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Skincare: Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion

November 17, 2016 · Leave a Comment

My skin is sensitive, so I invariably get at least some skin irritation when shaving. While part of this irritation is due to the hair removal process itself, some of it is also a reaction to the shaving lotion I have used. It’s hard to find a shaving lotion that enables a close shave and is also made of natural ingredients yet still leaves skin soft and hydrated.

Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion is a cut above traditional shaving lotions and creams. It is a highly hydrating and deeply nourishing cream that creates a full, rich lather that provides a smooth shaving surface. It is made with Aloe Vera to help pre-empt and treat any skin irritation such as razor burn.

Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion

ANDAVI ALL NATURAL SHAVING LOTION FIRST IMPRESSIONS
There is a lubricated feel that does not leave a sticky or gummy residue, yet it produces a creamy, rich lather with a smooth, feel that does not have a sticky pull or drag when the razor is used. The smell is a fresh, pleasant scent, suitable for men or women to use. No one ingredient is particularly overwhelming in scent; the Aloe Vera is notable.

USE
I applied the lotion generously, the amount in my hand as seen in the photo is what I applied to one leg while shaving. It lathered well and made for a smooth surface. I did not cut my legs while shaving, even though I used a duller razor than normal. I also tried shaving with a straight razor, which often gives me razor burn, but I did not experience that with the lotion. It does not sting even on preexisting scrapes or cuts. It rinses off cleanly after use without soap and does not leave a residue or any lingering after scent. I did not experience any razor burn, redness or little bumps even over already existing skin irritations from the previous time I shaved with a competitor brand lotion.

Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion

ALL NATURAL INGREDIENTS
Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion is an all-natural shaving lotion that combines Aloe Vera with several moisturizing, nourishing, hydrating natural ingredients to provide a close moisturizing shave. Andavi skincare moisturizer and shaving lotion are pH-balanced to match the pH level of healthy skin.

BENEFITS OF ALOE VERA
Many of us are familiar with having an Aloe Vera plant in the kitchen to treat minor skin cuts, abrasions, and burns. It provides a protective barrier while shaving that washes off cleanly. Aloe Vera is highly moisturizing and nourishing to the skin, it has much of the nutrients needed for skin to be properly “fed.” But not all products that list Aloe Vera as an ingredient contain the actual beneficial part of the Aloe Vera plant. While many products contain some portion of an Aloe Vera plant, it can be adulterated or misbranded, leading consumers to buy products that meet a legal definition of Aloe but do not contain beneficial Aloe.

So how do you know if you are getting the right kind of Aloe Vera in your skin care product? The International Aloe Science Council is an organization that certifies quality, freshness and hygienic practices use of the Aloe Vera used within products. The IASC has strict standards for product testing, production facilities, and the actual product which contribute to the classification of the concentrations of Aloe Vera within their products. They require purity, freshness, quantity and hygienic practices. All Andavi skincare products contain Aloe Vera concentrations above the requirements for certification by the International Aloe Science Council.

Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion

Other ingredients include moisturizing, hydrating, nourishing ingredients, ingredients to protect and heal and ingredients to make for a better shaving experience. These are:

Evening Primrose Extract is used for skin issues like acne, wrinkles, and eczema. Full of Omega-6 fatty acids, it keeps hair and skin healthy.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil is a very stable oil that lubricates and can stay on the skin without leaving a residue after it is rinsed off.
Green Tea Leaf Extract is an antioxidant that soothes skin and reduces inflammation.
Honey antibacterial and moisturizing.
Jojoba Seed Oil is a stable carrier oil that treats sores and wounds. A non-greasy, non-comedogenic oil that is similar to human sebum in structure, it is often seen in skincare to soothe and smooth skin.
Coconut Oil is the go-to beauty ingredient of late, and for a good reason. It soothes the skin, provides an emollient base for other ingredients and is nourishing. It also helps reduce inflammation.
Argan Nut Oil is another beauty favorite that deeply hydrates scaly skin, is an anti-oxidant and has fatty acids that are like a superfood for skin.
Arrowroot Powder is a skin softener that heals burns and abrasions. It also works to thicken the consistency of a product.
Comfrey Leaf Extract speeds wound healing.
Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract is used to treat minor cuts, burns, and skin irritation.
Tea Tree Leaf Oil, Cinnamon Extract and Peppermint Oil have Antiseptic and Healing properties.

Andavi Skincare Shaving Lotion does NOT include detergents, soaps, alcohols, parabens, phthalates, synthetic chemicals, coloring additives, fragrance or preservatives. This means that in addition to meeting the International Aloe Science Council standards, Andavi Skincare products comply with Whole Food Market â€œPremium Body Careâ€ Standards and â€œWhole Bodyâ€ Standards. These standards dictate that a product does not have any ingredients deemed unacceptable as per World Food Market requirements.

