Pretty Pretty Pretty » karen murrell

New lippies from Karen Murrell

Selina — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:43:55 +0000

I’m a big fan of the Karen Murrell range of lipsticks. They feel lovely on, they’re a New Zealand product, and the packaging is eco-friendly, with tubes made from PLA (polylactic acid), “a corn resin based material that will start to dissolve back into Mother Earth within 100 days”, and boxes from 100% recycled and renewable sources using New Zealand paper with soy inks.

Ever since the first four lipsticks were released a couple of years ago (I have all of them by the way) I’ve been hoping she would release some more colours, and at long last a new range has hit the stores.

I’m particularly excited about Coral Dawn, having not yet added an orange shade to my collection. Carnation Mist looks very pretty and wearable, Fuschia Shock I will have to try before I buy because from the photos it looks like it may be a wee bit blue-based for my colouring, and Sand Storm is likely to make me look like I have a bad case of Mannequin Face (not a good thing, if you were wondering) but would be a lovely neutral for other skin tones. So that’s two, and possibly three, out of the collection I’m lusting after. What about you?

Karen Murrell lipsticks are available online, or a list of stockists around New Zealand can be found here.

Annoucing the winners of the Karen Murrell scrub

pretty — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:25:27 +0000

Yay, it’s so much fun drawing the winners of the Karen Murrell scrub! Thanks Karen for providing these wonderful prizes. We had so many entries but luckily it was random draw (drawn from random.org). So here are the winners this time:

Emily

Cat

dancingpiper

bates

Vanessa

Theresa

Winners, I’ll email you shortly for your address details.

Don’t despair if you didn’t win this time. We have regular pretty prizes to give away, so just keep trying.

Win! Nature’s Essence Body Scrub by Karen Murrell

johubris — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:31:26 +0000

Okay, so you know how we totally dug on the Nature’s Essence Body Scrub? Well, thanks to the lovely Karen, now you can get your hands on some and give it a go yourself! We have six, count ‘em, SIX full-size scrubs to give away, so you and your shower will be smelling divine pretty soon. In order to win, all you gotta do is leave us a comment telling us what’s rough in your life right now that you would like to metaphorically scrub away. Entries close on Friday 18, and we’ll draw six winners at random. Get to it!

(And if you’re not lucky enough to win, you can of course buy some for yourself at Farmer’s or online at Gracie Lou. )

Review: Nature’s Essence Body Scrub by Karen Murrell

pretty — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:35:14 +0000

Karen Murrell sent Jo and me her range of very natural and naturally nice skin care products to try. We’ve already talked about how wonderful the range is. I’ve been using the body scrub (called Nature’s Essence) a fair bit lately. In summer, I tend to shave my legs a heck of a lot more than in winter. And so my legs get itchy and I risk in-grown hairs. But I find scrubbing or exfoliating helps a lot. At the same time, I don’t like scrubbing too much either, because it can be very drying.

So I’m very pleased that Nature’s Essence is very gentle. You can however opt for a stronger scrub by applying it to dry skin. It actually leaves a moist-feeling residue…maybe residue isn’t the correct word…but it certainly leaves skin feeling soft and nourished.

Nature’s Essence uses salt flakes for the scrub effect. This is interesting, because rather than being dehydrating (which is what I associate salt with) salt is used heaps in scrubs and baths to soften and heal skin.

Anyway, this product is another winner from Karen Murrell. And if you keep up with prettyprettypretty regularly, watch out for an upcoming giveaway of the scrub.

In the meantime, Karen Murrell is available from Farmers, and also from another prettyprettypretty fave – GracieLou.co.nz.

Note: We aren’t affiliated with Karen Murrell in any way. We just like her products and approach to skin care!

Karen Murrell moisturisers

pretty — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:52:56 +0000

Remember when we shared our first impressions of Karen Murrell’s beautiful range of natural skin care? Well I’ve had a bit of time using the Face Moisturiser, and the manly-man I live with used the Men’s Face Cream.

The three things I look for in a moisturiser are: texture on application; compatibility with makeup; and how it leaves my skin feeling. This moisturiser ticks all these boxes. It feels very fresh and smooth to apply, doesn’t cake or feel greasy. It was fine under make-up. And feels like it soaks straight into skin and leaves it soft and fresh feeling.

The fragrance may not be to everyone’s liking as it is quite unusual, with grape seed and frankincense. But I liked it a lot.

And the downside is it’s not spf labelled so unknown sun protection. This isn’t a big deal for me because I have a very good facial sunblock, and my foundation is quite high spf. And sometimes the sun protecting ingredients compromise the other benefits of products. But I know some of you will demand an spf label, which is fair enough.

The men’s face cream was apparently great too. Men do have different skin to women – they produce more collagen so fewer fine lines, but usually shave a lot so need moisture to counter dry skin from shaving. This product purports to calm skin after shaving. My partner has very sensitive skin, and he had no problems or flare ups using this product.

As well as being environmentally sound products and packaging, the Karen Murrell moisturisers are great moisturisers. Such a treat to use.

First impressions of Karen Murrell

johubris — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:01:35 +0000

Amy and I are huge Skinfood fans, as we’ve mentioned before, so when Amy heard that Karen Murrell who had originally developed the line, had started a new company, we were super excited. If you’re naming a product after yourself, you’re going to be damn sure that it’s awesome, so we were keen to try it out. After emailing Karen, we were even more excited when this amazing parcel turned up on my doorstep:

The Karen Murrell range

OH MY STARS! Seriously, this box is beautiful and it sings its eco-cred loud and proud. The inks are made of soy, the lipstick cases are made of corn so they’ll start biodegrading within a year, and the product packaging is recyclable #1. And as for the products themselves, well! We received the Aqua River face cream for me, True Miracle Intense Balm, Absolute Luxury Face Moisturiser, Pure Honesty Cleansing Gel, Nature’s Essence Body Scrub, a moisture stick lip balm and lipsticks in Red Shimmer, Cordovan Natural, Violet Mousse, and Pink Starlet. Each product lists what percent organic it is, and ingredients are primarily plant-based, not chemicals.

Our first impressions: The packaging is beautiful. The smells are wonderfully different (frankincense, grape seed, geranium, yum!). The scrub is gentle and actually moisturising. The lipsticks compare well with even heavy weight brands like MAC. The moisturiser leaves skin feeling very soft and natural – no greasy residue.

We could go on and on, so how about instead we do some follow-up reviews of the individual products soon.