Hello, everybody. Welcome back to my channel.
Where skincare is all about progression
over perfection because perfection doesn't exist.
Today I want to talk about
some brands I've lost interest in.
And this isn't to sh*t all over
brands that I don't like anymore.
It's literally just to kind of answer questions.
I talk about so many brands and obviously
I'm going to lose interest in some.
Or maybe the initial launches are way more interesting
than the rest of the products they've released.
These are brands I get asked about a lot.
And this is just to kind of answer the
question of do I still use these products?
Am I still interested in this brand?
I will be doing a very gentle morning skincare routine.
My skin is a little bit sensitive right now.
I'm not sure why. I don't know. So I'm going to be doing
a very sensitive morning skincare routine.
So I'm going to start off with a cleanse.
This is the Aestura Atobarrier 365 Cleansing
Water, for strengthened skin barrier and moisturizing.
This is like a go-to brand for me
when my skin is feeling more sensitized, a little
bit damaged, a little bit, you know, not quite yourself.
Let's talk about Fenty Skin.
Now, before I really get into talking about this brand,
I just have to say they make amazing skincare.
They make amazing products. They really do.
They've broken beauty boundaries.
They are a brand to do many first of's, and the
first brand to really, truly cater for black skin and darker
skin tones in such an amazing and natural way.
A brand that I really, really do feel deserves every
ounce of positivity and attention that comes their way.
I will be purely talking about Fenty Skin here.
When they first launched, it was super exciting, I
think because the makeup did so well and people
genuinely love the makeup so, so much.
I had really high expectations for Fenty Skin.
You know, for still a fairly young makeup brand at the time,
they had some already iconic products.
So when they said they were launching Fenty
Skin, I had some very high expectations.
And to be honest with you, I was impressed.
They were partially met.
The Fat Water, for me, is a product that
I use to this day, on and off.
And the sunscreen was my go-to
for a very, very long time.
One of my current favorite products is actually their
cherry lip oil treatment thing, next to my bed,
I use it every single night.
I absolutely love it.
But what I would say is, if I wasn't on the
PR list, I probably wouldn't be buying their products anymore.
As I said, their initial launch was amazing.
They focused on some really key important products.
For a skincare brand to launch with sunscreen,
it's pretty unheard of nowadays.
We all know how much effort and
time really goes into creating a sunscreen.
So really impressive. Loved it.
And of course, I was looking forward to
what they had to launch in the future.
But since then, the products haven't really
excited me in any way, whatsoever.
I'm going to hydrate my skin
with a Naturium Niacinamide Skin
Mist. 2% Niacinamide with Hyaluronic Acid.
Niacinamide is good for your skin barrier.
I think a lot of people try and drop
everything when they have easily irritated or damaged skin.
I love Niacinamide as like a healing ingredient.
Have it in this almost like
serum mist form I really, really love.
Now the reason I've been disappointed could purely
be because I kind of put Fenty in a box.
For a new skincare brand
they felt very well established already.
It felt very mature as a brand.
Only creating simple essentials or things that
people could really benefit from.
But the newer releases didn't really reflect
what I personally thought the direction of
the brand was going in.
And obviously this is my own qualm, but I
feel like I just missed where their demographic was.
I really started to lose interest
with the Cookies N Clean launch.
This for me was a bit like, oh, is that Fenty Skin?
That's weird.
It felt off brand. I don't know why.
It felt like it was made for kids, fun mask.
It was a bit gimmicky.
Unlike their other products that didn't have to
rely on a gimmick because they were good.
The whole Cookies N Clean felt a
little bit like, very strange.
It felt a little bit off brand.
Don't get me wrong, I love cute sh*t.
I will buy stuff purely for the packaging.
But compared to the rest of the brand, it felt wrong.
There's something that feels like affordable
luxury about Fenty Skin that I
feel like this product didn't reflect.
This felt a bit more like
if Claire's Accessories had a skincare line, you know?
It was a little bit like cheapy.
So after that, I was like, okay, not really bothered about this.
Not really interested in where the brand is going.
Then I got sent the lip stuff, and I was like, great.
But then I got sent the new
kind of like, the fat... the Milky Fat Water.
I've been sent this twice now.
I think I'm on two different PR lists.
But this is the Fat Water Hydrating Milky Toner Essence.
And it's okay, it's okay.
The smell hit me though, and I remember whilst I
enjoy fragrance in skincare, it's a very unique smell that
after a year of using Fenty Skin, I kind of
got like a bit sickly by it.
It became a bit too much to use constantly.
I love the body cream.
I still use the body cream. And the product's fine.
I was kind of expecting more kind of like that
more hydration, moisturizing feeling.
Almost like the Pat Mcgrath Essence or the Kombucha
Dr Ceuracle Kombucha essencey kind of milky feeling to it.
Doesn't quite do that.
It looks more hydrating and moisturizing
then it feels on the skin.
I also got sent the cleansing bar and
for me it just feels like soap.
I get that sticky feeling on my
skin after, that kind of dryness.
Like if you run your fingers down your soaked arm,
it kind of sticks and go blah, blah, blah.
None of their new launches are kind
of hitting home for me at all.
