Valentia Royal Rose Hydrating Serum

Valentia Royal Rose Hydrating Serum Review

Do you love roses? This serum is made of pressed rose petals. Literally. It has a strong scent of roses, but it’s 100% natural fragrance from all the rose petals that went into the serum.

I received a bottle of the serum in exchange for my Valentia Royal Rose Hydrating Serum review and I was so excited to share my honest opinion with you. Let’s take a look at the attributes.

-Cruelty Free, Alcohol Free, Paraben Free

-Contains great natural ingredients including Evening Primrose Oil, Lavender Extract, Aloe Vera, Rosehip Seed Oil, and Gotu Kola. All these ingredients are what sold me on trying this product. There are the usual preservative ingredients Ethylhexyl Glycerin and Phenoxyethanol, which aren’t natural but are used in many, many natural products. They score low on Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, which is why I’m okay with using products that contain them. To check your cosmetic ingredients for safety, I highly recommend bookmarking the site!

It’s moisturizing and nourishing to dry skin, but not at all oily. It goes on evenly and I look forward to using it again and again. Since it’s a serum, it’s meant to be used along with a moisturizer and eye cream. So it adds an extra step to your beauty routine, which is the only drawback for me. But since it’s like putting your face into a bunch of roses, it’s a fun extra step to add. When I use serums such as this one, it seems to help my moisturizer go on more smoothly and my skin feels more hydrated overall.

If you want to try it yourself, Valentia is offering Pink Paperdoll readers 20% off with exclusive code PPRDOL20, which is good through April 2016.

I’m always searching for new natural beauty products, and this month I found two natural facial cleansing products I want to share with you.

OZ Naturals Ocean Mineral Facial Cleanser with Rose Hip Oil and Vitamin E

I’ve found a new favorite skin cleansing product. I chose to review this product because it hit three of my most important criteria for skincare products:

-Cruelty Free

-Good ingredients

-Free of strong fragrances

It doesn’t leave my skin dry like some soapy cleansers do. It’s a clear, unscented gel that cleanses nicely. Perfect for sensitive skin. I also adore attractive packaging, and I love the color of the bottle. That’s always a nice bonus for a product.

Read more about it on Amazon. I received this product in exchange for an honest review.

Arcona Golden Grain Grommage

While I love my gel cleanser for everyday use, a few times a week I grab an exfoliating cleanser to get my skin soft. I was introduced to the Arcona Beauty line by Claudia of To Dream, To Love, to Live blog when I won her giveaway. She shipped me these products all the way from Australia (thanks girl!) so I could give them a try. The smallish-sized bottles are perfect for tossing in my travel bag. I’m especially loving this cleanser, which has a gentle texture perfect for occasional exfoliating cleansing.

So these are the two natural facial cleansing products I’ve been using this month. If you have any other brands you recommend, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Have a great rest of the month!

Natural Products at Target

I love that Target is getting more natural products. It makes shopping there much easier. From gluten free macaroni in the grocery section to a growing number of health and beauty brands, there are many products that weren’t available there just a few years ago. The downside is that it’s so easy to buy more than you expected to! I try to make a shopping list before I go into stores to keep me on track.

Derma e Firming DMAE Eye Lift Review

I want to let you know about my new favorite product in the Derma e line, now available at Target: This eye cream, which I received free for review. I love this stuff, so I’m happy it’s available at conveniently at local Target stores. So far, it keeps my skin hydrated during winter months. In the fall I reviewed a different Derma e product, and my only complaint was that it was heavily fragranced which can be overpowering for some people. I love that this one is fragrance free! It has a thick consistency but isn’t heavy or greasy. It’s easy to apply eye cream — just squeeze a tiny bit onto your pinky finger and gently dab around your eye. It only takes a little bit, which means the product lasts nicely.

How do you stay on track when shopping so you get what you need (and only what you need)?

This post is sponsored and all opinions are mine.

Ready for a cool new hair care line you’ve probably never heard of? Hask has a full line of hair care solutions, and they asked me to review their keratin protein set. Since keratin’s strengthening properties restore, moisturize and smooth hair, I was all in.

Special attributes: the line is free of sulfates, parabens, phthalates, gluten, drying alcohol and artificial colors. Great for color treated and heat damaged hair.

Note to those sensitive to fragrances: all of these products have strong scents.

Hask Keratin Hair Care Review

The photo above shows each product, which I’ll talk about individually below.

Keratin Protein Conditioner

This is a good smoothing conditioner for every day use. I think it works best when combined with the Keratin deep conditioner and/or Keratin shine treatment to give it an extra boost, but if your hair isn’t extra dry you could just use this conditioner alone and be totally fine.

Keratin Protein Smoothing Deep Conditioner

I love deep conditioners for extra dry hair. This one should be used on the ends of hair and left in for 10 minutes, so use it once a week or whenever you have a little extra time in the shower. It helped my dry hair feel a bit more manageable after a few uses.

Keratin Smoothing Shine Treatment

This is my favorite of the product set. It’s a tiny vial, but it only takes a little at a time to smooth and soften hair. This is perfect for using when hair is dry or tangly. When I used it the first time, I thought, “finally, a product to make my hair smooth and comb-able.” I was able to run my fingers through my hair without running into resistance from tangles, which I can’t usually do. If you were going to buy one item from this product line, I recommend this one.

I’d love to get hair care product recommendations from my readers! What products do you love?