Friday Favourites

This week's post features three amazing products which are environmentally friendly and cruelty-free. Yay!

Badger Baby Balm

Oh Badger Balm, I love you so. 

I've had a streaming cold all week, just in time for my brother's wedding - it's always when you really don't want to get ill, isn't it? I've had that horrible sore red flaky skin around my nostrils from too much nose-blowing. I wanted to soothe it but my usual serum and mosturiser stung! The I rediscovered this, hiding away in my drawer, and it was magic. Its combination of extra virgin olive oil, castor oil, beeswax, chamomile and calendula extracts is incredibly soothing and softening. The oils soften, the chamomile and calendula heal, and the beeswax creates a barrier on the skin, facilitating healing and preventing further damage. I think it's great on any dry or irritated skin (winter skin, razor burn, sore hands) as well as little cold-y noses! A little goes a long way and the tin fits easily into pockets and bags. It's completely organic and cruelty-free, and the gorgeous tin can be reused (I plan to use mine as a little jewellery caddy for travelling.)

£4.99 for 21g

Ecotools tapered blush brush

So instead of detailing my other cold cures here (lemsip, vaporub and my mum's vegetable soup, in case you're interested) I thought I'd include this wonderful brush. It's been incredibly useful over the last few weeks. Although I've had it for a while, it's recently become my one-stop, does-everything brush, handling contouring, blending and setting easily. I hadn't used brushes as part of my everyday routine for a while because cream formulas form the bulk of my makeup arsenal, but I've really been loving powders recently. I've discovered how wonderful bronzer is wonderful for slimming down my face, warming up my skin and generally making me look better in photos. (See last week's Friday Favourites for my new fave!) It blends everything seamlessly, eliminating the dreaded streaky mud-marks that pass for contouring. As a setting brush it works wonderfully too, giving a much more professional-looking finish than a powder puff does. I pat on the brilliant Bobbi Brown Sheer Finish Powder over my base and it locks it down for hours, taking away any excess shine while still keeping the soft glowing finish of my foundation. All Ecotools brushes are made from bamboo and recycled aluminium and the soft brushes are synthetic and therefore cruelty-free.

£7.99 each

Green People Gentle Cleanse and Makeup Remover

Brushes need cleaned, but cleaning them is such a pain! Usually I'll give mine a proper deep clean with Dr Bronner's soap, a great natural soap that needs water to create a lather, but I find my brushes take a really long time to dry afterwards. Enter this gorgeous organic cleanser from Green People. I borrowed it from my sister, who had a sample in her LoveLula Beauty Box (for anyone interested in trying natural, organic, cruelty free cosmetics, the LoveLula Beauty Box is a great place to start.) This lovely cleaner makes a brilliant brush cleaner. It removed all traces of makeup quickly and easily, leaving my brushes clean, soft, and smelling gorgeous. It's a good way to clean your brushes if you're short on time because you don't need water. I found that popping a little cleaner onto a cotton pad and swirling the brush into it, then removing any excess remover (and makeup) on clean cotton pads was an effective method that left no residue on them and took less than a minute per brush.

£19.95 for 200ml


Happy Friday!

Thanks for reading x