Another month down, another bin full of empties. I don’t know how I keep ending up with so many — I think this month is an official record. 17 empties in total? Granted, two are body skincare and five were minis and one was also in use by my husband but now I’m just rationalizing. Nevertheless, I blame it on dry skin and the tail-end of this dry Colorado winter. Products are listed in the order photographed, or roughly in order of where they go in a routine.

Peach Slices Peach Pudding Makeup Cleanser

I was super excited to try this, mostly because I’m a sucker for pudding. Well, it’s not a pudding so much as a cold cream. It went pretty fast — I just opened it in February. Maybe I was using too much, but that seemed to be how it spread for me to get face, neck and chest. I can’t speak to how well it would remove makeup, but it did leave my skin feeling clean and unstripped, though removing it could be a bit of a trial. The texture of it was very nice, though, and it smelled a bit like peach yogurt. Otherwise, I hardly feel like I was able to get enough uses out of it to review.
Rating: 5/10
Price: $10 USD / 100 mL

Youth to the People Superfood Cleanser

I struggled to finish this. I purchased it nearly a year ago, when it was being very hyped and before I realized just how dry my skin can get (and that not all recommendations are caveated by skin type, oops). This summer it stripped the heck out of my skin, so I set it aside for months. This winter I decided I should start using it again occasionally before it expired — usually on nights when I felt too lazy for a double cleanse. It’s been less problematic this time around because my skin’s in much better condition, but I’m still glad to be done with it.
Rating: 3/10
Price: $12 USD / 59 mL for the travel size shown; $36 USD / 237 mL for the full-size

Cosrx Hydrium Watery Toner

Being part of Cosrx’s Hydrium line, this toner focuses on panthenol (vitamin b5), along with allantoin and a variety of weights of hyaluronic acid. Now, generally I avoid hyaluronic acid because Colorado is so dry that the hydrating effects of HA don’t always work out for me. I didn’t find that with this, however. I used it immediately after my mist and before heavier toners, so it was sandwiched with a bunch of other hydration. It seems like a super basic hydrating toner, but that might be all you need, and it’s remarkably cost effective.
Rating: 8/10
Price: $28 USD / 280 mL for the largest size; $22 USD / 150 mL for the normal size; shown here in the sampler size from their holiday toner set

Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm

This itty bitty pot lasted longer than expected, but not actually on your lips. It seemed to sink in super fast, so if you’re looking for a long-lasting occlusives for your lips, this isn’t it. That said, I like it much better than the Glossier Balm Dotcom, which I’m still working on but seems to break me out around my lips. The tiny pot itself is a bit difficult to get product out of, especially with long nails, but they’ve recently repackaged this into a tube which seems very promising.
Rating: 8/10
Price: $14 USD / 15 g for full-size, shown in a 2.5g sample size

Missha Time Revolution First Treatment Essence

This essence has been a staple in my routine for over six months. (This is obviously not my first bottle.) The texture of this is incredibly light, making it a fantastic FIRST essence — aka the first thing you apply on your face after cleansing, including toner. I do think I’ve seen some gentle brightening and skin strengthening ingredients from it. It’s one of the best first essences on the market, especially given its price point (someday maybe I’ll justify trying SK-II, but not yet). Highly recommend for any skin type that’s just looking for a bit MORE in their routine — more brightening, more luxury, more steps, more skin barrier support.
Rating: 10/10
Cost: $20-$55 USD/150mL, depending upon retailer

Peach Slices Snail Rescue Blemish Busting Toner

If you’re wandering through Ulta and see this, grab it. This is a great introduction to snail and hydrating toners. It has none of that stringy snail texture that can make snail products unapproachable and difficult to use (I’m looking at you, Coxir Black Snail Collagen Eye Cream). In fact, I’d put the texture pretty close to the Klairs Unscented Supple Preparation Toner. It layers well, though it’s not as watery as my beloved Cosrx Cica Toner, and despite touting having hyaluronic acid, I didn’t find that it dried out my skin at all. I recently repurchased it!
Rating: 10/10
Price: $14 USD / 120 mL

Peach & Lily Glass Skin Veil Mist

This was my first mists, and it definitely sold me on the notion of mists — really helps with doing a damp skincare routine, because it’s easy to apply between steps. The packaging for this is lovely — the atomizer releases a very fine fog, and the pearlescent bottle is more transparent at the bottom so you can tell how low it is when it really counts. The mist itself has a bit of a peach and cucumber smell, with a faintly milky appearance. I do feel like most of the popularity of this is just due to aesthetic, but wow is it aesthetic.
Rating: 8/10
Price: $29 USD / 100 mL

Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Serum

I love a good skin barrier supportive serum, but this didn’t really feel like a good one. It has a light creamy texture, but feels a bit oily. Granted that might have been how much I used — this 5 mL size lasted me about 8 uses, so buyer beware if you’re really buying it as a travel size. It did layer well, at least, though I didn’t love it for morning use because of that oily feel.
Rating: 4/10
Price: $8 USD / 5 mL for the travel size shown; $37 USD / 30 mL for the full-size

