Dr Hauschka Skincare reviews, Beautyworks shopping and a...beauty haul!

As promised from a few posts ago, I'll be sharing with you my thoughts on a couple of skincare itemss that I purchased fairly recently, both from Dr. Hauschka.

If you're not familiar with this brand yet, let me just outline the basics for you: Dr. Hauschka is a German brand, that creates skincare products, which aim to nurture the skin and bring balance to specific skin conditions (or skintypes), while ensuring that their methods are environmentally friendly. What's striking to me, is that this brand actually grows plants to later use their ingredients in their products, meaning that their "holistic approach" claims are actually well-founded.

The products that I was mostly curious about lately were their body oils, and taking advantage of a recent "buy one, get one as a gift" promo from Beautyworks (a greek online store, details in a sec), I decided it was time to pick one.

I opted for the Dr Hauschka Almond St. John'swort Body Oil, one that's suited to dry and sensitive skin, like my own.

This is a "dry" body oil, that absorbs easily into the skin, leaving it silky and supple. You only need a few drops of this to cover a larger area, so don't go overboard. I enjoy that it leaves my skin moisturised for many hours, without any annoying greasiness. I also love that it really calms my skin down, now I don't suffer from eczema, but if my skin gets itchy or irritated for any reason, this product does sooth it instantly. What I could have done without, is the scent: while I initially liked the bitter almond part, everyone around me seemed to hate it for being too.."oily", and after repeated use, I can see where they're coming from.

The second product-slash-gift that came with my order was the Dr. Hauschka Cleansing Clay Mask. What that is, is basically a jar of clay in powder form. You prepare the mask yourself by mixing it with water to a creamy consistency. What you end up with, is actually...mud and once you've applied it, it looks like you fell flat on your face into a mud pile after the rain: same color, same scent. When you rinse it off though, you're left with soft, clean skin. The feeling is kind of hard to explain, it's unlike any other mask or cleanser I've ever tried. More like a cleansing treatment if that makes sense. It contains witch hazel and Indian cress, and claims to exfoliate the skin and reduce the appearance of blackheads and blemishes, but I can't say that I noticed any of that - the skin though does feel nurtured, clean and smooth afterwards.

All in all, I'm very pleased with both items and will be repurchasing. Well, the body oil, I'll try it in a different scent and the clay mask, while it's not a must-have item (more like a special pampering product), I enjoyed using it and would like to see if it benefits my skin some more over time.

Beautyworks online shopping experience

As pleased as I was though with my items, I cannot say the same for the store from which I purchased them. For starters, I asked if I could pick the gift product myself, an email which never got replied, either with a yes or a no. The product I was sent was completely their choice, but the annoying part is that they sent me an item they were trying to get rid of: the clay mask expires in August, as in 2 months after I placed the order!!!

Now, I'd like to believe that an online store that takes pride in being a niche product retailer, would actually know better than to leave emails unanswered and to just push leftover stock, but apparently that is wishful thinking.

They did however send a crapload of samples to make it up (for everything else?), which was generous, but not exactly the service I was looking for:

And to close this post on a different note, let me just share with you my small beauty haul. I'll be off for a few days on a beach vacation soon and I needed a couple of stuff:

1. Mascara, because I've run out of a black one,

2. Nail polish (Art Deco 225) - Ok, I didn't need that, but the shimmery metallic olive green with a hint of a blue duochrome looked too pretty to pass on, and

3. a shimmery oil, like the Hei Poa one, a little miracle in a bottle, that will double as a hair-end moisturiser and a leg skin enhancer on those nights out! ;)

I'm grateful to you if you've made it this far!

So, do let me know, have you tried Dr. Hauschka? Any bad online shopping experiences?

And what beauty items have you added to your collection?