This combination of ingredients helps make shaving easier, reduces any irritation, cuts or abrasions, and leaves skin soft and smooth.

CONCLUSION: Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion is an all-natural lotion with a high quantity of quality Aloe Vera and a host of other skin soothing, nourishing, softening, and healing ingredients that make for a rich lather, lubricated surface, close shave. It smells good and washes off easily. I did not experience any bumps redness, scrapes, or razor burn, even when shaving with a straight razor. My legs were left soft. Suitable for men or women, skin is razor burn free and left in better condition than before shaving. Recommended!

Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion

Find at Andavi All Natural Shaving Lotion http://www.AndaviSkincare.com

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGB4xwCyC50[/embedyt]

I received this product in exchange for my unbiased review and received compensation for my time and effort. However, my experience with the product and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% mine.

Tea Tuesday: Zone-365 Oolong Tea Organic Loose Leaf Tea

September 20, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Oolong is amongst my favorite types of loose leaf tea. Not as well known as its’ green and white counterparts, Oolong is a delicate tea with lots of health and beauty benefits, including the ability to curb cravings for sweets and carbs. In this way, Oolong is superior to Green Tea, which does boost the metabolism but does not suppress the appetite. Oolong is a rarer tea and can be expensive.

A quality Oolong we recently tried is Zone – 365 Oolong Tea. It is a Da Yu Ling Oolong, which are leaves from the highly prized Taiwan mountains. The high altitude creates a climate that grows leaves slower but with optimal flavor. Da Yu Ling leaves are often very expensive.

APPEARANCE
The first thing you notice about Zone – 365 Oolong Tea is the leaves are rolled into tight tiny orbs that unfurl during the brewing process. The curled leaf formation makes for the least oxidized of all the teas, resulting in a very pale, delicate, sparkling gold-tone brew. Once brewed, the leaves unfurl into full, unblemished leaves. I like how fresh and pure the leaves look, it assures me that this tea is optimal quality.

Zone-365 Oolong Tea Organic Loose Leaf Tea

TASTE
Zone – 365 Oolong tastes like the champagne or wine version of a cross between a green and white tea. Oolong tea is semi-fermented, which causes the smooth, silky, slightly wine-like texture and taste. There is not the vegetal taste associated with many greens, and it is much lighter tasting and texture than a matcha. Zone – 365 Oolong Tea does not have any artificial flavors to enhance it, as a quality Oolong stands on its’ own. Some may wish to add a bit of sweetener to taste; I liked it with or without just a bit of cane sugar, as lemon or milk would overpower the taste.

AROMA
The leaves have a lovely scent in the packaging, and the tea does as well once brewed.

PACKAGING
The 365 Oolong tea comes in loose leaf form, two attractive metallic silver bags. The bags are vacuum sealed and held in a colorful white canister with a blue floral pattern and blue metal cap. There is an inner lid to help retain the freshness of the tea. It makes for a suitable presentation as a gift for a tea lover.

Zone-365 Oolong Tea Organic Loose Leaf Tea

HOW TO BREW OOLONG

Zone – 365 recommends a specific way to get the best brew from Oolong. Kung Fu Brewing or the Gong Fu style of brewing is a common process in Taiwan for making tea. It is a detailed process that gets the best out of the Oolong tea leaves. The full process is seen on the 365 blog, and it makes for a lovely tea ceremony that brings out all the flavors of the Oolong.

Zone-365 Oolong Tea Organic Loose Leaf Tea

The gist of it is shown in the video, which is a modified version of the “Gong Fu style” Way when making Oolong tea for one person.

For the best quality tea, use the freshest, cleanest water you can find, such as filtered water or well water. Oolong is too delicate to conceal a bad-tasting water. Heat the water to an at-below boiling point.
Using a clay or glass pot (clay is preferable to enhance the flavor over multiple brewings but glass works as well) add about 2-3 grams of Oolong pearls to the pot.
Fill the pot less than halfway full. Swish the water around for about 30 seconds; this removes the outer surface layer of the Oolong, and any tea dust from settling in the bag. It is like how many people don’t eat the first pancake in a batch because they are just “priming” the griddle. Nothing is wrong with this tea; it is just not the very best brew.
Pour this water out into a discard container. In the video, I poured into the pottery ware cup. In the traditional method, this water is used during the rest of the tea ceremony and initially, is poured into the drinking cups to warm them. I skip this step and just discard the priming brew water.
Now pour the remaining water into the teapot. Within a minute or two, the Oolong unfurls into the beautiful leaves. I loved how fresh, unblemished and beautiful the unfurled leaves looked.
Brew for about 2-5 minutes, or a few more minutes to taste the deeper Oolong flavor. The traditional method groups many serving cups together and in a swirling pattern, pour the tea over all of them to get an even distribution of the flavor. It reminds me of being at a party, and many champagne glasses are being filled at once. A tea towel is used to clean up the cups before they are served. I don’t pour it the traditional way but do give the teapot a few swishing motions around to give the infusion a good stir before pouring.
You can immediately start the next brewing infusion off the same Oolong, and get a good four infusions from the same leaves, and maybe up to seven or eight infusions depending on the size and medium of your teapot. Clay works best for multiple Oolong brewings.

