AnnMarrie Skincare Mineral Foundation review (first impressions)

Hi Lovelies,


Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome 💕💕💕

AnnMarie Skincare Earth Minerals foundation review

Today I am coming at you with a sort of first impressions review of really gorgeous mineral make up in a form of AnnMarrie Earth Minerals multi purpose foundation. And I am really excited to share this with you. And you know why? Because it is goooood!

AnnMarie Gianni (and her husband Kevin) is someone who I admire for a really long time, I watched all of their YouTube raw food related videos, (not stalking, promise) and I learned a lot. So when I heard they were releasing their own skincare line, needless to say I wanted to try it! I am not too sure which came first, their skin care line or mineral make up, but let's just talk about mineral make up line for now, and leave skincare for the next post, as not to make the post too long and confusing.

Imagine my delight when I found out it is all available on our shores too via Live In The Light, & Dutch Health Store, both online shops I love and have written about before (LITL review here, DHS review here) I got a chance to try the products via the same shop, and I am delighted. I found one of the best mineral make up lines I have tried to date, and I've tried my fair share of them.

AnnMarie Skincare use only the best ingredients for their products, and Earth Minerals (their mineral make up line) are no exception - I trust I am getting the best from them. These are 100% mineral powders without any fillers or additives in them.

  

This is the foundation I have used for the last couple of weeks, and I fell in love. Hard. Definitely want a full size of it, and I don't even care that I planned to minimise my collection! It is good quality mineral foundation that really impressed me, but we will talk about it in just a minute.

The sampler kit came in a very sturdy cardboard box and it houses eight shades of their foundation samples (in glass, no less!) and a cute mini herbal facial oil sampler, that is supposed to act as a mixing medium should you fancy to make your own liquid foundation. 

As I already mentioned, the foundation samples come in teeny tiny cutest ever glass pots, containing 1/3rd gram of powder in each, and let me tell you, it is one gorgeous foundation! Full coverage from a teeniest amount, and even though I have used it a handful of times already, I am not done yet! Amazing or what? I imagine the full size would last you for absolutely ages. If you love sheer coverage, of course you can sheer it out by using large fluffy brush, but if you are a girl like me which have something to cover (dermatitis scars in my case) it is your best friend. And let me tell you it gives the most gorgeous coverage, it is described as matte on the website, but I would say it is demi matte, all while being non detectable on the skin. I mean you feel like you are wearing nothing on your skin. And that is the beauty with mineral make up, you can't feel it on your skin, you control the coverage, plus it has virtually no expiration date - perfect for a girl like me who does wear make up very infrequently. And so you just know, I also wore it as a under eye concealer too - it passed with flying colours! Much better than Alima Pure powder concealer in fact. So there you go, if that is not showing how much I love it, then I don't know what will? If you are anywhere near my skin tone, try Pearl and Sand, you might be one of those shades or the mixture of the two. At the time I got the kit, my match was Pearl, but now that my face has seen some sun, I am Sand. So I think Pearl would be my winter shade, while Sand would be perfect for summer. All the other shades that are too dark for me, I am keeping and I will use them up one way or another, they can be mixed together to create your perfect shade, or used as an eye shadow or as a contour. 

Foundation mixed with facial oil is gorgeous too, I should mention that. My skin is dry, and I love using facial oils anyway, so mixing oil with powder foundation isn't new to me. If you are new to this idea, play around at first, adding little of the minerals if you love sheer coverage and more if you want it to cover more. Make sure you blend it into your skin, not just spread around like a liquid foundation. The finish will be more luminous than if you used minerals alone, but that's to be expected. And you guys know I love dewy finish.

AnnMarie Earth Minerals swatches & review

Pearl: Fair complexions with cool undertones
Sand: Light complexions with warm undertones
Honey: Light to medium complexions with warm undertones
Olive: Medium complexions with warm undertones
Nutmeg: Medium complexions with neutral undertones
Maple: Medium to dark complexions with neutral undertones
Mocha: Dark complexions with cool undertones
Clove: Dark complexions with warm undertones
Herbal Facial Oil for Normal and Combination Skin
Made With:

Titanium dioxide, iron oxide, mica, zinc oxide. (The order of ingredients varies with each blend.)

