Summarized from a consultation originally recorded on February 20, 2023.
Annmarie Skin Care Skin Consultations are FREE, virtual group sessions, hosted live by our in-house skin experts, to provide personalized recommendations and directly answer any skin care related questions. Learn more about our skin consultations.
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Cool. Awesome. Well, if, if there aren't any other, you know, questions or big concerns about skin I think we can get started. Anything coming up as far as, you know, a question you want to make sure I address in the call?
Customer: I have one. Yeah. I just received my Annmarie products a couple of days ago and I got these three little vials. I'm not, you know, it's the probiotic, the anti aging, and the citrus one. I don't know, I don't know when I should use each one. Or can I combine all three of them in one little vial and just use them all together?
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Hmm. Okay. Yep. I definitely hear that question. So that's a question that's speaking to the Serum Trio that comes with the Probiotic Serum with Tremella, The Anti Aging Serum and the Citrus Stem Cell Serum Serum.I'm just going to answer that before we even get into talking about like the full routine and products. So those three products are serums and your serums that can be used interchangeably. We don't typically recommend that you mix them together. Although if you ended up doing it that way, it wouldn't necessarily harm your skin. It just kind of like thins out each one's potency a little bit. The Probiotic Serum with Tremella, that one is primarily focused on bringing skin into balance. It's very hydrating. The Citrus Stem Cell Serum Serum, that one's primary focus is addressing pronounced signs of aging. Stem cells are a huge piece of the like makeup of that one as well as a bunch of ingredients to focus on brightening the skin. The Anti Aging Serum is kind of our classic skin serum, it's primary focus is hydrating the skin. So it has a lot of hyaluronic acid as well as this like floral blend. So it might smell a little bit rosy, but how you're using these, what I typically suggest is starting with one, especially if you've never used any of our products before, just to ensure that your skin receives it, that there aren't any issues that come up (reactions) and use that as your serum in your routine. Your serum step is going to come after you've cleansed. If you have a toner after you've toned, then you'll use your serum, then you'll use your facial oil or your moisturizer.
I would start with one and use it at least a couple days and just ensure that your skin is receiving it without any issue before introducing the next one. So hopefully that cleared that, that up. That is a really solid little starter kit, so it's a really nice way to start.
Customer: And do I, do I use maybe like a pea size on my face and my, and the neck to start with?
I don't know how much to use for each serum.
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Yeah, that's a really great question. And those are, I think they have like a twist top that you would shake a little bit out. Yes. Yeah. And so pea size is usually good for the face. You might need a little bit more for, you know, the face and the neck. If you're going all the way down into the neck and decollete then you will probably need closer to a dime size. Yeah, it's closer to a dime size. And the way I apply pretty much all my products, but serums included is I'll put it in the palm of my hand, right? So if you've got your little dropper, this is not one, but like you're, you're patting it into your hand. Then I'll kind of take my ring finger, get a little bit on my finger. And then just very lightly distribute it across my face and then come in and like, just gently massage it in doing it that way. I use a lot less because if you put it on your fingers and then you immediately take it onto your face, all of that product is put in that one spot. Whereas if you take a little bit and then just kind of dot the face, you've already got this kind of spread out before you come in and like to massage it in. So you'll get a little bit more life out of your product doing it that way.
Okay. Okay, perfect. Well, that's a great kickoff question.
Okay. Let's start talking about some products. So, our routine, we typically suggest four products in your routine and this can look a little bit different. You can go a little bit slimmer. Of course you can expand as broad as you want. We've got a, you scrubs and the whole gamut, but I'll start talking about four and then we'll probably expand.
From there. So the first step, of course, is going to be your cleanser, right? We've got several cleansing options for this group, which is, you know, primarily focused on the appearance of aging and dryness. I'm going to talk about three of the cleansers. Let me get them all here. So the first one is the Aloe Herb Cleanser. I'll show you, this does come in two bottle sizes. We've got a 50 and a hundred milliliter. This cleanser is kind of tried and true. It is a very creamy, soft texture. I'll see if I can get that texture to show on camera here. She's like light. almost lotion by looking at it. The blend is anchored in coconut oil and aloe vera juice.
I always add here, it's the ratio and the percentage is such that it doesn't feel like too much coconut oil. Sometimes coconut oil, especially used directly on the skin can be a little too heavy. The blend of this is really balanced. You get a lot of the cleansing properties from that aloe vera juice that's in here. Then the scent profile is quite light and citrusy. There's some lemon, lemon balm. There's some plantain in this as well. All of these ingredients are designed to really balance the skin and to soften the skin and to soothe the skin. So this cleanser is typically one that we're suggesting for skin types that are normal, normal to dry, experiencing signs of aging. So specifically if you're noticing like crepey-ness. You know, if you're touching your cheeks and you're starting to see a little bit of crepiness, the Aloe Herb Cleanser is a good one for that. This is also a really good one for sensitive skin. I mean, of course, unless you had a specific reaction to an ingredient in the product, everything is formulated in this to be very soothing and just kind of like a calming effect on the skin.