ABOUT Zone-365
Zone-365 teas support The Ethical Tea Partnership, ETP. This non-profit group works for improving and sustaining the tea industry by the raising of standards for tea production, supporting tea workers and smallholder tea farmers, and working for climate and environmental causes.

CONCLUSION: This is a lovely and very fresh Oolong Tea, I am so happy to have tried it! Even my non-tea drinking friends enjoyed this Oolong. I like a tea that curbs my cravings for sweets, and the aroma and brew color is just beautiful. I was particularly impressed with the unfurled leaves after brewing: fresh, unblemished, full leaves, the mark of a quality tea!

Zone-365 Oolong Tea Organic Loose Leaf Tea

Being able to infuse multiple brewings from the same Oolong leaves works out to be very economical. I am very pleased to find a high-quality Da Yu Ling leaf Oolong!

Find this tasty tea at Amazon.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFBlymu2W2M[/embedyt]

I received this product for testing and review purposes.

10% Glycolic AHA-Alpha Hydroxy Acid Serum for Chemical Peel-Pro Grade

May 22, 2016 · Leave a Comment

10% Glycolic (AHA-Alpha Hydroxy) Acid Serum for Chemical Peel-Pro Grade

This Serum is a 10% Pro-Grade AHA Glycolic Acid. I started using Glycolic Acid in my late twenties because I preferred to use peels to remove my dead skin instead of exfoliating it, my skin was just a smooth and more even in tone and texture without having to irritate it with grains and scrubbing. I read skin over 30 and sensitive skin respond better to peels than scrubs, and I found this to be true.

I especially like Glycolic Acid because skin doesn’t visibly peel and slough, which can sometimes be uneven and leave behind the partially peeled skin. Rather, with Glycolic Acid, dead skin just seems to melt away, and skin glows. It also helps with acne and blackheads. The reason is that Glycolic loosens the “cement” that binds dry and dead skin, so it just loosens and virtually melts dead skin, but it doesn’t alter fresher skin unless it irritates it with chemical additives.

As much as I love Glycolic Acid, it can sting and make skin red, and the chemical additives in many Glycolic Acids can irritate skin enough that it needs to be washed off fairly quickly. Ideally, if one can leave it on the skin for 10-30 minutes, it makes a huge difference on how much peeling can occur.

I like that the Serum Ceuticals AHA Glycolic has both soothing and treating ingredients in the serum. These help the skin tolerate the Glycolic remaining on the skin for longer periods of time because this can give the best short term smoothness and long term collagen regenerating result. It also does not contain any harsh chemical additives that irritate my skin, so I was able to leave the serum on my skin for a full 30 minutes, which is about 15 minutes longer than I have tolerated any other Glycolic. Like all their products, Serum Ceuticals uses a natural charge to preserve their products, which means it is more powerful with a longer shelf life than other organic/natural AHA’s and causes less irritation than AHA’s filled with chemical preservatives.

APPLICATION
Test a small dab of the serum on your earlobe 48-72 hours before use to see if you get any irritation. I did this step even though I have used AHA’s before.

There is no detectable scent, it is a watery consistency and comes in a bottle with an inverted dropper than only dispenses a drop at a time.

If you have not used AHA’s before, you might want only to leave the serum on about 10 minutes the first time. If you have used AHA’s, check the mirror frequently for redness but try for the full 30 minutes if you can tolerate it. I have sensitive skin and use Retinol but still was able to tolerate it for the full 30 minutes.

First, I slathered the serum on my forehead since that skin is less sensitive. Then I lightly applied it all over my face except the eye area, paying extra attention to some dark brown spots and wrinkles, the nasal folds, and the areas that my pores seem larger on both sides of the nose in the area of my cheek below my undereye bags. I also have some dark brown sunspots on the top of my cheekbones that I made sure had a good layer of the serum.

