PHB Ethical Beauty – PHB stands for pure, handmade, British in case you were wondering – is a British family-run company. The range is now stocked in twenty countries worldwide and there are PHB Ethical Beauty stores in five countries! Not only do they create products without the use of animal-derived ingredients, animal cruelty, plastic microbeads, parabens, SLS/SLES/ALS, synthetic fragrance/parfum, colourants/dyes, PEGs, petrochemicals, formaldehyde, DEA/TEA, phthalates, urea, palm oil or alcohol, but PHB is also a very passionate brand who aim to raise awareness about ethical issues in the cosmetics industry, donate 20% of net profits to charities to help improve the lives of people and animals worldwide, and are in the process of starting their own charity!
PHB Ethical Beauty uses eco-friendly packaging that comes from post-consumer recycled sources, and much of their packaging is 100% recyclable.
The founder of PHB Ethical Beauty is Rose Brown, a vegan who strongly believes that your beauty products should align with your personal beliefs. With this in mind, she set out to create a range of products inspired by nature, natural, vegan & halal certified beauty products and in 2012 PHB Ethical Beauty was born.
When I was judging the 2016 Natural Health International Beauty Awards, PHB Ethical Beauty was one of the entrants, and I got to try their brightening range of products. Here’s what I thought of them:
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Cleanser
This cleanser is a light creamy texture that melts into the skin upon application. It rinses away easily, almost emulsifying on contact with water and there’s no trace of product or impurities. I love anything with ylang ylang in it, so this is a winner for me. After use, my skin feels lovely and soft as well as clean afterwards.
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Face Wash
A nice gel cleanser that is quite fine and easily distributed around the face; warning a little goes a long way so not too much needed! The fragrance is refreshing and zingy lime – I would have liked the spearmint to come through a bit more though. This face wash left my skin feeling clean and soft, was easily removed with water and left no tackiness. I felt the blood coming to my skin’s surface as I used it – a gentle tingle only – no burning mind!
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Facial Tonic
The toner comes out in a nice fine spritz, covering the face easily, and is easily absorbed by the skin. I was a little disappointed by the fragrance, as I was expecting a lovely sweet orange, but the product really doesn’t smell of anything much at all.
The tonic does hydrate the skin, but I don’t feel like it does that much else. I’d like to see some more active ingredients in the formula, and a floral water used instead of normal water.
This serum has a gel-like consistency. When applied to my face it did take a while to be absorbed by the skin. I expect serums to be more easily absorbed as is the nature of the product. The scent is a blend of frankincense and myrrh, I love this fragrance blend!
After use, my skin feels great; super smooth and hydrated. I love the refining properties of frankincense oil.
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Eye Gel
The product comes out like a gel, as you’d expect from the name. I dispensed too much out every time I used this as the pump was not precise, but nevertheless the massive over-application of product was rapidly absorbed by my skin! The fragrance is neroli-dominated, with floral notes of jasmine and rose thrown in for good measure. I felt like this product did help brightening the eye area. My one bugbear with this product was the pump, as I felt I was wasting the product! Update for 2019 – the product is now in a tube!
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Exfoliator
This product has a nice creamy consistency however, I can’t feel anything of the exfoliant parts. I can see them but I feel nothing! Whilst I don’t want anything too strong, I do like to at least feel something with the exfoliation – they don’t feel like normal jojoba beads feel like to me.
I was expecting a really invigorating and uplifting grapefruit, but I couldn’t smell any grapefruit in the product. Bizarrely, it smelt of shea butter with a hint of lime to me, but I can’t see shea butter listed in the ingredients! Looking through the ingredients perhaps it’s the nuttiness of the argan oil combining with other fragrances in the product.
Despite not really feeling the jojoba beads, my skin did feel smooth to touch after use.
I’d like the jar to feel a bit more special, the product to smell more of grapefruit and to be able to feel the jojoba beads on my skin a bit more!
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Mask
This is a cream mask that isn’t the easiest to spread over the face evenly. That said, it does feel nice and has a cooling effect on the skin when applied. The fragrance takes me back to The Sanctuary range of products that used to be sold in Boots! A lovely fragrance, although I’m not sure what is providing it – perhaps the Galbanum?!
My skin definitely looked brighter after use, felt soft and smooth and with several uses, I found that some remains of pigmentation on my cheekbones had faded.
Good product – I would like the product to be packaged in a more luxe feeling container. I’d also like the consistency to be slightly more even when applied to the face. Lovely fragrance and my skin felt fab after use.
PHB Ethical Beauty Brightening Moisturiser
The texture of this cream was not even – it looked like perhaps the emulsification wasn’t quite right. When applied to the skin it was very easily absorbed though, and quite light like a lotion. My skin also felt really soft and smooth after use, all day long. It’s fragranced with ylang-ylang and citrus. This was in perfect balance, and the scent comes through just the right amount – not too strong, not too weak.