Review: First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

I was searching for a new moisturizer to help with dry, flaky, parched skin. This cream was constantly mentioned. It had good reviews too. I thought I would give it a try even after scanning the ingredients. It contains some comedogenic ingredients that I’ve had issues with before. But, I ignored it all and picked up a few bottles. They were on sale, hehe. The purpose of this product is to provide instant and long-term hydration for dry, distressed skin and eczema. It contains colloidal oatmeal, which is a skin protectant that helps to relieve itching caused by eczema, rashes, and other skin conditions. Shea butter to moisturize and protect the skin barrier with vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids. Allantoin to calm and soothe the skin. It’s vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free. Since the weather is colder and cooler, and I’ve been dealing with dry skin, this seemed like the type of product that could help with dry, itchy skin. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it had a ton of good reviews. Some even labeled it as their HG. Let’s see if this cream works or not. Here’s my experience with this product.

My Experience with First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream:

Texture & Application

The product is a cream. It feels soft, smooth, and creamy. When applied to the face, I didn’t apply it like my other moisturizers. It was a little difficult to spread across the face. What I did was place dots of the cream all over my face then gently pat it into the skin. The cream blends into the skin well. But only if it’s not used with other moisturizers. I tried using it with another moisturizer (underneath). The First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream started pilling. When I used it alone without any other moisturizer, it blended into the skin easily, no pilling. Even though the product blends into the skin well, it doesn’t fully absorb. It sits on top of the skin. I feel like there was a layer of product that’s sitting on top of my skin the whole night. It reminded me of CeraVe Moisturizing Cream. They feel very similar on the skin. They both sit on top of the skin.

Helps with dryness and flaky skin.

This cream helps with dry, cracked, flaky skin. Even wounded skin. I noticed that some parts of my face was over-exfoliated. After a day of using this cream, my skin felt a little better. The over-exfoliated parts of my face looked like it healed and peeled off. It wasn’t as dry anymore or reddish in color. It soothed my skin and helped to repair it.

A lightweight rich cream.

This is actually a rich cream even though it feels lightweight when applied and after it (somewhat) absorbs into the skin. My skin doesn’t feel like it has moisturizer on even though it’s sitting on top of my skin. It’s a different feeling. The cream feels and looks matte on my face. It doesn’t leave my skin looking glowy, shiny, or oily. The product feels very thin on the skin and a little goes a long way. I only used a little bit of product for my whole face and neck, chest. That amount of product was able to keep my skin from drying out and soothed it.

Did it clog my pores?

I only used this cream for 1 day and 6 hours on my face (nightly use). It should’ve been only one day. The first day, I noticed some clogged pores all over my oily t-zone. I didn’t think it was the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream clogging my pores. I kept using it the next night. But, I eventually washed it off that same night because I noticed tons of blackheads out of nowhere. I developed pimples on my forehead, upper lip, chin, and a bunch of blackheads on my oily t-zone (especially my nose). The amount of blackheads I saw were disturbing. I washed the product off immediately and opted for my original moisturizer. The next morning, my skin looked much better. No new blackheads. I was going to leave First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream for the second night but something didn’t feel right. I was clearly breaking out from the cream. I’m glad I pulled the plug right before it got even worse than what I went through. Whew! If you have oily, acne-prone skin, do a patch test first. This product felt very occlusive on my skin (sits on top of the skin type of feeling). It was just bad for my skin.

It contains Eucalyptus globulus leaf oil.

