Saturday 29 June 2013

Sensitive Skin Club REN Hydra-Calm Line

Its no secret that I love REN. Its probably one of my top 5 all time favorite brands and I honestly can't say anything bad about them, their amazing customer service or any of their products. There aren't too many companies out there that I can stand behind completely and REN's Clean philosophy is a pretty awesome approach on how everyone should take care of themselves and their surroundings at the same time.

And please don't worry, it might sound like it but this is not a sponsored post in any way! I purchased all of my REN products myself and would gladly repurchase (and have!) again - I have nothing to gain by this review and all my thoughts and conclusions are my own. 
The Hydra-Calm line in the REN magic apothecary is designed and meant for those of us that did not win the genetic skin-care jack pot of normal people skin. What i mean is if your face gets red and blotchy for no apparent reason, if it feels tight and dry in the morning but sometimes magically transforms to weirdly oily by the afternoon, or if you are known to blush equally by looking at cute things and by the sight of plain baby carrots...your skin is not normal, right? Plus if you are completely comfortable with words such as rosacia, dermatitis, psoriasis and dermatitis; then that means you are in the super exclusive Sensitive Skin Club. 

REN describes the Hydra-Calm glory as;
REN's best selling Sensitive Skin range avoids known allergens and detrimental skincare ingredients, protects against environmental aggression pollution and is formulated with a range of bio actives that calm, strengthen and "train" sensitive skin to be less reactive.
With REN, you'll forget you have sensitive skin!

The two products i want to talk about are the REN Hydro-Calm Cleansing Milk and the the REN Hydro-Calm Global Protection Day Cream. I have used both of these for several months and I don't know if my skin is "trained" to be less sensitive but I can definitively say that my skin was a whole lot calmer whenever i stuck to this regiment. 

REN Hydra Calm Cleansing Milk
REN describes this cleanser as;
A gentle, cleansing milk designed to leave more sensitive or delicate skin purified, fresh, calm and soothed. 

When I first started using this cleanser I was once again put off due to my obviously deep-ridden addiction to bubbles. Apparently I cant seem to feel clean unless things foam up and my first impression of this milk was obviously tainted by this. However I was pleasantly surprised by REN (again!) and once i rinsed my face did feel clean and i didn't feel any of the dreaded filmy residue. My face was left soft, hydrated, smooth but still clean, maybe not deep clean but the feeling was definitively very different from what i was expecting. Cleansing milks usually make me feel pampered and girly but never completely clean, which is an issue of course so REN definitively got bonus points on that end.

The regular daily grime melted easily but as usual I would recommend a double cleanse on makeup days just to make sure that everything is properly removed. The last thing we want is congested skin due to to something we sensitive skin girls can actually control. The texture of this really helped as well since its thicker than traditional cleansing milks and feels almost like a a facial cream when its massaged in. The scent exudes freshness albeit its very mild, almost non-existent so if that's an issue you don't need to worry. There isn't even a trace of greasiness, which was important to me since i am kind of a stickler when it comes to needing my cleansers to be easy to rinse-off and even though its not required I actually liked using a muslin cloth with it it to help things along even more. I was even able to use it with my Clarisonic Mia 2.

Ultimately I liked the way my face felt afterwards so even though there were no bubbles I was comfortable enough in feeling that i was cleaning my face sufficiently without stripping it like usual. Therefore I would happily recommend this to any members of the Sensitive Skin Club or anyone looking for a great, gentle non-foaming cleanser.



REN Hydra-Calm Global Protection Day Cream


This is what REN has to say;
A moisturizer formulated to leave more sensitive skin optimally hydrated, calmed, soothed, protected and looking beautifully healthy. 

This Hydra-Calm Global Protection Day Cream lived up to everything REN promised and more. Honestly if this had SPF protection built in I would say it was 100% perfect. I have used this on and off for about a year and my over-reactive skin feels great each and every time i smooth this on. The texture is thick, creamy, fresh and luxurious to say the least, it smooths on easily, absorbs quickly without any greasy residue and almost seems to soothe the redness on my cheeks. After a few minutes my entire face feels moisturized, soothed, smooth and yes CALM.
Along with the fact that my skin is annoyingly sensitive, its also dry which is why I can vouch for the Hydra-Calm cream performance in dry-skin hell - Canadian Winters. I am happy to say that REN worked wonders during the daytime under a good makeup base or tinted moisturizer but fell a bit short at night, when I needed something a little richer, with a bit more hydration to avoid the tight parched feeling the next day. I was able to fix that by adding the Rose O¹² Moisture Defence Serum underneath so I guess you could say REN still worked, I just needed to do a bit of customizing which is something I love the most about skincare in the first place.

The conclusion is quite easy for me - I loved the Hydro-Calm picks and I love REN so I would recommend it to the Sensitive Skin Club wholeheartedly but also to anyone looking for a no-nonsense, no-frills, full performance moisturizer.


Ren Hydra-Calm can be purchased at their site here or at Sephora here


I hope someone finds this helpful!

Have you tried REN before? Any favorite skincare products?


XOXO

ANJA

P.S. If you enjoyed this post and want some more Princeza Beauty Musings, please consider following me through GFC, Bloglovin, Pinterest or Twitter! Insert "happy dance" here :-) 

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