Grown Alchemist Purifying Body Exfoliant and Anti Oxidant Body Serum Review

Grown Alchemist is an Australian beauty brand that offer skincare and body care products made from organic botanical ingredients (ACO - Australian Certified Organic - Certified). I first spotted Grown Alchemist on Instagram where I was immediately struck by their product packaging, and the brand's distinctive monochrome theme.

Their branding reminded me of Aesop - a brand that's easily available in the UK, but at just a slightly higher price point. However, for some reason Grown Alchemist seemed more appealing to me than Aesop. At the time I'm sure that it had something to do with the unavailability of Grown Alchemist products (the shipping costs from Australia to the UK were just too high for me to justify any casual purchases), but even now there's something about the packaging and product range that intrigues me. 

When Grown Alchemist became easily available for purchase in the UK thanks to FeelUnique I don't know why I didn't go out and immediately start trying products. It's taken me a while to really look through their range and pick products to try out first - and it was harder than it sounds because ideally I'd like to try everything. Anyway, better late than never! Today I'll be talking through the two items I purchased, Grown Alchemist's Purifying Body Exfoliant (£17.00) and Grown Alchemist's Anti Oxidant Body Serum (£25.00).

This body oil comes housed in one of those classic scientific amber bottles, whose main purpose is to protect products from leeching and UV damage. I'm not kidding, the glass ensures that photo-sensitive, antioxidant rich, organic ingredients are protected from photo decomposition, which would otherwise almost completely undermine the purpose of using great quality organic ingredients. So that's a beauty lesson for us all; the stuff on the outside isn't just aesthetic, there really is purpose to the packaging. The oil itself is incredibly effective stuff, and it's been a reliable way of keeping my skin soft and hydrated.

Grown Alchemist's Body Exfoliant is another really effective product, but it was somewhat different from what I'd expected. It has a gel consistency with small (but not tiny) exfoliating particles suspended within it. As you massage the product onto dry skin it creates a very thin, light foam and finally you're left with a gently exfoliating creamy lather - with a refreshing minty tingle. The product isn't at all harsh on my skin and, in terms of it's results, reminds me a lot of Clarins' Exfoliating Body Scrub. I think I prefer the creaminess of Clarins' exfoliater but I absolutely adore the cooling effect of Grown Alchemist's peppermint exfoliater, it makes the process of exfoliation into more of an experience.

All in all, I really like both of these products and I'd be happy to repurchase them both in the future. I really am enamoured with the aesthetics of Grown Alchemist's products, but I'm very happy that the products themselves lived up to my (pretty high) expectations. If you've tried any of their products then I'd love to hear recommendations in the comments on what to try next! But if you haven't, do you like the sound of these two products? And what do you think about the packaging?