The last ingredient in this product is eucalyptus. *pause* Why??!! On the bottle, it says that this product is safe for sensitive skin. If you have sensitive skin, do a patch test. I don’t have sensitive skin, but my skin has been sensitized by my acne products. When I applied this cream to my face, I can feel my face tingling and slightly burning. It’s the eucalyptus. The tingling/burning sensation fades away after a while, but why bother with this ingredient. I can’t imagine someone with sensitive skin using this. But everyone is different. I know my skin didn’t like it.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream didn’t work for me. I really wanted to like it, since I was searching for a new moisturizer. I picked my bottles up when they were on sale. The retail price is $46 each. Thank goodness I didn’t pay that much for it. Because it was not worth it at all. I mean, it helped with dry, parched skin that’s irritated, but it ended up clogging my pores and giving me tons of blackheads. My nose looked like a strawberry after I used it for a day and 6 hours (lol). It made my acne 10x worse than the actual dryness itself. What’s the point of moisturizing when it causes blemishes? Ugh! And eucalyptus? I should’ve listened to the very few negative reviews I saw. But, in my mind, I just wanted to try it out for myself, haha. Now I’m left with full bottles of this cream that I can’t use on my face. I’ll use the rest of it on my body or as a hand cream instead. My hands are pretty crusty and dry right now due to the dry, cool weather. Anything helps. I won’t repurchase First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream again even if it was on sale. I feel that the CeraVe Moisturizing Cream works the same way without the eucalyptus. I’ve been using my last jar of CeraVe as my body cream.

Let’s talk about the comedogenic ingredients. This is something I ignored (shouldn’t have) thinking that it could work for me. Here are the ingredients that popped out when I was looking at the ingredients list. They are Glyceryl Stearate SE, Shea Butter, and Squalane. I’ve always avoided products with Glyceryl Stearate SE. This particular ingredient has always clogged my pores. Don’t mistake this ingredient with Glyceryl Stearate. Glyceryl Stearate SE can cause acne issues if you’re acne-prone. At least it did on my skin. Shea Butter is another culprit. I know Shea Butter and my skin don’t go well together, especially for the face. I had this issue with another product not so long ago. Squalane is a hit or miss on my skin. I’m currently using a moisturizer (Vanicream Daily Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin) with squalane, and it seems like it’s working better on my skin than the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream. I don’t think it’s entirely squalane’s fault in clogging my pores. I think it’s the Glyceryl Stearate SE and Shea Butter in combination with squalane that made my skin break out in acne. On top of that, Eucalyptus just adds into the mix and causes irritation.

I was hoping that the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream was one of those products that could work since it costs more, could possibly have higher quality ingredients. This cream is 46 bucks. It should be good, right? It’s also a highly raved product! Nope, nope, nope, I was wrong. I developed terrible acne from this cream. I wouldn’t recommend this product to anyone that is prone to clogged pores. Save your 46 dollars and spend it on something else. There are better moisturizers out there that are less expensive than this cream. I’m not a huge fan of the texture of the product either. It’s odd that I don’t see that many negative reviews on this product. Here is one, lol.

Back of the packaging.

Products came sealed. Left, opened. Right, sealed.

This is what the cream looks like.

Review: Australian Gold Botanical SPF 50 Tinted Face Sunscreen Lotion (Fair-Light)

I picked up Australian Gold Botanical SPF 50 Tinted Face Sunscreen Lotion in Fair-Light. I’ve been hearing about this sunscreen for so many years. I thought, maybe I should just try it out. What put me off from trying this sunscreen out in the first place is that it contains red algae (Porphyra Umbilicalis Extract). And my experience with algae in general in skin care products have not been good. It clogs my pores. But, anything can clog anyone’s pores. It really depends on how the person’s skin reacts to the ingredients/overall formulation of the product. So, I’ve read so many reviews raving about this product! Am I missing out on something?? Hmmm! Now, here I am, with a tube of this stuff. Here are my thoughts on it!

My Experience with Australian Gold Botanical SPF 50 Tinted Face Sunscreen Lotion!