This is a good one if you're shopping and you're just not sure or you're kind of overwhelmed looking for which cleanser is the best for you. The Aloe Herb Cleanser, you really, you can't go wrong. It's quite solid for pretty much any skin type.
The next one is this product here. This is the Phytonutrient Cleanser. And actually I'll take a beat and talk about the difference in the products. This one has a black label and a lot of the other products that I'll talk about have this kind of tan label. We call this the Signature Collection and we call these the Wild Alchemy Collection.
And the big differences between the two collections The Wild Alchemy tends to include more exotic ingredients, so ingredients that are sourced from more exotic places. It also could often include ingredients that have a, like, somewhat more laborious craft process. So that might be copper infused water, steeped aloe vera juice, it could be a hydrosol.
These ingredients have a couple additional steps before they even get added into the blend of the product that typically goes towards the Wild Alchemy Collection. And then finally, there are usually larger bottle sizes. So whereas with the Aloe Herb Cleanser, it does have the larger and the smaller option, the Wild Alchemy collection cleanser, it just has this larger option. The Phytonutrient Cleanser just has the larger option. So that's the difference between the two lines. And so you'll see me talking about both. Both products, you can use them interchangeably. You don't have to commit yourself to either the signature collection or the wild alchemy. They, they, they dance well together.
The Phytonutrient Cleanser,, this cleanser, first and foremost, the texture's a little bit richer. Let's see if you can pick it up here. Whereas the Aloe Herb Cleanser has come with a kind of this soft lotiony feel. The Phytonutrient Cleanser has this almost fatty feel to it. So it's got a little bit more body and a little bit more fullness, which lends itself really nicely to dry your skin, lends itself really nicely to signs of aging.
This cleanser is formulated a little bit more directly to address the appearance of aging. So we've got some ingredients that are helping to lighten pigmentation. We've got some ingredients that are helping to soften fine lines.
A big difference between this one and the Aloe Herb Cleanser, the Aloe Herb Cleanser is a little bit more suited for sensitive skin. So if you are someone who has the dry skin that also gets really sensitive or gets really tender, the Aloe Herb Cleanser might still be a better fit for you.
The Phytonutrient Cleanser though is a really great one if what you're building in your routine is a pretty focused routine. Routine that is addressing the appearance of aging, so not something super neutral, not one that's great for like normal or necessarily young skin types, although younger skin types could use it, it just is very, very directly crafted to address the appearance of aging.
The next one, and this will probably be the last cleanser I'll mention, is the Restorative Cleansing Oil. And this one, I'm not going to show you the consistency because it's a true oil blend. It's an oil cleanser. And as such, when you're using it, it does leave a little bit of a residue behind. It leaves a little bit of this like very soft, very voluminous, like, feel from the oil. With the other two cleansers, the way you use them is pretty straightforward. You're using wet fingers on a wet face to massage those cleansers around. This one is dry fingers on a dry face and you're putting this on and massaging it around. I actually even leave this on. So when I'm using this one, I'll, you know, pump it out and apply it and leave it on for upwards of. You know, 30 seconds to a minute before I even come in and move it around just to give it a little bit of time to really soften the skin, really break down anything that's kind of right there on the surface, and then come in and move it around.
Now, because this one leaves a little bit of that oily feel behind, this is awesome for my really, really dry skin types. So when I'm working with customers and they are just, they cannot get enough moisture, they're, anything that has moisture, they're looking, they're just constantly trying to find the thing that will help to really nourish the skin.
This is a really good one for those skin types, this very, very nourishing, very, very moisturizing cleanser. This is also a good one. Some of the key ingredients have a huge calming effect. So tea tree is one, for example, that's in this one that just really helps to soothe down and calm down skin that's reactive in a sort of way. So this one is great for dry skin. Super, super great for dry skin. It's also great for aging skin. Oftentimes those can come hand in hand skin that's starting to see signs of aging or starting to lose a little bit of moisture. How you remove this one, if you're really dry, you're likely going to just use some water and that's good.
If you are kind of like a normal to dry, you might still use that one, but you might come in with either a, another cleanser to remove it or something just like a warm, wet washcloth, something like this, and just help to remove it that way. Having an additional tool, whether it's another cleanser or the washcloth is a helpful way to get more of that off without it leaving so much behind.
Customer: I'm still not clear if you have really dry skin, how you remove the oil, like you said, another soap, but could you just take a washcloth and wipe it off and leave it a little bit on?
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Mm hmm. Yeah. So if your skin is really dry, you likely are going to really like the feel of this one. But yes, an additional way to help to remove it is to use a washcloth and it can be like you're using a washcloth and just resting your face in it for a few minutes because that kind of like heat and steam can help to break that down a little bit or you can be actively removing that with a warm wet washcloth.
