Origins Clear Improvement Moisturizer Review | #Influenster

What’s this? What’s this?! It’s another Influenster review. Huzzah! This time, I was graciously sent a new moisturizer to try and have been doing so for a little over a month and a half. What moisturizer, you ask? The Origins’ Clear Improvement Pore Clearing Moisturizer with Bamboo Charcoal.

This moisturizer, just like all of the other products that I’ve received and reviewed from Influenster was gifted to me for reviewing purposes. However, just because the product arrived in my mailbox free of charge does not mean that I will automatically give it a glowing review. All thoughts and opinions stated in this post are 100% my own and so with all the FTC guidelines and stuff out of the way, let’s get into the review.

Active / Helpful Ingredients:

• Bamboo Charcoal:
  While commonly used to remove environmental pollutants, I assume that this ingredient is there as the “pore-clearing” agent. As it is an activated charcoal, it draws out excess bacteria, micro-particles, foreign chemicals, and other gunk to the surface of the skin. Adding this powder to a cream base can act as a micro-abrasive and gentle exfoliant. Also, this ingredient has (assumed) acne-fighting properties and can be found in several anti-acne products such as face masks, face washes, etc…
  
• Salicylic Acid:
  This mild acid helps to dissolve excess dead skin cells, bacteria, and other tiny particles on the skin – and more specifically, in the skin’s pores. This product is intended to help clear out whiteheads and blackheads, most frequently. Since this is an acid, applying it to your skin can make it more sensitive to UV / sunlight – so always wear sunblock.
  

When I filmed the video for this review, I had only been using it for a few weeks… flash forward to today, when this review is going live and we are about a little over a month and a half into “testing it.” Skincare is a fickle thing to review for people, in my opinion. Everyone has different skin types, skin concerns, etc. and what may work for one person might not for someone else. So, with that, take my review with a grain of salt and if you are interested in trying this product out – please get a sample or two from the store (Sephora provides up to 3 free samples with every in-store purchase) and try it for yourself before buying it outright.

About my skin:
My face is very dry on 90% and then blessed with a lovely somewhat oily and porous T-zone. If you saw my last video where I did a teal eye in classic CCGRWM format, you might know that things are very, VERY stressful in the Chaos Casa at the moment. Stress and my skin do not get along nor does having PCOS / hormonal issues thrown into the mix, which means that my face is in a state of actively breaking out with whiteheads, blackheads, and some pimples. I also have a bad habit of picking at spots on my face, mostly passively, when stressed – which doesn’t make things any better.

The whole reason why I wanted to give you a backstory on this is to help paint a fuller picture of my … mixed review. It’s hard for an “acne-fighting” product to combat the evils of stress acne so I don’t want to skew anything if that makes sense.

First Impressions:
I was very skeptical about trying out this product because it is marketed for folks with normal to oily skin. Usually, this means that it is going to actively dry out your face; and as someone who has a 90% dry face already, I didn’t want to overly dry out my face, especially with Halloween season right around the corner.

I was also a little concerned that since my face is so pale, anything with charcoal in it might stand out and give it a more grayed appearance. Most days I already look like enough of a zombie that I don’t need to help that any more than it already is. Yay spoonie problems!

At a $34 USD price point, the Clear Improvements Moisturizer with Bamboo Charcoal is on par with the rest of Origins potted moisturizers, albeit a little cheaper than most of the ones on their website. It is also part of their Clear Improvements line geared towards ance-abled complexions.

Texture and Application:
Upon opening the potted moisturizer (I will get into packaging in a second) and applying a bit to my face and neck area, it seemed to be a creamy moisturizer. It wasn’t the absolute lightest feeling moisturizer I’ve ever slathered on my face but it also isn’t as heavy as my steady standby, Dr. Jart’s Cipapair Tiger Grass Cream.

It is touted as a very lightweight moisturizer, yet a few hours after wearing it I could still… err… feel it on top of my face; especially on days where I wasn’t wearing any makeup and was just rocking the skincare. I never experienced the product fully sinking in, if that makes any sense. I feel like no matter how much or how little I used, some of it just sat on top of my face. Thankfully, it didn’t give me any residual “greying out” of my skin once I fully massaged the moisturizer in. So that’s something.

