Amarya Organic / Natural Beauty Box - August

Amarya box (£10 + P&P per month, link)

I was happy to see that the postie had delivered this month's Amarya box when I got home today.  I've been so busy this week that I had completely forgotten it was due!  Here's what was inside my August box:-

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Amarya Organic / Natural Beauty Box - June

The Amarya box for June arrived this morning!  Here's what was inside mine:-

• Santaverde Aloe Vera Cleansing Gel, full size, (worth £22) - I was a bit bummed out when I saw this because I have so many cleansers lying around that I haven't yet tried out, so my initial thoughts were, "Not another one!".  However, I'm sure I'll get around to using it eventually sometime soon.  It says that it's a gentle cleanser that also removes make-up, and is made from pure aloe vera and apple juice(?!).  Sounds interesting nonetheless.
• Iroisie Ultimate BB Cream with SPF 25, 2 x sample sachets - Not heard of this brand before and I love trying out BB creams, so very excited to see what these are like!
• John Masters Organics Vitamin C Anti-Ageing Serum, sample sachet - Not for my skin type but I will pass this on to Amanda and see what she thinks.

 I would have preferred more variation in the box with regards to the products they decided to include (ALL face products to me is a bit 'meh'), but that's the thing with beauty boxes, you win some, you lose some.  But if you do like everything in the box, then it's excellent value for a tenner.

Did you receive an Amarya box today?

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February Empties

It's been another good month for finishing things up! Here are my monthly empties and whether I would choose to repurchase them:- The Body Shop Mango Body Butter - I have probably tried all of the flavours from the standard body butters range and must admit that Mango is the one that I like the least. The scent is just far too sickly for me, which is a shame because the formula is great for dry winter skin. Repurchase? No. Lush Snow Fairy Shower Gel - Have been using up the little bottles of this that I acquired at Christmas and still love it, wish it was available all year round! Repurchase? Definitely. Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil I love oils and this is just so lovely to use after a shower. Repurchase? Yes. Neal's Yard Remedies Power Berry Daily Moisture Cream - I was recommended this by a Mac MUA as it's great to use on oily/combination skin if you don't want to use a primer. It does smooth out the skin nicely which creates a good base, but I found the more that I used this, the dryer my skin sometimes got towards the end of the day. Repurchase? No. Barry M Imperfection Correction Concealer Pen in Shade 3 - The worst item I have ever bought from Barry M, it didn't suit my skin at all, looked awfully cakey and dried up in less than a month. Repurchase? No. Dr. Hauschka Cleansing Cream - I was excited to try this out after reading some rave reviews but it sadly didn't suit my skin and smells awful. Repurchase? No.



Green People Fruitful Nights Night Cream - Can't vouch for the younger looking skin claims, but this was lovely to use and made my skin very soft and smooth in the morning. I also liked how a little went a long way with this. Repurchase? Yes. Rose & Co Rose Petal Salve - As much as I liked using this up, I'm trying to steer clear of products that have petroleum in them so I'll try and find a similar product that is natural. Repurchase? Not sure. Monu Recovery Balm - Such a tiny sample that it's difficult for me to judge really, thought it was OK from what I used. Repurchase? Probably not. Leonor Greyl Palme Oil - This little 25ml bottle has lasted me several months of weekly uses. I liked it, but probably not enough to buy a full size due to the price. Repurchase? No. Santaverde Aloe Vera Creme Light - I think I'm super sensitive to aloe vera as this irritated my skin so much so that I had to wash it off straight away, not for me! Repurchase? No. Colbert MD Nourish Eye Cream - This was the famous £90 eye cream sample from a Boudoir Prive. My verdict? It was OK, but my significantly cheaper Clinique one is much better and far more moisturising. Repurchase? No.

What are your empties this month?

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Amarya Organic Beauty Box (Nov 2011)

It's official. I am a beauty box-aholic. Do they have rehab and 12 step programmes for us yet? Here's another box that I have recently subscribed to, but unlike the others, I've joined for completely different reasons. The Amarya box is currently the only beauty box on the market to use only organic and natural products. Since the beauty box craze began, I had been hoping that someone would happily exploit the ever growing market for the more eco and green consumers out there, and was very pleased to finally come across this one.