The heat is important. So if you're doing something cool to a lukewarm, it's really not going to remove that much excess of the oil. Having a little bit of heat, you don't want to go too hot, obviously, but like heat on the washcloth and then removing it will help to remove a lot of that excess too. Or you could come in with another cleanser.
But I think if you're drier, if dryness is a big concern, I would start with the washcloth because you want to leave a little bit of that oil cleanser left behind to provide some of that moisture and nourishment.
Perfect. So let's get into our second step. We talked about cleansers. Now we're going to talk about toning this. I'll talk about the two in our line. Toning mists are, they're kind of, like, often skipped. You know, and I get it, especially if you're shopping on a budget, our products can add up quickly, but the toning mists are a really important step and help everything kind of like seep in and absorb evenly.
So our cleansers are pH balanced. They don't need an additional pH balancing. A lot of times toning mists will be advertised to balance the skin. And none of our toning mists contain any alcohols or acids, so they're not utilized directly to be like you know, controlling specific skin concerns or something like that. The function that our toning mists provide is primarily to add this burst of hydration and this burst of nutrition to the skin, which is super helpful for the serum and super helpful for the oil and helping that all blend into the skin.
The first one I'll mention is the Neroli Toning Mist, and this one comes in the 50, 50 milliliter bottle size, looks like this. The scent of this one is pretty intense, pretty directly neroli. It's, yeah, it's pretty neroli heavy. I quite like it. The blend of this is really simple. So you've got aloe vera juice, The rolly essential oil and Aspen bark and the Aspen bark. It's a pretty small amount. It is included mostly to keep the suspension. There's a little bit of an astringent property, but it's mostly to keep the texture exactly how we like it. The feel of this one. So with it having aloe vera juice as its main ingredient. Primary like anchor when you apply that this is providing some water to the lower layers of the skin, so we differentiate hydration from moisture in the hydration speaks to the water level of the skin, whereas moisture is speaking to the oil or the fat it's consistency to the skin and hydration typically happens on a lower level, which is why sometimes you'll notice a difference if you're more consistent with water or water consumption than you are at other times. Which is where ingredients like aloe vera juice, hyaluronic acid tremella mushroom all of these are, they're not, you're not going to feel necessarily quite balanced, but you'll feel a lot more hydrated in the lower layers.
So they do typically work together with a moisturizer. And or oil which is what we have at this point to provide the moisture to the skin. So the neroli, it's got this beautiful aloe vera juice base, which is instantly soothing, instantly kind of comforting to the skin. This is a good one if your skin is kind of normal or normal to dry.
Neroli is a really helpful one for fine lines and kind of softening the appearance of fine lines. Or if you just really like the scent of neroli aromatically neroli is a quite uplifting scent. And so this one does feel pretty good. You know, using it on the skin and using it as your toning mist.
The next one, this is called the Botanical Hydration Mist with Immortelle. And again, I'll point out this is a larger bottle size. So this is a hundred milliliter, whereas this is a 50. With this as part of the Wild Alchemy collection, it's already kind of this like step above in terms of complexity. So the neroli starts with a very simple aloe vera juice base.
The Botanical Hydration Mist, this one, starts with a blend of two hydrosols, a rose and an immortal hydrosol. And a hydrosol, if you aren't familiar. Hydrosalt is what happens when you create an essential oil via steam distillation. So there's this like watery runoff that happens that's got a little bit more weight to it than just water, but it's definitely not quite as far as like an oil. So the feel of it is very smooth, very soft, almost buttery feeling especially on the skin. And with the two that we've chosen, the Rose and that Mortel, Both of those are very kind of classic anti-aging floral blends. Immortelle is also known as Helichrysum. It's got the name Immortelle from like legends of being the immortal flower and stories like that, but both of those are potent and with them being hydrosols, they're incredibly hydrating. So if you're someone who is really, really dry, typically this one is a better fit for you than the others. We do have one other that was primary for oily skin, so I'm not going to get into that one too much. But the neroli, this is kind of the next step in terms of hydrating the skin. But then from there, we've also included in this four different types of chamomile, so four different chamomile varieties, as well as frankincense. This is typically one that we're suggesting for customers who experience temporary redness or who are experiencing really any major sensitivity on the face.
And so, yeah, it's just like, it's almost like a tea, like a floral. herbal tea scent to it.
Now, how you're using both of these, after you've cleansed your skin. You just pat your skin dry and then you mist your skin generously, right? It comes with this perfect little spray top. And so you spray your face. I typically like to apply my serum while my skin is still damp. You absolutely can let it dry. I think the package says to let the skin dry and then apply the following products, but there's this cool little thing that happens when you apply your serum while your skin is still damp.