Texture & Application

The texture of this sunscreen is a mousse-cream. It’s a very different type of texture and consistency that I didn’t expect from a bb cream/tinted lotion. It’s soft, lightweight, and souffle-like. It glides over the skin very easily and smoothly. It was very easy to use this product. Very easy to blend into the skin without tugging at the skin. I didn’t have any problems with application. It was a simple process that didn’t take a lot of time. I loved using it around my eyes. It didn’t burn my eyes. But, the sunscreen looks a little greasy and shiny upon application at first. I used the required amount for sunscreen too, which is a lot of product. After about 30 minutes, the product looked matte on the skin. The next 15 more minutes, my skin looked even more matte. It is truly a matte sunscreen as it states on the bottle (matte finish).

Fragrance-Free?

The product is fragrance-free, but it does have smell to it. When I first opened it and sniffed it, I thought it smelled like tanning lotion. After smelling it again just now, it smells like plant extracts. Maybe a combo of both? I’m not too fond of the scent, but it didn’t bother me too much.

Shade (Fair-Light Skin Tones)

I wasn’t impressed with the shade of this product. It says it’s for fair to light skin tones. The color of this product is literally orange when dispensed from the tube. On my skin, it was orange if I used too much. 🍊😂 I didn’t like that at all. 👎🏻 If I use it as a makeup product rather than my main sunscreen, it works out pretty well. It doesn’t turn my skin extremely orange, but there is an orange tint to the skin. That tint eventually fades away a little bit, so it wasn’t too bad. There is no coverage. It seems to work very well as a makeup primer. It seems to coat my eyelashes too. Eyelash primer as well? lol. So this product works out if you’re searching for a mineral sunscreen that is tinted (no white cast). I actually used it on top of my mineral sunscreen (that gives a white cast) to eliminate the white cast. Worked very well. Cast begone! 👋🏻

Great for oily skin!

Since the sunscreen is matte, it works amazingly on oily skin. I have very oily skin, and this sunscreen was perfect on my skin when it comes to taming excess oil. It makes my face appear very clean compared to the dewy, oily look, haha. If you have dry skin, you might want to apply a good moisturizer underneath. This sunscreen is definitely aimed towards people with oily skin. I’m not saying it won’t work for dry skin. It’s truly a matte lotion sunscreen. I didn’t think it was drying at all on my skin.

It stays in place.

Most sunscreens swish around my face when I reapply. That might be the reason why I was developing more freckles! When I went in for a reapplication, I can feel that this sunscreen did not shift at all on my face. It stayed in place. Reapplying was not a pleasant experience since it felt like I was applying on top of more product. The sunscreen feels lightweight when applying, but it leaves a layer, film of product on the skin. I can feel that there’s product sitting on my skin. It’s quite annoying.

Breakouts? Clogged pores?

I was dreading using this sunscreen on my face because of the red algae. The other ingredient, shea butter, is a hit or miss on my skin. I thought this sunscreen was a tad too rich on my skin, which is odd because I thought it would be drying (from the reviews I’ve read). It leaves a sticky residue on my skin and just feels too moisturizing. I noticed closed comedones, some blackheads, and milia in my breakout-prone areas. That’s when I stopped using it. Could it be the red algae? Shea butter? Who knows. My skin didn’t like it. It feels very occlusive on the skin, especially when reapplied. By the way, I started noticing breakouts by day 2, but I didn’t stop by day 3. By day 3, it became more obvious that my pores were getting clogged.

How to remove.

This is one of the most difficult sunscreen products to remove from the skin. It does not come off by simply cleansing with a face wash. To remove this product, oil cleanse (leave on for a few minutes) and wash with a facial cleanser. I do have a facial brush too to help remove the sunscreen off of the skin. If the product does not budge, oil cleanse, oil cleanse, oil cleanse some more. Just make sure the sunscreen is all off. If you do not remove the sunscreen off properly, you’ll in up with residue on your face, which can lead to clogged pores. I removed the sunscreen off properly and made sure my skin was squeaky clean, so my breakouts were from the ingredients in the product. It’s not compatible with my skin type.