Amarya works like all of the other boxes in that you pay a £10 subscription (no extra for postage yet) for which you receive a monthly box of goodies and you can cancel at any time. They guarantee at least one full size product in each box, along with trial size products and samples, and a 'mystery' special offer, which generally seems to be a good online discount on brands featured in the box. Another good thing about Amarya is that they accept Paypal, which I'm sure the other beauty boxes will follow.



The box is bigger than the others, I'd say it's similar in size to the Carmine box and kind of looks like a shoe box. As you can see it's plain white with their logo and inside there's hot pink tissue paper.



Onto the goodies!



As it's my first box, they've given me a free reusable shopping bag which is nice and fits well with their general eco-friendly theme (although I did notice that instead of using those little zig zaggy paper bits to cushion the products like in the other beauty boxes, Amarya have used those foam packing peanuts instead. I'm not sure if these are bio-degradable like the ones that Lush use? I'll have to email them to ask.)



Included are leaflets explaining the box and the products etc, as well as a small Christmas catalogue for Amarya (like Feel Unique, they are an online retailer for various brands, all of which are organic/natural).



(1) Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Body Oil, full size (£19.95) - "antioxidant-rich, organic pomegranate seed oil helps to promote skin renewal and improve the firmness of your skin." Subscribers to Glossybox will know all about this one and it really seemed to be a marmite item back then, some people loved it, others hated it. I wasn't subbed to Glossybox at that time, but I did try a bit from a friend's bottle and remembered liking it so I'm happy to receive one for myself to use.



(2) Bodhi Jasmine Falls Relaxing Body Moisturiser, travel size 40ml (full size 250ml - £23) - "luxurious body cream that leaves your skin velvety soft and wonderfully scented. Made with natural ingredients and 100% pure essential oils, ethically-sourced from sustainable origins, and made in England." This smells amazing. I use Jasmine a lot in my oil burner to fragrance my room, but I don't think I've ever tried a body moisturiser with it in. Tried a bit on my arm and its a light, non greasy formula that absorbs immediately into the skin. Reminds me a bit of Ahava body creams.



(3) REN Glycolactic Skin Renewal Peel Mask, 5ml sample tube (full size 50ml - £28) - "a potent bio active peel mask designed to renew the complexion, reduce the appearance of fine lines and dramatically improve skin tone." I've seen REN featured in magazines before, they've won various awards for their 'clean bio active skincare' products, so I'm interested to try this out.



(4) Santaverde Aloe Vera Cream, 2ml sachet (full size 30ml - £28) - "made of pure aloe vera juice, almond and peach oils, which provides your skin with natural moisture. Quickly absorbed and suitable for all skin types." Santaverde are a German brand which my mum uses a lot of, so I'll be sure to give this a go.

Summary: The Amarya box doesn't go in for fads or hype like some of the other beauty boxes do. It's a very simple concept to promote natural and organic products. It won't appeal to everyone, but for those who do prefer to know exactly what ingredients are in their skincare, don't like animal testing etc, then it will be an absolutely perfect way to try out products which are typically very expensive (I'm happy to pay extra for amazing organic products but I want to know that they will work for me first!). Past boxes have contained make-up items, so I would love to see more included in future boxes as I know that they work with brands like Zoya, Inika etc. With so many mainstream perfume brands being packed full of chemicals, I expect that there will be none of those in these boxes (fingers crossed!), and that if they do include perfume, then it might be something that I actually like or at least wouldn't mind trying. My only gripe with Amarya is that I'm disappointed with the fact that they include sachets. I don't think you can properly try out a product unless you're given a couple of them and you can't recycle the packaging afterwards. Other than that, I can imagine myself being a long term subscriber to Amarya, and it will be something that organic and natural consumers across the UK will be quietly applauding.

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