Because all of our serums have some variation of a humectant. The humectant, of course, is this, this ingredient that, like, seeks out moisture and then plumps up when it finds it. When you've already got skin a little bit dampened, then it's already that much further in this, like, plumping up process. It doesn't have to utilize moisture that it's finding in the skin or in the air.It's already able to use this moisture that it's finding from that toning mist, and so I, that's how I suggest doing it. I also suggest exploring, so either, you know, trying one one night, trying one the other night. And seeing what feels good. I do typically apply my oil while my skin is still damp and this is true for body products as well. So if you have body oil or something, applying it while the skin is still a little damp from the shower is a great way to just really change the feel of it. The way that feels is that applies. It's so much smoother. It applies so much more evenly. There's less weight time while you're waiting for the oil to absorb again, whether that's on the face or. On the body. So I, I say, give it a shot. See how it feels. See if it feels like it works for you. All of that. Any questions about the toning miss? And we only talked about two, so we might not.
Cool. Let's keep moving. Let's talk about serums. So the three serums that are part of the Signature Collection I kind of addressed very briefly, but I'll get into them a little bit further. The first one, of course, is the Anti Aging Serum. I don't know how well you can really see it. This one is one of our first serum launches ever, so it's got quite a following.
It's a big enough base that we actually have it in two sizes. This is the 15, this is the 30 milliliter size. So you can invest in either option. The feel of this one and the focus of this one is primarily hydrating the skin. So this is a really great one for normal, normal to dry, or mature skin. .Hyaluronic acid is a very key ingredient. I'll show you the texture of this one. So a lot of the serums have a very similar consistency in that they've got this beautiful golden hue. Sometimes it's lighter and sometimes it's darker. There can be a little bit of a range in the color and that's normal because we're using either organic or wildcrafted ingredients in the products. They aren't necessarily carbon copies of the year before, anything like that. But the consistency of this one it's, you know, got a little bit of thinness to it. You can kind of see how it really smooths out. The smell of that one is pretty, like, rosy. It's not like rose perfume. It's not, none of them are that strong at all.
But Rose and this, there's this floral blend that we use in this that carries a lot of the scent. Mm, smells good. So that is the Anti Aging Serum. And again, dry skin, normal to dry skin, and drying to aging skin, this is a good one to start with.
The Citrus Stem Cell Serum Serum. The consistency is very, very similar.
This one is focusing on helping tighten and firm your look and appearance of pigmentation in the skin. And this is an interesting one for the appearance pigmentation because the focus of the formulation is to be working on fading the appearance of darkened spots. We've got uva ursi, licorice root, amla berry, all of those are focusing on fading the look of darkened areas of the face. Now, because of the way both stem cells work and these other ingredients, these other ingredients are what's called tyrosinase inhibitors. It does take a little bit of time and a little bit of consistency for you to notice a difference. You could see it sooner, but it sometimes takes a full skin cycle, and that's anywhere from 28 to 35 days, depending on you and your body and where you're at in your evolution for you to notice a difference. And the reason it takes that long is because both stem cells and these skin lighteners, the way they work is they, you know, you apply the product. This is of course suspended in this beautiful aloe vera juice base. It's helping to kind of seep into lower layers of the skin. And it's as those lower layers are coming up to the surface. That you're seeing the change that you're seeing a difference that's happening in the skin. And I name that just to set expectations very fairly because I've definitely worked with customers who have purchased this and, you know, two weeks in, they're super disheartened because they're, sunspot that's been visible for years and years is, isn't gone or isn't completely gone or something along those lines.
The next one is the Probiotic Serum with Tremella. On the Probiotic Serum with Tremella, this is a beautiful blend for skin that is kind of thrown off in some way. So any sort of imbalance, and this can be a pretty wide range, so this can be clogged pores, this can be occasional redness, this could be really anything that's throwing off the natural, like, skin biome. The ingredients in this one, we've got an olive leaf ferment and a probiotic with tremella complex, and these are feeding the good bacteria of the skin, so these are really helping to bring skin back into this kind of homeostasis the formulation also includes tremella mushroom.
So that, yeah, this is the Probiotic Serum with Tremella. I will note with this one, I think this one has the most interesting scent. The scent is, it's, it's not too mushroomy. Yeah, mine's on the older side, so it's definitely smelling more mushroomy. It's the earthiest smelling of the, probably of any of our products because of that tremella mushroom.
All of the products that I've listed so far are available in this size, this 15 milliliter size, with the exception of this one, the anti aging serum, which is available in the 30 milliliter size. Now in the Wild Alchemy collection, this serum, the Wild Fruit Serum, is another kind of classic.
