Mahoghany Naturals Review and Giveaway

TheFoundationDirectory; Mahogany Naturals

 If you follow me on twitter and Instagram you may already be aware that I am now a Brand Ambassador for Mahogany Naturals. Mahoghany Naturals is a brownbeauty owned brand, created by Tope Beesley in 2012, Tope is an award winning curly hair stylist and certified aromatherapist and created this brand to address the needs of Curly and Afro textured hair. The brand has recently gone thorough a re-branding and is expanding it's product range to address hair, face and body with an adult and kids range. This brand creates spa quality natural and organic products that are cruelty free and vegetarian friendly, they are hand made in small batches to maintain freshness.

TheFoundationDirectory; Mahogany Naturals

I was sent my first batch of items from the brand that included the Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo, Brazilian Butter Damage Reverse Treatment and the Luscious Hair Milk. The Damage Reverse Treatment is an amazing strengthening treatment, if your hair loves protein it will love this deep treatment, my hair instantly felt stronger after the first use and it smells absolutely amazing. This treatment is for those with dry, damaged and colour treated hair and it is a pre-shampoo treatment applied on damp hair. It contains an array of Butters including Brazilian Nut Butter, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter to name a few as well as Aloe Vera, Avocado Oil, Emu Oil (see full list of ingredients on the website).

I follow this treatment with the Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo that is full of happy scalp ingredients to gently, but thoroughly cleanse your hair without stripping it, a very difficult combination to achieve. This shampoo will clean your hair, balance your scalp, smooth your cuticle and remove buildup. It contains Apple Cider Vinegar as the first ingredient, which will help maintain the hair and scalps PH level, remove buildup without stripping the hair of it's natural oils.
It also seals the hair cuticle, making hair smoother, softer and shinier helping hair maintain moisture and prevent split ends, it also treats dandruff and itchy scalp, works as a natural detangler and encourages hair growth. Need I say more, if you struggle with the smell of Apple Cider Vinegar, this maybe a great alternative. It also contains Avena Sativa Oats, Shea Butter and Argan Oil to name a few, I was worried this wouldn't lather up, but it creates a beautiful gentle lather, while being sulfate free.

And next is the Luscious Hair Milk a daily leave in conditioner and moisturiser, great for dry damaged hair in need of intense moisture, it reduces breakage, detangles, moisturises and defines curls. It can be applied to damp or dry hair and is great for use before blow drying, which is how I like to use it. It contains Sweet Almond oil, Mango Oil, Vitamin E among other things and also smells great.

This is a great truly organic natural luxury brand, that creates great products that work without all the nasty's we all want to try and avoid. The Damage Reverse Treatment is £40, the Shampoo is £20 and the Luscious Hair Milk is £25 all are 250ml and if you head over to my instagram now, there's a giveaway to win this amazing Apple Cider Vinegar Shampoo. To check out the rest of the range head over to Mahoganynaturals.co.uk, you can also find her products here and here as well as in Xsandy's Hair & Beauty Shop in Lewisham Shopping Center.

Have you tried anything from this brand? Any recommendations of what I should try next?

Pretty Honest; The Straight Talking Beauty Companion

I get really weary of buying beauty books and the like, just because there's so much available for free on the internet, I always wonder what extra I'm going to get that I haven't already heard, read and watched for free. However I had actually been contemplating this purchase, so when given the opportunity to review it I jumped at it, as I like Sali Hughes straight forward and honest approach to beauty.

TheFoundationDirectory; Pretty Honest by Sali Hughes

The great thing about this book is you can read the chapters independently, so for a busy working mum like myself I can skip straight to the sections of interest, and have the book to hand to draw on whenever I need it. One of my biggest bugbears is 1. Assuming I'm wearing makeup to cover up bad skin (I love skincare just as much as makeup), 2. Assuming because I wear makeup I'm unintelligent, 3. Assuming because I wear makeup I'm shallow, ok so that's more than one. Reading the introduction in this book was like have a good natter with my bestie; ranting and moaning about the same thing and realising you really get each other. But it's also nice to hear it from a well respected journalist, almost gives it extra validation, if it was ever needed.
 

TheFoundationDirectory; Sali Hughes - Pretty Honest

After reading the Introduction, the chapter on Skin Types and Managing Counter Staff (great tips by the way), I jumped straight to the section on Foundation, and by the second page I read this.....'And how women of colour manage to leave the department stores without attacking a make-up counter with their handbag is beyond me, so under-served or plainly ignored are they by very many brands'.....I fell in love with Sali even more.  

 

Now I haven't had the chance to read the book cover to cover (see busy working mum reference above), but I do feel like I've got a treasure on my hands, I'll make reference to this book time and time again, after all there's nothing better than being curled up on the sofa, drink in hand with a good book.

Sali Hughes Pretty Honest is out now in paperback, you can find it here, here and here.

Do you buy beauty books? Have you read this one? What others would you recommend?

Byterry Light Expert Click Brush Foundation for Darker Skin Tones

If you follow me on instagram and/or snapchat (Aallexxy1) you would have seen that last summer I got invited to a Byterry event for the launch of a new high tech foundation for the busy on the go woman, it was Light Expert Click Brush, I eagerly and excitedlyattended. So you can understand my dismay/frustration when, even with 6 shades on offer, the darkest shade was no match for me.

Byterry Light Expert Click Brush Event last Summer (darkest shade on offer)

During the event they were questions from fellow brown beauty bloggers as to why this was the case, we were promised that these were in the works, but due to the high tech formula they were taking longer to develop and perfect than the lighter shade counter-parts. It was a synchronised eye-rolling moment for us all, as I personally felt it was another line to fob us off, especially as we were told we could use the current darkest shade (see above) to highlight. So to my delight fast forward to about a week ago when I got an email from the Global Brand Ambassador for Byterry inviting me to a Light Expert Click Brush Workshop for darker skin tones at the office in London. I obviously went along, expecting maybe 1-3 extras shades for brown beauties, much to my delight they are planning to expand the range by 6 shades and wanted input before mass producing the products for a September release.

TheFoundationDirectory; New Byterry Light Expert Click Brush Shades

Pictured above are lab samples, so I don't know the official shade names, but I did get to apply this foundation on my skin. If you like a lightweight serum textured base with light-medium coverage, that can be applied on the go, on top of pre-existing makeup without caking then this is definitely for you. If you follow me on snapchat you would have seen how the makeup still looked pretty after several hours of wear, once I receive my official sample I will do another post with swatches and wear time, I can't wait for this to be released.

Wearing one of new shades of Byterry Light Expert Click Brush with Terry Degunzburg (Founder)

I have to say this is very impressive from the brand, it shows they really care and what to embrace the woman of colour as a serious customer, with much larger brands choosing to ignore us, it's nice to be able to write this post. I also got to met the founder herself Terry Degunzburg, and watch her in action, again you would have caught this all on my snapchat. I have to say she is absolutely brilliant, she took the time to take pictures with us all, applied makeup to some, and asked what our thoughts were on her product. They also asked what other brown beauty friendly products we would like to see from the brand, telling me this isn't going to be a one off situation. This is a great example to other brands who say it can't be done, more like they don't want to do it, Byterry have secured a customer in me from this as a result.


Are you excited for the new Light Expert Click Brush shades? Have you used anything from this brand before? Do you have any recommendations?