Azelique Azelaic Acid Skincare from iHerb

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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by iHerb. All opinions, nevertheless, are my own.

iHerb has an interesting line of azelaic acid products available from their brand Azelique, and when they saw how much I’d liked incorporating azelaic acid into my routine in the past, they asked me if I’d like to try their line and write a review. I said yes. Of course.

I hadn’t ever ordered from iHerb before, though I’d heard of it. They’re an online store based in California that has some specific things that set them apart: for one, they operate internationally (i.e. not US only like so many other retailers I write about here). They also offer what they call a Triple Guarantee to make sure customers are 100% satisfied. So first, there’s the value guarantee (that you will get the best overall value—in the world—for the 30,000+ brand name products they sell). Second is the quality guarantee. They guarantee that the products they sell are authentic; they’re committed to quality assurance; and they ship directly from climate-controlled warehouses. And the third part is the delivery guarantee, with no excuses! Your order will be delivered, and iHerb offers free or discounted shipping to over 150 countries. Personally, I found the website easy to use, and my order arrived in just a few days, with everything packed nicely and in perfect condition. 

iHerb sent me their entire Azelique line for free, which was a lot of fun for me as an aspiring hoarder. There are six different products: a night cream, a day lotion, an eye treatment, a cleanser, an activated charcoal/clay mask, and a polish/scrub. They also let me choose two products from their facial oils and serums, and I picked the hyaluronic acid serum (surprise, surprise), and the peptide oil blend. 

So . . . that’s a lot of stuff to test on just my one face in a short period of time. I don’t like to introduce more than one new product at a time (per day, though if you have more sensitive skin, you might want to wait longer between new products) so that if I have a bad reaction, I can tell what caused it. What I decided to do with this bounty, then, was to pick one thing to use consistently for a couple of weeks and to review in detail, and to try everything else at least once and give you a briefer, first-impressions-type descriptions of those products. Besides, you know how long-winded I am: no one would want to read my novel-length review of all eight products in one sitting. This is going to be a doozy as it is.

I’d been wanting a richer moisturizer for a while, so I picked the Azelique Age Refining Night Cream as the thing to incorporate fully into my routine (which is otherwise basically the same as what I described here). Since these products contain azelaic acid, I did, however, stop using my other azelaic acid product for the time being. 

First some general thoughts about the whole line. The packaging is no nonsense, but appropriate for the products it contains. There was just one package I didn’t like much, and you can probably guess which one from just looking at the photo above—more on that later. I particularly like the airless pumps for the moisturizers. The copy on the packaging also gets my elusive stamp of approval. It tells you what’s in the product, highlights the featured ingredients and what they are supposed to do for your skin, and—this is important—does not make any unrealistic, overblown, or woo-woo claims. There’s also a warning about patch testing products with azelaic and glycolic acid to make sure it doesn’t irritate the skin. So just because this is a line that is marketed as natural, there’s no drivel about how that supposedly means it will work for absolutely everyone with perfect, magical gentleness (like some other brands that will remain nameless). These are active ingredients that do stuff to your skin, and you need to make sure they will do the stuff that you want them to do and not do stuff you don’t want. Everyone’s skin is a little different.

Every product here, with the exception of the eye cream, the serum, and the facial oil, has the same vaguely plant-like fragrance. It’s pretty subtle, but there’s something floral and/or herbal there. I’m not good at identifying scents. I could do without it, personally, but it’s light enough that I don’t notice it after a few minutes.

First up, the Azelique Age Refining Night Cream ($20). This is a thick moisturizing lotion that I enjoyed much more than I expected I would. It was immediately clear that this was the kind of step my shriveled skin has been missing—the part of Texas where I’m currently living has been colder than usual this winter, and my office is having problems with low humidity on top of it, so I’m extra dry. The night cream is rich but easy to spread and not greasy, and it feels really, really soothing and nourishing on my skin. I need about two pumps to cover my face, though three pumps feels extra nice.

Here are the ingredients: 

Water (aqua), caprylic/capric triglyceride, cetyl alcohol, glycerin, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, glyceryl stearate citrate, potassium azeloyl diglycinate, stearyl alcohol, ethylhexyl palmitate, sodium hyaluronate, potassium sorbate, xanthan gum, vitis vinifera (grape seed) seed oil, glyceryl stearate, potassium cetyl phosphate, tocopheryl (vitamin E), acetate, acetyl hexapeptide-8, palmitoyl oligopeptide, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, glycolic acid hamamelis virgiana (witch hazel) extract, caffeine, calcium ascorbate (vitamin C) retinyl (vitamin A) palmitate, ubiquinone (CoQ10), camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, euterpe oleracea (acai berry) fruit extract, punica granatum (pomegranate) seed oil, vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) extract, rosa canina (rose hips) fruit extract, epilobium angustifolium (Canadian willowherb) extract, pichia/resveratrol ferment extract, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, fragrance.

Good, right? The azelaic acid is in the form of potassium azeloyl diglycinate, its water-soluble version. There’s also hyaluronic acid, which my skin always loves, in the form of sodium hyaluronate, along with some nice oils and other moisturizing ingredients like glycerin. There are even some vitamins and a ferment stuck in there low on this list.

Unfortunately the company couldn’t provide the exact percentage of azelaic acid included, which is something I was curious about. They did tell me, at least, that it contains 8.42% total active ingredients, which includes the azelaic acid, glycolic acid, argireline, matrixyl, hyaluronic acid, witch hazel, and caffeine. That means, obviously, that the concentration of azelaic acid here is lower than the usual 10% that you see in several other products on the market. If you’ve found those irritating or overkill, though, this might be a better option for your skin.