The Wild Fruit Serum especially is kind of this catch all in terms of addressing signs of aging. It really takes kind of a lot of the big features from the other serums and includes it in this and then some. So we've got Uva Ursi here. That one is focused on lightening the appearance for specific spots on the face. We've got a lot of hyaluronic acid in this one. We've got stem cells in here as well, and stem cells are super helpful for tightening your look. Also helpful for more pronounced lines. So this can be helpful in the crow's feet and between the brows, things like that. This also has a, you know, ingredient specific to this one, which is called kakadu plum. The kakadu plum is super vitamin C rich. And so you get this very brightened look to the skin. This overall evening of the skin tone that's a little different than the uva ursi is working on fading a specific area. It's working with melanin. Vitamin C is working to brighten and even out the entire complexion.
As I said that I was like, are any not my favorites? Yes, there are some that aren't my favorites. I do like this one a lot though. Let's see. The next one, this is the Activated CBD Serum. And first and foremost, let's point out the consistency difference here. So this one, whereas the other one kind of just like ran down my hand, this has a lot more body to it. It's a much thicker, creamier serum than the other serums than almost all the other serums. The next one's pretty close in consistency to it. Yeah, very, very, like, rich kind of fatty feeling. This product, the CBD serum, has a couple things to note as you're looking for it. So when you click the link, it's going to take you to its own site.
That is intentional. That's the way we are able to legally retail a hemp product in the US. And another thing, if you're joining us from outside the US, unfortunately, we aren't able to ship this directly to you.
The CBD serum, as the name suggests, has a very beautiful blend of CBD as it's called, kind of center as its focus. We use two different types of CBD. We use a fat soluble and a water soluble. And the benefits of having both, which I will say, I've never found another serum that has both water and fat soluble. The water soluble, this, this water soluble CBD, you get this instant absorption. So this is going right into the skin. It's sinking a little bit lower into the skin and it's working on the skin. There, the fat soluble, it mixes with your oil with the, with the fat on the skin is essentially, and it is a slower absorption. You get kind of this cumulative effect that happens where you're seeing the benefits instantly, and then you're seeing the benefits over time. CBD is a super interesting ingredient you know, but especially as a skin care ingredient, because CBD, what's the shortest way to explain it?
CBD works with your body's endocannabinoid system, and your endocannabinoid system is essentially this internal triage. So whether you're doing a CBD, you know, tincture, whether you're doing CBD, like, as part of your cooking, or applying it topically, once this hits your body, it kind of goes where it's needed. So any part of the skin that's, like, thrown off, for whatever reason, that could be that it's starting to slow down because of signs of aging.
Aside from the CBD, right? I could stop there and it still is a standalone, incredibly unique product. The blend of it is really, really hydrating. It's very thick. As you saw, we've got a lot of kind of emollient feeling ingredients. Tremella mushroom, hyaluronic acid we've got a lot of very active antioxidants, superoxide dismutase what's the other one? Astaxanthin. is another really, really big antioxidant that's in it. So you've got this really nourishing, very soothing anti aging blend that is the CBD serum.
Now, every serum that I've listed so far can be used in the morning and can be used in the evening. You can do it interchangeably. It really is whatever feels good to you. The final one, this is the Activated Night Serum.
This one is for night use. And the consistency I won't show you cause it's pretty similar. It's almost exactly the same in terms of the body as the CBD serum. It's this really kind of rich feeling serum. The Activated Night Serum, its key ingredient is called the bioactive A complex, which is essentially our version of a retinol.
When we were preparing to launch, it actually wasn't this product, it was another product. We have a set of three, like, boosters. One of them is called the Revitalize, this one here. And this is a concentrated dose of the bioactive A complex. When we were in preparation for crafting these, our COO was pregnant at the time.
And so although there are a lot of like retinal variations out there, we ended up going with this one because this one is actually a made safe variation. So you can use it at any point. You can use it if you're pregnant. You can use it if you're breastfeeding. You know, of course, you know, check with your healthcare provider and all of that.
But This was actually, you know, certified as safe for the body. So we first launched it in that set, this, the concentrated boosting elixirs, this one here. And then later came out with this serum. So the feel of this one, you've got the bioactive a, which is a retinal alternative, which still gives you this very kind of like.
taught, very like lifted, almost like a glossy look to the skin, very much like a retinol. Retinols, and I won't spend too much time in retinol specifically, but we really wanted an option that provided the retinol effect that wasn't just breaking skin down that wasn't kind of wearing skin down, weakening skin over time that was working with your body and within your system, like very synergistically versus like blasting skin apart which is where we kind of came up with this product.
You still get this exfoliating experience. And I, with my skin type, I can use this product about three nights in a row and then it's a little bit too much. Then I need to take a night off. I've got co-workers, I've got clients, I've got Friends who use this nightly and their skin has no issue. My skin's just a little bit on the sensitive side.
I do take a couple of nights off a week for my skin type. It's just a little too much. But that's just to speak to the fact that it actually is exfoliating the skin. But the richness, this composition is very full and like a lotioning feeling. It comes from the blend being designed to immediately nourish the skin.