Final Thoughts

I was so excited to try this sunscreen out. It’s affordable, comes in a 3 fl. oz. tube, has SPF 50, and it’s a mineral sunscreen (4% Zinc Oxide, 4% Titanium Dioxide). The smell of the product isn’t too bad. I got used to it after a few uses. The shade of the product could be better. I wish it wasn’t orange. 😂 Fair to light isn’t fair to light. I could see the drastic difference in my skin color when using this sunscreen. Too bad that it clogged my pores too. I wished my skin didn’t react the way it did, but it did. *sigh* I wanted it to work. It would’ve work well for outdoor workouts, hikes, pool days, and going to the beach. It sticks to the skin like crazy. If you want a sunscreen that stays on your skin, this will do it. For everyday use? It’s not for my skin type. Like I said before, it feels too heavy, sticky on the skin. It’s weird because the sunscreen feels lightweight when applied to the skin. After a few hours, it takes on this sticky texture, film that I dislike. I don’t like it and my skin doesn’t like it. It gets in my hair. It’s difficult to remove. The breakouts killed it for me. All in all, I won’t repurchase. This sunscreen has been hyped up so much that I thought it would be amazing. It’s a nope for me.

What Australian Gold Botanical SPF 50 Tinted Face Sunscreen Lotion in Fair-Light looks like:

It looks more orange in person. It has a whipped-mousse texture to it.

This sunscreen was sealed when I purchased it. 👌🏻

4 Months of The Ordinary 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder! My Results!

It’s been 4 months using The Ordinary 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder. Yes, 4 MONTHS! If you need a recap on this product, GO HERE. So I started using this ascorbic acid powder to help with acne marks and to achieve a brighter complexion. I was having trouble with other vitamin c essences and serums. I couldn’t find a vitamin c product that was compatible with my skin. I would get clogged pores and breakouts from other vitamin c products. So I thought, hey, let’s try the powder form instead. It doesn’t contain any other ingredients in it besides vitamin c. It’s 100% l-ascorbic acid powder! 🍊

So this product comes in a jar. It’s tiny. It’s only 20g. Even though it’s only 20g, I still have a ton of product left after 4 months of use. Seems like it’ll last for a couple of years since I don’t use much of it anyways, and I use it on a daily basis. Just a little bit of product goes a long way. It can get annoying when I have unscrew the lid, scoop out the powder, and mix it with my other skin care products. I have to be more careful because I don’t want to spill the product all over the place. It’s just plain messy. I think that’s one of the downsides of this product — it’s not mixed for you, you have to do it yourself.

With this ascorbic acid powder, I can use almost half a scoop without any issues. I worked my way up to that amount of powder over the months. It doesn’t sting or burn my skin. My skin just takes it without any issues. I mix the ascorbic acid powder with my essences, which are the Cosrx Hyaluronic Acid Hydra Power Essence and Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence. I mix these two together. Yeah, I’m weird, but I like the combination. I have hyaluronic acid and snail. It’s an amazing combo to lightly moisturize the skin, especially for oily skin like myself. Works great since I’ve been doing it! 👍🏻 And I haven’t had any issues with using them. No irritation, redness, or breakouts. All is good so far!

Now let’s get into the results! It’s been 4 months of using ascorbic powder. Have I seen any results?? Hmmm! Honestly, it’s been tough. I haven’t noticed visible results using it, but I’m not too disappointed in it. I mean, it works as a great antioxidant for my skin. I use it in the morning for the antioxidant properties and to boost my UV protection (while using SPF). Also, since the powder lasts forever, there’s not much to complain about yet besides having to mix it myself in the morning. haha. Even though I’m still using this ascorbic acid powder, I’ve also continued on to using other vitamin c products…

More on my other vitamin c products in another post! 🙂 So, so far, The Ordinary 100% L-Ascorbic Acid Powder hasn’t been too bad. But, I still think it’s pretty overpriced for what you get. After finishing this powder, I think I’m just going to purchase ascorbic acid powder (not from The Ordinary) from somewhere else. Ascorbic acid powder is pretty cheap. Come on now, right? Why pay more for something that’s just ascorbic acid powder. lol. Those are my thoughts on my experience with this product after 4 months. I hope this was helpful. I’ll see everyone in my next update! Stay tuned!!

