Beauty Tips For Body Care
Hey guys! I have been meaning to start doing brand reviews for some time now because I’m very loyal to a lot of brands that have worked for me, and am the kind of person who likes to try a lot of different products just for the sake of collecting data on what works for me. Paula’s Choice is a good brand for this because they genuinely have a product for nearly every type of concern or goal. I would like to first of all very briefly go over the history of the brand, and then I’ll like to go into their skincare lines and share my experiences on the products I have tried. The first line I would like to go over is their RESIST line, and since I’d like to cover each product in depth, I will do it by collection. I should also mention I was not paid for this, and while my view of this company is mostly positive, it’s because this website rewards research and I’ve been happy with most of my purchases so far. However, @Paula’s Choice I’m always here if you wanna slide into my dm’s xoxo. I also have been thinking of making video/audio versions of my posts just because of how wordy they get, but maybe that should be a sign to make them less wordy lol. Anyway, I’d love to know if there is interest in that. I also know they are a controversial brand here, and since this is just a thread to give people information, I’d love to hear the experiences you’ve had with their products, especially if they’re negative.I won’t be rating any products since I still have yet to try many of them. I have tried many items from this site, but when you go collection by collection you start to realize just how many products they have, which in my opinion is kind of an issue. It is also the reason I am doing this, as I have spent a lot of time trying to get through the overwhelming amount of products they have to find what is right for me. Moreover, if I have tried them, I will mention my experience and of course gush about my holy grails, but I will share any negative experience as well.Paula’s Choice is a skincare company that launched in 1995 after Paula had gotten international recognition for being a bestselling beauty author and calling out big skincare brands in broad fucking daylight. She at the time prioritized being open about ingredients, using sustainable packaging, and using the most efficacious and proven ingredients to get the job done. The company has been sold up to three times since, however, and is now owned by Unilever, who also owns Dermalogica. For better or worse, Paula’s Choice has embraced many of the things she used to rally against, such as eye creams (which they insist only have only been listed due to high customer demand) and needlessly overpriced products, and should more or less be separated from this crystal clean image. They are still a top quality brand with tried and true formulas, and they still do a great job at informing the customer, but they only inform the customer as much as their marketing lets them now.Here is their own timeline of how the brand came about, but I will go over some important milestones. In 2000, they launched their BHA Exfoliator that we have probably all seen at this point. This was a game changer, and has been replicated in many products since. They have since added many more options for BHA, which I will list later on. In 2002, they launched their Ingredient Dictionary, which is an amazing resource for learning about ingredients. As with all education resources on skincare sites, just remember that skincare is a huge industry and consider the source. Either way, this was a very smart move of transparency, and I believe it is still one of their strongest assets. In 2008, they launched Beautypedia, which is genuinely a laughable site and I would discourage you from checking it out. It may have been reliable at one point, but it is now a Paula’s Choice circle jerk and they put down every single other brand I have checked out on there. It is hilariously biased, and is one of my least favorite parts of Paula’s Choice’s brand. I would also be willing to bet that they will quietly update reviews for other companies owned by Unilever, but I will not be checking in.They are now a website with a bit too many products, and a line for every single type of skin you could really think of (except maybe people of color with their sunscreens 🙁). For instance, they have a CALM line for sensitive skin, a RESIST line for dynamic anti-aging concerns, a DEFENSE line to enable your skin to protect itself from environmental stressors, and a CLEAR line of products to aid in fighting acne. They also have a few lines with fewer products, as well as a good many products that explicitly don’t have a line. In this post, I will just be reviewing the RESIST line.RESIST: This is perhaps their most varied line, as it covers those with dry and oily skin pretty well. Their lighter blue RESIST products are typically meant for oilier skin, and their darker for dryer. They base most of their formulations in this line (and in general) on the efficacy of antioxidants in fighting sun damage, protecting the skin from free radicals and future sun damage, and healing skin. They have an anti-aging line within this line, but I won’t be covering that because I think needlessly upcharging people for anti-aging products is shady at best and ageist at worst.There are two cleansers in this line, and they are both focused on thoroughly cleansing the skin while retaining moisture and balance, though I do find their cleansers are typically very foaming and rough from the ones I’ve tried (the CALM and the CLEAR). The Optimal Results Hydrating Cleanser for dry skin would be your go-to here if you want a thorough cleanse, but you have dry skin to begin with and need to keep your moisture barrier in check. Looking at the ingredient list, it has some light cleansing agents with a focus on soothing antioxidants and emollients. The Perfectly Balanced Foaming Cleanser is the stronger of the two, destined for oily skin, and is focused on cleansing your skin of sebum and reducing pore size. This one has three ceramides, arginine, and aloe extract; so you really could do worse as far as formulations go. The hydrating cleanser is definitely better for sensitive skin, though; and while those calming ingredients help prevent the foaming cleanser from disrupting your skin barrier, I would still beware if you have sensitive skin since this is a wash off product and those skin soothers won’t have nearly enough time to sink into your skin. If what you need is a thorough wash, though, and you’re looking for a nice, calming formula, then the foaming cleanser would be great!There are two toners: The Advanced Replenishing Toner and the Weightless Advanced Repair Toner. The