Physicians Formula Organic Wear Fake Out

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Physicians Formula got it right on their eyeliners for me, so I was hoping I could say the same for their mascaras. In general I get sucked in by PF products because they’re hypoallergenic, but this time around I will admit, it was DEFINITELY the cool packaging. I mean, look at that mascara. That is a cool looking mascara. (turns out though, it doesn’t make it any easier to hold).

But this $14 mascara really missed the mark for me. The implication of the name “Fake Out” is that this will mimic false lashes, but this mascara accomplishes the farthest thing from that. The overall effect is that lashes will be combed into pin-straight (but not elongated), separated lines, with minimal color to boost them. I’m not saying we should be buying mascaras that purposely turn our lashes into clumpy spider legs, but false eyelashes should add volume, and fan outward.

I guess if you were looking for minimal boost and an extremely low-effort look, this might be the way to go. But even the longevity is terrible. Within an HOUR, I found debris of the mascara under my eye. By hour three, the mascara was entirely gone from my lashes, and it looked as though I had applied nothing at all.

Now I’m no packaging expert, but it seems to me that the wand itself is just not conducive to picking up product in the tube — either that or the product itself is very dry. And it’s kind of a pain to go back into the tube to get more product, since the cap of the wand is really annoying to hold, and there’s a “suction” going into the actual tube that you have to push a little harder to break through. Not that getting more product is going to make too much of a difference anyway — it simply doesn’t stack, and you won’t notice a difference in the overall effect by adding an extra coat or two.

Big time “no thanks” to this mascara. It’s definitely not worth $14. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 1/5

Longevity: 1/5

How much I actually like this product: 1/5

ROHTO SKIN AQUA Super Moisture Milk SPF50 PA++++

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I… I think I’m in love. Move aside, It’s Skin 2pm, I think I found a new holy grail of sunscreens. This little bottle is totally worth the month long wait to ship from Japan. Why do I love it so much? Let me count the ways …

1- No drying alcohols. Which leads me to my next point:

2- Has never broken me out.

3- Dries clear. There’s absolutely NO whitecast.

4- Odorless. Well, there is the faint sunscreen-y smell, but nothing noticeable or overwhelming, and goes away after a minute or two.

5- No pilling. Easily spreadable. Just give it a couple of minutes to dry, then go ahead and dump your foundation, powders, other moisturizers, literally whatever, on top of it. It won’t roll up.

6- Dries quickly. Kind of the same as #5, but I wanted to mention more of the texture. The sunscreen is a watery white gel that absorbs extremely rapidly — and clear. You’ll still feel a bit of a “film” on your skin, but it’s not heavy or bothersome.

7- A little goes a long way. Don’t be scared of the tiny 40ml bottle – you really only need two or three drops of this to spread across your face. Which reminds me…

8- No burning on application.

9- Waterproof. You can still “feel” the film of this on your face even after working up a sweat.

10- SPF 50! Can’t get much better than that.

11- Bonus ingredient: hyaluronic acid.

This is everything I could want in a sunscreen. It’s too perfect. The only thing I hate is the ridiculously long ship time. I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop because I can’t find anything wrong with it. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

Maybelline The City Mini Palette

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted! I recently had a huge clear out of all my beauty products, and had some blogging inspiration strike me when I found some old favorites — and not so favorite — products in my drawer.

I bought two of these Maybelline powder eye shadows on a whim whilst remembering the errant MUA video I had seen with a relatively good color payout with these products. Generally, it seems like this eye shadow has good reviews. Now, full disclosure, I’m not a huge fan of eye shadow to begin with, and I’ve privy to believe that no drugstore eyeshadow – powder or gel – has a good color payout.

I picked up Chill Brunch and Downtown Sunrise (pictured). I really liked the presentation sparkly silver and beige in Chill Brunch, and wanted to play with the orange in Downtown Sunrise. Sadly, between the two palettes, I wasn’t exactly blown away by any of the turn out. I’ll go over some of the highs and lows of these palettes:

Downtown Sunrise: I think I just grabbed this for the orange, if I’m being honest! The color wasn’t extremely noticeable, but definitely more pigmented than I’ve seen other drugstore-oranges. It actually stuck around on my eyelids for more than three hours! The color payout of the orangey-beige, yellow, and the pink, however, were terrible, much to my dismay.