Although you've got this instant kind of like resurfaced feel with the Activated Night Serum, the skin is also then immediately complemented and restored with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, like the tremella mushroom these skin soothers to have this very kind of like nourished feel so even when my skin is like a little bit on the edge, you know, when I've hit night three and my skin's had too much, the effect still is just that it's a little bit red in the cheeks.
It's never flaky. It's never super parched. It's never super tight as a result of this product. Just I can tell it's exfoliating the skin by night three. Three or so. It's a little bit much. So this is the Activated Night Serum. And we do suggest it at night because of that bioactive a complex.
It does still increase photosensitivity. And so you still are prone to, you know, an increased likelihood of sunburn. If you're using that and then going right into the sun I had a client recently who said she used it in the morning, which is technically fine. If you're not going out in the sun, I think you'll be okay. But another thing with that one, because it's like really full body consistency, it actually lends itself really nicely to your body's natural rest and repair cycle. So as you're like, you know, sleeping and your pores are softening and opening up, you get both this kind of detoxification and also this.
So I do like it at least at night again, if you were going out into the world, you know, the next day, use your sun love, use the sunscreen but generally speaking, we like it overnight. So as of right now, these are the serums that we have. There's always, there's always a potential we launch more, but what questions have come up about those?
Cause I know that's a lot of info and again, you can come at me or you can put it in the chat. Either one is good.
Customer: But I'm not sure which, for the severe look of dark spots, which do you prefer?
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: I think if you're, if you're willing to actually commit to it, Citrus Stem Cell Serum. I think is going to be more potent, but it does take a little bit of time. If you're wanting a faster experience, the Activated Night Serum might help to fade that like you might see a difference more quickly.
Customer: Yep. I have a question. I do have bumps on my nose and on my chin. They never get red, but they're always there and it's a little lumpy. You can see bumpiness on my nose and on my chin. My dermatologist recommended Retin A, which I've been using and I've been using it for over six months and it's really not getting anywhere. What would you recommend?
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Yeah, probably the Activated Night Serum or even the CBD. So the Activated Night Serum, of course, is the retinol alternative. What is helpful with this, with this specifically, is you're getting this exfoliation that's happening, but you're getting this immediate, like, balancing of soothing the skin.
So, it sounds like what you're experiencing is like a texture, Right? A bumpiness but it's not too sensitive because sometimes with this one, if you're prone to flare ups, this can be a little bit active. Grace, who's on the call, usually says she can use this one. She has textured skin and she uses this one again, about three nights in a row.
And then it's a little bit much for her skin type. So I would say this one!
Customer: What is that nightly one called again?
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Yeah, it's called the Activated Night Serum. The activated CBD serum could also be helpful, but it's going to be helpful from a different angle. It can be helpful for soothing and balancing. The kind of like, what, the irritation that is exacerbating the texture and helping to balance out. So in that way it could be helpful and it's hard to say without seeing your skin exactly what one might be best.
You can even do a combo of the two.
Customer: Yeah, it never, it never gets red. It is just little lumps on my nose and my chin that are noticeable. That's, I get, I don't know whether it's flare ups or not, but I never get red. Yeah, so you think that the Activated Night Serum and the CBD the two I can kind of go back and forth with them I think so. Yeah, I think there's one in the morning and one at night
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Well and the benefit of having the activated CBD serum is that if you are finding that after a couple nights that the Activated Night Serum this one is a little bit sensitive for you or just increasing sensitivity That you can then use this one morning at night So like listening to your body, working with your body, this one, as much as you can handle it in the evening. And then this is your alternative morning every day, but this is the one you might use in the evening when your skin needs a break from that.
Customer: great, thanks.
Kate – Annmarie Skin Care In-House Esthetician: Before we get into oils, just real quickly, I want to bring up again the Concentrated Boosting Elixirs. So these are a really unique set of products that are exactly like the name suggests. There are concentrated doses that you mix into a serum or an oil. So you would take your serum, do a couple of drops. Whichever one and boost your product in a certain direction. We've got one that's a retinal alternative. We've got a vitamin C. The Brighton is just like a very concentrated vitamin C. And then a hyaluronic acid. And the hyaluronic acid is actually popular enough that we did launch it as a standalone product.
And so as you're listening, you know, if you're like, Oh, I really, you know, I want to boost my product to be that much more hydrating. You can invest in this one on its own. I think it's like 80. It's a pretty good price point. This is also a really good one. If you want a serum, but you're super sensitive, you can apply this one directly to the skin.
The others need a medium to brighten and revitalize the other two concentrated boosting elixirs. Don't put them, don't put them right on your face. It's too hot. It's too much.
