Product Reviews

Auravedic Reviving Body Cleanser {Product Review}

Swathy · May 30, 2011 · 2 Comments

An extremely gentle cleanser with minimum foam and a very subtle lingering fragrance. I don’t know the price since it was not present on the bottle and I was sent the product for review. The website also doesn’t give any information on the prices but I am sure it is reasonable. Have a look at the range of their products here.

Ingredients

The snap didn’t come very clear so I’ll just write the ingredients as listed.

Lemon Peel Extract, Ginger Extract, Almond Oil, Poly Ethylene Glycol, Geranium Oil, Aloe Vera Extract, Lemon Oil, Citric Acid, Sodium Lauryl Ethyl Sulphate, Coco Mono Ethyl Aide, Coco Amido Propyl Butane, Disodium Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid, Preservatives, Glycerin, Aqua, D-Panthenol

So, if we go accoding to the ingredient list, it had quite a huge amount of natural extracts of lemon peels, ginger and aloe vera and good proportion of almond oil and geranium oil for which one should be happy. And, it is quite surprising that the cleanser doesn’t foam a lot even though it has SLES. May be its not that excess in quantity. After all, it is listed in the middle. What concerns me most is the term – Preservatives. That’s pretty ambiguous and I would have wished it to specify what preservatives were used even if they are parabens.

My Experience

First thing you will notice is its smell. It smells faintly of lime and ginger which is soothing to your senses and slightly uplifting. It foams very little but cleanses very thoroughly. It doesn’t leave any film afterward too or make the skin feeling dry or stretchy. Instead, it makes the skin supple and hydrated enough to live without a moisturizer for some hours. I have used it with the Body Shop gloves and even then it didn’t foam a lot. It really behaves like a herbal preparation should for which I love the product. I was looking for a product which is gentle enough for the skin especially during summers and this is probably the best one till date I have used. I have been using it since a week or 10 days and I love it.

My Recommendation

Yes, definitely!!! One should give it a try and I am sure you would love it. Though, there is a question of its availability. It has its retail outlets in Mumbai but I am not sure of any other place in India so Mumbaikars can go and explore its wide range of products.

PS: I would love to make a special mention about the packaging of the entire products they sent me. It was just beautiful and they had put some potpourri petals in the box so when I opened the box, I was greeted with a very pleasant fragrance. The packaging of all its products is simple and utilitarian.

PS: Product sent by brand for consideration.

Lush Aqua Marina Cleanser {Product Review}

Swathy · May 29, 2011 · 6 Comments

Pink Mass wrapped in the sea weed

My second purchase from Lush and not much of a hope!!!

Price: 643 INR for 110 gms

Ingredients

full of amazing ingredients which is really a good thing – glycerin, calamine powder, Irish moss infusion, aloe vera, sea salt, nori seaweed, sweet orange, patchouli oil, carrageenan and perfume

My Experience

It looks peachy encircled in green and really gross green, actually, but since it is seaweed and Lush, you will forgive everything. So, you require a really less quantity of the cleanser – more like a peanut size. The direction is to make a paste with water and use as a regular cleanser but it is better to take the peanut size and rub it all over your wet face. It dissolves easily that way and many of the reviews suggest the same thing. You can feel the clay. It smells weird but likable once you get used to it so nothing to worry about. And, since it is so costly, I would like to get maximum out of it, so I massage it for 2-3 minutes over the face. It does cleanse the face really well. Does not leave any residue behind and leaves the skin soft. But, it can not even remove a simple kajal so it doesn’t remove make up at all.

I have been using this on and off since February and I have noticed that it used to dry my face during the colder temperatures where as it is just fine now a days. I have a combination skin which is towards dry side. So, keeping that in view, it wouldn’t suit people with dry skin (I don’t think it is meant for them) and people living in hilly regions. The climate there is too dry so you need something which can hydrate and moisturize your skin. I donno if I have a very strong reason but I can just say that it is fine but nothing great for me certainly nothing special after looking at the price I bought it for. Well, I get better results using besan which costs only pennies. Not that I am abusing Lush or something but my experience with both the products I have used till now (Caca Noir, this one and even Porridge Soap which I haven’t yet reviewed) has not been great. So, I think I’ll take a little break from Lush and revisit at a later point it for some masks and scrubs which is a better idea.

My Recommendation

Try it in the shop and wait for an hour or two and then decide for yourself if you want it or not. Try it on your face not hands. Don’t feel ashamed or anything. You are after all gonna pay a lot for it. You might end up liking it coz it did get rave reviews all over the blogosphere.

Himalaya Baby Lotion {Product Review}

Swathy · May 27, 2011 · 9 Comments

I did not buy this one but got a smaller bottle for free with the Himalaya baby wipes. I would not review the wipes coz I personally do not like wipes at all. It was an impulse buy thinking that they would be fab but they were just like other wipes. And, anyways, I mistakenly opened the complete packet instead of just removing the top seal and then repacked it but I guess the air was trapped inside and they dried the wipes. So, they are spoiled so I use them as tissue papers now 😀 Anyways, talking about the baby lotion, I don’t know its price since I got it for free.

Ingredients

Well, quite a lot of natural ingredients apart from preservatives.

My Experience

My experience with Himalaya hasn’t been very great except for its scrub and fruit face pack so I am quite skeptical about its products. But the baby lotion was nice to use. It has thin consistency and spreads easily. It is a nice lotion for summer usage. Its moisturizing capability is very less (around 3-4 hours) so people with dry skin will probably not be very happy with it. I had to reapply the lotion after sometime. It smells nice and probably would be good for babies coz they do not need as much moisturizing as we do. So, I guess that it does its job. It does make the skin feel supple after it is applied. It will suit oily skin people well instead. It does feel cool when applied which is great in summers.

My Recommendation

It can be given a try by people with oily and normal skin. Dry skin people wouldn’t be too happy but if you are looking for a light lotion, this is one among others. And, it is a budget buy too coz Himalaya products aren’t that costly.