Chill Brunch: They got it right on the shiny beige here, good coloration and it seemed to stick around for more than three hours. I liked the impact that the shiny gray and brown had – very pigmented, very sparkly — but they weren’t great for my skin coloration, so I had to pass on those. The purples, on the other hand, are good for my skin tone, but the color seemed to disappear or lighten within minutes of application.

An upside to both of these pallets is that I didn’t really have an issue with powder fallout into either my eye or my skin. But all in all, these were still typical Maybelline eyeshadow palettes. Some of the colors are very well pigmented, but a large majority are ineffective, even if you’re using a heavy hand in application. Even if you’re able to pick out a good color from the batch, chances are you won’t see the color after thirty minutes of wear. I did really like the orange from Downtown Sunrise, but there are definitely better palettes for orange than this one. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 2/5

Longevity: 1/5

How much I actually like this product: 1.5/5

Aquaphor

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There’s a lot of talk in the skincare community about “slug life” — wherein a skincare aficionado ends their routine with the most occlusive product possible, and ceases any social activity for the remainder of the day (since drowning your face in Vaseline/oil/Aquaphor has the tendency to make you look a tad bit, well, slimy). Of course, by doing all of this, you run the risk of blocking your pores and causing more breakouts if you wind up picking the wrong product.

The ingredient listing in Aquaphor is relatively simple — mineral oil, lanolin alcohol, paraffin, panethenol and glycerin. But mineral oil is a tricky thing. It’s not inherantly evil — it’s in a ton of makeup products, and probably a lot of skincare products that don’t tout themselves as oil-free. Unfortunately, it absolutely has a tendency to clog pores.

I rotated between Cerave in a Tub, Aquaphor, and Vaseline when I first started using Epiduo — since Epiduo’s primary function is to turn over skin cells, my face was burning like crazy. The three aforementioned heavy-layers were intended to decrease the burning. Of the three, Vaseline was the best for this, and Cerave was the worst. Aquaphor landed squarely in the middle. However, of the three, Aquaphor lead to the highest tendency of me waking up in the morning and saying, “Ah, look, new break outs!” (Vaseline did this as well, but not to the same extent)

What I did find Aquaphor was best for was lips! I use the Aquaphor Healing Ointment in the smaller tube as my go-to chapstick. Most chapsticks have more drying components in their ingredient listing (like peppermint) that cancel out anything you’re trying to accomplish, which is generally to retain moisture in your lips. The paraffin and mineral oil, and otherwise short ingredient listing in Aquaphor will help to keep them hydrated.

If you’re not sensitive to mineral oil and you’re looking for a good “last step” in your routine — particularly if you have very dry, irritated skin (in fact, I think this is a holy grail for a lot of eczema sufferers) — I’d say give this a shot. It goes on easily and the gel is clear — you should start feeling some relief moments after you apply it. No, no one is going to win any beauty contents by slathering petroleum all over their face, but that’s the price you pay for being a believer in slug life! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 4/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4/5 as chapstick; 2/5 for face

Recommended for sensitive skin: If sensitive to mineral oil, no.

Supplements and Skin Health, pt. 2

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Back again with a rant and review of more supplements I’ve tried, and their effects — real, or perceived — on my skin! Again, I am no doctor, so if you would like to try any of these, do so at your own risk. Everyone is different, so your results may not be the same as mine.

Biotin – Type in “biotin” on Instagram and you’ll see a lot of girls with long hair and clear skin holding up a bottle of some Biotin product or another (there’s at least a 50% chance it’s Sugar Bear Hair…). They swear by biotin as the reason their acne is gone and their hair is so long. But if you do a little more research, you might find that most women taking this actually find that their breakouts DRAMATICALLY increase when they start taking this. Myself included. And they’re bad. There’s some anecdotal advice drinking extra water will mitigate any negative effects of biotin, but I tried that for myself, and didn’t find that to be the case.

Biotin has been one of those vitamins that I’ve tried, off and on, over the course of about a decade, for anywhere between 2 weeks and 6 months at a time before I throw in the towel. I’ve always gotten the same results. Fast growing nails, same-speed growing hair, and TERRIBLE acne, even after the six month period. In my opinion? The long, strong nails are NOT worth the effects it has on your skin.