I should also mention that sampler kit also has a coupon code for money off your full size product, should you fancy getting it. I know i want full size of it, yes please :)

Oh, by the way, i will be adding the swatch photo to my Green Beauty Swatch Gallery I've created on my Facebook page here and Pinterest here. With time, I will upload swatches of everything I own, plus I will be adding new photos as I go along my green beauty journey. All of it can be found in my Instagram feed too, but i decided to collect it all in one place, and it's up to you which platform you want to choose. All in a bid to help you guys to choose the right shades when buying online. Hope you will find it helpful :)

See it in AnnMarie Skincare online shop

or Live In The Light

or Dutch Health Store

or Amazon

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That is all for now,
Lots of Love,
Renata.
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#This post contains products sent to me & affiliate links. If anything, I judge sent products even more harshly, and all the opinions are always my own. Always honest with you guys.

Live In The Light Online Store Review

Hi Lovelies,


Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome 💕💕💕

LiveInTheLight.co.uk products

I must be on the roll, third blog post in three days, well done Renata! Umm, what? I needed an intelligent conversation, if only with a mirror. All that joking aside, I wanted to draw your attention to a fabulous online shop based in the UK that I am sure all my fellow green beauty sisters will love. The shop is called Live In The Light and they have the same name on all social media, I will be linking their Instagram page down below, and don't worry, that's not affiliate link nor I am paid to talk about this. Nor I was asked to do a review on them, this is entirely my own doing. Just sharing good stuff. And good stuff it is indeed. When I was asked if I want to try Pure Anada or something else from their store, I checked the website immediately and I was really satisfied with what I saw, they carry my beloved Pure Anada, which I've reviewed before (link here), AnnMarie Gianni line, which I've been dying to try for absolutely ages, Orgaid organic sheet masks, and a few more brands, like Carina Organic and Live In The Light, as well as Vonbros for men in our lives. An that's it - there's something really refreshing not having a ton of brands to choose from, so you are not overwhelmed, and whatever you will choose from this website, it is guaranteed to be truly natural, be cruelty free and more often than not, organic. (The products might even be all organic, I didn't check every single one of them). We all know there's a lot of greenwashing going on, when brands claiming to be natural are still packed with toxic chemicals. Guess what? Not here! The brands were hand selected by the owner Sue, who has a holistic approach and firmly believe that what we do and use in our daily regime has a huge impact on everyone and everything around us. There appears to be many like minded people out there who don’t want to carry on using harmful products but want to use exceptional, beautiful and effective ones while at the same time are helping to preserve and respect our environment. I am so so happy about it, it is time people woke up to what's really in their products! And I applaud Sue for contributing to the better world by bringing all those amazing products to us. As the webshop is based in the UK, it is good news for my fellow European green beauty sisters - it means we can skip those pesky custom charges and pay less in shipping too. Hopefully this won't change post Brexit. I must add that they ship worldwide.
 

Orgaid organic sheet mask

Anyhow, let's get back to the products, shall we? You can choose from make up, skincare, haircare, bodycare, nails, baby products, men's products, candles - they have everything! As you can see in the picture, I got a chance to try a few gorgeous goodies that were new to me, and I got way more than I asked for thanks to generosity of Sue - thank you again, it is very much appreciated! For the last couple of week I've been testing everything and I am almost ready to give my two cents on the products - let's just say they are all amazing. I will publish separate reviews on AnnMarie Gianni products and on Pure Anada ones as well, I simply don't want this post to be too long, but I promise to link those reviews back to this post once they will be live. If I could recommend you some products, my top choices would be AnnMarie Gianni Neroli mist, Grounded perfume and mineral foundation; Cinder brow powder, Marine Minerals hydrating toner and hand cream from Pure Anada - all amazing products, and I want all of them in full sizes.

Pure Anada products

AnnMarie Gianni skincare and perfume samples

AnnMarie Gianni Earth Minerals sample pack

  I think that's it for today, I reserve a bit more time before I will post a reviews on all these items, I mean the make up and the hand cream are easy to test, but I like taking my time with skincare, from 4- 6 weeks, as that time frame is the only way to tell if skincare makes a difference. So please bear with me and I will see you here again shortly with reviews. If you have any pressing questions about any product, you can always ask, either here or on Instagram.

I hope I helped you to discover new fabulous online store with really clean products! Have you tried anything from Live In The Light already? Please share with me :)

Lots of Love,
Renata.

