Butt Sheet Masks & other Indie Beauty Expo Products We’re Loving

Our personal recap of the best products spotted at the New York Indie Beauty Expo 2018.

The Indie Beauty Expo is like Xmas Day for the beauty addict. With 200+ vendors, they have something for everyone. Organic beauty? Check. High-tech indie skincare? Check. Butt sheet masks? Double cheek! (I mean, check ;))

These are the most fun, incredible, and overall indie products that caught our eye during the exhibit:

Butt Sheet Masks

I swear I’m not making this up. Bawdy has come up with a line of sheet masks for your butt that include natural ingredients (although the overall formula is not completely natural, in case you were wondering.)

Each mask is supposed to have a different benefit: the plant-based collagen mask has hydrating and toning benefits, the marine algae butt mask is allegedly firming and illuminating, and the caffeine mask is supposed to detox and retexturize your derriere.

I haven’t been able to test them so I don’t know if they live up to the hype, but I found them so incredibly hilarious that I had to share my findings. Do you guys think we should add a butt masking ritual to our already packed beauty routines?

A Prebiotic Body Cream

Ayuna is a luxury natural skincare brand made with love in Spain. Its latest launch is a silky, non-toxic prebiotic body cream that uses Plasma Rich in Cell Factors from Noni and Peptides from Lactic Bacteria. The result? A prebiotic blend that balances the skin’s own microbiota.

Deeply hydrating, what I loved most about this launch is the idea to reinforce your skin’s own natural defenses to help it rebalance on its own. In this time and age, our skin is exposed to so many aggression on a daily basis (the sun, the heat, the A/C blasting in your office, blue light, pollution… the list goes on and on!) that helping it bounce back is the best long-term strategy. As I was blessed with a dry and sensitive skin, I very much appreciate the cocktail of lipids and essential fatty acids to calm down my dry patches with long-lasting hydration.

If there was a poster product for beauty and brains, Ayuna probiotic body cream would surely make the cut!

A No-Pull Hair Brush

Who would come up with the idea of an extremely flexible dual hair brush but New York’s own Angelo David along with the CEO of Creative Hair Tools, Jacob Guttman?

The Flex Brush is an all-purpose tool that detangles hair without breaking the shaft, massages the scalp and promotes hair health and growth. As its name indicates, the Flex Brush bends to avoid snagging on tough knots. It is also great to give yourself a nice scalp massage, because it adapts to the contour of your head. It is a game-changer for us curl-haired gals that are fed up with the brushing drama.

I personally loved its savvy mix of soft bristles made from boar bristle and flexible nylon because they work well on all hair types, and are recommended for fine and medium hair textures and for sensitive scalps.

A Natural Deodorant That Works

All the way from Down Under, Black Chicken was one of the best surprises of the show. Axilla is their award-winning deodorant paste that delivers outstanding results using only completely natural ingredients and absolutely zero aluminum. A combination of shea butter, coconut oil, kaolin clay, arrowroot, baking soda, and clove essential oil respect the body’s natural sweating cycle and prevent any bad smells. The result? Happy pits all over the place.

Product application tip: A little bit goes a long way. I have found that a pea-size amount of deodorant well massaged into each of my armpits protects me for hours.

A Cleansing Balm based on Hawaii’s Ancient Wisdom

Birdbath is O’o Hawaii‘s take on cleansing balms. Ultra hydrating and highly performing, Birdbath is an antioxidant cleansing balm with anti-aging green goodness that cleanses deeply, removing impurities while respecting the unique needs of the skin. A wondrous makeup remover, it has toning, moisturizing, and soothing properties in a single and natural formula. It can also be used as a two-minute flash mask to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

One of the thinks I liked most about Birdbath is how it seamlessly blends traditional natural ingredients with pineapple enzymes to brighten the complexion safely. I always like to add a gentle chemical peel (as in non-physical, but still natural) after the summer, and this product combines the best of both worlds. In my green beauty book, it is a winner!

Aromatherapy to The Rescue!

After walking the floors of the Indie Beauty Expo, my back was literally killing me. I had literally arrived the night before in a transoceanic flight and the wonders of cattle class left me cramped all over.

Aromatherapy Associates has a wonderful De-Stress Muscle Gel ($39) with a good dose of anti-inflammatory essential oils to support blood circulation and help manage muscle pain without medicalized patches. After using it for a couple of days I could feel the difference, and I was ecstatic when I learned it is also a great in-flight companion to maintain a good blood circulation in ankles and legs (in case you were wondering, it also comes in a TSA-friendly size.) With a wonderful scent of ginger, black pepper, and rosemary, it is also a very soothing formula to unwind at any given moment.

Have you found any new interesting Indie Beauty finds? Let us know in the comments!