NATURAL SKINCARE TALK

[lyravega]

I don't think we have one of these yet... But, if I'm wrong, please do correct me.

I've been wanting to make this thread for a while now, but as it usually is... Life got and gets in the way. But, better late than never, huh?

I've been enjoying many natural skincare products for the last 15 years or so, on and off ( mainly facial oils and balms, but masks, treatments, and body oils and balms, as well. ) I even used to make my own for years ( years ago ) as good natural skincare products were not a very easy thing to obtain. You'd have to try and hunt down quality ingredients and make stuff yourself most of the time. And, that was quite a task! It makes me happy to see that there is so many wonderful products widely and easily available lately. It makes things so much easier! 🙂

Natural skincare performs better for me personally. I love and enjoy using it. My skin adores it. I love the idea of it and behind it. So, I wanted to make a place for us natural skincare lovers to talk about anything natural skincare as I see there are many others out there that are interested, or already in love with it, as well. So why not have our own little place on here? 🙂 So we can share our experiences ( good and/or bad ), loves, favorite products, favorite brands and their news/new launches, discus things, share our daily routines, talk DIYs if anyone is into that, why not? Anything really.

By "natural" skincare here I'm talking about skincare made mostly or completely of ingredients available in nature, like plant-derived ingredients, minerals... You know, the whole nine. 😉

Anyway - feel free to join in! You don't have to be a natural skincare lover exclusively. Everybody's welcome!

A word of caution... For those who are new to natural skincare, proceed with caution. Inform and educate yourself really well on everything you are interested in trying and putting on your skin. Natural does not mean it won't hurt you! And, it certainly doesn't mean it's safe. Some natural ingredients can be irritating for some people. Go with what's good for you, don't force anything on your skin just because someone said it is good. Do patch tests. Be smart. People prone to allergies should pay careful attention to what they use on their skin.

 P.S. I am not completely and 100% natural, nor I imagine I ever will be as I do love me some other stuff, as well. But mostly, yes.

[fairlywell]

@Magrathea Oh no! That's too bad about the Uma Clarifying. Good quick thinking on your quick fix though!

[Magrathea]

Thank you, @fairlywell ! My skin is so much better today thanks to that oil.

[fairlywell]

I think I've unfairly blamed Blue Cocoon for my unhappy skin. I just found my five year old wiping her hands on the stack of clean cloths I keep for drying my face after cleansing. So... that can't be helpful. But maybe BC will work for me after all!

[lyravega]

@fairlywell Does it work better this time around?

[fairlywell]

@lyravega Thanks for asking! It's just been a few days, but I think so. To be cautious I'm only using it on my t-zone and one cheek. The bare cheek is my control. So far so good. No surprise, grubby kid hands aren't the key to a glowing complexion. 

[lyravega]

Good to hear! And, that's a smart strategy there, @fairlywell . 😉

[fairlywell]

I'm sad that Blue Cocoon seems to be giving me congestion on my cheeks. I tried Rare Indigo, but it seemed more of a treatment and not moisturizing enough for my needs (similar for me to Uma Clarifying oil, which is a good thing but I don't need both.) Has anyone tried the green Siam Seas balm? It doesn't contain shea, which is probably my issue with BC. 

[lyravega]

Funny. Rare Indigo and Clarifying Oil couldn't be more different on me. I don't find them similar in any way. Plus, RI while on lighter side is plenty nourishing ( got me through last winter ), whereas BC totally dried out my skin. Crazy how differently our skins react to products.

I haven't tried many balms as RI was among first I've tried, and love at first use, so I've never even had a need to explore much more. ( I do want to try that JR Vital Balm Cream, though! )

Hope you find something that works nicely for your skin!

[Mochapj]

@fairlywell I have Siam Seas - I haven't been using it much since I got the Josh Rosebrook Vital Balm Cream, but I did like SS a fair bit during the winter.

What would you like to know about it?

[fairlywell]

@Mochapj Is it hydrating? I'm hoping for something more oil texture than cream, but not as dry-oil as the Rare Indigo. During the winter I can use oil + cream (like Dr Jart Ceramidin) but that's too much in warm/humid months. From your posts I think my skin is generally a bit drier than yours, if that matters? Thank you!

[Mochapj]

@fairlywell I find it hydrating, yes.

On the spectrum of balms I have, I'd say Blue Cocoon is the 'heaviest'. I wouldn't say Rare Indigo is lightest, but it's on that end of the scale.

Siam Seas I find in the middle of the two - it's not super heavy like BC.  The biggest difference I see between SS and other balms is the texture.  In the pot it looks like it would be firm/solid, but when you go to touch the balm you sink right into it regardless of ambient temperature.  It's not airy enough for me to say it's whipped, but it's... luscious?  It's definitely more of a cream texture than RI or BC.

Mostly I found it soothing - I was using it all winter after microdermabrasion and it was very good at calming the skin while still providing some hydration.

If you're looking for something more of an oil texture, I'd suggest the H is For Love Bara Balm.  That's another favourite of mine - it's oilier than RI, but not as heavy as BC and a bit lighter than SS.

RI<BB<SS<BC 🙂

[fairlywell]

Thank you for the detailed answer @Mochapj! Bara Balm looks wonderful, but again there's shea on the ingredient list. I see they have a sample kit, so that might be one to try. 

[Magycmyste]

For those who are curious, i got my Mahalo samples from Alyaka today, and I can confirm that their kit does NOT include The Bean (luckily, at this point, I've managed to buy two full sizes of it, so I'm looking forward to trying the rest).

