lavender essential oil from Australia once. It told me that those powdery smells I’d been smelling before weren’t quite 100% essential oil as claimed. Continue Reading >> Review: The Body Shop Relaxing Lavender shower gel

Review: Origins Organic Cleansing Body Bar

I saw a fleeting article in the newspaper about Origins Organics range being brought into Malaysia. It reminded me that I was sent the cleansing body bar a while back and it slipped my mind to review it!

The Organics range by Origins is made of organic ingredients and according to the Origins website this is what the USDA says about organic ingredients:-

According to the USDA, an organic ingredient is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations.

rganic ingredients are produced without using most conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bio-engineeringing or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled “organic”, a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure that the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA standards.

You can read more about it on the Origins Organics website. I can’t link you directly because its a flash site, but if you go to the main site, you can click around for more information about organic materials and what is organic certification.

Anyway, I have the Origins Organics cleansing bar, which is essentially a bar of soap. It is a pale yellow colur and has a rough feel to it unlike the usual processed soaps with the waxy smooth feel. I really like the smell. There is a strong herb-essential oil smell to it that doesn’t linger on the skin and it really perfumes the bathroom. This is because it contains Organic Clove, Rose, Lavender, Patchouli and Red Thyme Essential Oils.

I find that this soap bar isn’t drying as soap bars usually are but cleans nicely. Point to note is that it doesn’t leave the skin feeling moisturized either. It just doesn’t make it feel tight and dry. Some ingredients that can be found in this cleansing body bar are:-

Organic Coconut Oil: An effective moisturizer, it helps rehydrate skin. In addition, Coconut oil makes an excellent massage oil as well.

Organic Olive Oil: Used for centuries to soothe, smooth, refresh and renew worn-out skin.

Organic Palm Oil: Softens and conditions skin, renews and helps eliminate dryness. Often used in combination with Coconut and Olive oils.

One other thing I noticed about this bar of soap is that it lasts. It doesn’t melt away in the shower and one bar has lasted me more than 2 months! Its hell for someone who likes to change her shower stuff often, but it makes it worth the money you spend on it.

Honestly, for someone who prefers to use shower gels, I really like this soap. It retails for US$15 for a 100g bar. That means it’ll probably cost about RM50? Ouch! Expensive!

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Review: SpaSensials Hand and Foot Treatment

I’d been on vacation the last couple of days and did a lot of walking in hot dry weather. When I got home, I discovered that my hands and feet felt rough and the skin was dry and peeling. It was then that I remembered having received a sample of the SpaSensials Hand and Foot Treatment, and thought to give it a go.

Introduced by Kimberly-Clark, what this product promises is a spa treatment for your hands and feet right in the comfort of your own home, at any time you want. The product comes in the form of disposable gloves and foot covers packaged in individual packs, so you can actually take them on vacation with you.

The SpaSensials Hand Treatment is in the form of gloves which you pull on. The material feels a little like paper that is moistened on the inside with vitamins (A, B5, E), aloe, avocado and jojoba. I have small hands so I found that the fingers were a little too long. However, as they are supposed to be one size fits all, I guess they have to make some accomodations.

The SpaSensials Foot Treatment comes in the form of little socks that you slip over your feet. Similarly, these are dryish on the outside and moistened on the inside. Unlike the gloves, I found that these socks fit a little snugly over my relatively small feet, so I’m not sure how anyone with larger feet could use them.

I slipped both the gloves and socks on and read a book for about 15 minutes. There is a cooling sensation and when I removed them, I found that my skin was noticeably softer and more moisturised. The skin does feel a little sticky after that but if you just massage the moisture into your skin, it goes away. The soft feeling lasted till the morning which was nice.

I can imagine using this treatment on vacation or on a plane where the air is dry. With the recent restrictions on liquids in carry on luggage, this would make a very useful product to carry on board and keep your hands and feet moisturised, so if you are looking for a gift for someone who travels a lot, you might consider the Spasensials Hand and Foot Treatment. Otherwise, for everyday, I’d stick to using moisturiser from the bottle because I like the feel of the lotion on my skin.

Pros: Convenient,Travel friendly, works as it should

Cons: Socks are too small, Sticky feeling after use

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