Test driving SkinCeuticals Blemish + Age Defense!

Last month we put out a call to our wonderful readers to come up with five guinea pigs to help test out the latest and greatest in serums from SkinCeuticals - Blemish + Age Defense! Many thanks to our testers and here's what they thought:

Fiona M. - 25 - extremely acne prone skin that's super oily and highly sensitive to a lot of ingredients like benzoyl peroxide, sulphur and sodium chloride. Have a few wrinkles on the forehead

I have been battling acne for years and continue to look for products that will help decongest clogged pores, decrease sebum prodction, and ultimately help reduce my acne and hyperpigmentation.  If a product also reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, I'm okay by that!

Due to my sensitivity in ingredients, the only products I can use to help treat my acne is salicylic acid and glycolic acid.  Unfortunately prescription medications such as retin-a-micro and differin cause my skin to constantly shed after several months of usage.

Instructions suggest that a thin layer be applied to the face during morning and night but I only apply it in the morning as I use Skinceuticals Phloretin CF at night. It absorbs really quickly and doesn't leave any oily residue or sheen on my face.  I put 4-5 drops in the palm of my hand, and lightly tap it onto my entire face.  Then I resume with my makeup routine.

After 2 weeks of daily use my pores were less clogged and those that were previously clogged were easily extracted, wasn't as oily by mid-day and the wrinkles on my forehead were not as prominent underneath my makeup

 
I actually went to my local dermatology office that sells Skinceuticals after January 23rd (the release date) to see if they carried SkinCeuticals Blemish + Age Defense. Unfortunately they did not carry it yet but was planning to as they had a meeting with the vendor. So I left my name and number with them. I'm definitely a customer that wants to purchase this product and have Lisamarie to blame for my wallet crying.

Fiona M. (yes, another one) - 40+ - the serum did work but not without discomfort. I applied it to the areas most affected with blemishes - chin, cheeks and a few spots on the forehead. The discomfort was in the form of stinging on the chin and forehead, however the blemishes gradually diminished. Those on my cheeks are still present. I did not see any improvement regarding wrinkle reduction on my forehead. So overall the SkinCeuticals Age Defense +Blemish was effective for some of my blemishes, not all and no improvement in skin tone or wrinkle reduction with this product in the 2 weeks.

Adriana G. - 25 - when I received this little vial - I never imagined how powerful the liquid was 

until I felt results! With the help of the eye-dropper, I zoned in the fine lines and 

added a few drops here and there followed by tapping in the formula.  It took a few

days for my skin to respond in a satisfactory way.  When I applied moisturizer after this

application, I didn't require as much.  My skin feels fresh and clean all throughout the

day.  In conclusion, for my type of skin, it took a little more at first to finally normalize to

2 applications per day.  I feel younger - wow!

Debbie S. - 48 - I really enjoyed testing the serum. The first few days I did not notice any difference but by day 3 I saw improvement in my skins texture. It was smoother and a little firmer.I concentrated in lines around my eyes and they diminished slightly and it cleared up some minor blemishes. I would buy the product.

Alejandra T. - 32 - I am cursed with super sensitive, oily skin, that breaks out if you look funny at it. Of course, that was supposed to end with my teenage years, but I am 32, and the breakouts are not going anywhere. Since I am stating to see the beginning of fine lines, I was pretty excited to try the Skinceuticals Blemish + Age Defense serum.  I applied a few drops of the serum on clean skin, morning and night, for three weeks - the little vial lasted a decent time.  Upon application, the serum stings a little bit - my skin felt a little warm, but surprisingly did not turn red.  Before I started using the serum, my skin was in its usual monthly angry state - big nasty cystic pimples around my nose, and red bumps all over my cheeks.  While the serum did not get rid of the cysts (which was not something it promised anyway), I did see a big improvement on my cheeks, which became less red and bumpy within a couple days (usually, I have to live with that for a full week!).  I also got some comments that my skin was glowing.

For a male point of view, I also had my husband try it out. He's 40 but still breaks out like a teenager and yet still has to deal with the wrinkles that 40 year old men get. After using it twice a day his skin is much clearer - the breakouts he had disappeared and he has been getting a lot fewer of them. He did mention that he finds the serum a bit drying - had he told me this 2 weeks ago I would have recommended he only use the serum once a day until his skin adjusted to it so normal people (women) should bear that in mind. I can't say if it's helped with his wrinkles - when I asked him if he thought it had he shrugged and said something profound like "dunno". Since he's male and an incredibly unfair double standard causes his wrinkles to make him look distinguished rather than old, means I'm not crying for him either way.

You can check out more info about the serum and where to buy in the original post here.

My heartfelt thanks to all of our Beauty Crazed guinea pigs as always (please note that no actual guinea pigs were harmed in the testing of this product)!

- Lisamarie (and the guinea pigs) -