New year, New skincare!

In case you haven’t noticed by my lack of beauty posts, I’ve been a bit bored with my beauty routine. Thanks to Liz at sequinsandstripes.com (who is amazing and if you haven't checked her out, what are you going?) and my friend Stephanie (who has been mentioned multiple times on this blog and is one of my fellow book clubbers), I heard about Blue Mercury. Blue Mercury is a higher end beauty store and spa with their own makeup and skin care line. Stephanie had been wanting to go there for a while and also wanted some new skin care, so we took a trip there the other week.

I’ve been having a lot of chin/hormonal acne, so that was the biggest thing I wanted to fix. Steph and I worked with a wonderful consultant (thanks Jo!) who introduced us to the M-61 products. M-61 is the Blue Mercury skincare brand which is gluten free, paraben free, and vegan. Their makeup line, Lune + Aster, is also gluten free, paraben free, and vegan.

I apologize for the set up, but I just had to get the snow in the background!

The first product that I purchased is the M-61 PowerGlow Peel ($28-$11). This is a exfoliating facial peel that is made up of glycolic and salicylic acid as well as vitamin K, bilberry, and chamomile. In the past, I’ve used the Cane + Austin Retexturizing pads with glycolic acid and have enjoyed them, but I haven’t used them in a while. I really like the presoaked acid exfoliators, and my skin reacts to them well, so I was excited about this product. Also, this was one of the holy grail products that Liz had mentioned in her blog post.

In case you are unfamiliar with acid peels, they're an exfoliant that uses acids with various properties as opposed to grainy textures (such as salt and sugar). The benefit of glycolic acid is that in addition to exfoliating your skin, it is meant to reduce pore size, even skin tone, and reduce the appearance of fine lines. If you are an acne sufferer, you are familiar with salicylic acid which is meant to help clear skin and combat acne. It's in a lot of acne specific skin care products. 

The PowerGlow Peel is meant to treat fine lines, clarify and firm skin, reduce pore size, and treat acne. The website also says that the Vitamin K is specifically meant to combat dry, rosacea-like patches, and the bilberry extract is meant to promote an even skin tone. Jo, our makeup consultant, recommended using this 2-3 times a week on our faces, necks, and the backs of our hands. I loved the recommendation of using it on the backs of our hands because that is definitely a part of my body I don’t think about treating with the same care as my face.

I’ve only used this 2 times since buying it, but each time that I’ve used it I’ve woken up with super soft skin the next day. I’ve also already noticed some lightening of some acne scars on my skin. I am really enjoying this product so far and look forward to using more of it! It is a bit pricey, but I’ve learned that good skin care usually is.

The second product I purchased was the M-61 PowerSpot Blemish Lotion ($16). This is similar to the Mario Badescu drying lotion, but doesn’t include alcohol in its ingredients. This product includes salicylic acid, tea tree, witch hazel, cucumber, and aloe. For times when my acne decides to act up even with the use of the pads, this is a spot treatment that Jo recommended for taking care of the spots overnight. To use it, you take a q-tip and dip straight down through the liquid and into the powder. Don’t dip too deep and don’t shake the bottle! Al little bit goes a long way.

I used this product two nights in a row when I had some stubborn spots on my chin. After the first nigh they were visibly reduced and after the second night they were gone! I love that this product doesn’t only have the acid to treat, but has soothing ingredients too.

Hopefully a few new (wonderful) products will help reignite my beauty spark! I’m sorry I’ve been so MIA on the beauty front, but I honestly haven’t tried much that’s gotten me excited. I’ve barely even spent money on new products lately, instead using the products I’ve been getting from the Play By Sephora boxes. Which, I have still been getting, but have just been slacking on reviews. I will try to be better about that in the new year!

Have you ever tried Blue Mercury? Any new products in your life you’re enjoying?