Vitamin C (in pill form) – Vitamin C in my skincare has been pretty darn great for me in terms of getting rid of damage — why not try to take a 500mg capsule every day? Wouldn’t that also help my skin? My personal findings after 4 months are, most likely, it does not; I didn’t notice any marked improvement while using this. I do think I was a little less sick then my coworkers, though. Also, I found out the hard way, if you take in too much Vitamin C, you will get a stomach ache (not to mention, your body will expel the excess anyway).

Collagen Powder – I hopped on the Collagen Craze hype train this year, despite the controversy about whether or not it really works. After researching the “legitimate” sources of collagen powder (must be from a grass-fed bovine for it to actually work — supposedly), I grabbed a small tub of Vital Protein’s Collagen Powder off of Amazon. I generally buy the flavorless powder, and put one scoop in my coffee in the morning. This stuff can get kind of pricey ($25 for 10oz), so I would recommend a first time user get a small container to try it out for themselves before they commit. I can safely say that it did not cause more acne, but I also don’t feel like my skin magically plumped up while taking this. BUT…. I swear my lips are bigger. I have convinced myself that after week two, they seemed to slightly increase in size. And when I ran out of the powder for two weeks and waited for a new shipment, they… decreased. Placebo effect, perhaps? Whatever it is, it’s working for me. ~A

Amika The Wizard Detangling Primer

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How many times has this scenario happened to you: you go into the hair salon, and your stylist uses a product that makes your hair absolutely amazing. You think, oh, I’ll buy that for myself so I can use that at home! But when you use the product for yourself, the results are not even close to what you got in the salon. Is it just me?!

Anyway, Amika seems to be coming into favor over the long-standing Redken at a few of the salons I’ve gone to in the past year or two. When I went home and googled this particular product some more, I was pleased to find there was no isopropyl alcohol — a weakness of Redken leave-ins — and decided to go ahead and give this a try for myself. Kind of stinks that it’s so expensive, $25 for the 4oz size.

A couple pros: this smells super nice. The packaging is really cute, and the sprayer is, as you would expect, easy to use. Two or three sprays will really go along way in your hair, too. With a light enough hand on the sprayer, this will make your hair feel smooth and soft, and easy to comb through.

But, for day-to-day use (or, in my case, “going into the office” days), I absolutely would not recommend this. I feel like the only time this product might make sense is if you had relegated yourself to NOT styling your hair that day, or if you have EXTREMELY dry/damaged/brittle hair. This stuff is heavy.

The hair closer to the top of my head is relatively healthy, with some obligatory fly-aways due to the frequent coloring. The ends are a bit more brittle from highlighting. When this primer gets applied to the un-highlighted hair, it weighs it down a lot, to the point where it’s almost impossible to style, even after blow-drying. Heck, even trying to straighten it — it’s almost like it protects your hair too much from heat, and refuses to bend at the will of any tools you’re about to use, even when you set it to max power. (I guess that means it’s working as a heat protectant, technically?)

The longevity of this product doesn’t produce great results either. Obviously, if you’ve gone a bit crazy and sprayed too much in your hair, you are going to feel as though your hair is a slick of oil all day. But even if you’ve gone in with just a couple sprays, it seems that the product sort of, settles into the skin of your scalp, which will also make your hair feel heavy. In either case, you might find that your hair becomes very difficult to work with — it’s just flat-out greasy. Which makes this product more suited for managing fly-aways, but… is it worth the greasiness??

I’ve relegated this primer to “damage control” status. If I’ve recently dyed my hair, or I don’t plan on going anywhere for the day that would require me styling my hair, I will use it. Other than that, I’m not sure if it will ever be a re-buy of mine. I’m guessing this is more well-suited for people with very damaged or brittle hair. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 4/5

Longevity: 4/5

How much I actually like this product: 2/5

Bourjois Healthy Mix Anti-Fatigue Foundation

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This will be a confusing review because I’m going to list a lot of things that I think are “wrong” with this foundation. But — this is actually one of my favorite foundations that I’ve used!

Right off the bat, this is not a super accessible brand to find in my area. I have to order it from Ebay or Amazon, who ship it from the UK, which guarantees a good ol’ two to three week wait time. Likely because of the shipping involved, I’ve never paid less than $16 for this. Although I need about four pumps of this to fully cover my face, I don’t find myself burning through the product too quickly, so I fortunately don’t need to reorder too often.

