This week I have been using the skincare that I took home as part of my travel pack. I decided it was better to go ahead and use it up rather than put half empty tubes into the drawer to go bad and become forgotten. There are two full sized products and a couple will be lasting into next week but for the most part things were used up. Since I was trying to fit everything into a small travel bag, there is no break out between day and night, although some products certainly were only used at one time or another, but I’m sure that will be clear as we move down the list. First, The Products…

Makeup Remover: Elemis Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm

Cleanser: Clove and Hallow Cloud Powder Gentle Waterless Cleanser

Toner: Elemis Soothing Apricot Toner

Eye cream: Sunday Riley Five Star Eye Cream

Day Cream: Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream

Night Cream: One Kind Dream Cream

Sunscreen: Elta MD Skincare UV Sheet Broad Spectrum SPF 50+

Okay let’s break this down. I love the Elemis cleansing Balm. It is one of my favorite cleansing balms in fact. This was the first use of the Apricot toner from the brand but I really enjoyed it. And as the memorial service was held in a bare, open back yard and the temps reached 104 my skin appreciated the calming nature of the toner when even the sunscreen needed back up. Thee is plenty of toner left and I will be keeping it in my routine for a while. I enjoyed the light fruity but clean scent of it as well as it’s use.

the Clove and Hallow was interesting. It is a waterless cleanser which means it is a powder and you add your own water. It comes in a reusable glass shaker bottle which I love. Clove and Hallow is one of my favorite brands for reusable and sustainable packaging. I had several lipsticks from them that I absolutely adored, but this is the first of the skincare that I tried out.

Not a lot of powder is needed for each use so there is a lot of product packed into this small container. As it was powder there was no issue with leaks during travel which was nice. One shake was all I needed. I did notice that I had to be careful with the rust water added and rubbing as the way I brought my hands together could cause the powder to puff back against me. That just took a little maneuvering to figure out and I was fine. The scent of the powdered mango in the cleanser is the most prevalent scent, It smells a little like the vanilla scent you get from a mango rather than a mango itself. Which for me is better for skincare. Sometimes mango products make me think it is sticky just by the scent. This doesn’t. I’m really liking this this far and appreciate the gentle nature of it.

The eye cream was the Sunday Riley i was already using, mostly because i couldn’t see the point of opening a new eye cream just for the travel. I am really liking this eye cream as it is quickly absorbing, non-greasy and it doesn’t cause my pores to clog.

But here is where it get’s interesting. The day cream I used was The rich cream by Augustinus Bader. It is by far the most expensive item in this line up. In fact i am willing to bet this sample size is more expensive than the rest. The full sized 50 ml of this cream retails for $280. Now you know me, I am always happy to try out expensive products in sample sizes. Mostly because I really like to know something is going to work for me before I spend the money on it. And truthfully I am the same way with inexpensive products too. It doesn’t matter if it is a $280 cream or a $30 one, I want to try it out before I purchase it in a full size. part of that has nothing to do with money but rather with waste in general. The worst is when you get a full sized product of, well anything, try it and realize you don’t like it. For me the product offers recriminations about other people using it and how dare I waste it like that.

In this case, i was really looking forward to it not only because it was an expensive product but because I heard really great things about it. Opening it, the cream has a sort of playdoh like scent to it which I didn’t particularly care for. It was a thinner cream than I expected for something called a Rich Cream. It also took a while to absorb. It was a thin cream that left white streaks on the skin and once it was massaged in left my skin feeling a bit sticky. The second day I tried it, the cream seemed to have separated and a whitish liquid came out. I closed the tube, massaged it a bit and put a little on my hand rather than my face. It was sticky and after about ten minutes I noticed my hand was feeling very itchy. I don’t know if I got a bad sample or if this is how the cream always reacts but it was quite a disappointment. The sample is fairly new. If it didn’t arrive in May’s subscriptions then it came in Aprils. I only used it the one time and decided not to risk the rest of the tube. Instead I used smaller amounts of my night cream during the day time.

The night cream was the onekind Dream Cream. It is a thick white cream with almost no scent. To use it in the day I used half of what I used at night. For me that is usually a pretty good ratio whether it is using night cream in the day or day cream at night. I will almost always use twice as much at night. While the Dream Cream is not my absolute favorite night cream, it does a decent job and it did a great job filling in as a moisturizer. It isn’t sticky, has almost no scent and if left for a little while it does absorb well into the skin. It does take a while, about ten minutes for it to really soak in. i don’t actually have a problem with it, it is a good basic cream. It hydrates but doesn’t really do anything else. In a pinch it works reliably as a moisturizer but it isn’t something I feel the need to keep stocked.

And finally we end up with our sunscreen for the week. The elta md has no scent to it. there is no sunscreen scent and no mineral scent, there is quite literally no scent at all. It goes on with a white cast but as you rub it into your skin the white cast fades. It isn’t greasy at all and doesn’t leave a shine. It is the slightest bit sticky. Even if you are not planning on wearing makeup after putting this on, I would add a quick layer of powder just to take down the stickiness. Other than that it is a nice formula. It isn’t one I’d feel the need to keep constantly in stock, but it is one i wouldn’t mind using again.

And that was my skincare for the week. A few of these items will be back next week and a couple are off to the empties bin. Aside from the disappointment of Augustinus Bader, it was a pretty good line up.