The Cruelty Free Beauty Box provide a subscription service to cruelty free beauty products with the aim of making cruelty free beauty easier to source and more accessible for everyone.
Here are my thoughts on the March box.
Pure Chimp – Natural Shampoo Bar
Pure Chimp sell affordable natural skincare and Japanese matcha. This shampoo bar comes with a note saying that if you’ve not used natural shampoo before it may take your hair a few weeks to adjust. Luckily for me, I switched to natural shampoo around three years ago so have already been through that hell!
The first thing I noticed when opening this was how fragile the product was. Several flakes of the bar had come away and quite a lot fell out when I unwrapped it. Luckily I was able to stick it back together after I had used it.
The fragrance had a gentle banana quality, but it did smell quite synthetic. I’m not sure if this was caused by the beer in it, but the scent of it overall is quite unusual.
I did love the fact that the shampoo bar is dome shaped which made it really easy to use. It lathers really well and left hair very clean.
My hair was also very soft and shiny after using and there’s no leftover scent of beer or synthetic bananas!
Pure Chimp – Matcha Tea Sachet in Turmeric
I’m not usually a fan of matcha green tea but I brewed this up anyway and had another shot, so to speak.
This matcha tea is blended with turmeric, cinnamon and ginger which makes is sound like a nice warming autumn evening drink. I made the tea with almond milk.
I really wanted to like it. Ginger tea is one of my favourite autumn drinks and I really enjoy it during cold season. As hayfever season has fallen a little early this year I was hoping that it was going to give me the same comforting feeling.
Sadly it looks like me and matcha are definitely not to be and I couldn’t manage more than a mouthful of it. But it dissolved into the milk quite well (apart from a little sediment at the bottom of the cup) and was quite frothy, so if you are a fan of matcha, this might be a good one for you to try.
Bellapierre Cosmetics Shimmer Powder in Starry Night
Bellapierre Cosmetics create on-trend, cruelty free make up which is free of harmful ingredients. The shimmer powders can be used as eyeshadow, cream eyeshadow, blush, eyeliner, lip colour, nail polish tinted mascara and bronzer. Starry Night is a deep blue colour and for this review I used it as an eyeshadow.
This was a lovely dark blue with a hint of shimmer that was quite gothic in its luck. I used it over a primer and it lasted throughout the evening without creasing or cracking. The shimmer is very subtle and I did expect more sparkle from the name but this did make a lovely eyeshadow. I thought it also really brought out the green in my eyes. This would probably also look lovely with brown and hazel eyes and could work with blue eyes if used with some gold to highlight the inner corners.
As with all loose powder make up it can get a little messy so you need to be careful that excess doesn’t drop onto areas of the face you don’t want the make up.
Native Unearthed Natural Deodorant Balm – Grapefruit and Tea Tree
Native Unearthed make effective natural deodorants created from ingredients you can find in your kitchen. This plant based dedorant has a zesty fragrance and neutralises odour while nourishing and moisturising skin.
This deodorant was really easy to use. The consistency was very soft which is nice as a lot of natural deodorants can be very dry and take quite a lot of faffing with to get them to melt into any kind of usable consistency. The product is a little grainy but this all melts away within seconds of application so didn’t make any difference.
The fragance doesn’t seem very strong in the jar, but when this has been applied and has melted into the skin there’s a lovely citrusy hit which lasted all day without needing to reapply. The deodorant was also absorbed very quickly so there was no waiting around for it to dry.
The deodorant also has a nice cooling effect on the skin. Skin was also gently moisturised.
Tropika Skin Coconut Cleansing Oil
Tropika are a family business who create natural skincare for all the family. This cleansing oil promises to melt away all traces of make up and impurities including waterproof mascara. It is suitable for all skin types and can also be used to do a mini facial at home.
It was a little bit sceptical about this when I first applied it. The recommended four drops seemed to disappear straight into my skin leaving it slightly tacky. There was a release of a lovely tropical fragrance though.
Adding water did not produce the milky textured product promised and when using the cleansing oil it felt like I may as well be washing it with water. As this is safe for eyes I did use it to remove my eye make up as well and there was no sting or irritation there.
I rinsed the oil off not expecting much and was really amazed. All my make up just disappeared as it said it would and my skin was really soft and smooth with no trace of panda eyes. I’m thinking that my oily skin may have affected how the product worked so I had slightly different results to what expected but I was really impressed with the results.
Evolve Organic Beauty Hyaluronic 200
Evolve Beauty make organic, natural skincare, haircare and beauty products which are all vegan and cruelty free. This serum contains hyaluronic acid and pomegranate extract and is designed to hydrate, protect and plump up fine lines and wrinkles.
The serum is a gel formula which smells like Turkish delight. On contact with the skin it quickly transforms to a liquid which is quickly absorbed.
A small amount went a very long way and left my skin soft, smooth and matte. I have combination skin with a particularly oily T-zone and my skin was still matte in the morning which was quite impressive.
Looking forward to see what longer term use of this does.
My Product of the Month
This is the Native Unearthed Natural Deodorant Balm. The lovely fresh fragrance of this is lovely for the warmer weather we’ve been having as it’s such a lovely summery scent.
Please sign up to my newsletter to receive the latest news and events.