A few weeks ago, the lovely Sharon of Maia Skin Care introduced me to her gorgeous range of products. Though I’ve been suffering from a strange flare-up on my face for nearly two months now, I couldn’t resist giving some of the products a try and have been really looking forward to posting my thoughts here on the site.

I was initially drawn in by the lovely selection of essential oils that the range uses and the simplicity of the formulas. I also discovered that Maia products don’t contain beeswax - olive wax is used instead - and I was keen to see how effective this alternative ingredient was.

As I’ve tried out a total of seven products from the range, I’m going to do another mega-review, so make yourselves comfy and read on! :)
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Price: £11.49 for 59ml
Rating:
Link: http://www.aubreyorganicsuk.co.uk

Ingredients: Coconut Fatty Acid Cream Base, Witch Hazel (natural herbal extract), Natural Grain Alcohol, Organic Aloe Vera, Calendula Oil, Mucopolysaccharides; Extracts of Fennel, Hops, Balm Mint, Mistletoe, Camomile, Yarrow, Horsetail, Coltsfoot and Nettle; Inositol, Panthenol (Vitamin B-5), Aubrey’s Preservative (Citrus Seed Extract, Vitamins A, C and E), Amino Acid Complex (Cysteine, Methionine), Balsam Oil, Goa Herb

I’ve used this product as my safety backup for over a year now. Whenever my face is going through troubled times, the gentle formula takes care of my skin while still keeping it moisturised. 
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I first encountered the Suki range over a year ago thanks to the free samples that Debbie from Pure Skin Care often included with my orders. I did try them once or twice, but I think they just didn’t last long enough to wow me, plus the potential cost was a major concern. A little over a month ago, I was feeling a bit frustrated with my existing routine and Suki caught my eye again.

I decided to take the plunge and buy the anti-inflammatory mini-kit. Needless to say, I was very impressed and promptly purchased several full-size versions.

This is going to be something of a mega-review as I’m going to talk about all six products from this range that I use. So grab yourself a nice cuppa and read on!
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Yes, it’s true, I’ve decided to give up my OCM routine. I’ve definitely overloaded my face too much and need to give it a rest and time to calm down. It’s been about 5 days since I stopped using it and already the pimples that wouldn’t go away are drying up and healing.

My period started two days ago, but I’ve only got a couple of the usual hormonal bumps. After the explosion of pimples from the OCM, this is actually heaven - I never thought I’d be saying that! I guess it just goes to show how everything is relative and while I might view my PMT acne as bad sometimes, it could certainly be a lot worse.

Anyway, I’m really sorry to report such a negative outcome. I’m not saying the OCM doesn’t work, I just think I went about it wrong. I still stand by my earlier advice that the right oils can make all the difference - perhaps one day I’ll try again and use the sunflower oil that Kloggers and Helen suggested in a previous post.

Interestingly, I think the Camellia & Copaiba oil I’m using as moisturiser may be doing a bit of OCM on it’s own and perhaps the combination of this and the other oils was simply too much. This is one product I will be sticking with, as I still don’t need to exfoliate, my skin is rarely greasy and it doesn’t aggravate my acne.

Well this is very weird. For the last couple of days, my face has been much oilier than usual. I don’t know if it’s the OCM doing some kind of rebalancing, but I’m going to have to quit using my Camellia & Copaiba oil for a few days to see if it dies down. I’ll be gutted if I have to stop using it permanantly, especially as I forked out £20 for a full-size bottle only three weeks ago.

Not only am I oilier, but my skin feels a bit rough too, like I need to exfoliate. My acne isn’t giving up either, although at least the whiteheads are small and I’m not getting the nasty boil-like bumps I tend to suffer from. I’m going to try using my facial cleanser after the OCM just to make sure the oils are definitely being removed - it’s very gentle (and all-natural of course) so it shouldn’t do any harm. I also tried using the Angel Face Scrub yesterday with apple cider vinegar instead of water, but I applied the Camellia & Copaiba oil straight after so I may have negated any positive effect. Will try that again tomorrow I think.

I also bought some Agnus Castus (chasteberry) capsules from Holland & Barratt today. Not sure I should be starting these in the midst of a skin crisis, but they’re supposed to help with hormonal problems and I’d like to get them well into my system before my period starts.  As my acne does seem to be primarily hormonal, I’m hoping they’ll help. I’m trying to increase my water intake too - so far that’s just resulted in lots of trips to the loo!

Apologies for the lack of recent updates BTW. I’ve had speed issues with my ISP all week and dared not use the computer lest I throw the cable modem at the wall in annoyance.

I’m so happy, my package from Anita Grant arrived this morning! I was a little worried as the status of my order still says Confirmed instead of Shipped, so it was a lovely surprise to hear the postman knocking on my door.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I bought a full-size bottle of the Camellia Copaiba Bath & Body Oil which is one of the large pump bottles you can see in the picture. The other is a Wheat Germ & Carrot Cleansing Oil which I’m intending to use for my oil cleansing regimen. The two smaller bottles are samples of the Camellia with Ylang-Ylang and Lavender (for my stretchmarks) and Watermelon Oil which I may also use as part of the oil cleansing process.

The block of what looks like marble is actually a shampoo bar - Kelp and Ylang-Ylang Babassu to be precise. Can you see a bit of a ylang-ylang theme here? :D It wasn’t intentional, but it is a favourite oil of mine. Finally, I have a Lemon Lippy Pucker, and delicious it is too.

I’ll no doubt be telling you all how I get on with them at some point in the future, so if you’re interested in these products then please check back over the next few weeks. Alternatively, if you have any direct questions, I’ll be happy to answer, just pop them in the comments area. :)

Price: £19.95 for 100ml
Rating:
Link: http://anitagrant.com

Ingredients: pure camellia kissi oil and pure copaiba balsam

I know I’ve gone on a lot about Anita Grant this month, but I really had to do a review of this oil. I bought several different samples from her online store, but this really is the star product for me. The funny thing is, I almost didn’t buy it either, it was a last-second addition to my shopping basket. Believe me, I’m incredibly thankful it caught my eye!
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Price: £25.00 for 30ml
Rating:
Link: http://www.motherearth.co.uk

Ingredients: Organic almond oil, organic carrot oil, organic St. John’s wort oil, organic beeswax, organic shea nut butter, organic elderflowers, organic yarrow flowers with organic rose geranium & neroli essential oils.

This was very much an impulse buy, along with the matching toner which I am also reviewing today. I was researching moisturisers (always a dangerous thing to do) and fell in love with the ingredients. I was also excited to learn that it is suitable for those prone to oily skin and breakouts.
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Price: £16.50 for 50g
Rating:
Link: http://www.earthbound.co.uk

Ingredients: rosewater, rosehip oil *, marshmallow oil *, borage oil *, sesame oil *, local beeswax, grapefruit seed extract *, rose essential oil.
* = Organic ingredients

I began using this cream back in November 2007. I’m a real sucker for rose and despite already using Akamuti’s Replenishing Rose cream, I wanted to give this a try. I was also tempted by the inclusion of borage oil, which has helped my acne in the past. I liked this product so much that it has now replaced the Akamuti cream altogether.
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