The Clear Improvements Moisturizer also has a faint “clean” scent to it. It’s nothing overly offensive and disappears after a minute or two but I wanted to let you know that this moisturizer is slightly scented due to its ingredients.

Packaging:
Here’s where we run into the bulk of my issues with this product. Yes, one thing that it does have in its favor is having a slightly darker plastic which can help combat any degradation from sunlight that way you don’t further shorten the shelflife of the product BUT…

… FOR THE LOVE OF BOB, I WISH BRANDS WOULD STOP USING OPEN-POTTED CONTAINERS FOR THEIR CREAM/LIQUID SKINCARE PRODUCTS. Every time you open up the lid and lift the protective plastic inner seal from the packaging, you are introducing it to bacteria and micro-particles in the air… not to mention you double the exposure to foreign particles if you scoop your finger into the product – clean hands or no. While this product does have charcoal, which is an anti-bacterial agent, it still isn’t enough. I hope that brands come around to using closed packaging with pumps, but being that brands are there to sell you things – having a product that will make your product last a little bit longer is not in their best interest… but that’s just my opinion.

I highly recommend getting a little silicone scoop or spatula to retrieve the product instead of diving in with your phalanges.

Also, if you are planning on traveling by air and want to bring this moisturizer along for the ride you must do so by putting it in a checked bag since it contains over 1fl. oz of product OR depotting it into a smaller vessel and going from there. Oh, and the outer box, like most other moisturizers, contains all of the ingredients, active ingredients, directed use, etc… If you want specifics and happen to toss your moisturizer’s box away, you’ll have to look it up online.

From a graphic designer’s aspect, I like the monochromatic packaging elements and design… but that’s really not the point of reviewing a skincare product. How pretty it looks does nothing for reviewing the actual efficacy of the product contained inside the pretty packaging.

ONE THING OF NOTE:

While it did not break me out when I started using it, I will admit to forgetting to use this on a daily basis a few times and those times that I did (for no longer than two or three days at a time) I did see an increase in acne: whiteheads and pimples mainly. I guess that means that if I were consistently using it on a daily basis – it would limit my face’s acne factory. However, it’s recommended use is both in the AM and PM, and I didn’t apply it twice a day because when I did, my face seemed actively drier than when I applied it in the morning after cleansing.

DUPE OPTIONS:

After looking online, I found only one similar “dupe” for the Clear Improvements moisturizer. The SheaMoisture Bamboo Charcoal Hydrating Moisturizer seems to be a fairly close dupe in terms of what it’s supposed to do. This moisturizer doesn’t have salicylic acid in it, but it contains aloe and Black African Soap. It retails for $12.99 and is available at CVS and online at various retailers online. 

Final Thoughts:

After using this for several weeks, I am glad that I have had the opportunity to test it out – especially with things being so tight right now and being on a NO BUY for the foreseeable future (at least with extra stuff like makeup and skincare). Ultimately, I think that my skin type isn’t ideal for this moisturizer and I think that if you have normal to oily skin, you might see some more benefits from it.

I am 95% sure that I will not be purchasing a replacement once this moisturizer runs out… and instead, I will switch back to my Tiger Grass Cream from Dr. Jart or one of my other favorite extra hydrating moisturizers.

I will say that if you want to try out some of Origins skincare line, which they make lots of things for, I highly recommend giving the Gin-Zing range as well as some of their face masks a try. If it isn’t already sold out, Sephora has a four-pack of some of their skincare items in their Rewards Bazaar for 500pt – although I would save your points and just as for a few samples instead.

Oh and I mentioned it in the video, but I wanted to mention it again here – the VoxBox also came with a little voucher for a complimentary facial (20-minute Deep Detox Facial, specifically) at “my nearest Origins store.” Given that my nearest Origins store is in New York City, I haven’t been able to go thus I still haven’t used it. I am planning on giving it to one of my family members who frequently visit NYC but I have to see them IRL to do be able to give the card to them. Heh.

In closing, I want to know if you’ve given this moisturizer a try – especially if you are normal to oily. Tell me your thoughts in the comments or let me know if you’re thinking about giving this product a try.

As always, thank you to Influenster for sending this to me so I can give it a go. If you want to know more about Influenster, check out my blog post about it, or CLICK HERE* to go sign up and join the little online reviewing community.