More and more, I've been thinking - as a lot of us have - that I want to use the platform I've built here on the blog to promote amazing products from independent BIPOC and women owned brands, but what I've discovered is that it can be hard to find stockists here in Canada. Recently, I tweeted something to that effect and I was contacted by the owner of Apothekari Skincare and was immediately intrigued. I was lucky enough to be sent along some of her products to try out and, while I'm still in the testing phases of the skin care products, I wanted to share these two body care products that I've been testing out for the past few weeks!

There are a couple of staples in my life when it comes to body moisturizer, products that I literally have near me at all times, and one of those products is the HEMPZ Original Herbal Body Moisturizer. I often carry one of the little travel sizes around with me in my purse to use while I'm out and about, but I also have a full sized bottle of it on my desk at work and I reach for it pretty much every day. I don't often venture outside of the original, which I think smells gorgeous, but as soon as I tried out the HEMPZ Pumpkin Spice & Vanilla Chai Herbal Body Moisturizing, it had to come home with me and I've been a little bit obsessed with it ever since. 

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When I was younger, I wanted to smell like cake pretty much all day every day. I was constantly in search of the intense vanilla frosting scented body products and layered them on like it was my full time job. As I've gotten older, my taste in scents has definitely changed and, dare I say, matured. Still, there is something about the delicious scent of dessert on my skin that can still get me. Recently, I had the opportunity to try out the J.R. Watkins Lemon Cream Body Oil Mist* and I find myself back on the smelling like dessert train. 

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I don't know about you, but for me summer is a time when I can be a little bit more devil-may-care about my skin care because the warmer weather and the higher humidity tends to be great for my skin type. However, as the seasons change and we find the temperatures dropping and the weather getting a little bit more unpredictable, I know that my skin tends to go through a bit of a period of chaos, especially the skin on my body that has been a little bit neglected and left to its own devices all summer. I like to think I'm pretty good at caring for the skin everywhere other than my face than I used to be, but I started noticing that I use both lotion and cream in different ways at different times, so I thought now was a good time to get into the difference between lotion and cream and how to choose the right product for your needs. 

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Hey guys! I really wanted to get this post out quickly so that if you're interested in these products, you can still get your hands on them before they disappear. Seriously, I feel like this summer has really been steeped in products that contain either banana or watermelon and I am very much here for it, so there was no way that I was going to miss out on trying these out. The Body Shop Banana hair care products have been a long time favorite of a lot of people, so it makes perfect sense that they would have shifted into banana body care as well. Personally, I think they're basically insane for making their Summer 2019 Wonderfully Wonky Banana products limited edition, but they are and so... HURRY! 

But first, keep reading to check out my thoughts on them... and then go get them before they're gone!

When it comes to natural deodorant, I've never had much success. And by "never had much success", what I really mean is that I've never, ever found one that really worked for me. So when I saw that Live Clean had released natural deodorants, I was a strange mixture of excited (because Live Clean is a consistent favorite brand for me) and hesitant (because I was afraid this might be the first Live Clean line that wouldn't get it done for me.) I really needn't have worried, because these have been a pretty resounding success for me!

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