The products: True Organic of Sweden All You Need is Me, Lilly & Lola Hydrate Your Skin with Coconut Oil
One of the things that I’ve been hearing a lot from other beauty bloggers recently is that nothing seems to be new anymore. Brands latch onto a popular, trendy product, and they all just sort of churn out replicas of it — look at something as simple as gel liner, for instance (created by Bobbi Brown herself), or even those great little cushion-type compacts.
These launches from True and Lilly & Lola are different from the rest of the bunch. Sure, they’re not literally one of a kind, but they’re products that most non-beauty fiends probably haven’t even heard of — and in this day and age, that’s a feat in & of itself!
All You Need Is Me ($35 USD/$42 CAD)
True Organic of Sweden is a cool, cruelty-free company based out of Stockholm that uses all natural and organic ingredients. They make all of their products in Sweden, and I gotta say — I am LOVING their font choices.
All You Need Is Me is one of those all-natural “everything” balms, but it’s less wax-in-a-pot and more petroleum-free-petroleum-jelly. Its matte tube is actually made from sugarcane, NOT plastic, and it contains only castor oil, beeswax, olive oil, shea butter, vitamin E, and blueberry seed oil.
(Yeah. When was the last time you saw an ingredients list so simple that it could comfortably fit into the body text of a review?)
It’s a great substitute for petroleum jelly, but a word to the wise: this cruelty-free, fragrance-free balm has only a six month shelf life. My tube has already started to “grain up” and separate out, which is a bit of a bummer seeing as it comes only half full to begin with!
Heartbreak at first squish
Lilly & Lola ($25.99 CAD)
Speaking of short ingredients lists: have you heard of Lilly & Lola? They’re a skincare brand that recently got picked up by The Detox Market (my faves!), and they make ALL of their products only out of coconut oil.
I didn’t really see why a bottle of fractionated coconut oil should cost $25 at first, but then I did a little bit of reading. The thing about natural ingredients is that the quality of your ingredient is going to depend on the plant, its freshness, and the type of extraction being used; turns out, it’s the same for coconut oil. When factories further process virgin coconut oil (solid at room temperature) to produce a coconut oil liquid, the final product can vary quite a lot!
Lilly & Lolo, for instance, makes three products right now from different blends of fractionated coconut oil. This one is described on their site as a “coconut oil barrier” with a lightweight texture and a quick, 2-3 minute absorption time, but the brand’s Renew Your Face and Renew Your Hair oil treatments (which also contain 100% coconut oil) have a heavier texture and will sink into your hair and face over the course of the night.
I personally don’t like the feeling of coconut oil on my skin (it feels too “dry” for me), so I wasn’t big on this one. It leaves my skin feeling very silky, though, so check it out if you want a scent-free coconut oil moisturizer that sprays on and stays liquid at room temp!
(Note: pictured here is Lilly & Lola’s 25ml bottle. The one available at The Detox Market TO is double the size!)