I actually had to rewash my skin with another cleanser
after the feeling of that cleansing, body cleansing bar.
Yeah, it's just not for me.
So with each launch I'm less and less intrigued.
Okay, I'm just going to rehydrate my
skin because I sat here talking.
Then I'm going to go in with
my go-to soothing, calming, repairing, healing serum.
This is the COSRX Centella...
Oh, no, it's not. Cica serum, serum.
This is an Olive Young exclusive size.
I need like a big bottle of this.
Let's talk about the next brand.
Another brand I really do like and that's Farmacy.
Well, I say I really do like.
I really like their cleansing balms
and I enjoy their other products.
So I follow Trend Mood on Instagram.
I think like everybody else who's into beauty,
whenever I see like, new from Farmacy, it's
always just a different variation on their cleansing
balm, like a new take, meaning like a
new color or fruit inspiration, flavor, scent.
It just makes me feel like I've tried
the best that they've had to offer.
I do like their other products.
If one day all skincare went other
than Farmacy, I'd be fine with that.
I'd be able to use their
products happily and benefit from them.
Do I think they're incredibly amazing? No.
And I'm kind of waiting.
I got like a Vitamin C serum as
well, which I wasn't massively impressed with.
Like, Vitamin C serums don't really interest
me nowadays, but that's kind of nothing new either.
The 10% Niacinamide Cream they sent
to me as well felt horrible.
I hated it. I hated it.
I got it in PR, came with a really nice blueberry
plant that I was really excited about because I feed my
dog blueberries and I wanted to grow some for them.
But then we had the heat wave and it died.
It was just thick. It was suffocating. It was horrible.
It felt like a very old fashioned night cream.
It literally made me hot and sweaty and
I couldn't use it anymore. I couldn't use it.
Yeah, I do feel like I've tried the
best that Farmacy has to offer.
And whilst I appreciate that they only really seem
to be launching products that they... not need to,
but they don't launch unnecessarily, I do feel like
the constant release of a new cleansing balm in
a different flavor is kind of like, anything else?
Anything else? You know.
But I love their cleansing balm. It's amazing.
But not all the time.
The next serum I'm going to use is the
Hyaluronic Acid Serum with Ceramides from COSRX.
This is, for me, like a go-to dewy skin, glazed skin
serum that I absolutely love. The Ceramides in here can help
repair my skin barrier, care for it and we get a
nice dose of hydration from the Hyaluronic Acid.
Let's talk about Kiehl's, because Kiehl's is when
I get asked about... every video I'll get
a comment asking to review Kiehl's.
I'm going to be honest, I've never cared about Kiehl's.
I think I reviewed some of their
eye creams back in the day.
One of their eye creams, no, two of their eye creams.
There's a dog hair on my face somewhere.
Just ignore it, because that's how I live now.
Kiehl's have just kind of fallen into that
category of like Avon, Clinique where I'm like,
oh, my God, they're still around?
Like, I'm like oh, wow, okay.
I just forget about them all the time. All the time.
I've said before, I find it weird that
their staff wear lab coats as well.
I find it kind of weird.
I get it in homage to Mr Kiehl's and they're
staff are all called skincare experts, and they're just shop floor
retail, which is absolutely fine and trained by the brand.
But, yeah, I've never clicked with the brand.
I also don't really like this kind of like,
apothecary type concept that a lot of brands have.
Aesop, for example, is not for me. Kiehl's, not for me.
For me, it represents a lot of what I dislike
in skincare, is selling a product. So it's not necessarily
meeting science with nature, which it is, but it kind
of focuses too heavily on the plants.
When you look at the ingredients, it's
like, oh, my God, it's got things
like Niacinamide in, it's got exfoliating acids.
And these are doing the real hard
work, but they concentrate on plants.
I don't know if they still do it.
I've honestly not looked into Kiehl's for a very long
time and I have no interest in it either.
But with that, you also get the
really strong floral scents of, like, Lavender.
Is Lavender a flower or herb?
You get those strong essential
oil scents of like, Lavender.
I associate Lavender so much with Kiehl's.
Honestly, I tried a handful of their... not even a handful, a fingerfull of
their products and they just don't appeal to me.
They've just never really done the job that great for me.
They're never on my radar, whatsoever.
So I'm going to go in with an eye cream now.
It's early days for this one.
I have nothing to say about it
yet, but this is the Glow Recipe
Guava Vitamin C Bright-Eye Gel Cream.
I'm going to give it a go.
Let's talk about Revolution
skincare In general.
A few reasons.
Even if I was still to be interested in this
brand, I couldn't keep up with them if I tried.
They are like the ColourPop of the skincare world, where
it's like every week there's a new release or a
new subcategory, a new subgenre of their brand, yet they
somehow aren't able to bring anything new to the table.
The only product that I think I was ever
interested in, really, was their sunscreen, but only
because I thought it was more accessible to people
who can't get that type of sunscreen.
Very reminiscent of like, popular Korean sunscreens in Europe,
the UK, wherever. They make everything, they make everything,
but none of it is exceptionally good.
They have no iconic products.
