skincaresensei

Kosas - Color & Light: Pressed Powder Blush & Highlighter Duo This is somewhat new and I love it so much. It’s a blush and highlighter duo palette but I love using the blush since it’s pretty dark in color. A lot of blushes are too pink! Just to bronze the cheeks a little bit, not too much. It’s the perfect palette and colors for my skin tone. The highlighter is in between golden and peachy but still sheer and elegant, not too blinding. And the blush is somehow dark but lovely and can be used as a bronzer and a blush as well. It shapes the face in a great way and gives it life. These are pressed powders as well and don’t have that much fall out. This was gifted to me by Kosas and I have to say one of my favorites from what I got. I truly recommend this duo in this specific shade to people with medium skin tone! I think it’s perfect for travel as well since it’s a two in one! $34 is a good investment for a good formula and product + good color payoff

Dr. Jart+ - Cicapair Tiger Grass Calming Mist The is a calming mist that’s supposed to instantly hydrate and soothe skin. It contains centella, sugarcane extract etc. This one is so refreshing! The whole Dr Jart cica line smells the same but the scent along with the fresh and fine mist is such a plus. Love using this after a shower when it’s not late enough to do my routine yet but still want a little hydrating. Usually layer the Ceramidin spray on top 🤭 this actually contains two essential oils. I’m fine with it because of the almost aromatherapy and I wash it off pretty quickly but I wanted to point this out! I would recommend this though! It’s a lovely spray !

Krave - Great Barrier Relief My absolute favorite from Krave Beauty is their Great Barrier Relief. Man, this is the stuff. It’s supposed to “press reset” and give your skin what it lacks and replenish irritates skin. It was made to repair your skin barrier and to whoever has irritated skin and who needs to reset their skin. I had a hard time with the smell at first. It smells strongly of tamanu oil but now I’m totally fine with it. I didn’t realize how much I liked and needed this until I stopped using it. And I’m sorry for that. I sincerely apologize to my GBR. It has a creamy and fluffy texture! Even if it’s a type of serum, it’s cream like. It’s quite thick on application actually. Not heavy in the literal sense but more of a heavy.... rich formula packed with so much. I don’t mind it at all and sometimes I used this as a moisturizer. This stuff is amazing at calming the skin and strengthening the skin barrier. Whenever I oversensitized my skin I used this. It contains safflower oil, rosehip oil, vitamin b3, ceramides and more. It’s such a good serum! And some days this is the only product I’ll end up going to bed with on my face. $28 is nothing for what this product can do for your skin! Truly skin soothing!!! Recommending this for everyone.

YOUTH TO THE PEOPLE - Kombucha + 11% AHA Exfoliation Power Toner This is a Kombucha Exfoliation Toner with a potent percentage of AHA. It’s supposed to bring back dull skin to life, minimize pores, improve elasticity and help smooth skin. Targeted at dry skin. I wanted this to work and I know I don’t have dry skin but so many people trying this loved it so I had to myself. I have combination skin with problems with my large pores so I figured this would help. I didn’t see results from this toner. It was also a bit unpleasant to use since it was sticky after it dries down on the skin. I layered it of course with my other skincare but I still felt the stickiness and couldn’t shake it off. I wish it would have worked better for me, more so because I spent $38 on it. It’s not worth it and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Brand Spotlight: Drunk Elephant Drunk Elephant. You may know her, you may love her, you may hate her. I discovered this brand in 2018 by perusing the Sephora bestsellers page and reading reviews on Protini Peptide Cream. I bought it because I was desperate and it actually worked so obviously I assumed the entire line would work for me and be a godsend...flash forward to now. If you go back through my profile you will find reviews of Lippe, Lala, Slaai, and Beste, so I won’t be highlighting them here. Products I’ll be reviewing: B-Hydra Hydration Serum D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Drops Protini Polypeptide Cream The good, the bad, and the ugly: THE UGLY: DRUNK ELEPHANT - B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Serum Honestly when I first started using this serum it was my first Hyaluronic acid serum I ever used. I mixed it into my morning “smoothie” of Protini and D-Bronzi and slathered it all over. Even though I felt a difference in my skin while using it, I’m not sure I can solely credit this product for doing so. It contains a high content of niacinamide that actually helps to stop oil/sebum production in your skin. The texture is lightweight yet sticky if not used in a DE “smoothie.” I ended up swapping B-Hydra out of my routine and swapping in the Ordinary’s Hyaluronic acid 2% + B5 serum and saw an instant improvement in the hydration levels in my skin. So while I believe B-Hydra did SOMETHING, $52 for something that a $7 product does better is an all around scam. I said what I said! THE BAD: DRUNK ELEPHANT - Protini Polypeptide Moisturizer Honesty is the best policy... Protini is very hit or miss for me. It’s a TOTAL HIT when I mix it with a facial oil or my skin is more likely to produce oils like the summertime. When I started using Protini into the cold winter months, my GOD I broke out so badly. Didn’t change my routine at all. Just swapped out Protini for Lala and my skin healed up in a week and stayed clear. I also notice an increase in facial hair when I use Protini which doesn’t bother me so much as it just causes an inconvenience. The texture itself is super light but it feels really hydrating when mixed with an oil. It also smells like yeast so that’s a bit off putting. It is great for the summer for me but in the winter it’s a flop. THE GOOD!! (Omg finally): DRUNK ELEPHANT - D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops D-Bronzi: wow when I first heard of this I thought it was an instant scam. I started using this product as a mix in to my morning “smoothie” or my super white SPF formulas. The difference I notice when this is in my routine is night and day. In the winter I’m too pale to add this in but in the summer it’s like, INSTANT GLOW! & the air pollution in my area is so bad there is a real noticeable difference in my skin tone when I use this. I’m not sure if it would help those who don’t suffer from bad air pollution though! Have you tried anything from Drunk Elephant? Any faves? Any hates?