I’ve been able to use this night cream all over my face, including around my eyes, for two weeks without any adverse effects. In the morning there’s still some slight residue on my face, which I like to wash off. I don’t think this is a bad thing—it’s keeping the hydration in my skin all night, and if you have drier skin than mine, you might want to keep that extra moisture in place all day, too. Just as a moisturizer alone, this stuff works really well and has kept my skin soft and happy. I’ll talk about the longer term effects from using this whole line at the end of the post.

Left to right above: One pump each of the Night Cream, Day Lotion, and Eye Treatment.

Next up is the Azelique Age Refining Day Lotion ($19). I’ve only used this product once, along with everything that follows, so take that into account. This was lighter than the night cream and didn’t feel as soothing. It was a perfectly functional moisturizer, however, which absorbed quickly but kept my skin feeling moisturized. I had no problems applying makeup over it.

Ingredients: 

Water (aqua), carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, glycerin, cetyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate, stearic acid, potassium azeloyl diglycinate, glyceryl stearate SE, polysorbate 60, allantoin, potassium sorbate, tocopheryl (vitamin E) acetate, dimethicone, glyceryl stearate citrate, vitis vinifera (grape) seed oil, cetearyl glucoside, sodium hyaluronate, acetyl hexapeptide-8, hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin, palmitoyl tripeptide-38, glycolic acid, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) extract, caffeine, sodium ascorbyl (vitamin C) phosphate, retinyl (vitamin A) palmitate, ubiquinone (CoQ10), camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, euterpe oleracea (acai berry) fruit extract, punica granatum (pomegranate seed oil, vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) extract, rosa canina (rose hips) fruit extract, epilobium augustifolium (canadian willowherb) extract, pichia/resveratrol ferment extract, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, fragrance.

 You can see that the main ingredients (i.e. those in the first half of the list) are similar to the night cream, but sodium hyaluronate, for example, is a bit lower down, and overall the day lotion has quite a different texture from the night cream. In comparison to the 8% active ingredients in the night cream, the day lotion has 4.08%, so it’s less potent in general.

The next one I tried was the Azelique Age Refining Eye Treatment ($20). I’m not generally an eye cream user. For one, I’ve never found an eye cream that was much more useful than just using my best moisturizer around my eyes. What’s more, the skin near my eyes is prone to milia, and the heavy, oily ingredients in most eye creams tend to seriously exacerbate the problem. That said, I did like this lotion just fine, and it’s the one unscented product in the main Azelique line, so if you don’t like fragrance near your eyes, that would be a plus. Its texture is somewhere in between the night cream and day lotion in thickness and richness. It absorbed quickly, and after applying it at bedtime, I couldn’t detect it on my skin by the morning (but to be fair, it’s a “treatment,” not a moisturizer or a cream). For what it’s worth, I did not notice any new milia cropping up after one use of the eye product, which has actually happened with others in the past.

Ingredients for you: 

Water (aqua), capric/caprylic triglyceride, cetyl alcohol, stearic acid, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, glyceryl stearate citrate, glycerin, xanthan gum, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, potassium sorbate, glyceryl stearate, tocopheryl (vitamin E) acetate, potassium cetyl phosphate, acetyl hexapeptide-8, hydroxypropyl cyclodextrin, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-38, potassium azeloyl diglycinate, sodium hyaluronate, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) extract, caffeine, sodium ascorbyl (vitamin C) phosphate, retinyl (vitamin A) palmitate, ubiquinone (CoQ10), vitis vinifera (grape seed) oil, camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, punica granatum (pomegranate) seed oil, vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) extract, rosa canina (rose hips) fruit extract, epilobium angustifolium (Canadian willowherb) extract, pichia/resveratrol ferment extract, euterpe oleracea (acai berry) fruit extract, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin.

It’s a similar blend to the previous two products, though certainly not identical (i.e. they’re not just selling you the same moisturizer in a smaller bottle). Normally I wouldn’t apply azelaic acid near my eyes, but this stuff contains just 3.6% active ingredients, and even among those, azelaic acid isn’t high on the list. I didn’t experience any irritation at all. That said, I was also fine using the night cream around my eyes, and for my money I’d rather stick with that, since I liked it so much. I think the lack of fragrance here is one of the most important differences.

Next, Azelique Age Refining Cleanser ($13). I’m more concerned with performance in a cleanser than in its active ingredients, which are rinsed right off, so that’s what I’ll focus on here. This is a thin, runny, gel cleanser. It didn’t lather much, but it did clean my skin thoroughly, including removing all my makeup. It didn’t sting my eyes, which is something I hate in a cleanser, and it rinsed completely. My skin felt slightly tight after rinsing and drying, and so I was motivated to apply moisturizer pretty soon. It was a fine cleanser, but I don’t generally get too excited about cleansers.

Here are the ingredients, for your information:

Water (aqua), disodium laureth sulfosuccinate, cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine, decyl glucoside, polysorbate 20, glyceryl stearate SE, glycerin, PEG-150 distearate, stearic acid, potassium sorbate, allantoin, tocopheryl (vitamin E) acetate, sodium ascorbyl (vitamin C) phosphate, retinyl (vitamin A) palmitate, ubiquinone (CoQ10), camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, vitis vinifera (grape seed) oil, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, euterpe oleracea (acai berry) fruit extract, punica granutum (pomegranate) seed oil, vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) extract, rosa canina (rose hips) fruit extract, pichia/resveratrol ferment extract, epilobium angustifolium (canadian willowherb) extract, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, fragrance.