Moisturizing is very important! 💧 Check out my thoughts on the moisturizers that I use!

Another Update on My Moisturizers. What I’m Using Now.

Tonight’s Update on Andalou Naturals Vitamin C Beauty Balm

I had Andalou Naturals Vitamin C Beauty Balm on all day. Here’s my first review on this bb cream right here. Now on to my thoughts on this bb cream! I thought it would take a week for me to make up my mind on this bb cream. Nope! Here are the results!

So I had OK results the first time I used it. The only thing that truly bothered me about the bb cream is that it would accentuate dry patchy skin. Well, sadly, that didn’t change as the day went on having this bb cream on my face. My skin looked worse by the end of the night. I think the zinc oxide in this product is way too drying for my skin. I love how it protected my skin from the harsh UVA and UVB rays, but I’m not going to walk around with dry patches of skin on my face like I did today. That’s one aspect I didn’t like about the bb cream — it accentuates dry skin/patches on my face. There are other aspects of this bb cream that I tried to make work but couldn’t, but it started to bother me real quick. My skin just looked terrible with this bb cream on in many other ways.

The bb cream felt too moisturizing and heavy on my skin. Even though this bb cream feels very moisturizing (and accentuated dry skin at the same time). It’s a combination of moisturizing and making it look dry. It’s has a weird moisture/dry effect on the skin. I didn’t like it at all. So the bb cream felt too heavy on my skin. I’ve used other bb creams before that provided more, better coverage and felt more lightweight on the skin. The instructions on this product does state that it can be used daily alone or under makeup. Apply liberally 15 minutes before sun exposure and as needed. I only used it alone this time. I used it as a makeup primer before (under makeup). It just made my skin look so fake and caked. Also, applying liberally and as needed, with this bb cream, is a bit too much. It felt like there’s a thick layer of makeup every time I apply this bb cream to my face. Layer after layer. No, just no. haha.

As mentioned before, it dried my skin out. I want to elaborate more on that. The bb cream didn’t just accentuate dry patches, but it made the overall appearance of my skin look drier even though it didn’t leave my skin feeling dry. Visually, the bb cream did not look nice on my skin. I want my makeup to look neat when applied to my skin. This bb cream just made it look like a huge mess. And I applied it correctly to my face. How can anyone mess up on that? It just didn’t look good in the end. Just a huge pile of goop on the face. Yuck! The zinc oxide is definitely the culprit of the dryness. I’ve used other skin care products and makeup with zinc oxide, and they all dried my skin out and made it look aged. Also, the bb cream didn’t stay put on my skin. After applying the bb cream to my face, it would swish around. It doesn’t sit and cling on to the skin well. It moves around. It would transfer on to my clothes. If I gently just itched my face, the bb cream would smear and leave a makeupless spot on my face. It creased on my eyelids too. I found a thick chunk of product in the crease of my eyelids, lol.

Last but not least, it made me breakout! I don’t recall this product making me breakout last summer, but it did by the end of the day. I noticed two little pimples on my chin. Ugh! Why did I bother trying this bb cream again??!! 😭 Hopefully it goes away soon! I feel that the bb cream is way too heavy, way too moisturizing, and way too cakey for my skin. It’s thick, oily, and greasy. It felt like thick makeup suffocating my skin. I won’t be trying it again. It didn’t work before. It didn’t work this time around. Never again. On to something new…

Review: Andalou Naturals Clear Skin Lemon Sugar Facial Scrub

Here’s one more Anadalou Naturals skin care product! I hope! So this is the Andalou Naturals Clear Skin Lemon Sugar Facial Scrub. It’s not in the rosewater collection. For reviews on the rosewater collection & other Andalou Naturals skin care products I have reviewed, go here:

