Product Review: Koru Naturals

Review season with The Schoolhouse Review Crew is officially underway! The first product I have the pleasure of bringing you this year is from Koru Naturals, a company bringing the all natural skin, hair, and lip care products from New Zealand to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. For this review, each member of the review team received a 2-ounce bottle of Emu Oil and their choice of skin balms, lanolin cream, lip balm, or shampoo and conditioner. I chose the Koolpurrie Restoring Balm, which is a combination of Koru’s lanolin and emu oil.

When I was trying to decide whether or not to request this product, I had to do some research on emu oil since it was the main review product. I’m not an essential oils person, and I honestly had no idea how to use it. It didn’t take much research to find two uses for emu oil: first, to help with dryness on the skin (hands, feet, knees, elbows… anywhere you have excessive dryness) or hair. Second, to heal burns and soothe skin that’s sore and raw (like when you have a cold and are in the miserable place of having to blow your nose often on rough tissues). The review period corresponded with the boys having colds, so we all  used the emu oil, but for different issues.

I’ve always had insane calluses on my feet. I’m pretty sure they’re genetic because my brother has them and Munchkin is developing them. (My mom doesn’t, and I can’t remember a time I’ve ever seen my dad’s feet, so I can only guess that they’re inherited from him.) I’ve tried all kinds of things to soften them, and nothing works. Some things help in the short term (a pedicure, for example), but nothing helps in the long run. It’s just something I’ve come to accept. Reading about how emu oil can help soften skin (including calluses), I was very interested in trying it on my feet. I used it twice a day by putting several drops (culminating in a spot about the size of a dime) on my hand and then rubbing it into my feet, especially the callused areas.

With the kids having colds, their poor noses were all red and raw from blowing so much. Each night before bed, I put one drop of the emu oil on a q-tip and rubbed it all over their noses (inside and out) and upper lip. By morning, they were completely healed and ready to start the day. They were very grateful for that healing to happen each night during sleeping times. Munchkin thought the  q-tip was very ticklish, but Seahawk and Small Fry didn’t seem bothered by it.

I was a bit surprised when I got the Koolpurrie Restoring Balm. I was expecting something more like a lotion, and this definitely wasn’t lotion-y. It was more like lip balm in a giant tub that you use on your skin instead of lips (appropriate, since it has “balm” right in the name). I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s the best description I can come up with. I normally use a lotion from the Dollar Tree during winter because my hands and elbows get quite dry. I get a fair amount of cracking, but thankfully no bleeding like other people. Even though the Koolpurrie Balm wasn’t like lotion in structure, it was like lotion in how to use it: just take a little bit (much less than lotion, though) and rub it over your hands or other affected area. I used the balm whenever I would have normally used lotion, which as a rule was two or three times a day – basically whenever my hands were feeling especially dry.

So, what did I think of these all natural products from Koru Naturals?

As someone who normally uses chemical-laden lotions (I know they’re terrible, but they work in the short term and are cheap…), I really liked knowing that I was using something that was much better for my health and still really helping my skin.

But did they work as well as the synthetic products?

For the Koolpurrie Balm, the answer is a resounding “yes!” I had no problems with excessive dryness once I started using it. In fact, it worked better than lotion; it didn’t take long before I didn’t need to use it as often. It was wonderfully healing for my dry skin. I did have to be careful not to use too much, though. Because emu oil is one (of only two) ingredient, using too much left me with an oily feel. That’s not a problem with the product, though; it was a problem with me using too much. The information I read about emu oil in preparation for this review said over and over again, on every website I visited, that emu oil is fast absorbing, and you should never feel oily when using it. If you do, that means you used too much. Armed with this information in advance, I knew immediately that the problem was me, so I was just more careful next time.

The emu oil gets mixed reviews from me. It worked amazingly well on keeping the children’s noses feeling good when they weren’t, and that’s a blessing. On my feet, though, it was just okay. I don’t know if my calluses are just too tough to ever be brought under control, or if I should have used the oil more often, or something else altogether. I did experience a bit of softening, but nothing like I’d hoped. And maybe that’s just a result of unrealistic expectations. I’ll likely keep using for a few more months to see if I experience additional softening, but if not, that’s okay. I’ll keep the oil around for helping keep our noses happy during our non-healthy times.

You can get a 2-ounce bottle of emu oil (which is much bigger than I expected) for $9.85. They also sell them in larger sizes if you want more. A container of Koolpurrie Balm is 1.4 ounces (again, quite a large container) and sells for $12.50. Additionally, orders of $35.00 or more get free shipping within the United States. And if you’re the social media type, you can connect with Koru Naturals on Facebook and Pinterest.

Blessings,

Other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewed all different kinds of items from Koru Naturals: shampoo and conditioner, lanolin cream, and lip balm in addition to the Koolpurrie Balm I talked about in my review. Click the banner below to read opinions from other homeschooling moms about all of these products, and to find out what everyone else thought of the emu oil.