Now my other surprise favorite among the bunch: the Azelique Activated Charcoal Facial Clay Mask ($20). I’ve used a lot of clay and charcoal masks. Some work better than others, and some are more drying than others, but I haven’t been impressed by very many of them. I was expecting more of the same here. The mask is easy to spread in an even layer, and it dried rather quickly—the photo below was taken less than a minute after dispensing it, and the edges are already drying. Unlike some other masks, it doesn’t sting my eyes as it dries, probably because it doesn’t contain alcohol to evaporate and give off fumes. The mask felt slightly cool on my face in a soothing, not tingly, way. It contains some sparse, scrubby particles from apricot kernels. If you like physical exfoliation, you can do some gentle rubbing as you wash the mask off. If you don’t, just go ahead and rinse it, and the grit won’t affect your skin. 

When I first rinsed off the mask, my skin felt moisturized and not at all tight or dry. It felt calm and soothed, but when I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my face was slightly pink exactly where the mask had been—as in, I could see the border between the skin at the edge of my face where I hadn’t applied the mask and where I had. I was a little disturbed, I have to admit. As it turns out, however, when I looked in the mirror the next time, a couple of hours later, my usual redness in the center of my face had actually decreased significantly from what it was before masking! That almost never happens for me with masks. Then, when I took a close look the next morning, my pores were noticeably clearer and less visible. With a good clay mask, it usually isn’t until the next day that I see an improvement in my pores, so that was right on target. Overall, I’m very excited about this stuff. Soothing, moisturizing, redness-reducing, pore-shrinking. Score!

Ingredients:

Deionized water, kaolin, glycerin, potassium azeloyl diglycinate, glyceryl stearate SE, apricot (prunus armeniaca) seed powder, charcoal, sodium hyaluronate, sea kelp (macrocystis pyrifera) extract, cucumber (cucumis sativas) fruit extract, green tea (camellia sinensis) leaf extract, glycolic acid, panthenol, xanthan gum, menthyl lactate, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, potassium sorbate, fragrance.

I don’t know the percentage of active ingredients from this list, but you can see that the azelaic acid is higher in the list than in the other products, and that it’s actually above the gritty, bulky apricot seed powder. If you’d like to try masking with azelaic acid instead of using it in a leave-on product, I recommend giving this a shot.

And then there is the Azelique Age Refining Skin Polish ($22), which is a scrub that contains alumina, or aluminum oxide, as its physical exfoliation agent. This is a fine grit, almost the texture of baking soda, that is typically used for microdermabrasion. I like to do some physical exfoliation once a week or so to get rid of any flakiness that chemical exfoliants can’t handle, and this polish worked well for that purpose: my skin felt very soft and smooth for days after using it. I’d recommend being gentle, because alumina won’t dissolve or soften like some other scrub particles (sugar, salt, jojoba beads, etc.). 

My main complaint about this product is the jar packaging. It’s not just the usual gripes about jars that I object to here. The main problem is that you are supposed to wet your face first, and then use the scrub. It’s really difficult to splash water on my face and then scoop out the polish without dripping water into the jar. Even with a spoon or spatula, I’d have to dry off my hands in between. It would just be much more practical if it came in the same squeeze tube as the cleanser and mask.

Ingredients:

Water (aqua), alumina, stearic acid, stearyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate citrate, ethylhexylglycerin, phenoxyethanol, glycerin, xanthan gum, carrageenan, potassium sorbate, glyceryl stearate SE, potassium cetyl phosphate, tocopheryl (vitamin E) acetate, sodium ascorbyl (vitamin C) phosphate, retinyl (vitamin A) palmitate, ubiquinone (CoQ10), camellia sinensis (green tea) leaf extract, vitis vinifera (grape) seed seed oil, olea europaea (olive) leaf extract, euterpe oleracea (acai berry) fruit, punica granatum (pomegranate) seed oil, vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) extract, rosa canina (rose hips) fruit extract, epilobium angustifolium (Canadian willowherb) extract, pichia/resveratrol ferment extract, fragrance.

The last two products that iHerb sent me are from Azelique’s Serumdipity line, and those serums and oils don’t necessarily contain azelaic acid like the main collection does.

I chose the Facial Oil with Peptides ($20), because I don’t have much experience with peptides in my skincare. As a first impression, it was a pleasant facial oil to use, not too thick or too thin, and it absorbed quickly but not instantly. My face wasn’t left feeling greasy after I applied four drops of the oil on top of moisturizer. This is the kind of product, though, that I’ll really have to evaluate after longer use, so I’ll check in later.

Despite the inclusion of rosemary leaf extract in the ingredients below, I couldn’t detect any fragrance at all in this oil (which I prefer). Ingredients:

Helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, butyrospermum parkii (shea) oil, camellia japonica seed oil, crambe abyssinica seed oil, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, palmitoyl tripeptide-1, c18-36 acid glycol ester, palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, tocopherol, c 12-15 alkyl benzoate, sorbitan laurate, c18-36 acid triglyceride.

I also requested the Hyaluronic Acid Facial Serum ($20), because my skin loves hyaluronic acid, and I can’t resist trying different formulas that contain it. This serum was light and absorbed immediately. It provided hydration, but it’s not a replacement for moisturizer, so I’d recommend using it in conjunction with one of those. It had enough slip to spread easily over my skin, and it had no fragrance (again, thumbs up for that). 

Ingredients:

Water, glycerin, hydrolyzed jojoba esters, sodium hyaluronate, hordeum vulgare seed extract, oat (avena sativa) seed extract, galium aparine extract, evening primrose (oenothera biennis) flower extract, sodium phytate, acacia senegal gum, citric acid, xanthan gum, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin.