Green Beauty Bloggers Haul / Spring 2017

Hello Lovelies,



Welcome back! And if you are new here, welcome 💕💕💕

So, there is that time of the month again.. No, silly, not that time, the time I show you what I acquired as a blogger in the last month or two. This first quarter of the year has been very quiet for me in terms of shopping, until the end of March, where I blew the lid and started spending money like crazy person - well, I only got a few essentials I needed, plus eye wateringly expensive Living Libations haul, but we will get to that in just a minute. During my time away I stopped all PR samples and I didn't want to shop either, but after three months of no buy I kind of lost the plot. Still, I feel I’ve done good with three months of no-buy, and I used up way more products than I bought, which I am also pleased with. Next month might be a different story. Umm, my finger slipped? When browsing online shops. Multiple time. So I have many packages coming my way, brace yourselves!  
By the way, in these blogger haul posts I tend to focus on beauty things, but I also buy a lot of health/ wellness things, and I  am not sure if you guys want to see those kind of things or not, please let me know in the comments? I would love to know! This time around I will include them, but I will drop them if you are not interested.

So, without further ado, let’s see what did I acquired?

March haul


Five Whamisa samples
Three small bottle minis - face wash, toner and double rich lotion, and two sachet samples of regular and double rich lotion.

Living Libations dental products

Living Libations order
I only got there dental items plus a book, but the total was over 127€, which to me is eye wateringly expensive! I hope the items will deliver! I got ozonated gum gel, gum drops and frankincense toothpaste, Nadine Artemis “Holistic Dentistry” book and two minis of their shampoos. I have been curious about Living Libations forever now, and as soon as I learned EU stockist that would carry what I am interested in (as in dental care stuff and poetic pits as oposed to their The Best Skin Ever everyone else is stocking) I placed my order. Needless to say blog review is coming soon.

Kimberley Sayer Ultra Light Facial Moisturiser SPF 30
I bought it from LoveLula.com I actually used it last summer and was going to post a glowing review, but recently I saw Balanced Beauty Bristol Sasha’s video and she talked about also being really happy with this sunscreen until one day she burned her nose badly! She was saying something about very bad summer with basically no sun, aka she was happy with the cream, until one really sunny day came along and this cream didn't do it's job, aka she got burned. And I was like, right, the last summer really was crappy and maybe that's why I thought this cream worked so awesomely well for me? So I am witholding my review as for now and will see how it will hold up this summer. Other than protecting qualities, this face SPF cream is the first not to break me out and leave horrible white cast on my face, so it is really great in that retrospective. And I have a few grams of pure zinc oxide, so maybe I will brainstorm  a DIY powder sunscreen to go on top of this on those really sunny days? We will see.
On the side note, prior to getting this, I was testing Josh Rosebrook Nutrient Day Cream SPF30 for a week - and as much as I desperately wanted to like that sunscreen (I mean, have you seen all the glowing reviews on it?) I have to say it broke me out. Oh, the joys of really sensitive and reactive skin, right? If you have any facial SPF recomendations with really clean ingredients, suitable for sensitive skin, no white cast and needless to say no nano particles, please share with me, you will have my gratitude forever! 

Lotus Wei Joy Juice Elixir 
I am continuing my Lotus Wei journey, and this time I got an elixir, my friend Andrea from Orgsnic Beauty Lover says these work so much better than any topical products, so elixir it is! Post emotional trauma joy is definitely missing from my life.

Hurraw Sun and Moon lip balms
These are a staples for me, tried quite a few of Hurraw bslms and I am yet to come across the one I don't like. When I ran out of Moon balm which I religiously use at night, it has never been the same,and I am so glad we are reunited! I bought these from LoveLula.com


Wellness/ Health / Superfoods
Aduna Baobab powder 275g - bought mainly for vitC content, but it has so much more to it and I am very happy to incorporate it into my daily life, as well as moringa and maca.



April Haul

Human and Kind products

Human & Kind
They sent me three full size products as well as giving my readers a fantastic 50%off in their website. Enter the code "Blogger" as a coupon code and leave my blog handle in the comments. How fantastic is that? I don't know many offers like this. See more info here.

Giovanni hair mouse  
Not for die hard purists out there, but in my defence this is the first mouse in more than eight years, this is available in Love Lula, from which I always buy stuff, and I didn't want to kill myself researching the best and the most natural mouse that would work and wouldn't cost the earth too. So Giovanni it is for now, and once more, your suggestions for clean hair mouse is very welcome. Oh, it has to be available from withing EU please.

Hurraw Papaya Pineapple lip balm
Bought from LoveLula.com (can you tell I love shopping there?) I love anything pineapple, so naturally I was dying to try this. For the longest time this flavour wasn't available in Europe, but as soon as I learned it is now available in Love Lula, I had to get it asap. Bought in the same order as Giovanni mouse, Organic Surge hand wash, plus a few samples.

