Recently my search brought me to Garnier's new SkinActive range so I thought I'd test it out for a full 10 days and give you my full and honest opinion.
The main selling point of Garnier's new SkinActive range is that a whopping 96% of the
ingredients that make up the products are natural and free from silicone, parabens and synthetic colourants. I'm no dermatologist, but that sounds like a winning formula to me!
And, for even more of a feel-good factor, the plastic they use is made of 30% recycled plastic and is 100% recyclable once you're done. The ingredients come from renewable sources and their aloe vera is organic certified and fair trade. I love a bit of eco-awesomeness in my skincare regime!
The range has something for everyone:
Rose water for sensitive skin.
Honey for dry skin.
Aloe vera for normal to combination skin.
Green tea for oily skin (i.e. yours truly).
Within each range there's a choice of cleansers, face washes, toners and moisturisers so you can mix and match to your heart's content.
Seeing as I spend most of my time resembling some kind of greasy swamp creature, I gravitated towards the green tea range. I picked up the gel wash and the toner in the hope that they could control my oil, calm down the weird texture that's been going on with my skin recently and (by some miracle) tighten my enormous pores.
The first thing I noticed was the smell. It's not synthetic or overpowering; it's fresh, but subtle. Right after using the gel wash my skin felt a lot less oily. It's as if it drew all the excess oil out of my pores without drying out the surface of my skin and giving me weird texture (weird texture is the bane of my life!).
The toner felt really refreshing and was the perfect follow-up to the gel wash. It balanced out the feel of my skin by adding back in a little moisture without any trace of an oily film or heavy greasiness you get with some toners.
But on day four I woke up with a major breakout. Now, I have my fair share of skin issues (excessive oil, weird texture, pores that can be seen from space, etc), but I very rarely get spots. We're talking four a five a year, max! Imagine my surprise then, when I woke up to find I was in the midst of the worst breakout of my adult life.
I don't think the Garnier products caused the breakout. The spots were confined to my chin and I'd (obviously) been using the cleanser and toner on my entire face. It probably had more to do with the fact that I'd eaten two Dominos, three cakes and a bag of chip shop chips over the bank holiday weekend. #sorrynotsorry
But the products did nothing to prevent the breakout and didn't really do anything to clear it up either. By day seven I resorted to pulling out the big guns (tea tree oil) and the disaster zone that was (and kind of still is) my face started to show signs of clearing up.
That completely tainted my view of the range. I mean, it completely kept my oiliness at bay and something's got to be said for that. If you're like me and breakouts aren't a major concern then I think you'll get on with this range just fine. But if you're prone to spots and blemishes, I don't think this range is going to do it for you.
Personally, I want skincare products that can take on pimples (or, in this case, giant pus-filled mountains of doom) and kick them to the curb. Just in case!
So my quest for perfect skin continues...
Smell: 4/5
Oil control: 5/5
Clarity of skin: 2/5
Overall: 3/5
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