Overall, after using the Night Cream nightly for just over two weeks, and using each other product once during that same period, my skin is in nice condition. It’s very well moisturized, but not unusually oily; it’s much softer and smoother than usual; and the redness that I ordinarily see, particularly in the center of my face, is minimized. One thing that these products did not help with was the hormonal, cystic acne that I usually get on my chin every month. I don’t think anything here contributed to breakouts, but they also didn’t help to prevent them like my 10% azelaic acid product does. And to be fair, Azelique never claims to treat acne, so that’s not something I expected. Accordingly, like I said earlier, I’d recommend these products for people who find 10% azelaic acid too strong and/or who are looking for results other than acne control—brightening, redness reduction, and other antioxidant benefits—in a gentle formulation. Personally, I’m going to carefully add my 10% azelaic acid back in, because I don’t think it will be too much for me.

I really was impressed with this collection. I honestly expected to like a couple of the products, hate a couple, and feel meh about the rest. (I promise I would tell you if that were the case.) Instead, I found a couple of things that I truly enjoyed, and I have mostly positive thoughts about the others. My favorites are the Night Cream (probably because it has the highest concentration of active ingredients in addition to effective moisturizers) and the Charcoal and Clay Mask, both of which I unreservedly recommend. I plan to replace them when I run out, though I might wait until next winter for the my next bottle of night cream. My least favorite items are the Cleanser and Polish, because they didn’t seem like things I needed to add to my routine. But they’re fine. 

The price point for this line is pretty reasonable. For instance, the Day Lotion costs $19 for 1.7 oz., and the Night Cream is $20 for the same amount, which isn’t as cheap as your basic drugstore moisturizer, obviously, but is less expensive than other comparable products with similar formulations in my routine. iHerb also gave me a code to share with you that is embedded into all of the affiliate links in this post. If you purchase through any of my links, you’ll get 5% off your order (and so will I). In addition, new customers will get $5 off a $40 purchase of anything from iHerb by using this link.

Reminder: Essential oils are "toxic chemicals"

Some essential oils can be effective in skincare. I especially like tea tree oil for acne spot treating (more here). But just because these substances seem more "natural" does not mean that they are gentler, safer, or less toxic than "unnatural" chemicals. The increasing use of essential oils recently has resulted in increasing household poisoning by essential oils. As this article points out:

Highly toxic essential oils include camphor, clove, lavender, eucalyptus, thyme, tea tree, and wintergreen oils, the researchers noted. Many essential oils can cause symptoms such as agitation, hallucinations and seizures. Symptoms may also include chemical burns, breathing problems, liver failure and brain swelling, among others. 

While there are hundreds of essential oils, "tea tree oil is commonly cited, and most of those cases are accidental ingestions by children," Loden said.

So store your essential oils securely, and don't assume that your products containing these ingredients will be non-toxic to your kids or pets.

My cheap favorites: the best skincare for $10 or less

Disclosure: Affiliate links.

Here is the long awaited (by me) sequel to my cheap makeup post: skincare. As with the makeup, these are all things I've tried and repurchased because I liked them so much. Trusty and reliable! There are other good cheap options out there, of course, but I'm not going to vouch for anything I haven't used. Please leave your suggestions in the comments, though.

Some categories, again, are missing, because I don't use that type of product (e.g. toner), or I don't have a current favorite, or my favorite is a little more expensive (e.g. targeted products like retinol, or exfoliants, or my favorite sunscreen). And because I like to experiment with new things, I don't have all of these products on hand to photograph at the moment. You should keep in mind that I have combination-oily skin that is not particularly sensitive, and that I don't usually like fragrance in products I put on my face. If you have a different skin type, your results may vary (though you may find some of these things effective anyway).

That's enough preamble and disclaimer. Here's the list:

Favorite Cleanser: I'm using some Paula's Choice face wash at the moment, but my favorites are from Neutrogena.  I especially like the Redness Soothing Gel Cleanser and the Ultra Gentle Daily Cleanser. They do a great job of removing oil and makeup without drying out my skin. The latter comes in a really big bottle for $8-10, so it's an especially good value.

Favorite Facial Wipes: I try not to use these too often because of the waste, but a few times a month when I'm too tired to wash my face properly or when I'm traveling, they are handy. I've tried a lot of brands, and my favorite are the Simple Cleansing Wipes. They are unscented and they remove makeup effectively without causing dryness. They also have a very soft but durable texture (make sure you get the regular ones, not the exfoliating variety). The cheapest place to get them online is in a pack of two (50 wipes total) from Amazon for about $7 (and right now there is a $1 off coupon).

Favorite Makeup Remover: I don't use actual makeup remover on my eyes most of the time (only when I end up with a free sample somehow). Although dual phase formulas can be very effective, I don't like the oily residue they leave behind. It tends to cause milia around my eyes even if I wash it off. Instead, I wash my face first, and then I spread a small amount of Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion (about $10) on my upper and lower lids and wipe it off with a dry tissue or cloth. It removes all the makeup residue and--bonus--my eye area is left moisturized. If I have a lot of waterproof mascara caked on my lashes, the lotion doesn't remove it instantly, though it does clean up any that has transferred to my skin. And I have a huge bottle of decent, gentle moisturizer that I can use for whatever other purposes I want. (You can also use moisturizer like this as a cleanser in a pinch--or if you find most cleansers drying. Apply it to your dry skin and massage lightly, splash on water and massage some more, and rinse.)

Favorite Daytime Moisturizer with Sunscreen: This isn't my sunscreen. As I said above, the everyday facial sunscreen I use costs more than $15 (though a bottle lasts me a year). But I work from home, and some days I don't get out of the house until after dark. On those days, I like to just use SPF in moisturizer for a little protection and one less step in the morning. I'm a big fan of the Simple Protecting Light Moisturizer SPF 15. I tried to go without it when I finished my last bottle, but I really missed it, so this is my second. As the name suggests, it's not fancy, but it does a great job of moisturizing and absorbs quickly. It doesn't burn around my eyes like lotions with higher (chemical) SPFs tend to do. This is the theme here: it does what it's supposed to do very well and doesn't do anything I don't like. It's cheapest on Amazon, where it's around $8 (I've seen it in stores for up to $14).

