Review: Sukin Organics Purifying Shampoo

I bought Sukin Organics Purifying Shampoo sometime last year because I wanted to try a Sodium Lauryl Sulfate(SLS) free shampoo for my sensitive scalp. Sukin Organics is an Australian organic skincare brand. Finally finished it so here's my review for it.

The Sukin Organics Purifying Shampoo is a pure gentle daily shampoo to cleanse nourish and soften any type of hair. It containsa delicate infusion of organic aloe vera, nettle, horsetail and burdock. It is perfect for sensitive scalps since the shampoo has no SLS, no artificial fragrances, no animal derivatives, no harsh detergents, no petro-chemicals, no artificial colours, no triethanolamine, no mineral oils and no parabens. (what a mouthful)

Ingredients list: Purified Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe Vera) Extract, Decyl Glucoside, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, PEG-150 Pentaerythrityl Tetrastearate, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Oil, Citrus Nobilis (Mandarin) Oil, Urtica Dioica (Nettle) Extract, Arctium Lappa (Burdock) Extract, Equisetum Arvense (Horsetail) Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Vanilla Planifollia (Vanilla) Extract, Citric Acid.

When poured, it is just this yellowish liquidy form that's not thick at all. You can tell it's going to be a lightweight shampoo with no chemicals in it. It has a pleasant smell but there's this citrusy tangerine/mandarin orange smell that really stood out (I wasn't a fan of it at first) so if you are not a fan of tangerine/mandarin orange, you might want to skip it.

The shampoo is really hard to lather since it lacks all the SLS. You just have to wash it as per normal and try to let it not bother you. It takes time trying to get used to a foamless shampoo since people just assume that if it lathers well, it cleans better. I still have mixed thoughts about it after using it all this while. As a shampoo for sensitive scalps, it does a good job. It does not irritate my scalp at all. My hair felt soft and nice after washing. As a shampoo for oily scalp (which I do have), I feel it doesn't cleanse well enough. I do use hair products (hair wax, sprays etc) and if I use only this Sukin shampoo to wash my scalp and hair, I feel that the spray/wax and dandruff don't really come off as easily.

Another thing I dislike about is how the hair turned out. The hair does feel very soft and light on good hair days. But on bad hair days, it turned limp (so soft it fell flat). I couldn't figure out this bit but maybe this is the hair-softening effect it was to give which apparently I never took notice. As I didn't buy the Sukin Nourishing Conditioner to use with it, I can't really tell whether it would have turned out better if I did use the conditioner. But based on reviews I've read, the conditioner seems to be better than the shampoo and helps to condition the hair well.

Overall, Sukin Organics Purifying Shampoo does work better as a gentle shampoo which you would want to use daily, but probably not so if you want to use it after a long day to remove grime and dirt from the hair. I think it's a decent shampoo to pair with a strong anti-dandruff shampoo (assuming you have oily scalp) and you can then alternate between the two since the anti-dandruff shampoo does overstrip oil from the hair and scalp and this doesn't.

I'm still undecided whether I liked this or not. I might give it another go since I've having a bad time with my sensitive scalp after switching up to another shampoo. I probably get this again, this time with the conditioner.

The shampoo comes in 250ml/500ml/1 litre bottles. Retails at Watsons Singapore for SGD $12+(250ml), SGD $19+(500ml), SGD $29+(1 litre).

Review: Essence of Beauty Deluxe Duo Set

Doing a review for Essence of Beauty Deluxe Duo Set.

I bought this brush set earlier from a local blogshop because I really wanted another concealer brush. Not going to mention the name of the blogshop because wasn't too pleased about their service.

Photos Obtained from Google Images

The Essence of Beauty Deluxe Duo Brush Set contains 3 duo-sided brushes. It comes with a travel-size ziplock bag.

From top to bottom: Blending and Eye Shadow Brush, Blush and Powder Brush,
Foundation and Conceal Brush

The brushes are rather soft and nice. First impression was that I really liked the Foundation and Concealer Brush because it was the most well made out of all. The others just don't look as nice.

Blending and Eye Shadow Brush
This brush has brown bristles that are quite soft. The blending brush is a flat topped brush. It is really big for my eye area. I wasn't too sure what it was for initially because it's just too big. It can be used for applying all over eye lid colour for people with bigger eyes. It can also be used for blending out harsh edges around the crease area. I just find it to be too big for me. Doubt I'll really use this much.

I really like this eyeshadow brush. It's very soft like E.L.F Eyeshadow Brush. E.L.F's regular eyeshadow brush is rounded at the top but this is angled. I like that it's angled because it goes in the crease areas so well and blends out really smoothly. Makes eye makeup such a breeze. Definitely one of my favourites.

Blush and Powder Brush
This brush has soft white bristles at one end and coarser black bristles at the other. The blush brush is small and fluffy and slightly angled. It's too small for blush application but maybe fine for precise blush application. I thought it was really nice to use this for maybe contour work. However one thing I really hate about this brush is that it stinks like crazy after washing. (Maybe I didn't dry it properly) I think the blush brush is made of animal fur. Not 100% sure but it sure smells like it. I really like this brush but it just stinks too much for me. Am not against animal hair brushes or anything but I don't really own any and have no idea how to make it not stink. Sorry if it sounds stupid. It doesn't help that it's duo-sided so it makes brushes harder to dry.

The powder brush is a small domed shape brush. This side leaks dye like crazy when washed so definitely wash all your brushes before using it. It is really small so I wouldn't really use it as an all over powder brush. It is probably good for you to dust a bit of powder to set your undereye concealer or other concealers where you need setting.

Foundation and Conceal Brush
This brush comes with yellow with brown tipped bristles. It is good for creme and liquid application. Both sides are similiar, just difference in size.
The foundation brush is big and nice tapered brush. I like that it's really thick at the sides. I don't really use liquid foundation but after testing it out, it really makes applying liquid foundation a breeze. You can get into corners around your nose and the foundation blends out really well. Would recommend this if you need a cheap and good liquid/creme foundation brush.

The concealer brush is the same except it's smaller. I really like how tapered and thick it is. Really wanted to get this because of that. I have the E.L.F Studio Concealer Brush which is rounded at the top and good for cream concealer application too. But I like the Essence of Beauty Concealer Brush even more. It smoothens out liquid or cream concealer around the undereyes really nice and makes it not as cakey. You get the concealing job done so much faster too. Just dab your concealer on. You can conceal a bit first with your fingers to slightly warm it up. After that use the concealer brush to go over the area and buff it out. It softens the edges of the concealer patch hiding the dark eye circles. The same thing applies to redness around the nose, mouth so on and so forth. One of my favourites from this set.


Overall I'm liking only half of the brushes from this set. The Blush and Powder Brush is my least favourite duo-sided brush out of the 3. Am prepared to throw it away because of the crazy problems it gives me. The eyeshadow and concealing brush are my favourites currently. I think this brush set's worth considering if you want to find cheap and good brushes. It's pretty decent. Maybe you can choose to buy the brushes seperately and not this particular set but am not too sure if their brushes are consistent. Duo-sided brushes probably save a lot of space but I find it kind of hard to dry them properly. Really not a fan of it.

The Essence of Beauty Deluxe Duo Set retails for USD $14.99 on CVS.com.