Hello lovelies! Today I wanted to talk about two skincare products I am currently OBSESSED with. As you know, skincare is very important to me. Especially since I was a little sun worshipper in high school and used to laugh at the thought of SPF, I am seriously trying to stave off any further damage (as well as repair some of the damage I'm sure I've already done). For me, that means sticking to my top skincare essentials: SPF, Antioxidants, and Retin-A (post on Retin-A coming soon). I have other skincare ingredients that I think are really important to use, (i.e. peptides) but as far as every single day, without fail, its really those three: SPF and antioxidants to protect, Retin-A to repair.
Caudalie Vinosource S.O.S Thirst Quenching Serum
Ohhh Caudalie. Words cannot express how much I love this skincare line. Once I am a grownup I am almost 100% positive that I will be a full-blown Caudalie junkie, but at this (broke) stage in my life I can only afford to buy little tidbits here and there to covet. I have a mini-version of their Caudalie Divine oil that I talked about a little in my facial oil post (it's only 9$ at Sephora in their checkout aisle!) that I use on my face and I loveee. It's so luxurious! I also have their hand and nail cream which I will probably talk about in a post here soon because its amazing.
Now I have another skincare product from Caudalie to cherish; their Vinosource S.O.S Thirst Quenching Serum. While it's not marketed as an antioxidant serum, it is chock-full of them; in fact all of their products are, as all of Caudalie's products are derived from organic grapes and are packed with polyphenols. Grape water is amazing for moisturizing and hydrating your skin, and the polyphenols make sure your skin is protected from UV rays and free radicals. This serum also has hyaluronic acid, which is an essential skincare ingredient that has the amazing ability to hold up to 1000 times its weight in water.
The thing I love most about this serum is that while it is super-moisturizing, it is also incredibly light-weight. You would think with a name like "thirst-quenching" that this would be the thickest, most heavy cream ever, but its actually very light and absorbs almost instantly into my skin. I also notice that my skin does not get as oily when I wear this, which makes sense because my skin is so deeply moisturized that it does not feel the need to over-compensate as much by producing excess oil. It is extremely pricey ($49 for 1 oz) so I will probably not be able to purchase again anytime soon, although I am definitely going to repurchase once I am done with law school and finally working!
Dr. Jart+ Premium Beauty Balm SPF 45
Having dabbled in BB creams and liked them, I figured it was about time I bought one from one of the brands that started the whole craze. BB creams were actually invented in Korea by a dermatologist to protect patient's faces after facial peels and surgery. It was meant to be an all-in-one treatment, providing powerful skincare ingredients and lightweight coverage. They caught on with Korean actresses who wanted healthy-looking and even-toned skin, but thought liquid foundations were too heavy. Dr Jart was one of the first Korean-based brands to bring these beauty balms over to the U.S, and the rest is history.
Unfortunately, a lot of the Westernized versions have been criticized for being basically tinted moisturizers. The whole point of beauty balms is to combine powerful ingredients with makeup to create an all-in-one product that you can literally slather on and go. That's why I wanted to go straight to the source and try out a genuine BB cream. I decided to go for the Dr. Jart+ Premium Beauty Balm with SPF 45. While it does have parabens, which I'm not crazy about, the other ingredients were just too good to pass up.
This Premium BB cream has a bio-peptide complex infused with white gold (huh?) to boost collagen production in the skin. As I've mentioned before, peptides are extremely effective at boosting collagen production in your skin, and you really should try to incorporate them into your skincare routine. Not sure why white gold was added, although I guess that's nice. This BB cream also has adenosine, which is an antioxidant that improves elasticity and firms the skin. In addition, it has arbutin which is a skin-lightening ingredient that fades dark spots and evens out your skin tone. And best of all, it has physical SPF in the form of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide!!
Clearly this BB cream is killing it in the skincare department. Unfortunately, it did not do as well in the makeup department. It comes in only one shade, a sheer, ivory-pinkish color. It's supposed to be a universal shade, however it looks a little gray on my face at first. Thankfully it seems to oxidize to match my skin tone after a few minutes. The other downside is that the coverage it does provide is not very much. This is an extremely sheer BB cream; I was hoping to have a product I could wear in place of foundation, but found that I needed a little more coverage. After dusting some of my bareMinerals on top it was perfect though!
So there you go guys. Hope you enjoyed this little review of these two skincare products. Please let me know in the comments if you have tried these and what your thoughts were!
xo Patricia
Thank you :) Your blog is really cool too!
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