Peaches With Love: naturalliving

NATURAL LIVING: Best Lotion Bars From Africa

16:39

Hey Beauties,

So today I’m going to be talking about a product from this really awesome, natural beauty product company here in Kenya called Ajani Handmade. I think what really drew me to this brand was their dedication to catering specifically to African women’s skin and NATURAL HAIR. And as someone who is going through my own natural hair journey, having products that are all-natural and are made specifically for my sensitive hair is always a godsend. So when I reached out to them, and they sent me some lotion bars and oil elixir, I was super stoked! Now, today I’m going to be talking specifically about the lotion bars but I’ll cover the oil elixir after I’ve gotten a few more uses out of it. Enjoy!

Shea – Cocoa Butter Bars

So I’ll be honest: I had never heard of lotion bars before. Have you? I mean is that backwards of me? Is there some lotion bar craze going on in the world that I haven’t been privy to? I literally had to LOOK IT UP to figure out exactly how I was supposed to use them and why. I mean, what’s wrong with the normal lotion set up, right? Well, as I came to find out after 2 weeks of use, lotion bars have quite a collection of perks, and if you haven’t tried them out, you should definitely get to it.

Now the lotion bars I received were about 1.5 times the size of a quarter or a 20bob coin. I know they have some bigger ones but I actually liked these travel size ones because I found them way easier to handle and apply.

When I unwrapped them, the first thing that hit me was the smell. Now, if you are a lover of shea butter and cocoa butter, you’ll love it. If not, it might not be your favorite thing. I for one definitely like the smell of shea butter significantly more than cocoa butter so I was a little torn about the smell (I would love to see a wider range of fragrant lotion bars from them as they expand their line (maybe add an essential oil or two)).

Anyway, once I got past the smell, I was pleasantly surprised by the application of the bars. True to their word, they really were just compacted butter. What I was particularly happy about was how smooth and lubricanty (I know that’s not a word but I don’t know how else to put it) the butter was. I use shea butter all the time, and the one thing I hate about it is the fact that it doesn’t spread easily on skin because it is just SO THICK. These bars however, were so easy to apply and I ended up using a fraction of the oil I normally would because a little went SUCH a long way. For that ALONE I would buy them again.

Another thing I loved about these bars was that they kept my skin moisturized for way longer than shea butter normally does. I don’t know why or how but they did. My skin was soft and supple all day long. That being said, I don’t know what it is about my hands but shea butter doesn’t really moisturize them enough. They will be glistening with oil but they will still feel hard (does anyone else experience this?). My hands kinda reacted to the bars the same way, but because they react that way to most oils and butters (I end up having to use petroleum jelly) I wont hold it against them.

I think my biggest disappointment with the product was that I found it too difficult to carry around. They come packaged in a plastic wrapper, which is not reusable, so unless you have some kind of container to carry the bar around, I think you’ll find that you’ll only use it at home. And furthermore, you need to be careful of where you place it because if you leave it exposed to the sun on a surface, it will start to sweat onto the surface a little bit.

Here is a list of my pros and cons:

Pros

- ALL NATURAL (Love, love, love this!!!)

- Very easy to apply

- If you love the smell of these natural butters, you will love the smell. I you don’t, the smell is hardly noticeable once applied

- It would be PERFECT for babies and small children for all the natural-nut mums out there.

- The plastic wrapping was see-through which I insist on for natural products because I like to inspect the quality before I purchase them.

- The owner is REALLY friendly to order from and they deliver right to your door in a timely fashion, which is everything to me.

Cons

- It didn’t come in a container so I was kinda at a loss about where to put it. I would have loved to carry it around to use throughout the day but it would have melted in my bag and gotten on everything. I would love if they were packaged in something re-usable.

- Each bar lasted about 3 or 4 days. But that was after applying them to most of my body each night so maybe that isn’t so bad. Actually come to think of it, they did quite well.

- Lack of variety in fragrances. I definitely think they should keep the all-natural one but I would love some essential oils added to future bars. I think it would make the smell a lot lighter and fresher. (that has been my experience with shea butters at least.

