January Love Lula Picks

These are the Love Lula products that I picked to review in January.

GIOVANNI 2 CHIC BIG BODY HAIRSPRAY

I've wanted to try a natural hairspray for a while (well, when I say natural, I mean more natural as I think hairspray by it's very nature has to have various chemicals in it) so I was excited to see this back in stock on Love Lula. Giovanni are a Leaping Bunny approved company whose products I have tried before and been impressed with.
This isn't a gas-propelled product, rather just a squirter. It smells nice for a hairspray and goes on well, leaving the hair with hold, but not rock hard and immovable. I love it and would definitely buy it again.

Ingredients: SD Alcohol 40-B, Aqua (Purified Water), Acrylates/Hydroxyesters, Acrylates Copolymer, Aminomethyl Propanol, *Carica Papaya (Papaya) Fruit Extract, *Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Fruit Extract, *Panax Ginseng Root Extract, *Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, *Vanilla Plantifolia Fruit Extract, Saccharum Officinarum (Sugar Cane) Extract, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Peel Oil, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Fragrance. *USDA Certified Organic.

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NATIVE UNEARTHED SAGE AND LAVENDER DEODORANT

Native Unearthed do three 'flavours' of deodorant and I've tried them all now. I'm a huge fan. They're just so effective, I can't believe it. The ingredients are minimal and skin-friendly.
This one is a white paste in a very generous pot. A spatula is provided to pick up a bit, melt it between your fingers and rub it on. It's quite soft, so melts nicely. The texture is a little bit gritty, although not as gritty as the coconut and vanilla. If for example, you've just shaved, a light touch is needed to apply or the grittiness can hurt a little bit. The scent is lovely and this variation is just as good as the other two that the company make.

I've loved using this. If I was going to pick my favourite out of the three, I'd say the activated charcoal as it is so velvety-smooth to apply. But this one is my favourite scent.

Ingredients: Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Arrowroot, Bicarbonate of Soda, Lavender Essential Oil, Clary Sage Essential Oil.

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ERE PEREZ TRANSLUCENT CORN PERFECTING POWDER

This powder is marketed as a shine controller. I always use powder over my foundation, as I am prone to shine throughout the day and I've used a huge amount of different brands in my time. This ranks up there with the best.

It's presented in a white, minimal compact. My heart sank a little when I saw the colour of it, as I do have trouble finding a pale enough powder (the rise of white powders have been a revelation for me) but to my surprise, when I put it on, it really was translucent and I didn't look orange. I couldn't even photograph a swatch as it blended in so well with my skin tone. It gives good coverage, although the supplied puff is a bit of a flimsy waste of space, so it's better applied with a brush, and it really helps with shine. I've been impressed with how my make-up has looked after applying this finishing touch and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone (as a translucent powder, I am guessing all skin tones can use it) regardless of their skin type. It's pricey at £26 and it's not a deep pan, so it's debatable how long it will last, but it's a lovely natural alternative to other powders. I've heard such good things about Ere Perez that I can't wait to try other products from the brand.

Ingredients: Native corn (zea mays) starch, native rice (oryza sativa) starch, zinc stearate, caprylic /capric triglyceride, triheptanoin, potassium sorbate, May contain: +/- iron oxides, CI77891.

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SURYA BRASIL HENNA CREAM IN RED

I can shamefully say I have never used a natural colourant or henna before, although my dye choices are always cruelty-free, usually the Superdrug brand. One of the reasons for this is I like my colours vibrant. I don't do subtle, so over the years, I've had my hair black, bright red and pink. One of my favourite colourants is La Riche by Directions, although this needs to be applied to bleached hair.
For the last month or so, I've been giving my hair a rest and letting my semi-permanent colour grow out in preparation for a change. My hair was light brown before I use this, so I expected a good result.

The product is a cream and so easy to apply, with no dripping as it's so thick and a cap to wear for the development time (an hour). What was a revelation to me while using this was how lovely the formula smelled. It was so nice not to get a whiff of noxious chemicals while I was applying it (although I only use semis these days, so they're not as harsh as the permanents). It's not a huge bottle, so you'd struggle if you had long hair but I had some left over as I have short hair.
There were no problems during the development time and I was also surprised when I washed it out that my bath didn't look like a murder scene and I didn't have to scrub it afterwards. 
I was however, disappointed with the result. It was a reddish-brown and while it looked so natural that people didn't notice I'd coloured my hair, I was hoping for more vibrancy. This was my own expectancy though as I've been used to having stand-out colours in the past. So what I can say is that if you want a natural look, your greys covered and a no-fuss, sweet-smelling experience, then this for you. If you want to look unnatural like me and breathe in chemicals 😋 then henna won't cut the mustard for you.

Also, what's the deal with the packaging? The photo on the box looks like it comes from the Kama Sutra 😄

Unfortunately, the brand seems to be out of stock at LL, so the link below is to Surya's UK website. They also do a range of skin and hair care for both men and women.

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In summary, some fabulous choices this month that I thoroughly enjoyed using.