[mrsbaine]

I wanted to come back and tell you guys that I think I like the Josh Rosebrook Hydration Mask. I used it last night and my first impression was that the smell was super nice! I also like the texture of it. I applied it the first way in the instructions: spray skin with the Hydration Accelerator and then layer the mask over that. Because the mask is almost balmy, it makes sense that your skin has to be moist when you do it. I left it on for 20 minutes, than used a dry towel to remove it. My skin was pretty plump and soft afterward. I should have stopped there. I contemplated how to do my normal skincare after that and decided that I should just do what I normally do which is use a hydrating serum (or oil) and then the May Lindstrom Blue Cocoon. I think that was too much. It felt like too much as I was doing it, but this was for science, so.... This AM I woke up with a shinny pimple on my nose. My nose is the tell tale sign of "you just clogged your pores sillyface". About 4 minutes before I came on BT, I felt another shinny little guy come up right above my eye socket. The rest of my face is quite clear, so I'm really hoping that it is just overkill on the moisture last night and not anything else. The next time I use this, I will not do an oil and/or balm after. In fact, my skin felt pretty good with just the mask; I perhaps may just go with that and call it a day. Lesson learned.

[lyravega]

Thank you for your review, @mrsbaine !

[Magycmyste]

 I got my second Detox Market order, as well as my Skinstore order yesterday! So I now have full sizes of Mahalo's The Bean, Josh Rosebrook's Hydration Accelerator, Captain Blankenship's Mermaid Detox Mask, and May Lindstrom's Honey Mud and Problem Solver (also a sample of Shiva Rose's Rose Face Oil and Josh Rosebrook's Day Cream w/SPF, and a GWP sample set from the Skinstore - will go through those later).

I used Honey Mud with Problem Solver on top yesterday (I know it's the first time I'd tried Honey Mud and I probably should have tried it on its own, but something made me really want to layer them together - might have been @Mochapj's description of her experience with these products). I left them both on for their full periods, then rinsed them off, followed by JR's Hydrating Accelerator and a few drops of Shiva Rose's facial oil.

My face felt nice and soft this morning, and I could swear my face showed a definite improvement today. I am horrible at noticing small skin changes, so I can't point out any details specifically that were improved, but... my face just looked healthier and smoother.

I'm going to use my Solstice Scents mask tonight (because it's my birthday, and I'm in extra-special pamper mode, plus I want to compare the feel afterwards to The Bean). I will probably try The Bean again tomorrow for comparison, and then try out the Mermaid Detox.

I'm really curious about that one. Something about it reminds me of Villainess's Grundy Mud, but I don't think it's too similar. They share French green clay, spirulina, and nettle powder as ingredients, but that's it. I think Grundy Mud is meant to target issues like ML's Problem Solver, but on a lesser scale, maybe? It definitely doesn't have the heat of PS. Anyway, I'm looking forward to checking out the Mermaid Detox mask. /ramble 🙂

[lyravega]

Happy belated birthday, @Magycmyste ! I hope you had a blast! 😉

[Magycmyste]

Thank you, @lyravega! It was a nice, relaxing day for me...

[mrsbaine]

Happy Birthday!!! I'm glad you treated yourself for it!

I'm also glad you had a good experience with May Lindstrom. She is one of my favorite lines for my skin.

Be careful masking three days in a row with masks that do close to the same thing. It may end up being overkill and can reek havoc on your skin. It's usually a good idea to give it a couple days in between. I personally like to space out new products so I know if they give me any residual reaction. Glad you like your new stuff!

[Magycmyste]

Thank you!! 😄

Hmm, good point. The Solstice Scents masques defintely doesn't do the same as Problem Solver (I'm pretty sure I shouldn't do that more than once a week), but probably has some similarities to Honey Mud and The Bean.

Well, I definitely remember enough about how my face felt after The Bean to be able to compare it to the Solstice Scents masques. After trying the Bean last time, my face felt clean, smooth and polished, like marble (but soft, obviously - my skin hadn't hardened or anything :)). After letting it dry and taking off my Solstice Scents masque, my face felt clean, hydrated, and velvety soft. I did not follow up with any other skincare last night, because I really love the way my face feels after that one. So, I don't think The Bean will be a replacement for it, but I will probably use it and these others more frequently than the Solstice Scents one, since I can't really get any more of that. I may need to try DIY-ing a mask based on the ingredients of the Solstice Scents masques in the future. Both masques include honey powder, coconut milk powder, and french green clay, so that's probably a good place for me to start.

ETA: So, my second Alyaka order came today (with a backup of Mahalo's The Bean) - no sign of the first yet, though, with the rest of the Mahalo samples...

[Mochapj]

Wanted to come back and update on the new JR goods.

i've used the vital balm cream every night for the past 2 weeks and it's an outright love. It's funny because when I first tried both products the VBC was the thing that didn't wow me, and the AHM did. But, after now using them for an extended period of time, I know how I want to use both moving forward.

advanced hydration mask is like a skincare SOS. When my dehydrated skin is in dire need of moisture, that's when I will pull this out. I've used it 3x in 14 days; the first time was amazing and shocked me, TBH. The second time was still good but did not have the same wow-factor (I'm assuming because at that point I wasn't nearly as dehydrated). The third time, I slept with it on overnight and it was still good but I feel like it actually worked better when I toweled it off and followed with the rest of my skincare.

once my hydration levels were stabilized, VBC worked well to maintain them. Using it overnight, I found in the mornings my skin was plumped and dewy. The longer I use it, the more improvement I'm seeing. Small but perceptible changes like the little bits of redness around my nose and mouth disappearing. And my skintone looking a bit clearer and less sallow. 

Overall while I think both have a place in my routine, I know I will repurchase VBC because it has supplanted just about every other balm I own. However, I'm unclear on whether I will repurchase AHM - it works amazingly well, but with the regular maintenance of VBC, it seems somewhat superfluous. It'd probably be amazing if you regularly travelled, though.