The skincare product Em can't live without!
For those of you who don't know me very well I am make up and skincare obsessed! I am always mixing up my skincare regime as I love trying new things and for my own skin at least, I feel like it benefits from the change every now and then. I am lucky enough to be good friends with Sarah Firmston who co-owns the Crushes brand and store here on Karangahape Road. Crushes have expanded their brand into natural skincare and I have been using their face cleanser bars for a couple of months and I just love them and so does my skin! My personal fave cleansing bar is the Bentonite Clay one and I absolutely love their Marula Oil which I actually use in the morning under my make up.
I asked Sarah some questions about the natural skincare trend and here is what she had to say:
What inspired you to create this new range?
When I first decided to go cruelty free with my beauty and skincare purchases a few years ago, there wasn't a whole lot of more cost effective options available on the market when it came to skincare and things were getting more and more expensive for me to purchase. To help with purchasing I started reading a lot of cruelty free blogs and watching youtube videos to find the best products and through that I began to also learn more about chemical ingredients that can be harmful to your skin. Long story short I started to dabble in making my own skincare from natural ingredients to see how it went - and my skin loved it!Why do you think natural skincare is important?
Simply put our skin is our largest organ and it absorbs everything we put on it, so we need to treat it well. Natural skincare in general is a lot gentler on the skin than products that contain chemicals, which are more likely to cause skin irritation and strip our skin of the oils it needs. Natural skincare for the most part also has a lot less of an environmental impact than more chemical based products, which is also a bonus.
Can you get the same results as a more scientific based regime?
I'm sure you can, and I by no means mean to discredit more science based methods, as they can be very effective too, but often those regimes end up being a lot more expensive, can be harsh on the skin, or can be packed with a bunch of things that you might not need and are just filler non-active ingredients, unlike natural skincare which usually will only contain active ingredients which will benefit your skin.I actually have a very science based eye cream that I use, I haven't been able to find any natural skincare that can win the battle with my under eyes yet!
What is your favourite skincare ritual?
My cleansing ritual in the evening is one of my favourites, feeling the long day melt away off your face is one of the best feelings in the world. I use a face halo to remove the bulk of my make up, followed by an oil of some kind (you can be indulgent and use something like rosehip and Argan, or you can grab the big bottle of olive or coconut oil from the pantry) or one of our clay cleanse bars. I usually alternate between the oil and the bar but if I feel like my skin needs it I go all out and do all 3!
I am also a sucker for a clay mask.Favourite product in the range?
Everything rosehip all day everyday and the pink clay cleanse bar, I couldn't live without them now.Check out the Crushes range HERE or better yet head to their store at 225 Karangahape Road in Auckland
