Tag Archives: natural products

Real Honey Ointment

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Four ingredients:  Raw Honey, Coconut Oil, Beeswax and Olive Oil.  Sometimes it’s the simplicity within a product that is all your skin needs.  Developed and formulated by Dr. Atif M. Malik from my neighboring desert state of Arizona.  Dr. Malik, inspired by his patients and his passion for Chemistry, has developed a natural ointment that I would consider to be an important, medicinal staple for your medicine cabinet to help treat certain skin ailments.

I have 2 case studies of my own to share and the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

Day 1

Case Study One.

My son, Maximus, is always coming home with a new story to tell of his football practices, scrimmages and games.  While at one of his scrimmages he obtained a large piece of his skin rubbed off by a big tackle on the field.  I thought I would use Dr. Malik’s REAL Honey Ointment to treat his skin.

Day 1.

Maximus’ skin had already gone through the scabbing and oozing stage of the initial injury.  This is approximately the third week after he first acquired the open wound on his arm from tackling his opponent onto the ground.  As you can see, the skin has been traumatized and hypopigmentation as well as a little hyperpigmentation has formed were his skin tissue was torn from his arm.

Day 2

Day 2.

The skin has started to look a little more vibrant.  The pink tone that was in Maximus’ skin on Day 1 is almost diminished.  The hypopigmentation is starting to get pigment back into the skin.

Day 3

Day 3.

The skin keeps filling in with more pigment where the hypopigmentation is found.  The hyperpigmentation is slowly starting to fade, lessening excessive pigmentation on the skin.

 

Day 4

Day 4.

As each day passed, Maximus’ skin injury filled in two-thirds of pigment into his hypopigmentation.  The skin is ultra-moisturized allowing a safe barrier of oil to protect his skin from dryness.

Day 5

Day 5.

The skin by Day 5 has produced so much melanin production where the skin was traumatized by the injury which caused hypopigmentation.  The hyperpigmentation is starting to lessen, returning back to Maximus’ natural skin coloring.

Day 6

Day 6.

Within 6 days, Maximus’ injury had received three-fourths of his skin with pigmentation.  The skin looks like it is healing greatly from the terrible injury it had received a few weeks prior.  The skin does not irritate him because of the emollient the ointment has in it which helps to protect his skin from losing moisture.  Both the hypopigmentation and the hyperpigmentation are diminishing and it only took 6 days.

Day 30.

Current Day. Day 30.

Only one month later and Maximus’ injury looks almost completely healed.  Small spots on his arm with hypopigmentation linger with mild hyperpigmentation.  Looking at his arm from a distance and his injury looks unnoticeable.  The REAL Honey Ointment helped in the healing process of his skin which was traumatized by his football tackle.

Case Study Two.

This next case study was done on myself.  I saw the results that Maximus was receiving by using the ointment and chose to use it to treat irritated skin on my eyes.

*Disclaimer-This product is not recommended to use around the eyes or to be ingested.

Day 1

Day 1.

Look closely into the crease of my eyelids.  Both of my eyelids were suffering from acute dermatitis.  They were so irritated that even the skin had abrasions in the creases and caused mild pain on the lids.  I had treated them with an arnica gel and soothing eye cream and neither of those treatments were working.  A whole week had passed and my eyelids were not getting better, only worse.  That is when I chose to use the REAL Honey Ointment and applied it directly onto the irritated skin only.

Day 3

Day 3.

After only two nights of using the ointment on my eyes, not only did the pain go away but the acute dermatitis was gone.  My eyelids were completely healed from their irritation, the inflammation and the tiny abrasions.  With only two night treatments, I could not believe that the ointment was what finally healed them after multiple attempts from different, natural treatments.  It has been a month since I last treated my eyes with the ointment and have not received a reoccurrence of acute dermatitis on my eyelids.

As you can see from both case studies, the REAL Honey Ointment aided in treating both my son and myself.    Only a small amount of ointment was used during each application, leaving three-fourths of the ointment left in the 0.5 ounce container.  Dr. Atif M. Malik states that some of his clients have used his ointment for their dark spots and dermatitis and wonders if possibly it could be beneficial in treating stretch marks and scars.  I can definitely make the claim that it helped to treat hypopigmentation, hyperpigmentation, accelerated scarring healing and acute dermatitis.  This is truly a medicinal ointment that should be a staple must-have in the medicine cabinet.

REAL Honey Ointment by Dr. Atif M. Malik receives 5.o Stars.

