Beauty e-tailers reviews

One of the great things about Niche brands, whether manufacturers or retailers, is their customer service. With a smaller customer base than more generic brands, they can afford to spend more time and effort on each customer. I can't say that they're all great, unfortunately, but I only offer 100% honest reviews. I hope that those with not-so-great customer service would be happy to read some constructive criticism if they care about improving their level of service.

Today, I will be reviewing the beauty e-retailers.

Love Lula

I LOVE Love Lula. Their range of products is pretty big with different price ranges so there's something for everyone. The packaging is adorable! Perfect if you want to send the order as a gift to someone special.

You can tell that a lot of care has been put into packing the order. That does mean that I'm left with a lot of 'artificial hay' but that also means I can put it in gift bags for my friends. The p&p is pretty decent at £3 and free with orders over £30 but when you're only making a small purchase such as a bar of soap then you're better off buying it elsewhere.

UPDATE: Love Lula now offers FREE Super Saver delivery!

In terms of their website, what I like about it the most is that customers can add their own reviews to each product page so you can read about other customers' views before you buy. They also have a point collecting scheme so you can collect points whenever you shop to spend on their website.

I've never had any queries or complaints so I can't review them on how well they deal with queries.

Naturisimo

Naturisimo has an even greater range of products. It is probably my favourite if I'm buying one product as they do free delivery, which is super fast. So if you're simply buying a few toiletries for the home or a new lipgloss you like, then you're better off getting it from here.

I also find that their products are much cheaper than anywhere else but it's best to compare prices yourself.

Their packaging is nothing special. Just some cute tissue paper in a bubble-wrap lined envelope. But that's not important to me, especially when their minimal packaging saves on delivery costs. Oh and don't forget to add five free samples to your order before you check out! Just don't pop the same sample in two different orders or you'll get a note on your receipt telling you're supposed to do that as I did :S

Again, I've never returned anything or sent a query so I can't review them on this area.

Amarya

Amarya tend to stock mostly luxury brands so unless you can afford to spoil yourself regularly then you might find it a great website to buy luxury gifts. They also offer free delivery and a point collecting scheme. They used to offer free gift wrapping, which looked like this...

Cute, eh?

...but there are no signs of this service on their website anymore so I don't know how they package their orders these days.

They have a 28 day guarantee if you ever need to return anything. See their T&Cs. Last time I returned a couple of things and they gave me a refund right away and replied to my emails very quickly.

Puresha

Puresha have taken a long break from trading and I really hope they come back as it is the only website that stock Cargo Plantlove products :( However, their products were quite expensive. I've only ever bought Cargo Plantlove products from them, which were on sale.

In terms of customer service, well it's kinda complicated...

I had a problem getting a refund for a product I returned as the shade was waaaaaay off how it looked on their website. It took weeks to be resolved simply because they were aware that they had problems with their customer service emails and didn't bother providing a new email on their website. Eventually I got a refund for the product and not the cost of returning it.

However, there are plenty of nice things to say about Puresha. Their staff are lovely and they seemed to be genuinely sorry about the problems I had so I forgive them. I'd rather not write about my negative experience but I want to be honest. I also love the cute furoshiki the order comes in...

I hope you enjoyed reading my retailer reviews. Have you shopped at these retailers or any other natural beauty retailers before? I'd love to hear your views.

I'll be reviewing beauty brands customer service soon so keep an eye out for that.

xx

Diamond Geezer

Even though nail polish isn't applied on the skin, some of the toxins can be inhaled or they can pollute the environment once removed from the nails. I haven't come across any 100% safe and natural alternatives but there are safer options out there if you want to go three-free. This means free from Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP.

I tend to go for very 'conservative' colours like reds, pinks and nudes but I wanted to try out a funky colour for a change. I've been meaning to try silver for a while and have recently been inspired by Catherine Pierce to be brave and give it a go. In the video of It Will Not Be Forgotten, she has very pretty metallic silver nails. The nail polish I bought is called Diamond Geezer by Butter London.

Diamond Geezer

I'm a sucker for cute packaging and the little

birdy on the lid is super cute!

With flash

Without flash

With flash, you can see that it looks kinda glittery and without flash it has a pretty cool mirror effect that I much prefer. So it all depends what lighting you're under.

I actually have two coats of polish in these pics. The first coat was wearing off by the next day so I had to apply another. With two coats, however, it seems to last pretty well. I've had it on for two days so far and on very close inspection it's only wearing off on the tips but nothing obvious.

Butter London have a huge range of shades. They normally costs £12 for 11ml but you can get it for £9.60 with free delivery from Naturisimo.com. If that's too pricey, e.l.f. have three-free polishes for only £1.50 (10ml). I haven't compared the rest of the ingredients but they are free from Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP.

Happy polishing! :)

xx

Tweet tweet!

