Wonder Balm from A Pony Called Steve
Confused by that headline? I’m not surprised! But let me explain. The product is Wonder Balm, and the brand is A Pony Called Steve. Simple.
The Glasgow-based company is two women, and no pony – just the imaginary one they used to envisage using as a mode of transport in the busy city!
Emma and Aminah began their brand a few years back, selling bath and body products, mainly for the gift industry, and created fun scents like green opal fruits, and parma violets. They were stocked in over 70 independents across the UK. And then they stopped. They gave it all up and decided to focus on just one product – Wonder Balm, this brilliant cleanser.
“One day in November last year we just decided to stop. Just like that,” says Emma, “We were working our tiny socks off making so many products and packing massive boxes to go to our lovely retailers. If we weren’t packing boxes we were exhibiting at trade shows. It all became a bit much though when we realised we just didn’t have time to develop any new products, and that’s our favourite bit.
“We decided to stop all wholesale and sent an email to our retailers, and just like that our whole business was gone. We decided to only work for the love of it and create products we wanted and could be incredibly passionate about – mainly the Wonder Balm.
“We had been making a cleansing balm for about ten years, but we only ever used it for ourselves. We never launched it as a wholesale product as it would just have been too expensive. One tin would cost over £24 if we sold it in the shop. Now that we didn’t do that anymore we had the chance to develop it again.
“We researched our socks off and made the formulation even better. We wanted the best possible product we could make. After lots of months of testing and improving, we asked our followers for honest reviewers. We chose 20 with varying skin types and of different ages. The results they reported to us were beyond incredible.
“One hundred per cent of the reviewers said it improved their skin, they would buy it themselves and they would recommend it to a friend. They said it cleared up spots, rosacea, eczema, they called it ‘magic in a tin’. One thing we started to discover as they spoke to us was that it could remove almost any makeup – and I say almost any only because we haven’t tried everything, we haven’t found anything it doesn’t remove!”
I can vouch for this – it removes ALL makeup, and easily as well. Check out this Instagram video they posted to show how super speedy it is against wipes as well.
I love an all-in-one cleanser – there should be no other type – and this one is great. It is delicately scented, it doesn’t irritate anywhere, and it also has an array of other uses – as a balm for dry skin, a lip balm, hair balm, you can really use it wherever you like.
One tin comes with two facecloths for cleansing. I do have an issue with face cloths – I usually use one side one night, the other side the next, and then change, so I am ending up with quite a few to wash, all the time. You can use wet cotton wool pads, but a facecloth is so much easier. I bought a whole load of them recently for my cleansing routines!
This lovely balm is 100 per cent natural and contains all sorts of ingredients that are great for your skin in so many ways. Pomegranate oil reverses skin damage and an excellent anti-inflammatory. Moringa oil is an anti-oxidant, but also has anti-microbial, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, exfoliating and anti-ageing properties. Moringa oil is also skin tightening. Vitamin C promotes collagen production and also improves elastin to make the skin firmer.
Wonder Balm contains a delicious blend of citrus oils, chosen for their ability to thoroughly cleanse the skin, and other properties. Sweet orange oil helps to reduce inflammation and puffiness in the skin and can work with helping to reduce anxiety and stress too. Grapefruit oil helps boost the lymphatic system, helping to reduce water retention and bloating. Mandarin oil increases circulation in the skin which helps you to better fight off bacteria and infection and makes skin look more youthful. Lemon has fantastic astringent properties, helping to tone skin and close open pores.
The Wonder Balm comes in an aluminium tin, perfect for travelling, and completely recyclable – once done, rinse it out and pop it in the recycling bin, before ordering your next tub!
Wonder Balm is £12 for a 28g pot, and you can buy it directly from aponycalledsteve.co.uk