Favorite Acne Spot Treatment: Lots of people like benzoyl peroxide for acne, but I tried to get it to work for years and it never did anything for me other than bleach my sheets and towels. I've found tea tree oil more effective. I dip a q-tip in it and dab it on individual zits. With oils like this, there's a lot of variation in strength (even though they all say "100%" on the bottle, they are actually diluted), so look for good reviews. I've been using the Mason Natural Tea Tree Oil ($8) for a few years with good results.

Favorite Facial Oil/Anti-Aging Treatment: I love rosehip oil. It does all sorts of wonderful things for your skin, no matter what skin type you have. (Read more about it from Lab Muffin.) The only downside for me is that I have to avoid my eye area with it, or at least use it sparingly there, because my eyes don't like oils and again with the fucking milia. You also have to read reviews of this stuff, because the quality and potency will vary between brands. And make sure it doesn't smell like roses--it's not made from rose petals. In fact, it usually smells a bit like cooking oil. I've had good luck with the Aura Cacia Rosehip Oil ($7) and Life-Flo Rosehip Seed Oil ($6). You only need 2-3 drops for your entire face, so a bottle lasts a long time, at least until it spoils.

Favorite Mask: Hands down, Freeman Avocado and Oatmeal Clay Mask. Reviewed here. It really absorbs oil and helps to clear pores without drying out my skin. Love it, and it's $4 for a huge tube that never ends. I've tried more expensive clay masks. This is better.

Favorite Lip Balm: Palmer's Cocoa Butter Swivel Stick ($2-4). It looks like a glue stick, smells subtly like white chocolate, and keeps my lips super soft all winter. My favorite, forever. This enormous tube lasts a long time, as you can tell from my beat-up photo. Do not make the mistake of buying the teeny Palmer's lip balm with the sunscreen in it! That one is bitter and a fraction of the size for the same price. If you can't find the giant Swivel Stick with the other lip balms, look next to the Palmer products in the lotion section (or at Shopper's Drug Mart in Canada, sometimes it's with "ethnic hair care"). Or get it from drugstore.com for less than $3.

Favorite Hand Cream: I love, love, love Caldrea Hand Balm in the Ginger Pomelo scent. It's way better than the more expensive hand creams I've tried (ahem, L'Occitane), though it might be a tad splurgy at $10 a tube. But it smells amazing, and moisturizes extremely well while still absorbing quickly and not being greasy.

Favorite Foot Cream: O'Keeffe's Foot Cream ($5). Reviewed here. Put a very small amount on your feet before bed and they will be softened up significantly by morning. In a few days of using it, all the rough skin will be gone. It's really good. I don't recommend using it on hot and sweaty nights, because it has a slightly greasy feeling, and I think that's gross when I'm already sticky.

These are the best of the (cheap) best in my opinion, but I'd love to hear about any other affordable skin care you'd recommend--especially if you have a different skin type, since I can't really evaluate things that don't suit mine.

(Note: The title originally said "under $15," because when I started writing, I thought that the Simple moisturizer was over $10. But everything on the list can actually be found--in the U.S.--$10 or less. Excellent!)

Not-So-Honest Company?

Jessica Alba's The Honest Company is being sued for falsely labeling products "natural" when they're not. I'm not sure how successful this will be, since my understanding is that there's no regulation of the term "natural" - because how would you define that, when it comes to cosmetics? The fact that it's such an empty, slippery term is why it's so annoying (and so useful to advertisers). Is a surfactant derived from coconut oil (cocamidopropyl betaine, once of the ingredients targeted in the lawsuit) natural or not? Coconuts are natural, but the ingredients extracted from them might have been made in a lab (gasp!). And so forth.

This particular lawsuit, which you can read about here, is claiming that the company uses synthetic preservatives (well, good) and surfactants, and that their sunscreen is ineffective (more here).

What do you think? On the one hand, I am irritated by all this natural=better marketing, but on the other hand, stuff should have fucking preservatives in it, so let's not sue companies for being responsible and safe.

If you want "natural" sunscreen, you might have to compromise

I don't totally understand why people want everything to be "natural," other than because it sounds vaguely better than "unnatural," if you don't think about it too much. But some people do, so fine. If that's your thing, you should still wear sunscreen - and you're in luck because zinc oxide is pretty natural (though there is nothing wrong with chemical sunscreens - here's one I like). The downside is that zinc oxide tends to be quite opaque, so it can leave a white cast on the skin. Some formulas add tints or other active sunscreen ingredients to mitigate that whiteness, but then maybe it's not so natural anymore.

Other companies, like Jessica Alba's The Honest Company apparently just decreased the amount of zinc oxide in their "ultra-pure" natural sunscreen from 20% to 9.3%, because people didn't like the texture and appearance, while keeping the SPF 30 label on the bottle. Most other zinc sunscreens contain 18-25%. Keep in mind that the FDA has rules about SPF, but it relies on companies themselves to test their own products. The Honest Company says that they added "other ingredients" - unspecified - to compensate. But those other ingredient are not sunscreens, so they're not going to maintain the SPF. That's nonsense. And judging from consumer complaints, that solution did not work, because people have been getting literally burned by this shit.

So if you want all natural zinc-based sunscreen, you're going to have to compromise: either it's going to be less esthetically pleasing or less effective. Of course there are lots of great zinc sunscreens out there that work well, but they tend to have scary added "chemicals" (OH NOES) in them.

(Note: The Honest Company's sunscreen is marked Out of Stock on their website, so hopefully that means they have pulled it from their online store to reformulate.)