Yes, I am now finally tweeting! So follow me on Twitter @lovefromeden. I look forward to your tweets :)

xx

Amarya Beauty Box

A few days ago, I was lucky enough to win a Beauty Box from Amarya.co.uk. What is a Beauty Box? Well, each month for only £10 you get a beautifully wrapped parcel with surprise natural beauty products. Think of it as a monthly birthday.

I LOVE all the pink!

You would normally get one full size product worth about £20 plus minis and samples. This month, the beauty box had the following items:

Dr. Hauschka Lemon Lemongrass Body Oil (Full size 75ml)

John Masters Organics Blood Orange and Vanilla body wash (Travel size 29ml)

Herbfarmacy organic cotton cloth

Ananne Equilibrium day cream for normal skin (sample)

Santaverde Aloe Vera Hydro Repair gel (sample)

Amarya shopping bag

I was very happy with this selection. I was especially happy with the Dr. Hauschka body oil (worth £17.95!) and the John Masters body wash. They both smell beautiful! And you can never have too many reusable shopping bags. I don't normally like to use samples from sachets as I find them too fiddly but they're great if you really want to try a product you're thinking of buying or for overnight stays.

I think the beauty box is such a great idea and I would definitely recommend it. I have seen other websites offering the same kind of service but  none of which, to my knowledge, are only natural products.

What I would love Amarya to consider is that customers have different skin and hair types so not all customers would be happy with their 'surprises', especially if they have allergies. So perhaps if customers had the option to say what kind of skin and hair they have then Amarya can choose products that would suit them more.

If you're interested in the Amarya Beauty Box, check out their website. If you purchase a year's subscription, you also get a free gift worth £56! I'll be reviewing some of these products soon so keep your eyes peeled!

xx

SLS in my natural mascara??!

Recently, I've begun to notice that my eyelashes are becoming quite thin and short. I never had long lashes to begin with but they were definitely much longer and thicker than they are now. Then I hear that both Love Lula and Naturisimo are not stocking Une mascaras as they contain SLS! Could this be the reason why my lashes have been damaged? I'm guessing so!

To my knowledge, SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) is considered safe but may be irritating to certain people. It may also have degreasing properties, which may leave some users with a dry scalp when using SLS shampoo. I'm no scientist but this is what I have found out so far from various materials such as Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano (amazing book! Get it from The Book Depository!). I haven't found any evidence to suggest that SLS have caused my lashes to become thin and short but I wouldn't be surprised.

I'm very disappointed that they would even think to put such a harsh ingredient in their products, especially a product that is used so close to the eyes! Thankfully, I don't have sensitive skin but I'd imagine that a customer with sensitive skin who trusts Une to be safer than other brands (as they supposedly care about their ingredients so much that a lot of their ingredients are organic) would be in shock!

So just a heads up and a reminder to read the ingredients list carefully because even brands that carry a lot of certified organic products may have an ingredient or two that would surprise you.

xx

Tasty courgette soup

This has got to be my favourite soup ever. I can eat bowlfuls of this stuff. My family love it too. I first had it when I had dinner at Radisson but why eat at a fancy hotel when you can make it at home for a fraction of the price. And, yes, it tastes just the same. Very easy too when you use Kallo organic stock. I have tried it with their Vegetable stock and their Garlic and Herbs stock so far and they came out tasting great.

(Serves 4)

You will need:

• 1 kg courgettes
• 225g potatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 2 cloves garlic (omit if using Kallo garlic and herbs stock)
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp oregano (omit is using Kallo garlic and herbs stock)

1. Wash and chop the courgettes and potatoes. It is best to leave the courgettes unpeeled but I prefer to peel them if they're not organic
2. Slice the onion and crush the garlic
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onions and garlic. Fry for about 5 mins whilst stirring occasionally
4. Add the potatoes and cover with half of the stock
5. Bring to a boil then leave to simmer for 15 mins
6. Add the courgettes, salt and pepper, oregano and the remainder of the stock
7. Bring to a boil then simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally until cooked
8. Puree in a blender. You may need to add more water depending on the texture preferred. Reheat if you need to

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

xx

Say NO to cruel cosmetics

You'd think that in this day and age testing on animals for the sake of vanity would be long dead. But not only are many companies still testing ingredients/ products on animals (or getting someone else to do the dirty work for them), EU officials are considering allowing it to happen beyond the previous ban deadline of 2013.

I personally think it's unfair that animals are being treated this way just for the sake of giving us even longer lashes (if you believe those ads),  100% more voluminous hair (I'm pretty sure those are extensions) or yet another wrinkle cream that doesn't work (I hear rosehip oil works wonders).

If you don't use products that are tested on animals then that's great but there are still many companies out there that get away with selling animal tested products to customers. One thing you can do to stop this is to fill in this petition telling the European Parliament that we are against animal cruelty and don't want animal tested products, and to urge them to vote against delaying the ban.

Remember to share this with your friends so we can get as many signatures as possible!

xx