Skin Care Empties: Mario Badescu, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, La Roche Posay

Today I’m going to share my thoughts about a slightly less random selection of empties. The focus is on skin care, and with this one we’re definitely beginning to see my growing preference for French pharmacy skin care. 

First on the list is the Mario Badescu Witch Hazel & Rosewater Toner. Some years back, it seemed like this toner was absolutely everywhere. You couldn’t watch a skin care routine video on YouTube without it coming up. Everyone and their cat was using it. At the time it wasn’t easily available outside of the US, at least in my experience, so when I was there, I picked it up. These days I see Mario Badescu both in local (to me) physical stores as well as online stores. The „difficult to get“ allure has gone. Also, when the online skin care community began to scrutinize product ingredients more avidly, the Mario Badescu toner fell out of favour with skin-thusiasts. I personally only used one bottle of it, and I have no strong feelings to report. I saw no benefit, but it also didn’t do any harm. Unless a „useless“ product is giving me some sort of pleasant sensory experience, I don’t keep it in my routine.

Both the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+ and Elizabeth Arden’s Advanced Ceramide Capsules Daily Youth Restoring Serum have been in my skin care routine for years. The Lotion+ still is, so not much to say there. The Ceramide Capsules however have very recently been voted off the skin care island. Shocking, I know. These will still appear in future empties because this change is very recent.

I’ve mentioned my love for the silky texture and feel of this serum, and how other products like it have been comedogenic in my experience, when the capsules were not. I think I was wrong. While the ceramide capsules did not cause breakouts all over my face like some similar serums have, my chin and the area around my mouth are a different story. It’s a sensitive area for me and it’s very susceptible to breakouts caused by everything from stress, hormones, touching my face, skin care, makeup, diet, weather… and any combination of these. I sort of expect to have pimples there, it’s not out of the ordinary.

In the beginning of the year I did some back-to-back trips and when I travel, I pare everything  back – skin care, makeup, clothes and tech - to the absolute bare essentials. The ceramide capsules didn’t make the cut. You’d think travel is a more stressful state to be in and that my skin would be on its worst behaviour, but it wasn’t. It was actually looking better and it’s at home where I’d get more breakouts.

This observation made me pay more attention to the products I was using at home. I’d had my suspicions about the capsules before and had reduced their use first to nights when I wash my hair and then only to the nights when I do my mask routine. I started using them even less frequently just to use the ones I have up and the breakouts around my mouth and chin have really gone down. It’s still an area that is the most prone to breakouts, but I see a big improvement. I might still have a backup of the ceramide capsules and who knows, they might make their way back into my routine someday, but for now we’re on a break.

The La Roche Posay Lipikar Lotion (I think it’s now called Lait?) is one of my favourite body moisturizers. I’ve gone through many, many bottles of it. I don’t use it any more because I prefer the Eucerin UreaRepair Plus 5%. One of the things that swayed my preference was the packaging. Don’t get me wrong, a pump bottle is one of the best ways to package a cream product, but one thing that consistently annoys me about squeeze tubes and bottles is when you get to the end, it becomes really difficult to get the last bits of the product out, especially when it’s a thicker formula. When it’s brand new, it’s really convenient, but the last 20% of tipping and scraping is not. In this case, I prefer jar packaging. I like seeing how much product is still left and I like being able to get as much use out of it as possible. Other than that, I think the Lipikar moisturizer is very good, easy to spread in a thin layer and one I’m happy to recommend to anyone, especially to someone with sensitive skin.

I used multiple tubes of the La Roche Posay Rosaliac UV Legere over several winters. I wanted a moisturizer that felt more nourishing and less “sunscreeny” for those months when there’s very little day and sunlight where I live. The lower the spf, the nicer the moisturizer tends to feel. Both the Rosaliac UV and the La Roche Posay Toleriane Sensitive Cream just weren’t my favourite formulas. They caused no harm, but I felt like my skin wanted more. I ended up “double moisturizing” with both these products. I’d apply a generous layer, my skin would soak it up in a minute or so, and then I’d apply another layer to feel at least a little moisturized. I’d go through the product very fast, making it poor value overall. These days I use spf 50 sunscreen throughout the year, and if my skin needs a bit more nourishment, I use the Bioderma Sensibio AR Cream underneath.

That’s it for this walk down skin care memory lane. Have a great week and check back soon for more beauty musings!

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