VERDICT

Price – 7/10

Packaging – 6/10

Delivery – 10/10

Use – 7/10 - It would have gotten a 9/10 rating if it had a reusable container.

Customer Service – 10/10

Would I buy it again – ABSOLUTELY!!!

Let me know your experience with lotion bars in the comment section. Any advice on which containers work best would be especially appreciated.

Until Next Time,
The Lotion Bar Lover

Ajani Handmade

Website Link - http://www.ajanihandmade.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AJANI-Handmade-300231563477968/?fref=ts

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ajanihandmade/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/AjaniHandmade

naturalliving

NATURAL LIVING: Onion Foot Detox Review / Experience

11:13

Hey Lovelies,

I think this post should serve as a lesson to all of us. DO NOT BLINDLY TRY INTERNET FADS WITHOUT DOING PROPER RESEARCH AND USING COMMON SENSE. If you do, you might end up a little bit like ME.

So I had been seeing this natural detox cure online for months. And it seemed simple enough; put slices of onion on your feet before bed and wake up to a detoxified body in the morning. The holistic/scientific explanation behind this being that apparently the feet have nerve endings that serve as access points to all the body’s organs and are therefore the best parts of the body to pull toxins out of. Onions for their part have phosphoric acid which makes it’s way through ones skin and into ones bloodstream. There is purifies the blood and kills all bacteria and germs it encounters. So feet and onions together equal purified body and cure for flus, colds and other ailments.

Sounds awesome, right? So after weeks of procrastination (because we all know I am a professional procrastinator) I decided to give it a go. I cut up a red onion from the kitchen store and marched with determination to my bedroom with onions and paper bags in tow. Now here is where I thought I was being a genius. I figured that if I only put socks over the onions, the onion juice and smell would seep onto the bed and into my socks and the smell would be disgusting. The solution was obvious!!!! I would put a paper bag over the onions first and tie it above my ankle THEN I would put socks over that to hold the onions in place. Obviously that would keep the smell contained.

I was wrong (insert sad face). VERY wrong. I woke up to the MOST pungent DISGUSTING smell of stale onions imaginable. I really don’t think there are words to explain what that smell was like. It had not only seeped through the paper bag and socks but had gone THROUGH my bed sheets and had invaded all the air in my room. Ick!!! I untied the paper bag to throw the onions away and I literally almost barfed. It was the WORST smell I’ve smelt so far in my 24 years of living. And guess what, that wasn’t even the worst part.

The onion smell WOULD NOT GO AWAY!!! For literally the next 4 weeks, my feet permeated a rancid onion smell. I tried EVERYTHING to get rid of it. I rubbed a stainless steel pot over every inch of my feet TWICE, I soaked and scrubbed my feet with sea salt and then with baking soda. I even tried vinegar. But no matter what I tried, the smell ALWAYS came back and would seep into my sheets and room every night. I thank GOD I didn’t have a busy schedule so didn’t need to leave the house a lot because I literally couldn’t wear anything that exposed any part of my feet because the smell was soo strong.

After 4 weeks of torture and daily scrubbing, the smell is now pretty much gone THANK GOD! Did I feel healthier and detoxified after the experience? NOPE!!! My feet were a lot softer and smoother the next morning but that’s probably just from the moisture from the onions that was trapped in the paper bags overnight. Other than that though, I felt no change in my body at all.

So would I recommend this onion detox to my fellow healthies out there?? NO WAY NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!! Guys PLEASE trust me on this one. DO NOT try it. Seriously! DON’T DO THAT TO YOURSELF. Remember how I advised you to be careful in the OCM post? Well this is that x100.

If by chance you have tried it and had some miraculous positive experience PLEASE tell me what you did differently in the comment section because clearly I did something wrong. And if you’ve had the same experience as I did, feel free back me up on this or give your own bad experience.

All in all, this is definitely one of those experiments I will NOT be trying again.

Until Next Time,

Me And My Onion Feet