Summer Skincare: The Good, The Bad and The Meh
I’ve been taking the time this summer to try out different skincare products. I was running out of things and figured now was the perfect time to experiment. It’s been interesting. I have found things I love, things I hate and things I’m “meh” about. I used to do a similar series on my old nail blog and decided to do the same format here to share my thoughts on these products.
The Good
Youth to the People Superfood Cleanser
I tried this one out of pure curiosity thoroughly expecting to go back to my ride or die Vanicream Cleanser. I even bought the little mini size so that I wasn’t wasting money on product I wasn’t going to finish. Cut to nearly two months later and I have already repurchased. I LOVE this cleanser. It’s light, not drying, and has a natural clean, fresh smell (no perfumes are added). It’s sulfate free and has Kale, Green Tea and spinach on it’s ingredients list. This is not a cheap cleanser and I am usually of the mindset that cleanser is the thing you can save your money on. And I still firmly believe that. But I also just really love this cleanser *insert shrug emoji*.
Saturday Skin Waterfall Glacier Water Cream
In the summer I like to use a water-based moisturizer for my oily/combo skin. Creams just feel too heavy and greasy on my skin in the warmer months. I had experimented with a couple of brands that I was pretty meh about (and will include below) before settling on this one. It’s great. It’s hydrating and feels so lightweight on the skin. It has the word cream in the name but it is a super lightweight gel formula. A little goes a long way and it sinks into the skin quickly. My one major gripe with this product is that for the price you don’t get a lot of product. I am already on my second jar and it usually take me at least 3 months to get through an entire jar of moisturizer. I purchase this in June and am already on my second jar.
The Bad
Laneige Water Bank Gel Cream
I am usually a stickler about reading the ingredients list for skincare. But for some reason I ordered this without doing so? I had been researching a bunch of different water-based moisturizers and thought I had looked up the ingredients list of this one. But I didn’t. And it was an expensive mistake. First off let me say that I am not a big fan of fragrance in skincare. It’s bad for your skin and is only there to mask the scent of the other ingredients. I frankly would rather have the natural scent of the ingredients than a product full of artificial fragrance. The fragrance in this STRONG. When you open the jar you literally get a huge whiff of it. This was the first red flag and so I immediately looked at the side of the box. Fragrance as well as alcohol were both high on the ingredients list. If you have sensitive skin - and even if you don’t actually - it is advised to avoid products with fragrance and alcohol in them. Both are drying and irritating and because most fragrance already has alcohol in it you essentially double-dosing your skin with alcohol. No Bueno. I’ve used this a few times since I’d bought it but I honestly just don’t feel good about putting this on my face.
Boscia Detoxifying Charcoal Cleanser
I purchased this in a set of three items from Ulta. I had never tried any Boscia and had heard good things about them. Simply put - I found this cleanser to be too harsh. It felt like it stripped my skin of it’s natural oils. Charcoal can be great for the skin which is why I wanted to try this out but my skin simply didn’t like it. I have a feeling that the pH levels of this cleanser are not the best. My skin felt parched and hungry for hydration each time I used this. I only used it a handful of times and that was enough for me.
The “Meh”
Boscia Makeup-Breakup-Cool Cleansing Oil
The first time I used this I hated it. I am not the biggest lover of cleansing oils. I prefer cleansing balms as they just feel less messy and breakdown makeup just as well as a cleansing oil since a balm is just oil in a solid form. The first few times I used this I didn’t feel like it took all of my makeup off. I always felt like there was way too much still on my face when I went in with my cleanser. And so I put this down and went back to my tried and true Heimish All Clean Cleansing Balm. When I started running low on that I decided to revisit this oil and give it another shot. I’m glad I did. It isn’t as bad as I initially thought. It does take everything off - but - you have to REALLY massage it into the skin in order to do so. And I felt like I had to use a lot of product to get it to emulsify properly on my face. So is this a bad cleansing oil? No. But would I repurchase it? No.
Indie Lee Co-Q10 Toner
I received a trial size of this toner in a Sephora order and had completely forgotten about. I had been using the Ole Henriksen Dark Spot Toner and was nearing the end of the bottle. While I liked that toner I always feel like my skin stops responding to toners after a period of time and so it was time to try something new. I happened upon this one while cleaning out my skincare cabinet. I started using it last month and finished it earlier this week. And it was just…meh. I don’t feel like it actually did anything for my skin one way or other. It was just kind of there. I have heard people rave about this toner so it could simply be that it and my skin are indifferent to one another. I use a retinol and a Vitamin C serum so maybe this simply wasn’t powerful enough to do anything to outshine those two products. I say if you’re interested- give it a shot. It just wasn’t for me.
I am still experimenting with a few new things but my ride or die products have for the most part stayed the same. I am still using my Retinol, my Hyaluronic Acid, and Vitamin C serum. But I am playing around with the other items in my routine to see if they can give a boost to my overall regimen.