APIVITA Bee Radiant

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APIVITA’s Bee Radiant line illuminates your skin with that natural “dewy” look without making your skin feel super oily and overloaded with products.  What I truly love about this line is that it extracts the core foundation of  APIVITA’s nomenclature by bringing it into existence with products.  Derived from the Latin words Apis (bee) and Vita (life) which translates into APIVITA, “life of the bee”, the Bee Radiant collection in all three of their products contains their patented propolis extract.

Propolis comes from APIVITA’s own Beehives.  Being beekeepers of their 200 beehives,  APIVITA control’s the elements in which the bees are exposed.  Changing their locations twice a year to accommodate the seasonal shifts of blossoms among herbs, trees and trees bearing fruit.  This allows the bees to “produce honey, pollen and royal jelly free of pesticides, antibiotics and chemical residues” (APIVITA Beekeeping).  By controlling the environment the bees are exposed to, APIVITA creates products without all the pollutants that can damage your skin.

Bee Radiant Age Defense Illuminating Serum with orange stem cells & Vitamin C helps to penetrate into the skin, defending it against harmful environmental stressors that age the skin.  The serum, a thin, milky substance, resembling the texture, consistency and color of the inside of a milk thistle stem, glides on smoothly into the skin.  A strong, masculine aroma mixes well with the vitamin  C blends of bergamot, green tangerine, grapefruit and the orange stem cells that made my skin smell fresh as the products absorbed into my skin.  As soon as it touched the skin, it illuminated it, rid any dull, lackluster, tired looking skin from my face.  Designed to treat fine lines and combat external elements that prematurely age the skin, I knew my skin was in good hands.  It left my skin feeling moisturized and hydrated from the wild rose tea that is infused within it.

BEE RADIANT Age Defense Illuminating Serum receives 5.0 Stars!APIVITA 5-Action Eye Serum was tricky at first for me to use.  The serum was extremely thin the first few times that I pumped it out to use around my eyes.  I tried to catch the serum as it drizzled off of my pinky and placed it around the orbitals of my eyes.  My eyes didn’t look so tired and quickly awoke as I continued rubbing in the serum.  It didn’t take long for my eyes to soak in the serum.

APIVITA calls the eye serum 5-action because it delivers 5 actions to the skin:  1.)  Firmness 2.) Smoothed Wrinkles 3.)  Hydration  4.)  Signs of Fatigue and 5.)  Dark Circles.  The tackiness within the serum creates both the firmness around the eye and the adds the hydration to the eyes that they need.  The smoothness around the eyes is created by the copper complex ingredient that helps against aging the skin and helps to treat fine lines.  The tiredness and dark circles are treated by the white lily and ginseng that help to produce the illuminating look around the eyes.

I found by my third time I used the serum, to shake the bottle first.  After I shook the bottle, the ingredients blended together and when I pumped out the serum, it came out in a more thick, creamy substance which was ideal to apply around my eyes.

5-Action Eye Serum receives 4.0 Stars.

I really liked the ingredient components that made Bee Radiant Age Defense Illuminating Cream with Orange Stem Cells (Light Texture).  Made with the same ingredients as the Bee Radiant Age Defense Illuminating Serum with orange stem cells & vitamin C, the Illuminating Cream delivers the same age-defying properties that help to fight against environmental pollutants and premature aging and comes in both light texture for oily skin and rich texture for dry skin.

Milky in color, texture similar to pudding, the Bee Radiant Cream felt nice in my fingertips but once when I started applying it into my skin, the cream became harder to rub in.  I had to continue rubbing the cream, over and over into the skin, waiting for the heat from application to warm up the product to melt into my skin.  I used a smaller amount the second and third time for applying it and had the same result every time.  Although when it was once applied, my skin was radiant, illuminated in the mirror and felt like a matte texture on my fingers but looked dewy and glowed beautifully.

I love creams placed in jars because they look like the classic, retro “cold cream” the fashionable, glamour cream. APIVITA shines in elegance as always when it comes to packaging.  The only thing that was missing from this packaging was a reusable applicator.  I had an applicator that I used when I retrieved the product from the jar.  This keeps the product free from cross-contamination of using fingers.

Other than the hard application of the cream into the skin and a reusable applicator for sanitation purposes, this product stays true to its name and illuminated my skin with age defensive properties.

*Skincare tip: A little bit goes a long ways.  More bang for your buck!

BEE RADIANT Age Defense Illuminating Cream with Orange Stem Cells Light Texture

Receives 3.o Stars

The BEE RADIANT line is a great anti-aging line and the skin receives the best results by using all 3 products together.