My second issue is the shade range. Now — previously I’ve seen some reviews on this brand that the selection of shades wasn’t all that great to begin with, but I just hopped on Bourjois’s website, and it looks like they expanded their range for this foundation. Still, those shades are nearly impossible to find outside of this website — ie: Amazon doesn’t seem to have much in the way of offerings beyond no 58. Then, finding your actual shade seems to be a bit more arduous than other foundations I’ve used. Swatch tests online don’t seem to be anywhere close to what the real color is, and I ended up having to swim through shade 50 to shade 55 to actually determine what my actual shade was. I felt like 51 through 54 were completely the same shade! Final issue was that the colors do skew a bit yellow, or grey, on initial application, but it does oxidize after awhile and seems to fix itself.

Onto the actual application. I would say this is light-medium coverage, but it’s very buildable! I use about three pushes of the applicator for the first pass on my face and rub it in using my fingers. It’s very smooth, and easy to apply. I usually let it dry before applying one more light layer over top. This does have some noticeable settling into fine lines and creases, but nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick touch up, or powder. The dry time is a little bit longer than some other foundations I’ve used, I’ve noticed, but not too bad. And once dried, it’s absolutely smooth sailing for any other product you want to use over it — no pilling, or muddying the other product.

As I mentioned before, the color does skew weirdly yellow or grey at first. But after it’s reacted to the heat of your skin for a few minutes, it seems to dissipate, and matches the skin tone better without the usual orange tint that you tend to get with oxidation (powder also helps, in this case). Coverage, in general, seems to become better after the five minute mark – so if you feel like the color is too light after your first application, you may need to wait a few minutes to see the full effect.

The biggest selling point here is how beautiful the foundation still looks after 12 hours of wear (I know it says 16 hours on the bottle but hey, if it makes it to 8 hours, I’m impressed). REGARDLESS of any product you have underneath or over this foundation, you shouldn’t notice any substantial oil build up or foundation cracking around lines. This really has a phenomenal longevity. Oh, and — this is great for sensitive skin. It doesn’t cause any dryness, itchiness or irritation. No surprise break outs when you remove this, at the end of the day!

I think the only remaining issue I have with this foundation is that I sort of wish it had SPF in it, along with all the other goodies it seems to have (Vitamins B, C, E, and even hyaluronic acid), but I’m probably asking for too much. 😉 But this is really my go-to foundation these days. The coverage and longevity are so far unparalleled in this particular price range.

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

Sunscreen and Sensitive Skin

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Now that the sun has made a guest appearance in my otherwise cold and snowy part of the world, I’m back on the hunt for a good face sunscreen. Here’s my criteria:

  • At least SPF 30
  • No whitecast
  • No drying alcohols

Not too crazy, right? Not even a chemical vs physical sunscreen stipulation! Unfortunately, the “no alcohol” clause rules out at least half, in both the US and Asian beauty markets! Goodbye, Biore UV Watery Gel! (too bad because I love that stuff).

Here’s a quick run down of sunblocks I’ve tried in the past, on a pass/fail basis:

Biore UV Watery Gel: Awesome. Dries fast and clear. Has alcohol. Fail.

Cerave Facial Moisturizing AM 30 SPF: No alcohol, but breaks down makeup, pills like mad, and makes my skin itchy, thus made me break out. Come on, Cerave… Fail.

Innisfree No Sebum SPF 35: No alcohol. Fruity smell might not be everyone’s taste, but I don’t mind it. Whitecast can be a little much and it will break your makeup down after it’s been on all day, but the longevity is certainly better than most! So actually… pass, but not on work days.

Avene Mineral Ultra-Light SPF 50: Absolutely not. Crazy amounts of white-cast, itchy, destroys makeup, pills with every single product, WAY too much money considering this has ZERO cosmetic elegance. Also made me break out. Fail times one million.

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Face SPF 30: I want to like this stuff so bad because I love Hawaiian Tropic brand for some reason (probably the beachy packaging…) but this basically burned my face off. Smells good, though… Fail. 😦

Neutrogena Sheer Zinc Dry-Touch SPF 50: Another “burned my face off and made me break out”. Fail.

Its Skin 2pm SPF 50: I’ve talked about this one a million times but it’s the only sunscreen that’s a 95% pass for me. Applies smoothly with very little whitecast, smells freakin’ amazing, doesn’t break down makeup or other product, and it’s 50 SPF. It DOES give me little tiny break outs, though. They’re tolerable, but ugh. Still, pass.