Good (Skin) Days C’s the Day

This Vitamin C serum has made a huge difference on my skin — my skin tone is so much more even and less red, making this possibly the best my skin’s every looked during a sun-deprived winter. The 10% ascorbic acid, licorice root and niacinamide make it incredibly gentle but incredibly effective. They say that it’s watery and it really is, leaving no tacky finish on your hands. I found myself being better about doing my AM skincare routine because I wanted to use it up before it oxidized. By the time I finished it definitely looked quite yellow (it starts clear). The expiry date is within four months of opening, and it took me about three.
Rating: 10/10
Price: $26 USD / 30mL

Missha Time Revolution Night Repair Probio Ampoule

This serum has gone through a variety of reformulations, but in all of its forms is considered a dupe for the Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair. It is lightly fragranced, but despite that it’ a good option for sensitive skin that’s not fragrance-sensitive for a night serum. It’s antioxidant and vitamin rich, making it slide pretty nicely into a routine that’s looking for that extra oomph to fight aging.
Rating: 8/10
Price: $20 to $56 / 50 mL, depending on the retailer

Biossance Squalane + Lactic Acid Resurfacing Serum

I’d had this lying around for … long enough that it was time to use it up. Since I love glycolic acid I wasn’t super excited about “downgrading” to merely lactic acid, but hey, I had it so I had to use it. This has a faint fragrance (it has linalool and lavender oil) which faded quickly. I used it on damp skin and it lasted 4 uses (1 mL per use, basically) and was able to use it on retinol nights. I found that it did make my pores a bit less noticeable. It’s nice, but probably not worth the expense for the full-size when there are so many good exfoliants in the world.
Rating: 7/10
Price: $62 USD / 30 mL for full-size, shown in a 4 mL sample size

Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer

I gave this to my husband this past autumn in hopes that he’d like the whipped texture, but he didn’t care much for it so I reclaimed it. I must admit, I wasn’t stunned by it either. Or rather, I’m only stunned by how quickly I went through it. Granted, appearances can be deceiving and you shouldn’t expect 50mL to last long, especially not in winter, but WOW this ran out fast — within two months. I tried it as an AM moisturizer but it made my sunscreen pill. It worked well under a sleeping mask, but I wouldn’t have wanted it as my only PM step.
Rating: 7/10
Price: $35 USD / 50 mL

Stratia Night Shift

This retinol came highly recommended from a dear friend, and I think the hype was very fair. This is a night cream with encapsulated retinol and skin-barrier-supportive ingredients like ceramides and cica (would we expect anything less from the creator of Liquid Gold?). More normal or oily skin types could certainly use this as a night cream, like it’s billed. My poor dry skin needed another moisturizer, a facial oil and a sleeping mask overtop, but that’s Colorado for you. I’ve since recommended it to other friends who have loved it. I haven’t repurchased — yet — but I will. A great starter retinol, if you’ve been debating taking the leap. Once I built up my usage I found this usable every day, even on exfoliating nights.
Rating: 10/10
Price: $28USD / 50mL

A’pieu Madecassoside Sleeping Mask

I put this mask on right after the PKY cream, and it’s lovely. It’s nice and light, and feels almost cooling in the way that it soothes. If I have any irritation from earlier in my routine (hello, the occasionally stinging exfoliation), this eradicates it. Having a sleeping mask this winter has been so helpful, as the humidity in Colorado has frequently been under 20% this year. Popping this on keep my skin from stinging or being tight when I wake up. Plus, this is light enough that I don’t have to cleanse in the AM if I don’t want to — some water breaks up any film that might remain on my skin.
Rating: 10/10
Price: $15 USD / 80 mL

Krave Beauty The Beet Shield

This sunscreen has been a gamechanger for our family. I love it because it reduces redness and is pretty inexpensive. My husband loves it because it feels really lightweight, so he can layer it on and it doesn’t bother him when running. We both love how much it protects us, even at high elevations — you can wear this at 10k feet with nary a sunburn. Unfortunately it’s been out of stock for a while because they’re retesting its SPF level out of an abundance of caution, but I have full confidence in it!
Rating: 10/10
Price: $20 USD / 50 mL

Bonus Round: Body Skincare

Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion

This lotion is a classic here in the US but oof, I do not like it. I bought two bottles of it on a whim from Costco when I was still shopping in stores (some time last summer) and both bottles lasted me that long. It was a struggle to finish them, though. It’s so greasy. My puppy seems to like the taste of it, but she’ll lick anything off of me. I will give it credit for being inexpensive, accessible and technically doing its job of sealing in moisture, but I found it unusable on dry skin (rather than damp) and left a greasy finish no matter what I did.
Rating: 2/10
Price: $16 USD / two 591 mL bottles from Costco; varying prices for smaller sizes from other retailers

Neutrogena Fragrance-Free Body Oil

This is the best oil to use in the bath that I’ve found. I’ve tried many others and I keep coming back to this one (specifically the fragrance-free, as the easier-to-find normal version smells weirdly like a pool to me). It’s got the right amount of oils and surfactants in it to keep a long bath from feeling stripping while still ensuring that the oil doesn’t just pool at the top of the bath water. I like a good few squirts of this in with almost all of my bath products, since I’m a marathon bather and otherwise my skin starts to feel wrecked, understandably, after a while.
Rating: 10/10
Price: $10 USD / 250 mL