5.07.2015

Intro to: PHB Ethical Beauty


A couple months ago, I made my first ever order with PHB Ethical Beauty. They've been on my radar for a while but I finally took the plunge when they had 20% off one weekend. I really wanted to try their mascara as a possible replacement for my previous HG, the Lily Lolo Mascara. If you want to find out why I'm no longer using Lily Lolo, check out my review here.

PHB Ethical Beauty is a wonderfully ethical company. All their products are vegan-friendly, halal, and natural. They're a family-run business and they were founded by Rose Brown, who is a vegan herself. They are certified cruelty-free and are also certified by the Vegan Society.

I ordered myself the eye gel, mascara, and lip pencil during their deal but PHB were super lovely and sent me the Hydrating Toner as a small gift. Today I'd like to share with you just my first thoughts and impressions of the products. Then in a few weeks I plan on doing a full review of at least the mascara.

This toner is just so simple and that is exactly why I love it. It has a light scent of ylang-ylang (my favourite) and feels so dang soothing when sprayed on to the skin. The spray function is really effective (a massive plus), and I love using this to dampen my face before applying any facial oils. It's alcohol and oil-free and at £12.50 for 100ml, it is really good value for a high quality floral water.

I haven't been able to test this too much yet but I can report that it feels lovely and cooling on the eyes. It's a very light clear gel and you only need the smallest amount to bust those dark circles. I have noticed however that this isn't something that you can just slap on at the last moment. It really needs to go under your facial oil/moisturiser otherwise you can be left with slightly dry eyes after waking the next day. When I remember to use it, I really am rather impressed. I've never got on with heavier eye creams (due to being milia-prone), so I really can appreciate this lighter gel formula.

PHB's mascara had been on my radar pretty much ever since I first started looking for a natural and vegan mascara. I first came across them on the European beauty site, Ecco Verde. Only one thing had held me back from trying it and that was the fact that it does contain phenoxyethanol, a preservative which has been known to irritate dermatitis. This is an ingredient that I usually try to avoid but after being disappointed by Lily Lolo I thought that I would just bite the bullet and give it a go. After all, I don't tend to smear mascara all over my hands... I don't actually wear mascara that often but when I have used it, I've been really impressed. The effect is very similar to the Lily Lolo, the only difference being that the PHB mascara has a slightly wetter formula and can smudge during application. Luckily after drying, it doesn't seem to budge. I'm excited to give this a more in-depth test and will report back.

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with this lip liner. The formula feels lovely and lasts well however, the colour just really isn't for me. The name evokes thoughts of a YLBB shade but it seems to be more of a metallic red which is something that just really doesn't work with my skin tone or any of my other lip products. I also think that the website swatches are a little misleading in this case. I really hope that they bring out some more shades as I really like the formula! 

Have you tried PHB Ethical Beauty before?