As a beauty blogger, it’s my job to know every brand out there.I started out slowly by signing up to Kiehl’s website alerts. I was impressed with the quality and ingredients of the products, but was slightly overwhelmed– there’s so many different collections! Which one is right for dry, oily and combo skin? Can you mix and match?

Last week, with a sense of duty, I strode into the Beverly Hills location of Kiehl’s to dive into this well-known brand that has been around since 1851. And I’m SO glad I did. A lab coat-wearing lady with glowing skin approached me and we chatted about a few of the collections. Here’s a recap of the things I took home and tried.

THE MIDNIGHT RECOVERY CONCENTRATE

The Midnight Recovery Concentrate

What it is: This lightweight water-free serum is made with a combination of pure essential oils and botanicals. It works with your skin’s nocturnal schedule of healing so you wake up with healthy, glowing skin.

Ingredients: Squalene, Evening Primrose Oil and Lavender Oil.

Skin Type: This product is recommended for all skin types, including oily because it helps re-balance the natural sebum of an oilier skin type. That being said, use a very small, minimal amount of this product to keep from looking greasy.

THE MIDNIGHT RECOVERY EYE

Midnight Recovery Eye

What it is: This nighttime eye treatment feels like butter. It reduces lines, puffiness and dark circles with the same ingredients as the Midnight Recovery Concentrate plus Butcher’s Broom (a tree shrub chock full of powerful antioxidants) and good old H2O. The non-migrating cream texture ensures the product stays exactly where you put it, so it won’t irritate your eyes. I suggest patting this product onto the orbal bone of your eye.

Ingredients: Squalene, Evening Primrose Oil, Lavender Oil and Butcher’s Broom.

Skin Type: All skin types! And I stand behind that recommendation. This will rehydrate dry skin and firm up oily textures.

POWERFUL STRENGTH LINE-REDUCING CONCENTRATE

Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate

What it is: This powerful water and oil-free  serum is formulated with 10.5%  pure Vitamin C. That’s right, the same Vitamin C that boosts your immune system also exfoliates your skin while feeding antioxidants to your skin. Vitamin C is known to promote collagen production as well as brightens and smoothes the skin. It also helps reduce skin damage caused by factors like sun exposure and pollution. YES PLEASE! 

Use this morning and evening (underneath makeup too) to protect your skin and reduce your lines. The serum heats up when applied because it reacts to the water in your skin- that’s how you know it’s working! According to my Kiehl’s skin care expert, Vitamin C is the best thing you can do for your skin. I am in absolute love with this product. My skin has looked brighter and felt smoother every since I started using it. Well worth the price!

Ingredients: Vitamin C of course!

Skin Type: This product is recommended for all skin types and should be used as the first part of any skin care routine. Use it day and night to fight wrinkles and feed your skin!

Now it’s been said that the Koreans were to first to create BB creams – since their people go for plastic surgeries as often as it I go to the toilet, they needed to have something to help protect the wounds while they were healing. Thus, the BB cream was born – a tinted skincare moisturising product that helped to conceal the marks while protecting it.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll find that most of my BB creams are from Korea. I’ve always had the perception that BB creams were best left to the Koreans – it’s like how you would leave queueing for freebies or STOMPing to Singaporeans. We just do it better.

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised by the Kiehl’s Actively Correcting & Beautifying BB Cream – it’s actually pretty good for a non-Korean brand.

Available in 3 shades – Fair, Light and Natural

Kiehl’s Actively Correcting & Beautifying BB Cream in Fair shade – $68

Spreading out smoothly and evenly – you can already tell that this will be a good product due to its consistency

And voila! You can barely see that it’s there right? The left side of my hand doesn’t have BB cream whilst the right side has. Click to enlarge the photo for clearer detail.

And since it’s Monday – here’s something to make you feel better about yourself – a photo of my bare skin post-Korea, in all its dryness and shittiness. The middle and right photos are after blending out the BB and letting it set.

I say…

This is a pretty good BB cream for a non-Korean brand. -grudging nod- I find that most non-Korean brands tend to  have products that give a matte finish, which may not sit too well on our skins since our climate is so humid.

• The texture is smooth and moist enough to spread and blend over the skin without pulling it.
• It’s also not so moist that it leaves streaks or takes donkey years to set.
• It’s unscented, which is fine by me. No one’s smelling my face anyway.
• It also doesn’t require a lot of effort to blend in – many BB creams when applied, are starkly fairer than your skin tone, and require some effort to blend in. This one fits right in.
• It’s quite lightweight and doesn’t feel like I’ve applied a cake on my face.
• However, due to its lightweight nature, it also doesn’t provide heavy duty coverage. It covers about 65% of my dark eye circles – I had to tap on some loose powder to cover more.
• On the other hand, it does provide medium level coverage – check out my photos above. You can see that the red splotchiness was covered and my skin looks less dry and more plumped up.
• In fact, it gives a really natural finish that’s the right balance of matte and dewy. -thumbs up-
• One of two downsides – because of its lightweight nature, it doesn’t last long either – my face started oiling up after just 3 hours of wear. It was pretty much gone after 5 hours.
• The second downside is that my skin didn’t seem as bright as when I used other BB creams. It wasn’t about the wrong tone used – somehow I just looked slightly duller, about 10% less than usual.