I didn’t feel any stinging or irritation, but at almost 30 minutes the apples of my cheeks had some redness, but it was not uncomfortable. I washed it off and applied a light moisturizer. If you have the Serum Ceuticals Ceramide, this is a great post-peel product to use to reduce any redness quickly. The redness lasted a few hours, but it was not painful and returned to normal. I did feel some skin exfoliate off my jawline, but mostly it was just smoother and even, especially my forehead. Two whiteheads that were just stuck in my skin and would not come out despite topical medicines expelled while washing the serum off my face and some clogging of blackheads around my nose and cheek disappeared. A pimple that was a just red bump for an extended period shrunk in size. My forehead wrinkle appeared shallow. My skin was very soft. I took two days off and did it again for the full thirty minutes.

I also used this on my hands for the full 30 minutes. My hands show more aging than my face does due to not applying sunscreen on my hands all these years. One treatment on my hands lightened some of the darker skin on my knuckles and cleaned up my chronically dry and uneven cuticles. The lines on my hands do not appear as deep. There was no irritation or redness.

Highly recommended for use 1-2 times a week, does not cause irritation even on my sensitive skin and I could see improvement after the first use. Will continue with the full recommended course and I will be purchasing this AHA again.

I received this item for testing and unbiased review purposes. If you have any questions about my experience with it, leave it in the comments section below and Iâ€™ll do my best to answer it!

Natural Preservative Skincare: Serum Ceuticals Vitamin C 21% Facial Serum

April 4, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Serum Ceuticals Vitamin C 21% Facial Serum is a full force, fresh 21% Vitamin C Serum but in a special natural base with NO PRESERVATIVES. If you don’t want to use chemicals or preservatives in your skin care but still want a powerful Vitamin C treatment, this is the Serum for you.

But it should be noted that ANY natural Vitamin C will degrade faster than one with preservatives and may not appear as potent as chemically laden serums.

WHY USE VITAMIN C SERUM?

Vitamin C Serum is an important tool in battling the appearance of aging skin. This is because Vitamin C is a vital ingredient in the bodies production of collagen. Collagen, the main component of the supporting tissue that keeps skin from sagging and wrinkling, slows down production within our early thirties. The more collagen we have, the younger our skin looks. To get as much collagen as possible, you need Vitamin C available to the cells of the skin. But Vitamin C from our diet or vitamins leaves the body quickly, meaning it is only available to the skin for vital collagen production in short bursts. This is why the topical application of Vitamin C is important, even if your diet is rich in Vitamin C.

Vitamin C also helps with reducing the appearance of sun damage, acne scars, wrinkles, and brown spots.

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT SERUM CEUTICALS VITAMIN C?

A good, powerful topical Vitamin C Serum is an elusive find for those who avoid chemical preservatives in skincare. Vitamin C requires preservatives and chemicals to keep it from quickly degrading. A Vitamin C without lots of chemicals and preservatives does not last long and is generally not very powerful by the time the consumer uses it.

Vitamin C is water soluble and normally requires all kinds of chemicals and preservatives to sustain it for topical use. Serum Ceuticals suspends the Vitamin C in a serum WITHOUT any nasty chemicals â€“ they use glutathione acid, ferulic acid, and the Vitamin C itself is charged with argon and nitrogen gases and kept in a tightly sealed bottle. When the cap is removed the first time, the bottle releases a sort of fizz, almost like a carbonated beverage, because of the partial release of this charge upon opening the bottle. All of this means the production of a fresh and potent Vitamin C in a natural base, which is an accomplishment.

Serum Ceuticals has No Chemical Preservatives, only a Natural Preservative. Amazing!

But the test is if it works: The Vitamin C serum is potent but not an irritant as there are several good ingredients to balance the Vitamin C and soothe skin including hyaluronic acid and polysorbate-20. Hyaluronic acid retains moisture, helping the Vitamin C to absorb and for skin to remain smooth. It also prevents the serum from feeling sticky once it is dry. I really like this combo in a Vitamin C serum. My skin looked very dewy, which I like for a daytime serum. The vitamin Bs used to charges Vitamin C are also very good for the skin. It did take a little longer to dry than some other serums, so I just apply after I shower and while I dry my hair before I apply my makeup. My acne was drying out but my skin stayed supple and does not become irritated. I was very pleased!

It has a very light neutral scent that would not be noticeable to others, a just slightly longer dry-down and it leaves a dewy but not sticky finish.

I would recommend this serum, especially for those conscious of the chemicals and additives they use on their face, and would buy it again. If you are someone who doesn’t mind preservatives in skin care products, you may find other serums that are stronger than this one. Using a natural Vitamin B charge to keep the Vitamin C fresh is a very innovate idea for natural, organic skincare regimens.

Find it at Amazon.com.

Serum Ceuticals Vitamin C Serum

I received this item in exchange for my unbiased review.