 

Apivita Does It Again- 3 Wonderful Products for the Skin

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apivita_splash_logoAPIVITA is one of my favorite top 10 skincare lines.  I have yet to be disappointed by one of their products.  Originated by two Greek pharmacists, Nikos and Niki Koutsiana, in 1979, “APIVITA has developed and established over 300 natural, effective and holistic products for the face, body and hair, formulated with beekeeping products of high nutritional value, extracts of Greek herbs and pure essential oils, as well as many green innovations and patents.” (Direct content from APIVITA’s website)

honey-beesAPIVITA’s name was derived from the Latin word’s of Apis (bee) and Vita (life) which means, “life of the bee”.  The Koutsiana’s actually started the developing stages of APIVITA in 1972, inspired by the Honey bee society.  Honey bees are extremely important to economic growth in our society.  They are vital pollinators and work hard at making sure to keep fruits, nuts and vegetables in our diets.  (Read more on the importance of Honey Bee’s attribution to our economy here)  APIVITA is one of the leading “Green Cosmetolgy” skincare companies in the world.  They have their own beekeeping farms in Greece and practice ethical standards in making sure that they only take, “40% of the beehive’s production, leaving 60% of the honey on the honeycombs.”  They also protect their beehives by only intervening “with the use of essential oils and natural extracts.” (APIVITA’s Beekeeping Standards)

bee-propolis-250x250Honey is not the only derivative Honey bee’s produce, they also create Propolis.  Propolis is the resin made by the sap collected from the Honey bees combined with the their own discharge and beeswax.  This mixture of the sap and the Honey bee’s dishcharge, spawn a sticky -colored (color varies on the tree coloring where the sap is collected) product, called Propolis,  that is used as a coating to build hives.

Propolis is antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and a rich antioxidant for the skin.  APIVITA’s products are carefully developed with their own cultured Propolis.  Specifically created with Hippocrates philosophy of a “healthy mind in a healthy body”, APIVITA has based their formulations with the Greek philosopher’s ideals about the “NEED for HARMONY between the INDIVIDUAL, SOCIAL and NATURAL ENVIRONMENT” (The Hippocratic Ideal).

Three of their products that I will be reviewing today are all made with their home-grown Propolis.  They are:   Natural Serum-Radiance, Aqua Vita-24 Hour Moisturizing Cream Gel For Oily/Combintation Skin and Aqua Vita-24 Hour Moisturizing & Revitalizing Eye Cream.

apivita-natural-serum-radiance-enNatural Serum- Radiance with bilberry & vitamin C.

 This serum has 96% Natural Ingredients in it, which is an extremely high percentage for a skincare product that is both effective and of good quality.  Bilberry is a a berry that grows on low shrubs, relative to other shrub-growing berries, it is similar in color and shape to a blueberry.  The bilberry is fortified with vitamins B, C, and E which are restorative, healing and nourishing agents for the skin.  Reservatrol, discovered to contain one of the best known anti-aging properties for the skin, is also found in bilberries.

This serum when I first saw it, threw me off guard.  It looks like the froth of a heavy cream and for a serum, I’m used to seeing more transparency but then I rubbed it in the palms of my hands and it was so smooth and delightfully scented with a uplifting citrus scent, that I quickly got over my prejudice of what I believed a serum should look like.  When I applied it on my skin, it was effortless, the serum melted into the pores, creating a nice vibrant appeal.  APIVITA named it as “RADIANCE” but it is not the typical radiance that I would envision with that term.  The radiance is subtle, underlying, and lifts the skin tone to a healthy appearance.  There is no “glow” with this serum, there is “life” with this serum, providing great nutrition for the skin.

The only downside to this product is its packaging.  The tiny, jade-coloring glass jar is absolutely beautiful.  I love the container with the droplet lid, I just don’t love that the droplet is impractical.  I had to continuously dip the droplet in the serum, only to receive a smidgen of it on my hand.  It became somewhat of a nuisance after awhile.  I just ended up turning the jar upside down and allowing the serum to fall into the palm of my hand, which seemed to work better.

APIVITA’s Natural Serum Radiance receives 4.o Stars only because of the packaging.

4stars

aquavitaeyecreamApivitaAqua Vita-24 Hour Moisturizing & Revitalizing Eye Cream with chaste tree & ruscus.  This eye cream has 95% of natural ingredients in it, yet again, another high percentage of nature for your skin.  Chaste tree is indigenous to the Mediterranean and is great for hormonal balance.  When used topically on the skin, the Chaste tree’s extracts help to   moisturize, soothe and firm areas where it is applied.

