I had a few empties last month, but I’m still on skin care no-buy. XD First item used up was this Biotherm cream, Skin Best SPF 15. The texture and smell of this cream are pretty much like the other day creams by Biotherm, simply a normal face cream with fresh smell.
Looking at the looong list of ingredients you can see what sets this cream apart from the others: there’s a high amount of niacinamide in it. This is a derivate of vitamin B3, which helps your skin cells repair themselves. Great, isn’t it? Except, right the next ingredient is alcohol. That’s a cell poison. Basically you’re destroying your skin at the same rate you’re healing it, amounting exactly zero effect. 😐 In my opinion alcohol is alright in creams if it is in the middle to lower end of the list, but that high up is a no-no. This is why I wouldn’t buy a full size of this product.
Next item: Renu Lip and Eye Active Lift: This is the sort of wrinkle cream that creates a matrix on your surface, which tightens the skin and makes you look less wrinkly. This is a purely temporal effect, but some people like that. The cream had a weird, lactonic smell, but it wasn’t bad and I think it wasn’t additional perfume, just the way the ingredients smelled. Sadly, this came to me without a list of ingredients, so I can’t tell you exactly what’s in it.
I always got out too much product, as you had to frmly press to get it out of the bottle, and then you had this big blob on your finger. I used the rest on my neck, as I didn’t like the feeling of it around my mouth. As an eye cream it was okay, but I don’t feel the need to have another bottle. In general, eye cream isn’t necessary at all, it’s just a marketing gag. You can as well just apply your normal face cream (since you’re not supposed to get the cream IN your eye either way). However from time to time I like having an extra cream for my eyes, so sometimes I have one and sometimes I don’t.
Look by Bipa Nagellack Entferner Acetonfrei: frankly, the smell of this is godawful but it is cheap and removes nail polish very well so I already repurchased it.
Ingredients of nail polish remover.
And last item, Venus aqua 24 face cream: I used this both mornings and evenings as the last step in my skin care routine. It is a creamy texture, but on the lighter side. It felt very moisturizing, but thick enough to lock the moisture in and not let it evaporate. The first week or so I found it pretty good.
After the first week I started noticing the smell more and more. It’s funny, sometimes I notice a scent in the beginning and grow used to it, in this case it went the other way round. The longer I used the cream the more it annoyed me. It is a really strong smell, a blend of several flowers I believe. I think they wanted to make it smell like a really expensive brand or so. It felt like I was slathering my face with perfume. This is why I wouldn’t repurchase this. I prefer my skin care with little to no scent, and for the smell to come from my actual perfume. However, this is a personal pet peeve and I think apart from that the cream was pretty good. Except one more thing – on the back it said this was a day cream but I see no SPF listed. Personally I expect at least SPF 15 in a day cream.
And that concludes my list of empties for this month. Next month there will be some more skin care because I’m really trying to use up all that stuff I’ve got lying about.
Dandygal 