Do I Need This? Oil Cleansing (and Double Cleansing)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission from purchases made through those links.
I've finally returned to my Do I Need This? series, which had been on a year-long hiatus. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think a trendy product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

Oil cleansing is nothing new, and oil in skin care has been a big thing for a while now. We used to always check to make sure our products were labeled "oil-free" (at least those of us with oily or acne-prone skin), but now we're being told to embrace the magical, precious oil, regardless of skin type. Especially if it's "natural." So were we mistaken all that time? Is oil the new everything? Can I actually clean my oily face with oil? Wha?

As usual, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Lots of oils have positive properties for various skin types. Some will work for some people and not for others. Adding oil isn't necessarily going to clog your pores or make your skin produce more oil - in fact, it might have the opposite effect. The trick, as always, is to experiment and find out what works for you.

I'm going to talk about my experience with cleansing using oils here. Facial oils that are supposed to treat skin issues are another thing (I'm partial to rosehip oil, myself), so I'll leave those out. This is about washing your damn face.

Do I need this?

Short answer: Oil is effective for removing makeup, but don't expect miracles (and you don't need to spend a ton of money on fancy oil cleansers).

Should you use apple cider vinegar as toner? (Help me out, here!)

This is a tough one to answer! When I google "apple cider vinegar toner," I get a lot of hits from bullshit websites lauding it for getting rid of toxins and being natural - the same sources that are going to tell you to use coconut oil as sunscreen or ingest essential oils. (Do not do either of those things, please.) Lots of people apparently think you should put apple cider vinegar on your face, but not many (any?) of them can provide an explanation of why, or at least one that isn't full of shit. "It's good for your pores/acne/balance/wrinkles/glow/dark spots/fish scales." Okay, but why?

Here is a post that talks about some of the potential dangers of using ACV on your face, including chemical burns (warning: graphic injury photos). ACV has some anti-bacterial properties, so maybe that could help with acne. But there is also good bacteria on your skin, so you don't want to annihilate it all. I'm guessing that back when people used harsh, alkaline soaps, an acidic toner like this could help to restore the pH balance of your skin. Using something overly basic (in pH terms) on your skin could also make it more prone to breeding bad bacteria, which the ACV might then kill. Maybe? But most cleansers now have a gentle pH, so that's not particularly necessary. And the pH is too high for ACV to be an effective exfoliant.

I'm not going to tell you not to use ACV on your face, so long as you are careful and dilute it well with water. I also can't recommend it, though, because I have found absolutely no evidence as to how it might be beneficial. When I google "apple cider vinegar toner science" most of the results include some variation of: "while no scientific research verifies these claims . . ." or, "I don't need scientific evidence to know it works, because . . ." Uh huh.

(ACV might be good for your hair, though.  Or maybe not. That's a whole other thing, anyway. Also, you can use it to make a safe mask if you mix it with clay with a higher pH.)

Anyone have an better information to share on the topic? I mean something other than anecdotal stuff. My usual sources are coming up dry.

This is why your beauty products need FUCKING PRESERVATIVES! (Recall of Nourish Organics Lotion and Face Cream)

If you have either the Nourish Organics Face Cream or the Nourish Organics Face Lotion, check the UPC, because they may contain mold. More info from Wegmans here.

For more on preservatives in skincare, click here.

ETA: The samples Ipsy sent out a while back are apparently fine; it's just the 1.7 oz containers that are a problem. Good thing, because I used my sample a few months ago. I'm glad it wasn't contaminated.

Preservatives are Good, Or: Yes, you do want parabens in your sunscreen

This is a story from last fall, but it's worth the reminder for anyone who might be looking for more "natural" sunscreens - especially for their kids. Last September, Badger recalled about 30,000 tubes of their baby and kids sunscreen, because they were contaminated with bacteria and fungi. Gross. That was apparently because the organic preservatives they contained were not sufficiently effective. They are reformulating those sunscreen lotions and will be putting out a new (hopefully safer) product in 2015.

Here's a good preservatives primer from The Beauty Brains.

Not all 100% Tea Tree Oil is equal, apparently

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.
I've posted about my love for pure tea tree oil as a spot treatment for zits before. I won't repeat everything I said there, but basically benzoyl peroxide never does anything for me (plus I can't manage to ever use it without bleaching the fuck out of all my towels and sheets). Tea tree oil, on the other hand, works. YMMV etc. That's just what works for me.

Anyway, in the winter I ran out of my Mason Naturals tea tree oil, and so I ordered a different brand from Amazon, since it was about a dollar cheaper at the time: Now Foods. Both of them say that they are 100% tea tree oil, so what's the difference? Honestly, I have no idea, but the Now Foods stuff didn't do shit. It says on the bottle that it's meant for "aromatherapy," whereas the Mason one says "pharmaceutical grade," but that doesn't seem very meaningful to me. I mean, 100% tea tree oil with nothing else in it should be the same thing either way, right?

Remember when I was complaining earlier this year about giant cystic pimples that would not fucking die? I couldn't figure out why tea tree oil had stopped working for me. But you know, the Now Foods version didn't have the same very slight tingle when I applied it, and it didn't do something that I actually found annoying about the Mason stuff - when I dab it near my mouth, but not too near, say a centimeter away or so, it would always migrate to my lips so I could taste it. Bleh. The Now Foods stuff didn't do that. These two things alone suggest that something different was going on. I thought maybe I was misremembering or imagining how well the previous bottle had worked on my acne, but eventually I got so fed up that I just ordered another bottle of Mason tea tree oil.

And what do you know? It fucking works. Used daily only directly on top of a zit, dabbed on with a q-tip, it will stop a pimple in its tracks and force it into retreat. So what I'm saying is that if you are considering trying tea tree oil for acne, you should try the Mason Naturals one. It's about $8 on Amazon right now, though the price fluctuates, and you might be able to find it cheaper if you shop around. I don't know what is in that Now Foods bottle, but it doesn't work the same. I've been using the remainder a few drops at a time in my garbage cans to freshen them up. Aromatherapy, I guess.

