June/July Favorites: Natural Perfume, Oil Cleansing Method, Ubtan Scrub, Vapour Illusionist

It’s that time again! More good­ies that have delighted me with their effi­cacy, ingre­di­ents, and/or smelly smells. Read on!

1. Lau­ren Brooke Cos­me­tiques Organic Per­fume Oil, $10. Nat­ural Joy Beauty sent me a bot­tle of LBC Per­fume Oil in Whimsy, a light flo­ral blend with no sharp or spicy notes. The del­i­cate scent comes in a lit­tle roll-on con­tainer that is easy to travel with (I have taken it with me on two trips), is easy on the nose, and is entirely nat­ural. Plus, this is going to last a loooong time. Arti­fi­cial scents tend to give peo­ple headaches, and this is like wear­ing flow­ers in your hair – just a light, lovely scent all day, sans headache. In addi­tion to their lovely per­fume blends, Nat­ural Joy car­ries an excel­lent assort­ment of truly nat­ural cos­met­ics and skin care prod­ucts, and have extended an exclu­sive dis­count code for Epic Beauty Guide read­ers – save 15% on any order (!) with coupon code EPIC15. The code expires 31st of July 2012, so go explore!

2. Skin Apotheke Ubtan Clar­i­fy­ing Cleans­ing Scrub, $16. This is my old standby that gets put on the back burner and is then revis­ited with much delight and deep self-actualizing ques­tions like “why did I ever stop using this??” With skin-nurturing, blemish-destroying ingre­di­ents like san­dal­wood, rice bran, turmeric, and neem, this pow­er­house pow­der has done won­ders for my skin in a ridicu­lously short amount of time. In only seven days, it is back to being radi­ant and blackhead-free after a bad test­ing expe­ri­ence with a pore-clogging sun­block. Ah, the things I do for you. I first wash my face, then pour about 1 tsp. of the ubtan pow­der in the palm of my wet hands, rub my hands together to get the pow­der wet, and then apply it to my face. I gen­tly scrub for about 30-6o sec­onds in each area and leave it on to rest as a mask for about a minute longer. I wash it off with my cleanser again, fol­low with toner, and done! Beau­ti­ful, soft, glow­ing, mois­tur­ized skin. Nom nom indeed.

3. Mtn. Rose Herbs Cal­en­dula Hydrosol, 4 oz., $9. I have been using this cal­en­dula hydrosol as a toner for the past month or so and while it smells like musty flow­ers, it is incred­i­bly sooth­ing and helps the skin heal quickly. It is sim­ple and cheap, and can be applied by soak­ing a cot­ton ball in the liq­uid and smoosh­ing it all over your face and neck. So refresh­ing! You can also try mix­ing it with witch hazel (alcohol-free, try The Home­stead Com­pany) – equal parts witch hazel and cal­en­dula. This will be a sta­ple in my cab­i­net even when I’m try­ing other ton­ers for EBG.

4. Vapour Illu­sion­ist Con­cealer, $22. Richly pig­mented and com­pletely skin-friendly, this con­cealer is a favorite of mine. I use it under my eyes for the days when my thinly-skinned eye area likes to exhibit my lit­tle veins for all the world to see. While I have been con­sis­tently using reti­nal and vit­a­min C to thicken my under-eye skin, it’s a slow process and this con­cealer comes in handy. It looks nat­ural, doesn’t crease (a lit­tle goes a long way, and it will crease if you use too much), and lasts the whole day. What’s more, it doesn’t clog my pores at all. Three cheers!

5. Skin Apotheke Organic Deep Pore Hot Oil Cleanser, $21. A few years ago, after a few read­ers had inquired about the oil cleans­ing method (OCM), I tried it and ended up with a but­t­load of clogged pores. Of course, I knew cleans­ing with oil was an age-old tech­nique and excel­lent for parched com­plex­ions, but it just needed to be done cor­rectly with qual­ity oils (and poten­tially with­out cas­tor oil). Enter the Organic Deep Pore Cleanser, yet another Skin Apotheke prod­uct that has con­tin­ued to add to the line’s excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion. This golden oil con­tains some incred­i­ble active ingre­di­ents known for encour­ag­ing clear, glow­ing skin: camel­lia seed oil, tamanu oil, sea buck­thorn, and an excel­lent selec­tion of heal­ing essen­tial oils. I use this (fol­lowed by the ubtan scrub) every night. Your. Skin. Will. Glow. It is an excel­lent choice for those with dry skin, sen­si­tive skin, and/or those prone to blackheads.

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you have tried any of these prod­ucts and your thoughts on them. Any sug­ges­tions for future reviews?
~Steph  x