Overall, I do like this BB cream; it’s got a good finishing, medium natural coverage and good texture. I just wished that it lasted longer (cue: and that’s what she said)  muahahahaha.

At a Kiehls counter in the aiport in Argentina I decided to give a new product a whirl . My only experience of Kiehls to date was the luscious Midnight Recovery Serum, which I blogged about and loved.

The Ultra facial cream tub comes with claims about Greenland expeditions and all weather testing- so Ireland should prove a breeze for it so! The cream is unscented, sinks in vert quickly despite being thicker in consistency than I am used to using.

Kiehls Ultra Facial Cream

It has worked well under several different foundation formulations and so far I haven’t broken out at all! My only bugbear is there is no spf whatsoever in this moisturiser. However I am sticking to my spf use resolution and really am liking this Kiehls cream.

Have you tried the Kiehls range at all? Let us know!

Kiehl's Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream - White Eagle

Kiehl's Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream - White Eagle (texture)

Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Price: $ (under $10 – 2.5 fl. oz. tube) – Available at Kiehl’s, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s.
Scent: Light menthol and camphor.
I liked: how the shave cream protected my face from cuts and razor burn.  The blend of menthol and camphor was cool but not overpowering. 
I didn’t like: the paraben preservatives.

I was really impressed by how well Kiehl’s Ultimate Brushless Shave Cream (White Eagle) protected my face from getting nicked and irritated.  My skin felt moisturized throughout the entire shaving process.  Not once did I feel the razor “dragging” across my face.  The cream’s light cooling sensation felt both soothing and invigorating.  I highly recommend trying out this product if you are unhappy with your current shave cream or gel.  Kiehl’s also offers an unscented “Blue Eagle” version for those with sensitive skin.

Kiehl's Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash 8.4 fl. oz.

Kiehl's Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash Ingedients List

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Price: $$ ($10-$20)
Scent: Very light menthol.
I liked: the mildness of the wash, slightly “energizing” feel & scent, and value.
I didn’t like: the paraben preservatives.

I had a pleasurable time washing my face with this refreshing cleanser. The wash, which has the texture of a very light gel, made my face feel clean without drying it out like many cheaply-made washes and soaps. An 8.4 ounce bottle costs $18.  You only need to use a small amount of the product for each wash. Who needs coffee when you have menthol, caffeine, and citrus extracts in your face wash to wake you up in the morning? My only wish for the Kiehl’s Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash is that it be made with less synthetic ingredients, particularly the paraben preservatives.

“One Night. Two Drops. Younger-Looking Skin By Morning”

Hey everybody! This is the first ever product review I write, I’m not a pro so don’t expect a lot! hahaha

One week ago I got an e-mail from Kiehl’s, I’ve always loved the brand because their products DO work, they’re wonderful and when you go into one of their stores, you feel like you’re home, the experts are sooo friendly and really helpful, they tell you everything and more about certain products that you may like and help you pick the best for your skin type!

This e-mail was promoting their newest product, the Midnight Recovery Concentrate. I got captivated to be honest, and immediately I went on to Google to find reviews, all of them say wonderful things about this elixir and that got me even more excited about i!  A product that replenishes your skin in ONE night!? Fabulous!

So on Friday after my experimental theatre class I went to one of the few Kiehl’s stores that we have in Mexico City, I also took with me 5 empty Kiehl’s bottles to recycle. If you take at least 3 empty bottles, you get rewarded with products! so it’s fabulous! and I’m talking too much and reviewing too little so on to the review!

On Friday night, after showering, I went on to apply the oily elixir on my face, I read that it had no mineral oils in it so I wouldn’t breakout, in fact I didn’t breakout, but I was kinda scared because pimples really bring me down…

You’re supposed to apply 2-3 drops of the elixir on the back of your hand and then with your fingertips apply it all over your face without rubbing and be in bed by midnight to take a good sleep. I have to be honest, it’s hard for me to leave all the night entertainment behind to go to sleep but I’m doing this for my skin.

The first 3 days I had to use more than 3 drops, I used 5-6 drops because I wasn’t sure that I had the elixir all over my face but now Im only using 3 drops. I’ve been using it for 4 days now and my skin totally has a glow & moisture it didn’t have before. You have to believe it, the morning after the first night that I used it, my skin was already glowy and soft!

I really believe that this elixir is going to even out the tone of my skin and make it softer to touch, get rid of all the flakiness and little dark acne marks.

This magical elixir comes in a blue glass bottle with dropper of 1.0 fl. oz and it’s $42 dollars in the USA and in Mexico it’s $610 pesos (about 60 USD) I don’t think it’s expensive as you only have to use 2-3 drops per day so it should last a lot and it really works, I read that it has some kind of lavender scent but my bottle is fragrance free, it’s 99.8% natural and paraben free (some kind of preservatives)

This is by far the best product I’ve ever tried and I’m sure that it will make my skin beautiful!

I hope this review helps you, I like to read reviews from real people before buying products, that way I can be sure that what I’m buying is worth it’s price, so you can take my words, it works!

Get it @ Kiehls.com or at your local Kiehl’s Store!

-Alex