Fun Fact:  The Chaste tree’s stems and leaves used to be eaten as an anaphrodisiac to help suppress “lustful yearnings”.  Also known as “Monk’s Pepper”, it was used as an anti-libido medicine for Monks to aid their attempts to remain chaste (Uses and benefits of the Chaste Tree).

Ruscus is one of my favorite ingredients for microcirculation.  It helps to treat blood circulation within the body, as well as swelling and water retention, which is great for puffy eyes.  This product feels similar to the Natural Serum Radiance, just a little thicker.  I can smell the earthy scent of the Chaste tree when I waft it under my nose, otherwise, the scent is very mild.  When I apply it to my eyes, I feel the Ruscus in cool effect, literally.  Ruscus naturally has cooling properties which help with its microcirculation.  Not only is this eye cream great to treat puffy eyes, it is also good for tired eyes that need a little rejuvenation.

APIVITA’s Aqua Vita 24 Hour Moisturizing & Revitalizing Eye Cream receives 5.o Stars.

5stars1

apivitaaquamoistruzer

 

Aqua Vita 24 Hour Moistruzing Cream-Gel for Oily/Combination Skin with Chaste Tree and Propolis.  This product smells like a cross between the citrus scents of the serum and the earthy aroma of the eye cream.  Very well crafted, I would recommend this product to anyone who has excessive oily skin, even mild oily skin that someone wants to keep regulated.  The gel part of the moisturizing cream shines in this product.  I apply oil to my skin daily and sometime’s I look like a sweaty, greasy catastophe but not with this moisturizer I don’t.  It doesn’t create a mattifying look on my skin like other products do for oily skin and that is what I truly like about this product.  I want to keep the glow on my skin and look healthy and vibrant and this product delivers that.

APIVITA’s Aqua Vita 24 Hour Moisturizing Cream-Gel for Oily/Combination Skin receives 5+ Stars.

5stars1

 

Use all three of APIVITA’s products together for best results.  After cleansing the skin, apply the Natural Serum Radiance on the skin first, then the Aqua Vita Eye Cream followed by the Aqua Vita Moisturizing Cream-Gel.

Dry Skin Lotion and Wash

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natralia_dry_skin_lotion_250ml_765fl-3_rgbI have to admit, the Dry Skin Lotion product by Natralia was one that had to grow on me.  I was not thrilled with it when I first used it, nor the second or third time.  I’m so used to using products for dry skin that have a more thick consistency and oil content, this product had neither and it kept throwing me off my logical reasoning.

I was persistent on retrying this product that once when my reasoning became altered, I grew to like the lotion.  Being that I live in Las Vegas, a desert, having dry skin is normal.  Natralia claims that the Dry Skin Lotion has a 24 hour Moisture Lock and increases the skin’s hydration by %50 and I can verify the validity of their claim.  My skin stayed moisturized during a 24 hour period, even when I was working out, the sweat beaded on top of my skin and rolled off, not drying my skin out from loss of water.

The great quality that I did really like about this product, was the fact that there is no oily residue left on the skin.  NO OILY RESIDUE left on the skin!  That is unheard of for a lotion specifically treating dry skin.  My skin felt soft and pliable; however, there was no “glow” on the skin that I’m used to when I apply lotions and creams.

The Dry Skin Lotion has no sulfates, no parabens, no artificial colors or fragrances.  This is truly a natural product, designed with the only intention of providing healthy ingredients to the skin that perfectly execute the creation.  This product is great for all skin types and I would highly recommend it for people with sensitive skin and for children.

I did not like this for my face and prefer it for the use on my body.  For those who like simplistic, natural skincare regimens, this is your product.  For those like me, who have a more active ingredient skin regimen, bypass this product for your face and use it for your body care.

Natralia’s Dry Skin Lotion recieves 4.o Stars.4stars

natralia_dry_skin_wash_250ml_758fl-3_rgbUse Natralia’s Dry Skin Wash prior to applying the lotion for better results because the wash sets the skin for a greater moisture lock retention.  The Dry Skin Wash, just like the Dry Skin Lotion, is natural based and does not contain sulphates, parabens, artificial colors or fragrances.

This is a gel cleanser and is fascinating because it is SOAP FREE but still foams up when combined with water.  The wash does not strip the skin from its natural oils, yet you still feel like your skin is receiving a thorough cleanse.