Spring is just around the corner and our team can’t be more excited about the warmer weather, longer days and the revival of nature. Just take a stroll through a local park and, no doubt, you’ll see budding trees and early spring flowers pushing through the thawed ground. While we love nature and the beauty of blooming flowers and trees, as beauty experts, we can’t resist thinking about plants as vital sources of nutrients for our skin – especially, after long winter months.
With nature renewing itself, our skin also needs a boost after harsh winds, cold temperatures and dryness it was subjected to. Luckily, we’ve come across CROP – an Australian-made skincare and makeup line (Australia – talk about the power of nature in this country!) that prides itself on naturally derived ingredients and plant-based products that deliver the healing power of herbs to our parched skin.
To get the most of our CROP products, we put together a routine to cleanse, purify, soothe and hydrate our skin for a natural, youthful glow.
First, we used CROP Gentle Cleaning Gel after a long, busy day to wash away all of the makeup, dirt, and pollutants. The bottle comes with a pump for easy product delivery. We dispensed a teaspoon amount of product into our palms, worked into a lather and massaged it into the face. Like its name suggests, the cleanser is very gentle. Also, it has a great, citrusy smell that made us want to use it all the time! After washing it off, our skin felt not only clean but hydrated as well. Unlike products with harsh chemicals, Gentle Cleansing Gel, that contains 95% naturally derived ingredients, didn’t leave our faces feeling tight and stripped off the natural oils. The skin was baby soft, plump and had a natural glow – exactly what we wanted! CROP Gentle Cleansing Gel is infused with a blend of essential oils and enriched with jojoba, Vitamin E, Cocoa Butter, Rosehip Oil, Aloe Vera, Rice and Wheat Protein and Lavender Oil – a perfect combination of botanicals to keep the skin look refreshed and healthy.
Then, we followed with Sensitive Micellar Water to clean the skin even deeper (yes, double cleansing is a big thing – your skin will thank you later!). The product has no smell and we didn’t have to wash it off as it left no residue on the skin. If you’re not a big fan of double cleansing, you can use micellar water on its own before going to bed to cleanse the skin or remove makeup. Its gentle formula works for eyes, lips and face, and its good for everyday use.
For our next step, we decided to use Purifying Facial Mud Mask. If you’re following beauty trends as much as we are, you’ve sure noticed the evolution of facial masks over the past few years. While many types of masks have gone in and out of trend, clay/mud masks have always been top of mind for beauty aficionados! Clay’s ability to remove impurities is second to none and we were excited to try CROP Purifying Facial Mud Mask – not only it contains Kaolin, but it’s enriched with 11 essential oils, Macadamia, Calendula and Kakadu Plum to nourish and moisturize the skin. The ingredients made us excited and we couldn’t wait to actually apply to a product to our faces. The results exceeded all expectations – this mask ritual reminded us of a high-quality spa experience! The mask had a pleasant, mild herbal scent and we loved its texture – the product was very easily to apply evenly across the face. It took about 10-15 minutes for the mask to dry – since we did it right before bedtime, we just flipped through our favorite magazines to allow it to set – and then we washed it off. The skin felt really soft to touch, relaxed and plump (and not dried out at all!), like we have just got back from a spa treatment. No matter how tempted we were to use it every day, it’s still a clay mask, which is recommended for use 2-3 times a week. We can’t wait to repeat this mask ritual again as our skin was incredibly happy!
To complement our skincare regimen, we moved on to CROP Nourishing Hydrating Night Cream. By then, our skin was perfectly cleansed and ready for a boost of moisture before falling asleep. The cream, which comes in a dark glass jar, contains Evening Primrose Oil to soothe the skin and Sodium Hyaluronate for ultimate hydration. We loved its natural smell and how light it was! Also, just a little bit of product goes a long way. We were pleasantly surprised by how fast it was absorbed – by the time we were ready to go to bed, our skin was ready too!
Not to forget about our lips – after months of cold, dryness and strong winds they need some TLC, too – we tried CROP Paw Paw + Manuka Honey Ultimate Recovery Lip Balm. This product (that comes in a very generous tube so you don’t have to restock on a lip balm every few weeks!) takes care of chapped, dry or sunburnt lips. Added bonus – you can also use it on skin! We tried it on the dry skin of our elbows and it was a magical transformation, as our elbows haven’t felt that soft and pampered in a long time. The lip balm is enriched with manuka honey that is a powerful natural ingredient that helps restore skin moisture and deeply nourish parched skin.
When we woke up in the morning, we loved how rejuvenated out skin looked and felt – really soft to touch, well-hydrated, supple and with a healthy, youthful-looking glow. While we liked the appearance of our skin, we also know that we did ourselves a favor by using products with naturally derived ingredients. It’s good for our skin and good for the planet!
In addition to a broad range of skincare products, CROP has a makeup collection that we couldn’t resist exploring. We tried its Natural Face Primer – not only it felt good on our skin and had a fresh herbal scent, it turned out to be very powerful, making our foundation last all day long (and it helped fill the small wrinkles, too!). If you would like your makeup look like you just visited celebrity makeup artist use CROP primer before applying makeup and check out a contouring tutorial from our friends at CHICSTUDIOS here!
In addition, CROP doesn’t test on animals and they stay away from parabens, phthalates, and sulfates in their product offerings. For all of the lovers of everything organic, most of the CROP products contain certified organic ingredients and passed dermatological testing to ensure safety and high quality.
We really enjoyed our experience with CROP products and we can’t wait to continue pampering our skin with their help, prepping it up for beautiful spring days!
