Miscellaneous

Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes The Natural Way

Although on first glance the picture above may look like I’m about to get my hands dirty and do a spot of painting, that is definitely not the case. In fact, instead of getting brushes caked in paint, I’m going to talk about my natural, greener and ultimately cleaner method to clean your makeup brushes with. I know everyone’s recently been talking about Dr Bronners soap which I’ll be the first to hold my hands up and say that I’ve never tried, but for the past 6 months this has been my chosen method of brush cleansing.

Coconut oil is my brush cleaning product of choice, yes that old chap and yet another thing you can use it for. I use Fushi’s Virgin Organic Coconut Oil and like to pop a small amount of of it onto the palm of my hand and then swirl my brushes in it. All the dirt, grime and yesterdays eyeshadow will come straight off and once left to dry your brushes will be super soft and ready to use on your face. What’s more, coconut oil has antibacterial properties in it which makes it an ideal candidate for brush cleansing and if it can easily remove my fake tan, removing makeup from a brush is child’s play.

Haircare, The Review

Dr Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Shampoo & Conditioner

Gemma / February 16, 2013

I’ve always loved coconut, it all started at a young age when I found The Body Shops Coconut Hair Shine amongst my mums hair care products. I smelt it, tested it on my hair and begged her to let me keep it. After that my coconut obsession grew and I repurchased the same product for 6 years straight and on and off for a further 3 after that. Nowadays I tend to find coconut products a little harder to find, especially products that don’t smell too artificial. That’s where Dr Organic comes in… 

Dr Organic is a natural and organic company with an extensive range of products that do not contain harsh chemicals, animal ingredients, mineral oils and do not test on animals. I picked up the Coconut Oil Shampoo and Conditioner (as well as the Coconut Oil Body Wash to ensure I was coconutified head to toe).

The first thing I should probably mention about this shampoo and conditioner is the smell. If you’ve ever been on holiday and had that man come round on the beach with fresh coconuts who chops them open then and there for you, that’s what this shampoo and conditioner smell like. That fresh, true coconut scent that I think is absolutely beautiful, no nasty artificial smell in sight (or sniff!). The Virgin Coconut Oil shampoo and conditioner are the 2nd natural shampoo and conditioner I have tried, the first being Naked Colour Protecting shampoo and conditioner (review here). The Dr Organic shampoo is the more purifying of the two, really giving my hair a deep clean without stripping any of my colour. The conditioner is also a lot thicker than the Naked Colour Protecting one, with a consistency much like that of a body butter rather than a body lotion. This is something I prefer as I have thick colour treated hair and I feel like the Virgin Coconut Oil conditioner does a much better job at conditioning my locks without the need to apply a leave in conditioner or hair oil afterwards. The Naked shampoo and conditioner do make my hair a little more shiny than Dr Organic’s offerings, but this also means that I have to wash my hair more regularly and as someone who only likes to wash their hair 3 times a week, that’s something I’m not particularly a fan of.

In comparison to the shampoo and conditioner by Naked that I previously tried and loved at the time, the Dr Organic Coconut range is by far the better option in my opinion. Not only does it smell amazing, the shampoo also lathers well for a natural product and both the shampoo and conditioner leave my hair feeling clean, lightweight, silky soft and moisturised. Furthermore, it does this without using ingredients that non-natural hair products use to give the impression of healthy hair such as silicones. The Dr Organic Virgin Coconut Oil shampoo and conditioner don’t just fool you into thinking you have healthy hair by covering it with ingredients that only coat the hairs shaft, the ingredients used really do penetrate the core of each hair strand, allowing you to truly have healthy hair rather than just thinking you do.

The Dr Organic Virgin Coconut Oil shampoo and conditioner is available in Holland and Baratt stores and online for £5.49 a 265ml bottle.