My Skin Care Regimen Review

I thought I would take a moment and share my skin care regimen with you (hyper-linked for your convenience).  I don’t know about you, but I am always very interested in what other people use and like.  I’ve always been a gal that is really into her products for as long as I can remember!

 

I’ve always been a firm believer in washing my face in the morning and at night and using a good face cream, I rarely have skipped that daily routine in my past 20 years.  On the other hand, I’ve not always been good about anti-aging care and using sunscreen but this year I started slathering on the sunscreen more than ever before.   If you noticed, in my last post about Lush products, I didn’t review a lot of face care products because I’m very picky as to what I use on my face.

 

In my teens and 20s, I was kind of all over the place and not very committed to one face wash or cream.  I would use one for a year or so then switch.  I’ve always loved Neutrogena products and still use Neutrogena face wash several times a week.   6ish years ago, we got an Ulta here in Des Moines, for a product-lover like myself; this sure is a dreamy store!  I have spent countless hours browsing and it’s where I really started upping my game in my skin care regimen.  I actually was on a search for a neck cream.  I was starting to get the infamous leathered chest look from tanning too much that Aaron absolutely despises.  He was the one that named it the ‘leathery chest’ look, not me.   I was just starting to barely get one and was a little paranoid so I explained to an Ulta employee that I need the BEST chest cream they have because this was my first signs of aging I’ve ever had.   She took me over to the Exuviance products, which was a total life changing moment.

   

The Exuviance toning neck cream did the trick!  I was really impressed how the fine lines just went away and my skin brighter and healthier as well as how quickly it worked.  I immediately went back to Ulta to buy more Exuviance products.

 

Wanting to keep it simple, the next product I checked out was their basic daily face cream, which was the Sheer Refining Day Fluid.  Again, I really liked it.  It seemed to really hydrate my skin and yet was lightweight and matched well with my make-up.   It was never greasy nor made my skin breakout, although it wasn’t designed specifically for anti-aging, did it have everything I was looking for in a basic face cream.  I don’t use it daily anymore but do use it on occasion, more so after or before a workout.

The reason I don’t use the Sheer Refining Day Fluid anymore is because I started to try their Anti-Aging products and really loved them better.   I’ve been using the Anti-Reverse Day Repair in the morning and the Anti-Reverse Night Lift in the evening.   Highly recommend them!

The most impressive product of all that I have tried is their eye cream.   I was definitely starting to get a lot of fine lines in the corner of my eyes and decided to try the eye cream.  I kept very close tabs on the progress and was astonished by how this eye cream cleared up those lines!   Great, great product! 

I have tried other Exuviance products, I’ve liked all of them I’ve tried and there are many more I haven’t even tried yet.   The Dermatologists that created these products really did a phenomenal job.

Now, switching gears…. A few months ago I was invited to a Rodan+Fields party.  My friend who invited me had been raving about how much she loves their products on Facebook and I’ve always thought she has awesome skin and is a few years older than me.  When she invited me to the party (and enticed me with wine) I was definitely a sucker for it. I knew little about the products other than they were created by the same dermatologists that created Pro-Active.

All their products were a little overwhelming for me as I wanted to try all of them and was very curious.  I started out with the Redefine kit.  What I really liked about Exuviance is that it didn’t ever seem expensive to me because I just bought each product individually when I needed it.   You can do that too with Rodan+Fields but they emphasized, like all products do, that you really need to use the kits to see the full benefits and so given that I wanted to give this a good shot, I bought the $200 kit.   I’ve been using it for a few months and here’s what I think…

The products smell amazing, very spa like!  I love how the cleaner does a great job of cleaning my face and has gentle exfoliating beads and acts as a daily mask.  The toner helps my skin feel extra clean and I don’t generally use a toner but now definitely will be part of my daily routine no matter what skin care products I’m using.  The morning and night cream, well they are just okay.  They pair well with my make-up and seem to be just as good as Exuviance.   Overall I think it is a really good product and if I wasn’t already using a very comparable product, I would probably be blown away by it.  I have heard a lot of raves about the eye cream, it was sold out during the party (and still is) so I do plan on trying that product.  What I love most about the product over Exuivance is the smell.  And I’ll probably still continue to use the face wash, it really is a favorite of mine; but as for buying another full kit when I run out… I probably will not.  I have nothing bad to say about it and I’m seeing the popularity of this brand grow more and more so I know people really love it. 

One thing I’m still stumped on is that at the Rodan+Fields party, they stressed that the kit should last 60 days and if it is lasting longer than 60 days, then I’m likely not using enough of the product to see the right results.  My Exuivance lasts normally 5-6 months, replenishing more frequently sounded expensive to me.  I’m at 90 days on my R+F kit and I still have plenty to use and I’m not being ‘chinsey’ in my applications, in fact I’ve been more subconscious now to use a generous amount each time.  I think replenishing every 120 days is probably a more accurate statement in my opinion.  This girl at the party (who seemed a little coo-coo or maybe had too much wine) tried to tell me she has a huge face and likely would go thru it that often.  Um… her face looked normal-sized to me.  #Weird.

Being a Financial Consultant for a living, I need to talk how much because good skin care gets expensive!  Given that I can get my Exuiviance products for 20% off when I stock up during coupon time that brings the total to $239 for the wash/toner/creams(face, night, eye).  Rodan+Fields Redefine Kit + Night Cream totals $253.  Comparable products, comparable prices, really!

If you aren’t invested in a really good skincare product, you really need to be!  I’m a total product freak so it’s easy for me to say.  Whenever I travel anywhere, I always have a separate bag of just product that is like the size of a small carry-on (and this is excluding my make-up).  Imagine me in the TSA line trying to use a small zip lock baggie to cram as many of my products in as I can, it’s ludicrous!