Organic Surge Hand Wash
I find it lovely, nice texture, nice smell, non drying at all, most likely to repurchase. Got in the same order as above items. Link here.

Manuka Doctor Manuka + tea tree oil gel
Got this from Holland & Barrett, as my hubs is breaking out in weird places, so I thought this might help, and it does, although I am not really happy with the half natural ingredients, I want to get Living Nature one next, as I was really impressed with the sample I had.

Child's Farm shampoo and detangling spray
I used this for years on recommendation of Rachel from All Natural Aspirations. Boots used to carry this brand, then they stopped for a year or two, and now it is back, and thanks goodness for it! I wish the detangler came in more scents rather than Tea Tree and Grapefruit - kids don't like scents like these, and it is kind of hard to persuade them to use it. Shampoos and body washes come in nice scents like orange and strawberry, why not this?

Epsom Salts
I buy them for a fiver for a huge bag from TKMaxx. (see my post on what you can find there here - it is one of my not-so-best-kept-secret spots for finding natural goodies).

Alima Pure concealer in Linen
I was looking for powder concealer and was debating between this and Lily Lolo one, which was cheaper, but contained filler in a form of kaolin clay. Clays are really drying on my already dry skin, and not wanting crusty looking undereyes I went for Alima Pure. Not really happy with pigmentation of this to be honest, I have to apply five layers to look half decent. But if you love their foundation powder (I not so much), you might love this too. Bought this from Naturisimo together with the Jason toothpaste.

Jason Toothpaste
I am on forever hunt of a good natural toothpaste that would have really clean ingredients, and as well as boycotting fluoride I also avoid carageenan and glycerine in my toothpaste, the latter is coating our teeth, preventing them from self mineralising themselves, and carageenan is destructive to the digestive system, it turns to acid in the stomach, and has links to cancer, and it is something I would rather avoid! But, having said all that, all the natural toothpastes who do not have those ingredients don't clean my teeth properly and more often taste really bad (Vogel and Weleda, I am looking at you here!)  and I tried all of them there are to find in the health food stores, so in a depressed moment I bought this Jason toothpaste, which contains those questionable ingredients, but I probably won't go there again. Even DrBronner's toothpaste has one or both of those ingredients I would rather not use, and that is way pricier. David's toothpaste calls my name, but I am not sure if it hit EU shores yet, and I am certainly not buying toothpaste from US. The struggle is real you guys! If you know really clean toothpaste that would't contain carageenan and glycerine, and more importantly do it's job properly, please let me know?

Laila London charcoal toothpowder
Laila is relatively new UK brand that do natural toothpowders (and more) and in my quest for clean dental product I bought it in Boots. They do have remineralising toohpowder too, which I am after, but of course Boots do not stock that, instead focusing on charcoal trend, but I am happy they have at least that for sure. Great ingredients, cleans the teeth really well, and it is slightly whiteing due to the charcoal too, but only one or two shades lighter, don't expect ad-worthy Hollywood smile from it. I didn't, so I am happy with the product.

100%Pure haul
They had a very good deal at the end of April, and as I haven't bought any new makeup this year, I fell for it. The total was 80€ which is expensive for me, but I feel I got my money's worth from it, even though I had to buy the bundle for 30€ myself, it wasn't a gift this time. See this post if you have no clue what I am talking about. I haven't received it yet, and I don't know if I will be slapped with those dreaded custom taxes yet (hopefully not!!) So this haul will go into May post.

Annual Neal's Yard Remedies haul
One day after I spent all my money on 100% Pure, I got an email saying NYR have 20% off sale, which meant 40% for me (I am technically a consultant, as well as my only customer, pushing products on people is not for me), so I did my annual order not waiting for the end of summer. Again, this will go into May post, as I literally ordered in the last day of April. 

LiveInTheLight goodies

Live In The Light package
I was contacted by the lovely Sue from Liveinthelight.co.uk to see if I would like to try anything from their online shop, and I immediately said yes! I mean who wouldn't? Of course I inspected the shop and ingredients of the products they carry, and I am pleased to say that everything is really natural, which is right up my alley! The brands include Pure Anada (which I knew I will love, see the review here), Orgaid, AnnMarie Gianni, which I was dying to try for ages, and more. Really chuffed with the generous package, and expect reviews of products really soon. 


That is it for today. What did you guys get recently?

Lots of Love,
Renata.
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