Product Review: TGIN Shea Butter Line

For the past week or so, I've had the privilege to try out the TGIN Shea Butter Sample Pack. If you didn't know, Chris-Tia Donaldson, author of Thank God I'm Natural, has launched Thank God It's Natural, a line of natural bath, body and home products. Included in the Sample Pack: a 1/2 oz. jar of all natural organic shea butter, 1.5 oz. bar of olive oil Wild Lemongrass soap, and 1 peppermint shea butter lip balm. So here is my breakdown of each product.

[caption id="attachment_2089" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The TGIN Shea Butter Sample Pack"][/caption]

 

Organic Shea Butter
From TGIN:

Our 100% Natural African Shea Butter will keep your hands, feet, lips, and hair soft all winter long. If you like shea butter, you're going to love our all natural organic shea body butter, which has a smooth and creamy texture, no grit, and a light and pleasant scent.
Rich in both vitamin A and vitamin E, shea butter can be used to treat dry skin, sunburns, cuts, rashes, eczema, psoriasis, chapped lips, dark spots, scars, stretch marks, blemishes, diaper rash, dark under eye circles, and fine lines and wrinkles as part of your night-time beauty treatment.
An ultra-nourishing spot treatment to soften even the driest skin.

Since I didn't have enough to use daily on my entire body, I used the shea butter daily primarily on two areas: my feet and elbows. I was instantly pleased with how rich and smooth it was. Trust, you don't need to use a ton of this stuff! It was a great addition to my nightly pedicure routine. After a little buffing with the pumice stone I massaged my feet with the shea butter before slipping on my fuzzy socks. Now they're nice and soft--sandal ready! On my elbows the shea butter helped smooth the spots that rub against the arm rests of my office chair. I also began applying it to a scar that is forming from a recent (and nasty) fall. I'm hoping it will help lighten that dark spot. Overall it worked great, did just what I expected it to do. One word of advice: if you're like me and tend to sweat in 20 degree weather, you may want to avoid using this on your face! In a rush one morning I forgot my moisturizer and thought "well this will do." Honey I looked like I washed my face in Crisco. No bueno. Otherwise, this gets a thumbs up from me.

 

Olive Oil and Shea Butter Wild Lemongrass Soap
From TGIN:

Our luxurious Olive Oil soaps have added organic Shea Butter. Our shea butter soaps are amazing and rich in olive oil, coconut oil and plant botanicals. They produce a rich  lather and will keep your skin soft and supple all winter long.  Contains no preservatives, animal products, petroleum products, parabens or lauryl sulfate.

I didn't really have high hopes for this particular product. After all, soap is soap is soap, right? Wrong! There is definitely a difference with this soap. As soon as I lathered up, I could feel it moisturizing my skin thanks to the natural oils infused into the soap. After the shower, my skin wasn't left feeling tight or dry like it normally does with regular soap. It made me think of the Dove soap commercials, where they show how it's supposed to moisturize your skin. Well I've tried Dove, and TGIN's soap has it beat, IMO.

I do have two minor complaints though. I hoped that this soap would work for my face so that I could possibly skip adding an additional moisturizer after washing. Instead, the soap ended up breaking my face out. Must have been the oils. No biggie; after a day of going back to my usual Clean & Clear my face was back to normal. The other thing was the scent. I think I'd rather have had an unscented bar than the lemongrass scent. If you've never smelled it, it is a crisp, earthy scent. Not bad, just not me. I will be ordering the White Tea & Hibiscus or Ginger Peach scent next time.

 

Shea Butter Lip Balm (Peppermint)
From TGIN:

100% natural lip balm, made with shea butter, coconut oil and olive oil.

The biggest issue that I have with lip balms is that most of them simply sit on top of the lips instead of actually moisturizing them. Fortunately I did not get that feeling with the TGIN lip balm. It wasn't heavy or greasy, which is always good. Would've been nice to get the little tingle that I was looking for, but it's only peppermint scented. It didn't do any miracles, but then again I didn't expect that.  Overall it's a solid product that I would use on a regular basis.

I really like TGIN's shea butter line. Whether you are a stickler for using 100% natural skin and hair care products, or if you just want products that work, I would recommend that you give TGIN a try.

11 One-Ingredient Face Masks

11 one-ingredient DIY face masks on Shine

A lot of naturalistas are no stranger to getting in the kitchen and whipping up something for their tresses. Well guess what? In your fridge and pantry there are goodies for your skin as well! Now if you're lazy (like me) you may not be crazy about experimenting with different recipes, finding what mixes well with what, etc. But the good news is that there are little items that we can use as face masks, no recipe needed! Some of these were no surprise to me: I've used honey before (great at fighting monster zits, BTW) and heard about using avocado and raw egg white. But some of these really shocked me! I think I'm going to put some to the test and see what really works.


So what do you say readers? Which of the face masks should I try first? Which, if any, will you be trying?

Product Review: Tropical Traditions Pure Virgin Coconut Oil

 

*Seeing as how this is my first product review, please be patient/understanding with me!*

A couple of weeks ago I received a jar of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. When I first opened it, I was a little confused. It was rock solid! LOL The next day, after sitting in my sauna-like house, it had softened up so I began my experimentation with the coconut oil!

Skin
Before I get into the review, let me explain something. Last winter I noticed that my skin had changed. For some reason (not sure if it was due to diet, medication or what) it had become extremely dry. Regardless of how much lotion I slathered on in the mornings, by lunch my legs and arms were not really soft & smooth. I'd read that coconut oil was beneficial for skin as well as hair, so I figured I'd try it. I began using it with the Vaseline intensive care that I usually use, and noticed that it actually lasted! So I started using just the coconut oil and I love it! I can tell a difference in my skin's overall appearance, even fresh out of the shower before I put it on. The biggest difference can be seen on my elbows. They weren't as smooth as I'd like since they're always rubbing against the rather rough arms of my office chair. After only about a week of consistently using the coconut oil they are so soft & smooth! I'm trying to find some way to incorporate the coconut oil in some kinda homemade foot scrub. (#random: I *heart* DIY pedicures, even more than going to get my feet done professionally.) All in all, I am extremely pleased with the results and I'm definitely gonna continue using virgin coconut oil as a part of my daily skin care regimen. 

Hair
I am not as pleased with the results of using coconut oil in my hair. I tried using the coconut oil and EVOO as a hot oil treatment and I followed the steps that I found online to the T. I was expecting super soft tresses after that; the results were less than stellar. Fortunately I've never really had a problem with really dry hair, so it's not like this was a major issue. But still, for all that time & effort, I felt like there should have been a noticeable difference. I may try this treatment again and either let it stay on my hair longer, not use a shampoo when I wash it out (or use one that's sulfate-free), or try mixing in other ingredients. I'll update with a part II on how that turns out, should I do so. In the meantime, I am using the coconut oil occasionally just to oil my scalp, especially around the edges. No big TA-DA or anything with that, but at least it gives my hair a nice lil shine when I do it.

Overall, I think I will continue using PVCO, but probably more so for my skin than my hair. Has anyone else used PVCO for their hair and seen positive results? If so, share your secret, por favor!