Items of Intrigue, Vol. 007

LOVE the Clinique Lid Smoothies – 10ish hours of perfectly primed lids, whether or not I’ve got shadow overtop. (I’m in love with Currant Affair and Born Freesia at the moment.) But I seem to be the odd one out; I keep reading really bad reviews of the line!

The Caviar sticks do look promising. I don’t wear eyeshadow but I have swatched them in stores and they are very creamy, pigmented, and come in a variety of quite vibrant colors. But I can’t say how long they last without creasing or anything like that.

Now the Boscia Gel is something that I can review quite thoroughly. xD It contains efficious amounts of the antioxidants pomegranate, vitamin C (though in a biologically less viable form-ascorbyl glucoside), as well as the anti-irritants willow bark and licorce. The emollients and water-binding agents present include glycerin, sodium hyaluronate, and jojoba leaf extract. There’s also a (tiny) dash of vitamin E. There is a large concentration of glycolic acid,, however, the pH of the product is unknown. Therefore, I can’t know if this product will allow for exfoliation. (The pH needs to be less than 4).

Now, the negatives. It contains a large amount of the irritant menthyl lactate, an analog of menthol. This ingredient is what causes the product to feel tingling and cooling on the skin, which means that’s its irritating your skin. Though the irritation probably isn’t significant enough to trigger a massive decrease of collagen production, long-term use of this product could produce unwanted results. This also contains moderate to low amounts of the essential oils citrus and geranium. Those have no significant benefits, but do provide irritation, even if you don’t see it. Well, they do provide a level of fragrance.

Here are the ingredients that are more… neutral, meaning that it isn’t clear whether or not they induce positive or negative reactions. The artichoke extract that’s touted is a very good antioxidant and cholesterol-regulator when consumed orally. However, there’s no study that demonstrates or even suggests that artichoke has any effect on the skin. My recommendation? Stick to eating artichoke, rather than smearing it on your skin.

Now, it looks like this product is packaged in a jar. From the pictures on Boscia’s official site, it appears that large quantities are exposed to air simultaneously. Not to sound like a broken record, but jar packaging is never good because the antioxidants mentioned above, will begin to deteriorate the moment you open the jar.

Okay one down, one to go.

The Kate Somerville Pimple Punisher consists of two parts. The first part is the AM one. It contains glycerin, willow bark, oleanolic acid, and almond glycerides, which will serve to soothe and moisturize the skin. The touted “SymPeptide 380” is listed as Myristoyl Hexapeptide-23, which has zero studies performed on Pubmed. Yeah, zero. And even if the peptide actually worked the way Kate says it does, it still wouldn’t be very promising because peptides function by regulating specific areas of protein sythesis. And in order to see physical change, peptides require long periods of time. So an acne spot will most likely clear up before this peptide even begins to have any effect at all. The tea tree oil, a known acne-fighter, does not have a concentration attached to it. The studies showing that tea tree oil has any positive effect, were done with 5% tea tree oil in the presence of niacinamide. So whether or not the TTO in this product will function correctly, is unknown. The two other ingredients, hydroxyphenyl propamidobenzoic acid and nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), are also unknown in different ways. The first has no listing on PubMed at all, which suggests that no study has ever been done involving this particular chemical. The latter however, has many studies on Pubmed. Most of them are about how NDGA functions internally, and it’s quite stellar in this particular aspect. There are also several studies that suggest that NDGA is a powerful antioxidant and has anticarcinogenic properties when applied topically. In addition, it has a very promising role in tissue engineering because it’s capable of cross-linking collagen. However, there is nothing about how NGDA clears up acne. It’s tissue engineering aspects don’t translate to the faster healing of acne breakouts because collagen is in the dermis, and this Kate product won’t penetrate that deeply.

The PM part contains again glycerin, willow bark, oleanolic acid, and almond glycerides as well as allantoin and bisabolol to further soothe and hydrate the skin. It also contains a tiny amount of vitamin E. The relevant ingredients here are kaolin, bentonite, and montmorillonite, which are forms of clay that will dry the surface of the skin. Clays work well for more superficial acne conditions like blackheads and whiteheads. However, deeper and larger conditions like papules, pustules, and cysts, are not affected by clay in a positive way because they form in the deeper layers of the skin. The clay will only serve to dry out and irritate the latter three forms of acne, which can result in even worse breakouts. Again, tea tree oil is present, and the review is the same as for the AM section. Also, a salt form of salicylic acid is present (tridecyl salicylate). However it has to first be converted to salicylic acid before it can exfoliate properly. Now, since the pH is unknown, we cannot know if the salt version will actually be converted to salicylic acid. Furthermore, even if the pH is in the correct range, the conversion rate is not even close to 100% because salicylic acid is a weak acid. Kate claims that this product contains 2% salicylic acid. So if only 2% of tridecyl salicylate is present, a significantly lower amount of salicylic acid (if in the correct pH) will be made. However, if more is present and 2% salicylic is made, than this would be an excellent product. However, from experience, most clay-like vehicular bases, are not made to maintain the low pH levels necessary for salicylic acid to function. Finally, bakuchiol, an analog of resveratrol (a known antioxidant), is present in low amounts. Bakuchiol has demonstrated positive effects internally, however, no studies have been done demonstrating any effects when applied topically. We can’t assume that it will function like resveratrol because closely-related chemicals don’t necessarily function similarly. Think of benzene and hydroquinone. This also contains the same ingredient NDGA as the AM product, and therefore, the same review applies.

Overall, the Kate and Boscia products are decent products because they have their balances of negatives and positives. If the Boscia product is packaged correctly, then I would recommend that for people with normal to oily skin types. However, I would not recommend the Kate Somerville product to anyone because it doesn’t have any known ingredient, other than tea tree oil (which is in an unknown quantity), that has a track record of being used as a treatment for acne. Its other “effective” ingredients like myristoyl hexapeptide-23, NGDA, and tridecyl salicylate have different unknown qualities that most likely translate to this being a non-effective product for the treatment of more severe forms of acne. Despite the forms of clay present in the PM part, which will be more effective for those with mild superficial acne, I still would not recommend this product for even them because the AM part isn’t great, and the total price is quite high. If you are still truly convinced that this product will be your life-saver, make sure to get a sample from your local Sephora before making a purchase.