Clay-time: Rhassoul

Today I'm gonna share some about Clay & beauty. You might have read some things about clays before, so consider this your 2 cents that completes the other 98 cents :)

There are a lot of varieties that can basically be defined in colour. Every one has different properties, but most share the one that they are good as detoxifier by absorbing the baddies our of your system; either your skin, scalp, or some even digest it. Personally, I only put it on my skin & scalp.

Two varieties that I have used lately:

'White' Rhassoul Clay from Kae: 

I bought a cosmetic-market targeted version from Kae because of the amazing reviews. The white brown version of Rhassoul is the polished one. A purer version is often red, as seen in the next one.

Argiletz Red Clay Ultra Ventilated

Argiletz is a French Brand that comes in a 200 gr package within a nice pricerange:

& clear Instructions:

sorry for the smudgy

Rhassoul clay:

Rhassoul or Ghassoul is a Morrocan  clay. Most people in beauty have positive connotations hearing Morrocco: Argan oil & the brand Moroccan Oil. Clays are also being used in various beauty-rituals. 

• claymask for face and body: it's both a gentle and effective cleanser for withdrawing impurities
• It has a rejuvenating effect as the high content (58%) of Silica stimulates collagen production
• bathing: the gentle detoxifying effect & the addition of various minerals are suitable and perhaps even healing for eczematic skin (I personally have not seen any shocking healing)
• Scalpmask: I have done this and I have some reserves on this one too. 

Face?

I'm always on the lookout for real pore-cleansing masks. I seem to have the unlucky combination of open pores (larger) but they refuse to let go of their gunk easily. My facialist thinks I do a good cleaning them: I guess regular claymasks work.

I liked both Kae as Argiletz. I've been doing French green masks before: the Rhassoul variety is much gentlier for sensitive skins. It draws out some impurities, enough to see a difference. I do not feel the need to follow up with a moisturizing product afterwards.

 So the scalpmask?
Not the most succesful way of doing clay for me:

• I felt my hair looked redder afterwards: Note, lightened/bleached hair is often porous & changes colour in swimmingpools -> green. So why wouldn't it attract red pigments from clays?
• My hair felt greasy afterwards: Rhassoul has moisturizing properties that make it a gorgeous treatment by people with curly to very curly hair.. I had to wash it a couple of times to get the greasy feeling out
• It calmed down my flakey scalp. Unfortunately, that was counteracted again by the overzealous hairwashing afterwards.

I think this mask is bliss for people with curly or middle-African hair. It was not that succesful for my type of hair, which is a shame because it felt nice and relaxing during scalpmasking.

Overview:

Various blogs & people have been embracing the natural & organic lifestyle lately. Like any product, it's a trial & error field. Sensitive & allergic skins might think they're better of with organic, but the added essential oils might not always be the best choice for them.

Clays are a more neutral option, unless you add something extra to them, like honey, oil or essential oils. 

Nevertheless, what works for one skintype or hairtype might not work for you. Thus, test-patches are probably the best way to know what your skin will do. And personally I would not do put anything with either natural & artificial colour (unless desired) on lightened hair.

If this has been your first 2 cents on clay and/or you want to add more 2 cents:

• More on clays

• More on Rhassoul 
• Bodyscrubbing with Rhassoul

• Anti-acne Rhassoul

• A recipe for claymask with something extra
• Hair/scalpmask

Omorovicza, going for Gold and thát GWP

I think I spend the most  € on a serum ever...!

Don't get me wrong: I am highly into skincare and the lack of eyeshadows swatched have gone happily to showing off serums, liquidy textures, creams and other dermis-philia/obsessivia!

Only, I tend to stick under a certain price-range that I hesitately crossed over recently.

The MOTIVE:

YES, that is some juicy GWP that gave me the extra push to finally let me buy that Gold serum from Omorovicza. They contained these beeeeaaauuuties:

But I am not that shallow and was also tempted by a 20% off for Dutch shoppers (NL20) and an excellent review on the serum on HolisticGreenBeauty (here).The more famous Cafémakeup reviewed it too, but I only noticed that review when I googled it for this blogpost.

love the fresh packaging of Omorovicza

And there was curiosity again. I've dabbed into silver recently with Argentum Apothecary La Lotion Infinie (here) and I found it time to go for gold.

I have been testing it for almost 3 weeks and I love the soft rose fragance that is barely noticable and perfect for my sensitive skin. A couple of weeks I had to quit using my Casanera Immortelle serum because of sensitivity issues and I believe this serum  has desensitised my skin into a more peaceful state.

Ingredients:

I cannot tell anything about the anti-ageing effects: it has just been two weeks but the luminicent quality and miniscule golden flecks inside of the serum already softens the beginning maturity of my skin.

So an expensive serum? Yes, with the 20% discount it set me back €135 instead of their more scaringly  €165 and the Gift with Purchase helped to take that plunge as it has their cultstatus Queen of Hungary toner, thát Copper peel that promises eternal smoothness (ok, exaggerating intensely), a Plumping cream and a mudmask...not that I already have any mudmasks yet but I wonder if this one really lives up to the raves.

Find it on the omorovicza site over here and I believe they have frequent discounts and a signing up discount. Also available on lookfantastic.com and cultbeauty.com, and various other etailers.

Borghese Fango Soap

I got this phrase "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" connected to old-fashioned soap, but the initial reason I bought this piece of soap was for the gift with purchase.

 It's just one of those moments the GWP draws you in (a generous set of 4 mud-masks): I already have this gorgeously frangant Portuguese Claus Porto soap, so why would I be tempted by the Italian Fango?

Well, this soap captured me for its properties and the idea of the mud/spa treatment, especially on the "absorbing action [that] helps to remove impurities and unclog pores":

The french description got overlighted, but you can read it in English and Italian

The ingredients:

A simple list with ingredients minimises the chances on senstivity issues. The Fuller's Earth is the main worker in this soap for the part that helps to draw out impurities.

When you open the package you get a beautiful green soap that already smells spa-like: slightly minty and a hint of algs or muds...

This is one of the soaps I feel best about using after exercise: It has that minty freshness and I love the idea of drawing the extra impurities out.

The packaging tells that you can use it on the face, and I do that every now and then when I feel that my skin could benefit from the Fuller's earth and other Fango-based properties. I don't think it dries out the skin on my face (or not anything more than the Nuxe 3 Micellaire mousse I described over here). I don't use it as my main makeup cleanser because for that I need a different arsenal, but if my skin is relatively clean it helps to remove sweat or some superficial dust.

I think it somewhat clears up impurities, but the best result on the face (and body) is when you combine this soap with one of their masks (that I got with the GWP)...that quite draws some yuckies out.

I bought my soap on cultbeauty over here and you can read some more sophisticated claims/properties over there too.