The One Skincare Brand That Saved My Skin
When I first arrived in Chicago Iast year, I was highly unprepared for the weather. Before I left, everyone would always give me that cliché “better pack a coat!” which gets old really fast, but being from New York, I didn’t actually think there would be a huge difference in climate. Besides that first early October snowfall, the real shock was the effect the weather had on my skin.
I started experiencing dry, flaky skin with redness and breakouts like never before. The products I was using were the same products I had been using for a year or two with no issues, but all of the sudden when I washed my face or put on my moisturizer, my skin was burning and irritated. The combination of wind burn and stress was not doing good things for my complexion, but being the positive thinker that I am, I looked at the situation as the perfect opportunity to devote an unreasonable amount of time to browsing the Sephora website.
After hours of reading product reviews (which I happen to find therapeutic), I came across one moisturizer that seemed to have worked incredibly well for people: the Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream. I had always heard good things about the brand but I wasn’t really in the market for their type of products before: I had previously been searching for solutions to breakouts and redness with active–and for lack of a better word–harsh ingredients. I thought the solution was to kill bacteria on my skin or chemically exfoliate the “bad stuff” away. I had somehow gotten the idea that Tatcha was for more mature skin types–for older, drier skin with different concerns than I had. But given my changing skin, I decided to give the brand a try.
Along with the Dewy Skin Cream, I ended up buying the Camellia Oil Cleanser and the Rice Polish Foaming Enzyme Powder. The products are pricey and you definitely get the sense from the packaging that they’re luxury items, but I was desperate and Sephora has a really good return policy, so what’s the harm? It turns out that for once in my life I had actually made a great decision. From the minute I started applying the oil cleanser on my dry skin (as the instructions suggest) I knew something was going right. Before even noticing the effects on my skin, the act of applying it felt so nice. Without exaggeration, it’s one of the top 10 sensations I can think of. I came to look forward to it every night. It removes ALL of your makeup and whatever else is on your skin. You can actually feel it picking up the little particles and melting them off of your skin. There is no oily residue or tight, dry feeling after rinsing; my skin just feels like it’s perfectly balanced.
After cleansing, I tried out the Dewy Skin Cream. It comes with a little spoon so you don’t have to unhygienically stick your hands in the jar, but to be honest, after about a month the spoon got annoying so I stopped using it. But this stuff changed my skin. It’s a thick cream and I would recommend it for drier skin, but I have oily areas too and it has never broken me out. When I woke up the next morning after I used the cleanser and the moisturizer, the flaky patches on my face had disappeared. The breakouts I had were not gone, but they were significantly calmed down and less red. And my skin didn’t burn anymore. I felt like instead of assaulting my skin with different acids and trying to kill things on it, I was healing it.
The Rice Polish is also a very unique and effective product that I use once a week to exfoliate my face. You pour a small amount of the dry powder into wet hands, and as you start applying it, it transforms into a foamy consistency. Because the particles are so fine, it’s extremely gentle on the skin and won’t cause micro-tears. After rinsing it off, my skin feels unbelievably soft and even after almost a year of using it, this still surprises me every single time. I’ve even used it on my arms to get rid of little bumps that wouldn’t go away for months despite trying everything I could think of. Then I tried this, and it smoothed out my arms in one night.
These three products got me through the Chicago winter and thoroughly healed my skin. Using them became my favorite part of the day. Of course, I wanted to try more of the brand that had helped my skin so much, so I tested out a few more of their products. I love the Serum Stick for hydrating my under eyes and I often use it as a natural highlight on my eyelids or cheekbones. I got a sample size of the Violet-C Radiance Mask which isn’t something that I would consider essential to my routine, but when I do use it I notice my skin looks fresher and is less likely to act up in the following days. I also tried their Water Cream, and while it wasn’t hydrating enough for me, it seems to work well for people with more oily skin.
One product that disappointed me was the Essence Plumping Skin Softener: the reviews were split between people saying it was a holy grail product and those who said it was just fancy water for your face. I unfortunately fell into the latter camp, and while I didn’t experience any negative side effects from the product, it didn’t seem to do anything good for me either. I ended up returning it because it was really expensive.
All in all, I am extremely thankful to have found this brand which has helped my skin more than anything else I’ve tried. For anyone struggling with irritated skin, I highly recommend trying out their products.
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