Review: Andalou Naturals 1000 Roses Eye Revive Contour Gel

Andalou Naturals 1000 Roses Pearl Exfoliator

Review: Andalou Naturals 1000 Roses Rosewater Mask

Review: Andalou Naturals Luminous Eye Serum

This face scrub is made from fruit stem cell complex with argan stem cells, manuka oil, agave, and organic cane sugar to gently exfoliate dull, dry skin to improve tone and texture. Meyer lemon refreshes and revitalizes for a bright and balanced complexion. It is non-GMO, vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free.

Enjoy my review on Andalou Naturals Clear Skin Lemon Sugar Facial Scrub! 🙂

My experience

This facial scrub smells like vanilla-lemon. I’m not too fond of the smell of the product. The mixture of vanilla and lemon isn’t for me. It smells weird. The scrub feels grainy and rather rough. Seems a little too much for the facial skin, to be honest. Once I tried it on my face, yep, it was way too much for my skin. It’s a sugar scrub, so the pieces of exfoliant feels granular. But the exfoliant melts a little when mixed with some water and as the scrub is rubbed into the skin. Still, it still feels too rough on the skin. That’s just not good or healthy for the skin. It’ll create micro-tears in the skin. Also, the lemon in this product burns the skin. Lemons and the facial skin just don’t go together. It irritated my skin like no other. My skin was bright red after using it. It’s just way. too. harsh! In my opinion, this facial scrub is just plain terrible for the face. It’s more for the body like the hands, feet, and elbows. But, there’s a few good things I noticed when using this facial scrub, which is funny because of how awful it is for the facial skin. It actually did leave my skin feeling and looking softer and smoother afterwards. It removed dead skin cells! I noticed how velvety my skin felt when I was washing my face the next morning and my makeup went on ultra smoothly. Also, my skin looked brighter and glowy. Hmmm, interesting! 🤔

How can something be so bad but be so good? lol.

Well! From this experience, the bad outweighs the good no matter how good the good is. This facial scrub is just too rough on the facial skin no matter how much I don’t want it to be, lol. I was very ecstatic to try this facial scrub. It just looks very promising and seems like it’ll give results. And it did! With a price. 😮‍💨 The product looks good upon opening too. It’s also vegan and cruelty-free. What’s not to love? But, I can’t imagine using it again (on my face, of course). I’ll use it on my feet or legs. The other ingredients in it besides the exfoliant looks pretty good too. Let’s do a run through of the ingredients at a glance…

It contains sugar cane juice, vegetable glycerin, coconut oil, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, sunflower seed oil, olive fruit oil, vitamin c, vitamin e, manuka honey, fruit stem cells (argan, malus domestica, solar vitis), bioactive berry complex, white tea leaf extract, lemon peel oil…

The ingredients look more natural compared to other skin care products I’ve used. Too bad that it had to be so harsh on the facial skin. I stopped using it.

This is what the Clear Skin Lemon Sugar Facial Scrub looks like. The coloring of the packaging is so cool. 😍

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Removes dead skin cells
• Leaves the skin feeling softer and smoother
• Makeup goes on much smoother after using this facial scrub
• Vegan and cruelty-free product!

❌ Cons

• Way too harsh on the facial skin
• Burns 🍋🍋🍋
• Not a fan of the smell of the product

Conclusion

I still have an almost full jar of Andalou Naturals Clear Skin Lemon Sugar Facial Scrub sitting around. I haven’t been using it much. Only once in a while if I remember, lol. I’ve been using it to scrub my lips. I’m just happy that I’m using it for something, or it’ll go to waste. But, I won’t purchase it again. I’d much prefer a facial scrub that’s more suitable for the facial skin. You know, a more gentle yet effective exfoliant that doesn’t harm the skin. haha. Would I recommend? No.