hair

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Are your beauty box subscriptions starting to pile up (literally)? Welp. Make room in your mailbox. There’s a new kid on da block.

Modere contacted us about giving their Beauty Box a test run. Don’t mind if I do!

Who is Modere? When Rachel from Modere first reached out to us, she wrote that the brand offers “lifestyle essentials, personal care, health & wellness and household products that are equal parts safe, high performing and beautifully designed.” Amen to the beautifully designed piece. The two products that I’ve used repeatedly from the box are definitely high-performing. And on the safety front: I’ve noted some ingredients, like phenoxyethanol, that aren’t ideal, but for the most part, these are pretty clean. Impressed.

The concept of their beauty box is pretty clever. Unlike other boxes that send you a variety of samples, Modere includes four full-size products with four corresponding sample sizes, plus a full-size gift that you get to keep fo’ free. You try the samples over a seven-day trial period, decide what you like, keep the full-size products you love and send back the full-size products that you don’t love with a pre-paid shipping label. For any of you who have received a beauty box, fell in love with a sample, used it down to the sad, last drop and then bemoaned the fact that it was gone…this is an *instant gratification* solution. So, props to Modere on that biz model.

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BUT: this box is not cheap. Your card isn’t charged until the end of your seven-day trial period, so it’s technically a risk-free investment…assuming you don’t pull a Rip Van Winkle and sleep through the week. But you won’t, because this is a $79.99 box (though, contents are valued at $139.99, according to Modere, and you are receiving five full-size products). You’ll get the most bang for your buck if you keep all of the products: if you only select one or a few of them to keep, you’ll have to pay retail price for each.

The box I received included the following products:

I’ve written about my two faves below. I immediately gravitated toward these two because they’re products I’d use in my daily routine – I’m always looking to up my exfoliation and hair game. WHO ISN’T?

Y’know what we’ve never done on this here blog? Featured products for dudes.

UNTIL TODAY. One small step for Unsullied, one giant leap for…OK, maybe not mankind, but we’re feeling pretty good about it.

Natural skincare, soap and personal care products are not gender-specific. Everyone benefits from using products that are cleaner, healthier and holistic…and free of irritating chemicals and ingredients that do not serve our health. But since Kathryne and I are both, y’know, females, our product reviews naturally have a perpetually womanly perspective. Shucks.

We’ve been talking about getting a male viewpoint on the blog for a while now. With the recent close of No Shave November, the rustic autumn season and the recent popularity of the term “lumbersexual“…we knew we had to start with (drumroll, please) beard oil.

Beard oil also makes a choice selection for the blog because, unlike the vast majority of personal care products out there, it’s a traditionally natural product. Most beard oils are chock full of nourishing oils like jojoba, argan, grape seed, etc., and natural scents. Yeahhh! Plus, it just so happens we liaise with a very beardly dude who has been on the prowl for a solid beard oil for some time now, and he kindly agreed to share his POV for this very blog entry. The fates aligned for this post, my friends.

Today we’re featuring our guy JW. He’s been sporting a beard for the better part of this year, but wasn’t regularly using beard oil…until now. The elixir at hand? Province Apothecary’s Beard Oil ($36 for 30 ml) from Canada, Land of Beards.

We’d been chatting about beard oil on Twitter (y’know, as people do, totally normal…) in October, and Province Apothecary very kindly offered to send us a bottle for JW to test drive. Lucky for us, we had been coveting this brand’s snazzy blue bottle (it’s dual purpose: looks cool and protects the integrity of the oils) and equally laudable natural ingredients. It came highly recommended by our gal Sonja (beard aficionada, fellow Jon Snow disciple) from Life in Blush. Beard oil is pretty much leave-in conditioner for beards. Province Apothecary’s packs in sunflower oil, jojoba seed oil, grape seed oil, evening primrose oil and GMO-free vitamin E. Combined, they hydrate, reduce itchiness and blemishes, and give beards a healthy shine. On top of that, black spruce is supposed to stimulate hair growth and strengthen the beard, while lavender calms the skin. Therapeutic oils of bergamot, cedar wood and vetiver also make this beard oil smell pretty dreamy.

Herbivore Botanicals. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

All of Herbivore Botanicals’ skin care products are 100% natural. Their ingredient lists are short and simple. Their products are beautifully branded and packaged in glass, so you can repurpose the bottles or recycle them. Did I mention how attractive their labels are?! (I did. I did.) It’s products like these that will win over even more natural skin care users, because whether or not you have an appreciation for…say…witch hazel, who doesn’t covet a beautiful glass bottle for their bathroom countertop?!

I seriously cannot get enough of this brand, if my past posts weren’t indication…(this one, and this one, and this one…) GUILTY.

Here are my latest Herbivore acquisitions from earlier this year. Thank you to Herbviore’s creators, Julia and Alex, for letting me go nuts and pick out a batch of products for review!

Balance Facial Toner

Toner has become my favorite skin care product. For years, I skipped the toning step. But now, I find it’s a critical way to prime my face for application of moisturizer (better absorption and slippery skin surface) and a refreshing/nourishing way to pack in extra natural ingredients that serve my skin’s needs.

Balance ($24 for 4 oz.) has been my go-to toner for the past several months, and I’m not planning on switching any time soon. If you have oily/combination skin like me (aren’t you lucky?), ch-check this one out.

Let me walk you through the ingredients. #1 = witch hazel (yes, there’s more witch hazel than water in this bad boy). Witch hazel is a natural astringent and helps with acne-prone, oily skin. Who needs an irritating chemical ingredient when you can get the same benefits from nature? Next: Aloe vera and vegetable glycerine are both super gentle and smooth moisturizers. And lastly, essential oils for an added punch: neroli and hyssop decumbens. All I knew about neroli oil before bringing Balance into my life (#hallelujah) was that it has a pleasant citrus-y scent. Turns out, it does more than that: Herbivore included it in their toner for its nourishing and regenerative properties. The hyssop decumbens oil is detoxifying.

Despite the high witch hazel content, I’ve found this toner to be gentle enough to apply both morning and night, and super refreshing.

DIY with baking soda and vinegar

And no…not for a paper mâché‎ volcano.

ONE: SHAMPOO + CONDITIONER
All right, there’s a LOT of talk out on the Interwebs about how washing your hair with a baking soda/water mixture and conditioning with apple cider vinegar is like, way better for your hair than traditional shampoos that strip your hair of natural oils (and especially those loaded with sulfates, fragrance, yadda yadda). I have also heard that this method helps your hair grow faster. That’s always a plus, eh? The “basic” (pun intended) idea is that baking soda is a basic cleansing agent. Following with acidic ACV helps neutralize your hair while holding in moisture. Not one to be left behind, I did some research and decided to use this recipe:

New Beauty Box on the Block: Modere

One for the Dudes: Province Apothecary’s Beard Oil

Are you a skin care herbivore?

Four Ways to Use Baking Soda and Vinegar