first is their highest rated toner (on their site that is), and is a combination of antioxidants, essential fatty acids, and some nice hydrating ingredients. Looking at the ingredient list, I really don’t understand why this is their top rated, but I’d love to hear what people have to say. The second one is one of their more promising, albeit short toner ingredient lists. Its primary ingredient toted is niacinamide, but I think it is also worth mentioning willow bark extract (a natural BHA whose concentration is undisclosed as far as I know), retraversol, and licorice root extract. The willow bark extract isn’t going to go quite to the lengths salicylic acid would, but it is a solid BHA for people with sensitive skin. This toner is meant to absorb right into the skin, and should help with inflammation and clarity.They also have two serums in this line, The Super Antioxidant Serum, and the Ultra-Light version of the same serum. Again, the dark blue/light blue dry skin/oily skin combo is at play here. Both of these are a collection of antioxidants, but they surprisingly have very different ingredient lists. The normal, dark blue serum is a vitamin c-driven antioxidant serum with ceramide NP and dimethicone towards the top of the list, whereas the lighter version is a hyaluronic acid and niacinamide driven antioxidant serum with dimethicone and sea whip extract. Their serums are horribly overpriced, and I would avoid them. You can find much better serums with antioxidants on the market for cheaper, in my opinion.There are three moisturizers here, and two of them are in darker blue packaging signifying dry skin. They both are focused on repairing your skin barrier, but both have retinol which is interesting. I understand that retinoids can have a firming effect, but I wouldn’t really recommend it as a star ingredient for barrier repair. Both of them are at a .01% concentration, though, so I would be curious to see some studies on the effects of retinol at this very low percentage. Either way, the Skin Barrier Repair is an emollient moisturizer with glycerin, ceramide NP, and licorice and green tea extracts.The Intensive Repair Cream is a bit more of an oily cream with Jojoba oil right up at the top. This cream seems a bit more preoccupied with using skin soothing extracts such as watermelon, licorice, green tea, apple, soybean, and lentil extracts. This is a neat ingredient list, and should honestly smell really nice, but if you have any sensitivities to fruit extracts, I would avoid this one. The light blue moisturizer is called the Anti-Aging Clear Skin Hydrator, and is more of a gel than a cream. It also opts for vitamin C as its active as opposed to retinol, and completes this skin brightening effect with Niacinamide. As far as moisturizers go, this is very basic, though, and considering the price point I would opt for something else that is friendly for oily skin.Okay guys these are the ones I’ve tried! I became obsessed with their sunscreens earlier this summer and have sampled almost every single one. There are two in this line, and they are pretty different. The Skin Restoring Moisturizer with SPF 50 is the dry skin option, and this is one of my favorite sunscreens for a good glow. It reminds me of the same finish as the dewy moisturizer from Tatcha, which is a compliment if you have dry skin. It can, however, be a bit much for people who are looking for a matte finish with their sunscreen. The active ingredients are Avobenzone 3%, Homosalate 5%, Octinoxate 7.50%, Octisalate 5%, and Oxybenzone 5%; so this is for sure a chemical sunscreen! This burns my skin just slightly, and my friend whom I gifted it to while we were vacationing (he didn’t bring SPF to the desert!) reported the same experience. Also, I would caution against sunscreens containing both Avobenzone and Octinoxate as Octinoxate tends to catalyze the degradation process of Avobenzone in direct sunlight, thus necessitating reapplication. This is a silicon and shea butter driven moisturizer, and has some stellar ingredients in niacinamide, aloe leaf juice, and licorice, coffee, oat, and apple extracts. If you have low sensitivity to chemical sunscreens and are looking for a solid formula for dry skin or just a healthy flow, then this is your girl. Their second sunscreen in this line is their Super-Light Wrinkle Defense SPF 30, which is their only SPF composed of only zinc oxide (13%). To compensate, it is tinted, but I would warn BIPOC against this one as its tint is too bright for even my tanned white skin sometimes. If you are off-white/olive/slightly tan, though, this gives some great color correction. There is also some evidence behind tinted sunscreens providing better protection against blue light. This leaves a very matte finish on the skin, and I often will layer it under another SPF for a more glowy complexion. Zinc oxide also provides some oil and sebum controlling qualities that make this a solid choice for people with oily skin in addition to the finish. The ingredient list focuses more on antioxidants such as vitamin c and retraversol, and I believe is the first item in this line so far without a drop of glycerin. I use this one often, and my “glassy skin” routine needs its color correcting qualities. The fact that a full size is 2 ounces, however, is an issue, and I believe it goes against Paula’s original mission of sustainable packaging. I don’t see this changing, but considering they are popular for choosing basic but efficient formulations, they should realistically have better price points than they do. And that’s just in America! They have even crazier pricing abroad.To get these items at decent prices, though, just be patient. They have sales almost all the time, and I would make good use of free shipping passes from their rewards program and/or free shipping promotions to try out their travel sizes, most of which are actually reasonably priced. They also have one of the more flexible return policies I’ve seen in the skincare world, so I would make use of exchanges on products that don’t work for you. I never buy anything without a promo or a gift card, and I’ve managed to score some solid prices on their site. Avoid buying elsewhere as many of their approved retailers like Sephora NEVER have sales! Rude tbh. They are also running their Anniversary sale right now, and I sometimes see the whole website marked down 20%.So that’s it! They also have some exfoliants in this line, but I will be doing that in my next review, where I will go through the exfoliants in general. In the meantime, let me know your experiences with this brand and what you think in general!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by fax5jrj
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