I discovered Supergoop through the “skinstagram” community (does using this term make me a boomer?) and loved their mission and that they’re a brand dedicated to SPF—that immediately increased my trust in them. However be careful what you wish for... Products I’ll be reviewing: Shimmershade SPF 30 Glow Stick SPF 50 Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40 MY FAVES: Supergoop! - Shimmershade Illuminating Cream Eyeshadow SPF 30 Shimmershade SPF 30 Eyeshadow: this is just an incredible daily cream eyeshadow formula. I hate the heavy feeling of facial SPF on my eyelids and this came in CLUTCH. It feels just like a lightweight cream eyeshadow and looks amazing. I have the shade “” and it looks incredibly seamless when blended in with my fingers for that “next level” eye look. The pot has a ton of product in it for the price point ($24) and I highly recommend you try it at least once. Get a sample from Sephora! Supergoop! - Glow Stick SPF 50 Glow Stick SPF 50: I was really hesitant about this one—I purchased it as a chemical SPF option that wouldn’t pill under makeup. Surprisingly, I love this formula. It doesn’t sit on top of your skin and feels super lightweight. It’s also really easy to reapply during the day! I like that it’s a solid stick formula so it won’t leak or spill in your bag. My only real complaint is the packaging. You push the product up from the bottom and it’s just kind of hard to control at time how much you push up. Like a push pop without being able to push it back down. It also lasts FOREVER so $25 doesn’t seem unreasonable to me. NOT SO MUCH - LEAST FAVE: Supergoop! - Unseen Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40 Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40: this is a translucent blurring SPF formula. The texture is SO silky. I loved how it applied to my skin...but any time I use this, my skin immediately breaks out in a rash. I’m not sure why this happens. I’ve heard so many great things about this product but my experiences haven’t been great, and at $34, I can’t justify the price at all, leaving it in the bottom tier of this brand Spotlight. What are your favorites from Supergoop?

I discovered this brand after watching one of my favorite youtubers (Samantha Ravndahl) talk about their Glow2OH toner helping her skin texture (she has acne and acne scarring). Honestly I wasn’t planning on buying more than that from the brand until they started releasing more and more products I was interested in trying! Let’s get into that more... Products I’ll be reviewing: PHAT Glow Facial Balancing Force Oil Control Toner Force of Nurture Hand Cream OLEHENRIKSEN - PHAT Glow Facial Mask My freaking fave. So, backstory: I was previously forcing myself to use Drunk Elephant’s Babyfacial every week. For months. Now, I have very sensitive skin that has rosacea and is acne prone. I have uneven skin texture from acne scarring. Babyfacial was pretty much made for me right? Wrong. It destroyed my skin barrier. But that’s another tale for another day. At this point I had given up on chemical exfoliating masks. Until OH’s Black Friday sale...I impulsively picked this up and I’m SO GLAD I did! It’s a gentler formula than Babyfacial, using PHAs instead of BHAs and AHAs—but honestly it does an even better job and destroying my blackheads and sebaceous filaments! Get this too—it doesn’t trigger my rosacea AT ALL. Zero redness! That’s literally insane to me. It does contain a bit of fragrance but tbh it doesn’t bother my skin at all. $50 for 1.7oz is awesome. When I run out of this I will be so sad! OLEHENRIKSEN - Balancing Force Oil Control Toner Ahh, I wanted to love this so badly. Then I realized my skin type is 0% suited for this product. Nowadays I have combination dry skin (even though I was only using this on my nose which is oily) and it was causing my skin to flake from dryness. I want to also mention it might be a sensitivity I have to essential oils (this one tingles your skin as it contains eucalyptus and peppermint oil). Since then, I have switched to the Paula’s Choice BHA liquid and it is much better suited to my needs. I’m happy I got a sample size of this before purchasing, as it’s $29 for 6.5oz—not bad, but it would feel wasteful for me to throw away that much product. OLEHENRIKSEN - Force Of Nurture Intensive Hand Creme This hand cream is my winter lizard hand savior! I prefer to use this throughout the day and a heavier cream at night. I am very sad because this has been discontinued. It does contain a bit of fragrance but the kpagnan butter in it cancels it out, I swear! My hands have never felt so soft after using it. I stocked up on it while it was on sale, but being discontinued I’m very sad and will try to find another kpangnan butter equivalent when I run out. Have you tried anything from OH? What are your faves and hates?