Mario Badescu ComboDry-Acne Skin Care Review
Recently, I have given several Mario Badescu products a try. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, Mario Badescu is a popular high quality hair and skin-care line with many products targeted at specific skin types. They have earned the acclaim of the beautiful-skinned Jennifer Anniston, Charlize Theron and Liv Tyler, and have been featured in the popularElleMagazine.
If you take a look at Mario Badescu’s website, you will see that they have recently begun to feature complete regimen sets for 10 skin types. Because my skin has been acting up a little more than usual, I decided to give one of these sets a try. My skin is fairly normal but has been combating winter dryness and nighttime oiliness in my T-zone for the past month, so I decided that my best bet was their combo/dry-acne skinregimen. This regimen includes the following: Seaweed Cleansing Soap, Special Cucumber Lotion, Drying Lotion, Buffering Lotion, Healing & Soothing Mask.
All together this will cost about $80 USD, but I can tell you right off the bat that I believe this was money well spent. I may have my quips about the Drying Lotion (see my review of the Drying Lotion linked at the end of this article), but overall I found that Mario Badescu products were definitely designed to work with one another.
As recommended by the line, I begin with the Seaweed Cleansing Soap. I was somewhat hesitant about this at first; as I am still trying to fade some acne scars I tend to be a little more favorable of facial cleansers with grittier exfoliators. This claimed to have gentle exfoliators which I was not expecting much from, but I have to say that the way it makes my skin feel makes up for its lack of exfoliating power. This product is definitely as mild as it is advertised and did not dry out or irritate my skin, which has been a problem for me during the winter months. One thing that some people may not like – this stuff doesn’t lather so well at all.
Continue with the Special Cucumber Lotion. Now, don’t be distracted by the name! This is not actually lotion – it is an astringent. Why MB decided to call it a lotion is lost on me, but this stuff makes my face feel incredibly clean and soft. One great thing that I noticed is that after using this, it helped to reduce the redness of any pimples that had erupted on my skin.
The Drying Lotion is something that should be used overnight, or when you plan on sitting around at home for a few hours. Apply it to erupted acne and let it sit on your skin for a few hours – do not mix the product, shake it, or rub it into your skin! As I mentioned in my review of this product specifically, this is MB’s claim-to-fame, most popular product. I don’t get it. This stuff hardly worked for me, if at all. However, it has worked for many others and may still be worth giving it a shot, but I will not be buying this again.
The Buffering Lotion is my absolute favorite member of this set! This is meant to target deep cystic acne, but even though I do not suffer from that I have still seen very nice results. This has taken care of some of my lighter acne-prone areas and definitely makes the acne appear less red – great if you plan on applying makeup on top of this. It provides somewhat of a neutralizing base; making your acne less inflamed so you can use less pore-clogging makeup on top of it and don’t risk exacerbating the problem. I love this product and would definitely buy it again, and feel that alone it does the most out of all of these, but working as part of the regimen it yields even nicer results.
Finally, the Healing & Soothing Mask. The directions say to leave this on for about 20 minutes and then wash it off (do this 2-3 times per week), but the way that I have been using it is about once a week, I’ll put it on before I go to bed and I’ll let it set and sleep with it on. When I wake up in the morning, I wash it off with warm water and my skin feels incredibly soft and smooth and any redness in my skin is gone. This also keeps me from waking up in the morning with an oily t-zone, because the mask absorbs the oil and comes away from my skin when I wash the mask off.
All in all, this regimen absolutely does what it is advertised to do – keeps combo/dry-acne prone skin in check. The products work with one another for the best results and I have certainly seen an improvement in my skin in the 2 weeks that I have been using this regimen. With the exception of the drying lotion, I would buy the products from this regimen again after they run out. Even if you do not wish to invest the $80.00 USD on a new skin regimen, play with some free MB samples from a regimen that will suit your skin and see what works for you!