Rain Africa: created for living (product review & giveaway)

In December of 2013, my daughters and I took a holiday trip to New York City. Being the mid-western small town family that we are, the crowds were completely overwhelming. As we tried to navigate our way through the sardine-packed Rockefeller Center to see the tree, we found ourselves ducking into a store just to escape the throng of the crowd.

Little did we know we were about to be transported to a calm, serene place from another continent. Africa, to be specific. The spa-like store was exactly what we needed that afternoon and spent time choosing beautiful products to take back to our hotel room and unwind, pampering each other with pedicures. While chatting with the store employees, we learned that Rain Africa products are hand crafted using organically grown ingredients with African origins. They promise:

• no parabens
• no petroleum jelly
• no mineral oil
• no liquid paraffin
• no petrochemicals
• no animal testing
• no child labor

In addition to the sustainability of the ingredients, Rain Africa provides jobs, skills and hope to people living in abject poverty, particularly women and the disabled. With a low tech production cycle, Rain products and packaging are hand-made by trained artists. The wild ingredients are hand-harvested by Southern African women who have extremely limited economic opportunities. Rain is the only Southern African beauty and body product company which is accredited by both Fair Trade in Africa and the international Fair Trade body in Europe.

I was so impressed by not just the products, but also the mission of the company that I subscribed to their newsletter upon returning home to follow along with their success. A few weeks ago, I contacted the company to see if they ever worked with bloggers. To my delight, Rain sent me a lovely assortment of products to test and review and agreed to do a Mother's Day giveaway, as well as offer my readers a discount on any purchases.

Rain sent three products to pamper myself from head to toe and everything in between

Hair Mud Mask

Heel Balm

For the head, I have a mineral rich hair mud mask from Biologie that contains marula oil. Marula oil is loaded with antioxidants and was recently featured by a leading women's magazine for its healing and restorative properties. This hair mask made my hair feel silky and strong. It has a wonderful fresh scent.

After I rinsed the mask from my hair, I lathered up with the lovely handmade artisan soap. I love bar soaps because they last so much longer than liquid soaps, and have minimal impact on the environment because they don't need specially manufactured plastic containers. Also, another benefit of bar soap is that I'm not paying for water (which is the primary ingredient in liquid soaps).

Omega Rich Soap

After the shower, I treated myself to a foot treatment with the luxurious Bee Essential heel balm that is just perfect for my dry, cracked winter-ized feet. The heel balm contains healing oils including olive, avocado, beeswax, shea, lanolin, argan, cape chestnut, rosemary leaf oil, peppermint oil, and calendula oil. I've been massaging it into my feet nightly since receiving it and they are just about ready for sandles.

I loved knowing that as I was pampering myself, I was also helping build an economy and care for the planet. Rain Africa is one of those companies that takes social and environmental responsibility very seriously and Our Daily Green is proud to promote their products.

If you're looking to spoil your mother or yourself while helping other mothers in a land far away, it's as simple as entering our giveaway. Rain Africa will be shipping a gift set of three olive oil artisan soaps packaged in a paper mache bowl and finished off with a ribbon, a $28 value.

Win This!

To qualify for the entry, follow these instructions:

1. Like Rain Africa on Facebook
2. Follow Rain Africa on Twitter
3. Share this blog post on the social media outlet of your choice and leave a comment below this post as your entry.

All steps will be verified.

One entry per person, US residents only. Giveaway closes at midnight EST April 30th. Winner has 24 hours to send shipping information to freshgreenkim@hotmail.com or another winner will be chosen. 

Rain Africa is also offering a 20% Mother's day discount code for Our Daily Green readers

It is available April 15-May 1 for all online orders. 

Enter GREENMOM20 at the checkout. 

Our Daily Green received complimentary products to conduct our review. 

We are absolutely thrilled to promote the mission of this elegant and thoughtful company and encourage our readers to do the same. 

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