Now, oil, oil, oil, oil, oil. We use oil as our moisturizer, facial oils, and we do that for a couple of reasons. We aren't morally opposed to lotions or creams. We don't have any issue with them. What we've found, though, is that it's really hard for us to build a formulation that supports our brand values, that essentially we're able to exclude the toxins we want to exclude. And also it would have a shelf life that would make it worth crafting and retailing.
So we've played with it before. We haven't landed on a version yet. But whenever we do, it's going to be so solid because we've tried it. We've tried it in the past and we've explored it. So we do use oils that we recommend. Another thing that we notice, and this is almost entirely anecdotal, with oil as a moisturizer is that it is so recognizable by the body.
Your skin, you know, from the day, you know, from before you're born is producing an oil, which is keeping skin, like, maintaining this kind of like emolliency and consistency to the skin. And so when you're using oil to moisturize the skin, the body very quickly knows how to integrate and to utilize this as a moisturizer. The two that I'm going to talk about, both of those are anchored in jojoba oil and formulated a little bit differently, but The jojoba oil is an awesome moisturizer, especially for dry skin because it really closely mimics skin's natural oil in like weight and volume and kind of molecule size and all of that, like the jojoba oil is a great alternative to traditional moisturizers because the way it I'm going to show you how to apply it to your skin and how it mimics skin's natural oil. So using it in the blends that we've got, when you apply it, your body already kind of knows what to do. It's got this recognizable feeling. So the look then, whether you're 22, whether you're 72, whether you're 92, is that you've got this very kind of healthful, healthy, like full glow to the skin.
There's just this beautiful radiance that happens using oil as a moisturizer because your skin looks beautiful. So that's, you know, part of where we're coming from, and it can be a little different, especially if you haven't used oil as your moisture before, it can take a little bit of time, usually it's not more than two weeks, but it can take a little bit of time for skin to kind of like readjust to that being the moisture versus a very like, you know, heavily emollient, Like synthetic version that you might get from somewhere else from a drugstore or even from over the counter or something like that. Just something that's formulated a little less cleanly. Your body's going to recognize it differently.
So anyway, to get to our oils, the first one I'll mention is called the Anti-Aging Facial Oil. And this is one that's also quite popular, comes in two sizes, the 15 and the 30 milliliter size. This is one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite, and I would describe my skin as normal to dry. There are definitely times of the year that I, It's a little too rich for my skin, but most of the time it's, it's, it's pretty solid. The feel of this one's very rich. It starts with the jojoba oil. What we do is we take the jojoba oil and then we steep into that oil. Different herbs, different florals. The Anti-Aging Facial Oil has chia seed oil, it has goji berry, it has broccoli seed oil. These are very rich, like, like a chia seed for example. It's got this kind of natural almost collagen body to it. And these are steeped into this oil and we maintain a low heat. You know, we're very aware of the potential rancidity of oils and all of that, it's a low heat that then gets strained and then bottled. So the feel and the effect is this very, very glowy, very, very radiant facial oil, and super nutrient dense. I think this one is like the repair oil, restorative facial oil is what we've named it. And the color of this one, it's like just like a light kind of It can be anywhere from a very sheer golden to a richer, almost orangey golden look to it. And again, that variation is normal. It just depends on the season and how the plants grew that year. The next one is the rejuvenating facial oil. And this one is only available in this larger size, the 30 milliliter. This one is a pretty potent one. So, whereas with the anti aging, and actually all of the other oils, we start with the oil, we steep it, we strain it, we bottle it.
With the Rejuvenating Facial Oil, we still steeped it, we still strained it, we still had this final blend, but then we included active ingredients directly into the blend versus steeping them into the oil and so the effect of this is you've got this kind of like additionally active facial oil black cumin seed for example.
This is a good example we have it steeped into other oils, you know, it sits in the oil It steeps at the low heat what we've done with this one is we've added that in directly and of course again, the intention was to have this active As active as an oil as we could, that could still be worn morning and night. This oil is really, really good for dry skin. It's really good for more pronounced lines whether that's, you know, deeper lines or more dehydrated crepey skin. This is also helpful for the look of dark spots. This is also really good for softening the skin. So mongongo seed oil is what helps to really, really soften and really smooth skin. And that one is yeah, great for just the feel and the texture of the skin. I do really love it for softening the skin.
It's a touch thinner. This was a touch thinner than the Anti-Aging Facial Oil. The Anti-Aging Facial Oil is a little bit richer but both of them are good for drier skin types. The Anti-Aging Facial Oil is also a little bit better for skin type that tend to be sensitive prone. I would actually recommend another one.
But it didn't sound like anyone had super, super sensitive skin. So like the dry, dry, sensitive, skin types, the anti aging might be better. But if you're not prone to too much sensitivity, the rejuvenating facial oil certainly packs a punch. With the serums, we don't really recommend that you mix them. With the oils though, because this one is so concentrated, we have, you know, it actually works really well to do like half a pump of this and half a pump of the Anti-Aging Facial Oil and let that be your blend. So you're still getting the benefits of both. It's just like, this is slightly diluted. So if you are like worried about it, feeling comfortable or you know, too active doing it that way, it gets, you know, You get the benefits of both and you still get to use the Rejuvenating Facial Oil and then one more oil and then we'll take a, we'll just take a pause and see where we're at.
