Made from Earth (The review)

I’ve been a slacker.

I admit it.

I have a few product reviews I’ve put on the back burner when life took an unexepected (but expected) turn. I’m on vacation right now (Holy mother of all that is pure Florida is hot in June) and with that comes extra time to catch up on the much needed posts about the kindness of companies that send me stuff to try and give my honest opinion.

You know I love honest opinions right?

I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it; it takes a lot of balls for them (the company) to send random people samples in hopes that they (the consumer) like the product(s) enough to write nice things about them. When you send me something I will be honest and sometimes that honesty isn’t what you want to hear…

This is not one of those times.

(Had you for a second didn’t I)

This particular review is going to get a little more in depth than the Eurcerin review just because you can’t walk into your local grocery store and pick up a MFE product and read the back of the label or try a little from the over used (often dirty) sample bottle left out on the counter.

One of the first things that struck me as awesome about this particular company is that the email Stergios Bekas (who is the Director of Marketing) sent included a comment on a blog post he had read. He actually took the time to read something about who I was and didn’t just do a fly by the seat of your pants massive blog generated list of people to contact (or if he did, he covered his ass really well – nice job Stergios!).

Another thing that struck me as awesome about this company is that they are an organic and chemical free skincare line. Now if you’ve been paying attention (you have been paying attention right???), you will know that I have extremely sensitive facial skin and very few products ever make it past the first try when it comes to coming in contact with my noggin.

Here’s what the company website says about their ingredients:

We only select the highest potency organic ingredients for our healthy products.  All our ingredients / plants are from certified organic farms.  There are no potentially toxic ingredients in our products. There is no diluting or watering down of our potent organic plant ingredients.  There is no synthetic coloring agents or fragrances, or paraffin and other petroleum products are permitted.  Preservatives from synthetic sources are not permitted, such as Parabens (propyl, methyl and ethyl).  Lastly, all manufacturers must provide a certificate of organic certification from the USDA concerning their processes and ingredients. We are 100% farmed and sourced in the USA. Our unique organic ingredients product development teams have put together the purest and most potent organic ingredients, which include organic juices, aloe vera, honey, natural botanicals, and natural plant oils.

(kick ass!)

Here’s what Stergios sent:

 

It’s a little difficult to see the bottle here but this is the “Green Tea Toxin Cleanser”. Another thing I love about this particular company is each product has its own web page with a detailed description of the product, directions, information about the ingredients themselves (what makes this product awesome) and finally a full list of what’s in the bottle! LOVE THAT! Just to give you a little bit of an idea of what kind of cool stuff is in their products, here’s a the list of what’s in this little bottle of goodness:

Organic Aloe Vera, Organic Green Tea, Milk, Organic Lavender Distillate, Organic Roman Chamomile Distillate, Rose Distillate, Grapeseed Oil, Witch Hazel, Vitamin E, Polysaccharide Gum, Organic Honey, Vitamin C Ester, Pro-Vitamin B5, Vitamin A (Retinol Palmitate), Black Willowbark Extract, Neem Oil, EDTA, Rosemary, Citric Acid.

This stuff rocked my socks.

That’s saying something people. It didn’t sting. It didn’t turn my face red and blotchy. It smelled good. And if it did in fact get my face clean, then that’s an extra added bonus in my book. It didn’t take much to use either so while the $15.99 cost might have some sticker shock to the regular joe “I want to buy something environmentally good for the world and good for my body” consumer, this seems like it would go a long way…

This little bottle is the “Rosehip + Hibiscus Organic Face Serum”. Now to know me is to know that I have no idea what anything means when it comes to skin care. Remember I’m just learning about the idea that body lotion is for the body and facial lotion is for the face. Color me late to the party but when I first looked at this bottle I had no idea what a serum is.

So I looked it up:

A face serum is a clear, thick, liquid beauty product applied to the face and neck area. Face serums come in many different varieties and are often meant to target a specific problem. They can be used to help fight the signs of aging such as lines, wrinkles, and dark spots. They can also be used to help prevent acne and brighten the skin. Depending on its specific purpose, a serum can contain a wide variety of ingredients, including vitamin C, amino acids, mushrooms, glycerin, cucumber, and aloe.

People are often confused about the differences between a moisturizer and a face serum, and may be unsure if they should use one or both products. Due to their large molecules, moisturizers can only penetrate the first layer of the skin, allowing them to hydrate and seal in moisture. A face serum is able to penetrate into all three layers of the skin because it is made of smaller molecules. The serums ability to go deeper into the skin is what allows it to help combat many common beauty complaints.

(end of skin care lesson 101)

I loved this product too! That’s two for two if your keeping score. Again no redness, no blotchiness, no itching, no drying of my skin. Did it make my skin tighter? I don’t know. Do I know exactly what’s suppose to happen over time in using this product? No. I’m not an expert here people. If it wasn’t for particular people in my life with some knowledge of this kind of thing I wouldn’t look at this stuff twice but now that I’ve tried it, I will use the product to the end to see exactly what (if anything) it does to my skin. It comes with a $24.99 sticker and since I’m clueless about fancy serum products, I don’t know if this is a sticker shock or not (insert your opinion here).

I feel so grown up using a serum.

Another thing you should know about me (and put this on your list of things to buy me for birthdays, christmas and/or any other major gift giving holiday) is that I love lip balm. When I say love it, I mean mildly obsessed with it. I have a gazillion (okay maybe 10) different lip balms usually within reach so you can just imagine the squeal of delight (and if you tell anyone I squeal I will deny it) when these two bad boys rolled out of the mailing envelope and into my hot little hands.

Directions for use (from the website):

Apply to lips as needed.

It should come with personalized instructions like; “Tara, don’t eat it even though they smell delicious and you can’t stop licking your lips like your L.L. Cool J”. Of the two (Citrus and Vanilla) I preferred the citrus and at a 3.99 price tag you better believe there will be more coming my way as soon as I run out…

So there you have it folks. Four products (or three is you count two flavors as one product) and my honest opinion: I loved them.

Thanks Stergios for taking the time to read my blog and then asking me to try your products. I like what Made From Earth has to offer and since you didn’t make my face all red and blotchy you get a A+ in my book!