Review: Betty Hula Moisturizing Creams

A few weeks ago, the lovely people from Betty Hula sent me a few samples of their Shea Butter Moisturizing Cream and the Secret Anti-Aging Oil to review - very exciting, thanks guys!

From the beginning, I was REALLY excited to try them out because they have several ethical values that makes me really want to support them.

Firstly, all ingredients are natural, there are no chemicals used at all, and the Shea Butter they use is Grade A.

Secondly, they are handmade.

Thirdly, the ingredients are fairly traded.

For those of you who these things really aren't a concern, it's still important to realise that natural ingredients and lack of chemicals more often than not imply that they are suitable for sensitive skin :)

Like I said, they sent me samples, but here is a image on what the original packaging looks like - how cute are the tubs for the moisturizers?! Check out the website for better pics :) Anyway, on to the reviews! :)

The Secret - £15.99 for 50mL

By the nature of it being an 'anti-aging oil', I obviously couldn't really test it - it'd take years to really see if you've aged, and even if you didn't, who's to say this product's made it better, you wouldn't know what you'd look like had you not used it :P

So I kind of treated it as a serum/intense moisturizer - and I enjoyed it! The scent is something like honey-lemon, but quite refreshing and the surprising thing is that it absorbs really well into your skin and doesn't leave a film and rather feels like it would if you applied a cream lotion.

That being said, I'm not really interested in an anti-aging oil nor a serum so I probably wouldn't purchase this on my own. However, I did look up other bloggers' reviews and some pregnant ladies had said that this oil helps stretchmarks - will keep in mind for the future, I think!

Shea Butter Moisturizing Creams in Champagne & Spice and Rum & Blackcurrant - £14.99 for 120mL

There are three scents in the range - Champagne & Spice (orange), Rum & Blackcurrant (pink) or Kiwi & Lime (green). I got the former 2, and I personally prefer Champagne & Spice. They both have a very coconut-ey, rummy smell but I find that Champagne & Spice has that zingy-ness to it that makes it a bit more refreshing and not as full-on as the Rum & Blackcurrant. That one is a bit too sweet for my liking, and I didn't really sleep well with it on my hands cuz the smell lingers for a really long time - which is a good thing if you like the smell! :)

Because the samples were relatively small, I decided to really put them to the test and use these on various locations on my body that were in different degrees of emergency dryness. My hands, legs, elbows, cuticles, ankles and heels. The first 2 are usually normal but sometimes get a little bit dry, my elbows get quite dry and hard, my cuticles are constantly dry, my ankles are calloused and my heels look like they had a garlic-grater run over them cuz of my new sandals! (Yuck, I know)

For my hands and legs - a little went a really long way and blending them into big areas was so effortless. I found I only had to do this once a day, sometimes even 2 days to keep the dryness at bay. The consistency is kind of like a moussey cream, so it's not as heavy as a body butter and doesn't leave too much residue at all - definite plus points over other body butters. 

My elbows were the place where these babies worked the best. I moisturized them once every 3 or 4 days, and my elbows would be soft throughout that whole time. No more whiteness, no more thickened skin - it was literally just like the skin on the rest of my arm.

This wasn't great for my cuticles - it really didn't do much at all! No idea why, but there ya go. To be fair, they're not a cuticle cream - I just wanted to test it to see how it went.

For my ankles, this cream was okay - but let's face it, no moisturizer is going to get rid of callouses - they have to be exfoliated. That being said, this moisturizer softened them up significantly, and I could tell from the first use that they were working. However, after applying them twice a day for a few days, it never progressed, and it was just as soft as the first time I used it.

The heels were probably the second best place that they worked, as my garlic-gratered heels soon just became.. well, heels, which was pretty amazing because even the Body Shop body butters were incapable of doing this. I applied it twice a day, and again, it improved from the first use. But unlike my ankles, it kept getting better each time I used it. Really preferred this to buffing my deadskin as sometimes I find it a bit too harsh.

All in all, my expectations of the Shea Butter Moisturizers were met, and what they did to my hands/legs, elbows and especially my heels is something I really really enjoyed. Again, the consistency was very light, but the moisturizing effects were as good, if not better, than body butters, and they did not leave any nasty residues behind. I also really liked the Champagne & Spice smell, as I love the sea and the tropics and these put me in a really summery mood :)

Now of course there's the issue of a 120mL tub being £14.99, which atleast includes P&P - and because there are other products out there that moisturize my arms and legs and my elbows, the significant advantage of this product really only is the fact that they heal my heels (hehe wordplay!). I'm not 100% sure I'd pay that much for that. They are now available in Sainsburys - but I'm not sure if that means they are cheaper?

I rate the products a 8/10 - because they do what they say, they're ethical and they even heal things that others cant - it really just is the price :( You are paying for the handiwork, the natural ingredients, the fairtrade, and I love that but I just couldn't justify it. Maybe it'd be better if they had a smaller tub for a lesser price, because you really don't have to use a lot if you don't intend to use it as an all over body cream! :) (And it'd be perfect for me to just buy in the summer for my godforsaken heels :P)

Anyway, I just want to say a quick thanks to Keren and the rest of the Betty Hula team for this opportunity to try the products out - maybe one day when I'm not a poor student, I will be able to treat myself to some! :D

Have you tried any Betty Hula products? :)

<3yu