So there you have it, my quick review and rant of just some of the sunscreens I’ve tried in the past year. I’ve got Canmake Mermaid Skin on the way to my house right now, and I’m tempted to try Cetaphil’s 50 SPF. Readers, do you have any sensitive-skin friendly sunscreen options? I’d love to hear if you do!

COSRX Honey Ceramide Full Moisture Cream

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Finally, a CosRX product that is compliant with my skin, and one I’m in absolute love with! If you’re looking for a heavy moisturizer, I very heavily recommend this one.

My story about this moisturizer begins with another, the coveted Cerave-in- a-Tub. At the height of my cystic acne, I wanted so bad for Cerave to be my HG, second-to-last step moisturizer, convinced that the weight of it was locking in a supreme amount of moisture which would help my skin recover from all the retinol and benzoyl peroxide I was applying to it. Maybe this was the case, but it was SO difficult to work with. It never played well with any other products, and the whitecast was difficult to rid of. I woke up the next morning feeling sticky, moreso than hydrated.

A couple other heavy creams came after this one, but this CosRX honey ceramide cream ended up ticking off all of the boxes, and being everything Cerave was not – the only gripe being the ridiculously small amount in the package for the price ($17), and perhaps a slightly shorter listing of ceramides in the ingredients.

This alcohol-free, odorless white cream spreads very easily into the skin, and you don’t need to go overboard on product – a few pea-sized amounts should do. It won’t pill with any other skincare product you have underneath, unless you apply it too soon in succession. I use this exclusively at night due to it’s weight, but I did try it once with makeup, and it didn’t make too much of a mess – obviously, the longer you wait between application, better. Immediately after application, I feel like my skin was bouncier. When I wake up in the morning, my skin STILL feels hydrated. This being my first honey cream, I was under the impression that the honey would make me feel sticky, but it didn’t.

As a bonus, this did not cause me to break out! I suppose I had pictured honey clogging every single pore in existence and causing a mess, but it absolutely did not. I felt, in fact, my pores had shrunk a bit overnight. All in all, this stuff is great. This is a new HG for me, and I’d recommend even those with sensitive skin give it a try. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

Supplements and Skin Health

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There are an unbelievable amount of supplements and vitamins on the market nowadays, but everyone has at least one in their mind that they tout as their cure-all. I think I have tried just about everything that had even the remotest anecdotal evidence that it would clear up my skin — but the conclusion is still that there is no silver bullet. We’ll take a quick look at three today: Spearmint, Lysine, and N-Acetyl-Cystine (NAC). (And also — I am definitely not a doctor, so if you’re going to try any of these out, do so at your own risk!)

Spearmint: Sadly my testing period of this began around the same time when I began spironolactone, so I couldn’t “prove” that it was clearing up anything that spiro wasn’t already doing. But I took it away for a week, once, and I swear that a few cysts occurred in that time that would not normally have occurred. When I added it back, it seems that my skin kept itself at bay — not that I never had another breakout after that, but they were substantially smaller. Perhaps I should take back what I said, maybe this is a silver bullet! Another nice addition: this supplement calms my very tumultuous and sensitive stomach down. It’s $7 for a bottle, a relatively cheap buy, so check it out here on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Ld3QGT

Lysine: I’ve been using this for years, originally as part of my very strict diet and supplement routine when I was far more extreme about my fitness regimen. I kept it around even afterwards, because it’s supposed to be good for skin tissue health, particularly your lips. In fact, a few errant comments on Reddit said something like “my lips are fuller since I started taking this!” and I was like, “alright, random user, I believe you!” I don’t think it REALLY makes a huge difference, but I am slightly convinced that my lips slough off skin quicker than they did before I used to take this, and my lips aren’t chapped as much even in the dead of winter. As far as acne goes, it does nothing for it, since I continued to take it through my cystic acne phase.

N-Acetyl-Cystine: Another “cure-all” supplement, but not a ton of research to back it. This was lauded for preventing hangovers (if taken 2 hours prior to drinking moderately), diminishing certain nervous ticks, and clearing skin. I will say the hangover claim seems to be true for me personally — normally I am susceptible to hangovers after just two or three drinks even over the course of an entire night — but I don’t discredit placebo effect, either (or maybe I actually drank enough water that night!) Every other claim though — nope, nothing changed.