This is our Sun Love. This is our sheer everyday sunscreen and I include it with the moisturizers because you actually can use this as your moisturizer in the morning. So instead of doing all four steps, You can do your serum and then apply your sun love. Now that of course depends on your skin type. If you're somebody who's really incredibly dry, you might still need both. My skin type is, like normal, normal to dry. I can get away with that all throughout the summer. No issue. Once winter hits and it's like, you know, all the heat's blasting and the air is really dry. I still use both. I do my morning oil and the sun love. This is our sunscreen product, this is an SPF 20. It is a zinc oxide, a non nano zinc oxide sunscreen. It's reef safe. And so, whether you're close to the ocean or not, we are confident that this one is helping to protect our ecosystems. And then yeah, quite like rich and emollient.
We've got pumpkin seed oil, broody fruit oil, different oils. We called it our everyday sheer sunscreen. You can see here because zinc oxide sunscreens have this reputation for being super like chalky white cast and you can see you can definitely see the zinc in it but the blend of it is such that as you rub it in Right, like as this is rubbed into the face and as this sits on the skin, there's like a good, I don't know, 30 seconds to a minute where you've still got a little bit of this glowiness, but as you leave it on, it just is like, so sheer, it sheers out so nicely. The finish is also really, really gorgeous too, like it just is this natural kind of like, full, Radiance to it. So I like this one. There, we don't have a tinted option. That's a really common question I get at this point. We don't have a tinted option, but it does. It wears really nicely under makeup.
What questions have come up for you with oils, any, if anything?
Cool. I want to talk about two more products. And then we can just ask questions or we can finish early, whatever we need to do. The first one is the Anti Aging Eye Cream. I've used this product for years. I used this product years, years and years before I even worked here. Gosh, when was that? It's been a long time. I used to manage a day spa and we carried this product. We carried some of our products, not all of our products, but we carried this one and this was really, really profound. So at the time we carried Annmarie but we also carried some more like bigger named spa lines, image skin care, skinceuticals, things like that.
And I just absolutely fell in love with this specific eye product, even over all the others for the way this helped puffiness under the eyes. I always notice a difference. Even now when I take a couple nights off when I just haven't used it for a few days. It just is very profound and has this beautiful lifted feel that I haven't found with another eye product.
And then the final product I'll mention is the Coconut Honey Mask. This product is here, because so many on the call had some variation of dry, or mature skin. I definitely want to make sure to mention this one. This is what it looks like in the jar. So it's kind of this thicker feel. It's also cool where I'm at because coconut oil is a big ingredient.
If the temperature outside changes a lot, it can be thinner or, or thicker. But the blend of this is really smooth. Super super simple. We've got coconut oil. We've got honey. We've got some beeswax and some vanilla And people ask me all the time if you can eat this You technically can I don't I you know, you don't need to maybe don't eat your mask, but you can right and so this is also a really nice one on the lips yeah, it can get really really feel really good on the lips. The feel of this is awesome for skin that gets really dry. The coconut oil provides a lot of moisture. You've got this really nutrient dense oil. The honey, though, is also really complementing that, providing this kind of mineralized nutrition to the skin. And so the feel of the mask is a little bit tacky. It's got a little bit of stickiness to it. But it's incredibly softening and you can apply it. I think that the directions say to leave it on for 20 minutes or something, but you can leave it on really however long you want. You don't have to rinse it off at any certain point. It does get sticky because of the honey. So, you know, you can explore. What feels good, but as long as you're leaving it on anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, you're good.
Thanks everyone for joining us today.
Want to join us for our next skin consultation? (It's totally free!)
Our team of experts has been on a mission to inspire beauty, health, and wellbeing, and we believe there's no better way to do this than through directly sharing our knowledge and passion for natural skin care.
Join us for a live session with one of our licensed estheticians where we'll explore the power of organic, bioactive ingredients, how they interact with your unique skin type, and how to incorporate them into your routine for optimal benefits. You'll walk away from this consultation feeling empowered to make informed decisions for your skin's health. Our in-house skin experts are eager to answer your questions, dispel myths, and share tailored advice for each participant.
By signing up for our live consultation, you'll not only gain access to the latest insights in organic skin care, but also receive exclusive skin care deals only available to those who attend! We can't wait for you to join our community as we share our love for organic skin care with you!
HOW TO SIGN UP
1. Simply, click the button below to sign up for the day that works best for you and your skin type.
2. Select your desired date and time, and click “Next”
3. Enter your contact information (your name and email), and click “Schedule Event.”
Leave a Reply