Quick Review: L'Oreal Age Perfect Glow Renewal Facial Oil (with a more affordable DIY alternative)

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
I got a sample of this from somewhere, and before I'd even opened it, I knew that I was definitely not going to put this shit on my face. The card it came with says:

FORMULATED WITH A UNIQUE BLEND OF 8 ESSENTIAL OILS

English Lavender
Rosemary Leaf
Geranium
Orange Peel
Chamomile
Rose Flower
Lavandin
Marjoram Leaf

Every one of those ingredients, which the single exception of chamomile, is a skin irritant/sensitizer (look them up here if you doubt me). Some, like lavender oil, might even be photosensitizers (i.e. does bad things in the sun). Lavender oil is also actually a pro-oxidant, rather than an anti-oxidant, which is what we usually look for in skin care products. Oh golly, please, let me rub that on my face. Most of these fragrant oils have no actual benefit for skin, either.

Mind you, when you look at full ingredient list, the fragrant oils are preceded by a bunch of oils that are actually mostly decent for the skin. Funny that they don't highlight those good ingredients instead on the package. Here's the list:

INGREDIENTS: CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE • OLEA EUROPAEA OIL/OLIVE FRUIT OIL • SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS OIL/ JOJOBA SEED OIL • CAMELINA SATIVA OIL/ CAMELINA SATIVA SEED OIL • HELIANTHUS ANNUUS SEED K8OIL/SUNFLOWER SEED OIL • ROSA CANINA FRUIT OIL • PARFUM/ FRAGRANCE • ZEA MAYS OIL/CORN OIL • PRUNUS ARMENIACA KERNEL OIL/APRICOT KERNEL OIL • PASSIFLORA EDULIS OIL/ PASSIFLORA EDULIS SEED OIL • ORYZA SATIVA BRAN OIL/RICE BRAN OIL • TOCOPHEROL • LIMONENE • PELARGONIUM GRAVEOLENS FLOWER OIL • CITRUS AURANTIUM DULCIS PEEL OIL/ORANGE PEEL OIL • CITRONELLOL • LINALOOL • ROSMARINUS OFFICINALIS LEAF OIL/ROSEMARY LEAF OIL • GERANIOL • ORIGANUM MAJORANA LEAF OIL • LAVANDULA ANGUSTIFOLIA OIL/LAVENDER OIL • ANTHEMIS NOBILIS FLOWER OIL • LAVANDULA HYBRIDA OIL • CUCUMIS SATIVUS FRUIT EXTRACT/CUCUMBER FRUIT EXTRACT • BENZYL ALCOHOL • CITRAL • CURCUMA LONGA EXTRACT/TURMERIC ROOT EXTRACT • EUGENOL • COUMARIN • SCLAREOLIDE • ROSA SPP/ROSE FLOWER OIL • JASMINUM OFFICINALE EXTRACT/JASMINE EXTRACT • ALPHA-ISOMETHYL IONONE

Olive oil, jojoba oil, apricot seed oil, etc. . . . these are good things. But there's just so much fragrance and crap in there that it's not worth it.

It does smell really fucking good, though. I thought maybe it would be nice as a perfumed oil, but unfortunately the scent fades very quickly. It absorbs well, so I've been rubbing the sample I have on various dry body parts and enjoying the temporary scent. It will have the same irritating properties no matter what part of your body you use it on (and you don't have to physically feel the irritation for it to damage your skin), but I'm okay with a little bit of that in places that don't get as much sun damage as my face, and that I don't care about protecting as much in general. I do wear perfume, after all.

Even though it smells great and feels nice on the skin, I still wouldn't recommend buying it for any purpose.  L'Oreal Age Perfect Glow Renewal Facial Oil retails regularly for $25 (though it's $19 on Amazon) for just 1 oz. (30 ml). If you want a pretty-smelling body oil, just pick up some jojoba oil (like this one) (or one or more of the other oils from the beginning of the ingredients list above) and add a few drops of scented essential oils like lavender (here), orange peel (here), rosemary (here), and geranium (here). (Rose and chamomile are more expensive.) Obviously your initial cost is going to be greater (using the oils I linked to, which equal about $33.50 total), but the oils are multi-purpose. You'll spend something closer to $6 per oz., rather than $25 per oz. for the L'Oreal stuff. Even if you went for the more expensive rose and chamomile oils, you'd do better than the L'Oreal cost. You'll get a nice, moisturizing oil with beneficial properties (jojoba), along with a bunch of stuff that smells pretty and doesn't do much else.

White rice powder as a cheap dry shampoo (from The Beauty Department)

Has anyone tried this? The advantage over other dry shampoos is supposed to be that rice flour turns transparent when it absorbs oil from your scalp.

Guest Post from Savannah Scorpion: Greenwashing and "Eco Friendly" products

While I'm away for the week, Savannah Scorpion is back to entertain and inform you with more of the insider scoop on how to buy beauty products without throwing your fucking money away. As always, comment below or email with any questions or future topics you'd like her to address! 

This is Savannah Scorpion, returning with a short post about all of the hype surrounding "green", "organic", and "eco-friendly" cosmetics and skincare.

Now, I'll be straight-up and admit that my preferred cleanser is one of those fancypants products that is made with volcanic ash and has an expiration date on it. I use it because I have Weird Skin (TM) that gets oily throughout the day, but gets dried out by pretty much everything except this cleanser. I also may or may not have ordered a dickton of products from the LUSH website after I got my last paycheck.

