Spring/summer Green beauty swap 2015

 

I love doing swaps with other bloggers. You get to pass on some of your unloved items to someone who will actually appreciate them, and get a chance to try something new and exciting in return. Green beauty swap, masterminded by lovely Ria, is a little bit different. First of all, who you get paired up with is a luck of the draw. Instead of rummaging through your stash in hopes of finding something that your swap partner will enjoy, you come up with the budget together, find out eachother's likes/dislikes, and then go shopping for presents.

 

This is the third time I have taken part and while I love getting a surprise goodie box, it is also pretty wonderful to connect with another blogger. My partner in this swap was Annmarie.

 

I just have to point out that without prior arrangement we both sent eachother cards with Echinacea on them, clearly this is some sort of sign. Annmarie had a bit of a difficult task ( when she emailed me, after having a browse of my blog, saying that it seems like I tried a fair few things, I felt a bit bad), but she was determined to find things I haven't used before. She succeeded admirably.

 

 

I haven't opened everything up as I'm trying to be sensible, but obviously some things I just couldn't resist ( would you think I lost my marbles if I said I could hear them calling my name? Joking of course, that is insane... Or is it?). The first thing that I opened was the earth works cosmetics orange and lavender body oil. Lavender is not really a scent that I consciously go for, it's not that I don't like it, but it just seems to be used a lot in natural beauty products (and it also makes me think of elderly ladies, lining their linen drawers with lavender bags). Orange and citrus scents on the other hand I absolutely adore, can't get enough of them. I have never ever used a product that combined the two as the main fragrance, I was very intrigued. I absolutely love the texture of this body oil, when it first arrived it was almost solid, but after the heat wave it is completely liquid. It feels so silky, my skin just laps it up and the scent happens to be both refreshing and soothing. The lavender is less noticeable to begin with, but comes into its own once the citrus fades, like a piquant layered perfume, but at no point is it overwhelming to the senses.

 

 

 

Next thing to be opened was bloom remedies foot balm. In all fairness I should not have opened it as I'm using up another foot balm, I just couldn't resist. I have been wanting to sample something from this brand for ages, just never got round to it. I haven't actually tried it yet, I just had a sniff and yes it smells fab.

 

 

 

Now with this next product I'm starting to think that Annmarie has some sort of psychic powers. Obviously she picked up on the fact that I like aromatherapy, that is not what is surprising, it is the scent that she chose. Clear vitality from Bloom remedies. This is a pure essential oil blend especially designed for use with an aromatherapy diffuser. As I still haven't fully joined the 21st century, that is not something that I posess. Straight away I asked Marie (aka the Bloom Remedies Magic-woman) if there were other ways to use it. She gave a few different options, one of which is to use a few drops in a bowl of hot water as steam inhalation to ward off a cold. I immediately put it in my stash for winter use. But what do you know, a few weeks later I'm coming down with sniffles, at a very inconvenient time might I add. Of course it's never good to be sick, but this was the worst timing ever. You can only imagine how crazy I looked emptying up boxes, trying to find the one that held the little bottle of what I hoped would save my behind. Thankfully I found it, and it did work like a charm. The trick of course was timing, if the dreaded cold got its full hooks into me, the blend would not have been nearly as effective.

 

The rest of the beauty products I have yet to open: fig and rouge multi purpose balm in super cute packaging, organic surge shower gel with lovely sounding scent, scented candle with a wooden wick and a sachet of body scrub are all patiently waiting their turn.

 

 

 

As Annmarie works for A Vogel she very generously sent me some of their goodies. I will be doing a separate post on those.

 

I want to say thank you again for being an amazing swap partner, and choosing things that I would have never tried otherwise but absolutely love. If you are curious to see what I got for Annmarie here is her post.