If you compare brands like Dieux Skin, Krave Beauty,
who have limited products, those limited products are incredible
and really well loved because they aren't just pumping
out any old sh*t to try and make money
every single week, it feels like.
Two, whilst I think dupes are important, I think
it's important that everyone can experience amazing skincare
at any kind of cost.
Revolution take duping to another level, to a point
where they just shamelessly copy and it's kind
of like embarrassing for them, really.
It's really shameful.
They've been known to make direct copies of products from influencers
and smaller indie brands, and for me, it just shows
that the brand has no... I don't trust them.
I don't trust them.
I don't like them as a person to be able to do
that to smaller brands and not care because they know they can
pump that sh*t out in a week and sell it.
If I ever come out of a skincare brand,
I would not be surprised if they copied it.
Not because I think it's going to be great,
anyone's going to love it, but any chance they
get to copy anything or just create another product,
I feel like they would do it, you know?
They're not innovative enough to come
up with their own stuff, they have to copy everyone else.
And sometimes it's not even that affordable.
Sometimes it's the same price as what they've copied.
So what's the point?
Like what are you bringing to the table?
They bring nothing, absolutely nothing.
Just more versions of what's already out there.
Sometimes not even as good.
Thirdly, the CEO liked racist Instagram comments.
I'm not going to post them here.
They're easy to Google if you want to find
them, but when I know a racist CEO
can benefit directly from my money, I don't want, I don't want.
Thank you.
We're wrapping up pretty quick.
I'm going to go in with my moisturizer.
This is the Aestura Atobarrier 365 Cream.
It's a gloomy day here today and I'm not
going out, so I will not be applying sunscreen.
I do try and avoid sunscreen when my
skin is sensitive and avoid the sun just
to give my skin some time to recover.
But this is like your everyday, Ceramide enriched skin
barrier caring cream, without the heavy, thick feeling.
It's moisturizing, it's hydrating,
it's dewy on the skin.
It smells a little bit like glue, but that's fine.
You know, this is how you make clinical packaging
and make it look nice and modern.
Let's talk about Paula's Choice.
Now, bear with me.
Bear with me, because I love Paula's Choice.
This is more of a question.
We all know Paula's Choice make amazing, amazing skincare.
They really do.
And I think that's evident through its popularity of
all age brackets, right? On all social platforms and
the vast availability of Paul's Choice is everywhere.
And people love it.
It's a brand I trust to dispel a
lot of nonsense and to create products that
people can really, really benefit from.
And usually they aren't making products that
they're trying to fool us into buying.
They don't throw sprinkles and products and fluff
it up, and use these fake drug terminologies
to try and lure us in.
The products are just what they are.
And I do like that they have categories, they
do have a collection of skincare, they do have
a vast catalog, they've been around for ages, however, you know.
They've been around for decades, I want to say.
But it's not all crap, it's all good stuff.
And these are categories for very
specific skin types, concerns and conditions.
So I feel like they're beneficial.
Now, I saw a few people say that
Paula's Choice have been launching some questionable products
and saying that they're straying away from Paula's
initial vision for the brand.
And I was looking at the website and I can only
see two new launches in the past year or so.
So I don't think they're pushing
products out aimlessly and ridiculously, you know.
I mean, it's lip product, I think the newest one was,
and an exfoliating mask, which I don't think is horrific.
I didn't like the products,
but I think they're beneficial.
What I find personally, and I want to know if
you agree with this, I feel like unlike other brands,
everyone into skincare has two or three of their favorite
products from Paula's Choice and that's it.
And it really does vary from person to person
and I don't think that's a bad thing.
I think that's great.
I think it shows that Paul's Choice has
a great selection of products that people love.
We swear by them for all different skin types.
But it makes me just reluctant to buy other stuff from them.
And again, not in a bad way, but why
do I need to try another exfoliating product from
them if my 2% Salycilic Acid works amazingly?
And that's what I feel, I feel like their
products are the best of what you can get.
So why do I want to explore the rest
of their category, do you know what I mean?
Like, I love one of their BHA's, I'm not going
to try their other exfoliants. I love one of their
moisturizers, I'm not going to try the others. Their toner,
I'm not going to try the others.
And usually if I like a product within a
brand, I'm like, oh, let me explore more.
And I might be disappointed or I might not, but
with Paula's Choice, I feel like they're so good and
they're so iconic and they just works so well that
it doesn't lure me into wanting to try anything else
from their brand. Do you know what I mean?
Let me know if you agree with this.
Do I think that's a good business plan? I don't know.
I don't know. I don't know.
But I do also find that with their products,
I either love it or I hate it.
There's no real in-between. And again, that's alright.
Have I lost interest in their brand?
Absolutely not.
Do I recommend it to everyone else? Yeah, of course.
Am I rushing out to buy new launches from them?
No, but I am watching.
So, let me know what you think in
the comments down below about all these brands.
If you love them, of course, keep using them
and tell me why you love them so much.
And if there's maybe a product you think I'm missing out
from... missing out of? Missing out on? On, from the brand.
Like what's your favorite Kiehl's product?
Let me know in the comments down below.
You've can watch some more product reviews here
and some general light entertainment here.
And I'll see you over there.