Panic about parabens, pthalates, and the planet mean that there's a huge trend in so called "green" products. Even mass brands like Neutrogena are creating "eco" lines. Now, here's the straight talk on these products:

Four things I didn't pack for my one-week visit to my parents' place in rural Canada

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Well, there are a lot of things that I didn't pack, because I didn't want to check a bag, but these are the only ones I've missed so far.

1. My camera

Avon Speed Dry+ Nail Enamel in Mambo Melon

I wish I could take a good photo of my nails right now. Before I left, I used some of the Sally Hansen Real Nail Polish Strips for the first time. I used the Check Please! pattern, and I wasn't sure if I would like how they looked, since I'm not a big fan of nail art (on my own nails). But I found them surprisingly mod and mesmerizing, as well as easy to use. They advertise that they will last "up to 10 days", so I thought maybe I would get a week out of them. But no. They started to chip the third day, even after I added topcoat a few times, and by the fourth day, I couldn't stand it any longer and peeled them off. That's a day longer than most nail polish lasts on me, though.

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to take a photo of. My mother has a bottle of Avon Speed Dry+ Nail Enamel in Mambo Melon, so I decided to paint my nails with that, and it is fucking gorgeous. Plus the formula is amazing. I'm not sure it dries any faster than usual, but it was really smooth and easy to apply and almost opaque in one coat. Two thin coats was perfect. It's a coral red with pinkish shimmer. Unfortunately, without my camera I had to settle for the webcam shot above, so you'll have to trust me on this one. Imagine it just slightly brighter and slightly oranger. If you like that sort of shade, this is an awesome choice.

Is the oil-cleansing method right for you?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
I know lots of people have tried it and loved it. I tried it and it did absolutely nothing for me. My skin didn't get worse, but it didn't get better either, and it was a lot more work than my usual routine of washing my face in the shower. I do use facial oils (particularly rosehip oil), and I like them, but this routine just didn't give me results. And now I'm stuck with this big bottle of nearly-expired castor oil that I don't know what to do with.

If you follow this link (from Paula's Choice), you can find a detailed critique of the claims made by proponents of this skincare routine, and you can also find a link to the routine itself, in case you want to give it a try (it is pretty cheap). I'm linking to the critique first, because the fans of this method can have a weird, almost religious, way of trying to spread the word, so I think it's better to start with the negatives before you get sucked in completely. There are people who like it, but the same thing won't work for everyone, even people who seem to have the same skin type.

Have you tried the oil-cleansing method? What did you think?

3 Lies the Natural Product Industry is Feeding You (and the Underlying Truth) (from FutureDerm)

There's important info here. For example:

If a database says an ingredient is toxic, it is. 

TRUTH: Not all studies claiming an ingredient is “toxic” are relevant to skin care, hair care, or cosmetics. 

One good DIY and one bad DIY (from The Beauty Department)

Good: Make your own beach wave texture spray.

Bad: Make your own lash/brow serum. Maybe not so much bad as misleading. Castor oil does not stimulate hair growth. It can condition and, as a result, strengthen your hair so that it doesn't break as easily. If fewer lashes fall off, then they will be (or appear) thicker. But it won't make new ones grow where there weren't any before.

Funny scientist explains "chemicals" and "natural" shit

Okay, this one is about food, not makeup, but it's still a really funny takedown of the idea that "chemicals" are always bad and "natural" things are always good, written by a chemist. It looks a little dry at first glance, but it's actually very entertaining. Give it a read.

If you don't have time (ohh, you're sooo fucking busy), just read this excerpt:

"As I've emphasized in passing above, there are plenty of natural substances, made by healthy creatures in beautiful, unpolluted environments, that will nonetheless kill you in agony. Plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals produce poisons, wide varieties of intricate poisons, and they're not doing it for fun.

And on the other side of the imaginary fence, there are plenty of man-made substances that really won't do much of anything to people at all. You cannot assume anything about the effects of a chemical compound based on whether it came from a lovely rainforest orchid or out of a crusty Erlenmeyer flask. The world is not set up that way. Here's a corollary to this: if I isolate a beneficial chemical compound from some natural source (vitamin C from oranges, for example, although sauerkraut would be a good source, too), that molecule is identical to a copy of it I make in my lab. There is no essence, no vital spirit. A compound is what it is, no matter where it came from.

Another assumption that seems common to this mindset is that when something is poisonous at some concentration, it is therefore poisonous at all concentrations. It has some poisonous character to it that cannot be expunged nor diluted. This, though, is more often false than true. Paracelsus was right: the dose makes the poison. You can illustrate that in both directions: a beneficial substance, taken to excess, can kill you. A poisonous one, taken in very small amounts, can be harmless. And you have cases like selenium, which is simultaneously an essential trace element in the human diet and an inarguable poison. It depends on the dose."

Natural ingredients can carry scary "toxins" too (from The Beauty Brains)

Because, guess what, they are in the ground whence those lovely plants grow. That's why there are rules about safe levels of lead, etc. You can't avoid "toxins" entirely. Read more from The Beauty Brains.

The cheapest and easiest DIY dry shampoo (PLUS a review of Aveeno Pure Renewal Dry Shampoo with photos)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

You may have realized I've been on a quest to find the best (cheap) dry shampoo out there. I've found some good ones, but I always feel like they could be a little bit better. The most recent contestant is Aveeno Pure Renewal Dry Shampoo. It seems to get decent reviews, and sells for around $8, which is not mega-cheap, but affordable enough.

When I was looking at the ingredients list (after I'd already bought it - which is usually the wrong order to do things), I saw that one of its main ingredients is corn starch. That reminded me that before dry shampoo was readily available and affordable, I used to use corn starch regularly, mainly on my bangs. So I figured that a comparison was in order - if the corn starch works just as well, it's a hell of a lot cheaper.