For the new year, I decided to add new products to my skincare routine since this is the year I will officially be in my mid-30’s and I’d like to keep my skin from looking its actual age for as long as I can. I’ve heard so many good things about the brand, Paula’s Choice from a few well-trusted beauty vloggers and watching videos on Paula’s Choice’s own You Tube channel, I felt like they were a great brand to try. Their products are backed up by clinical research and they use beneficial ingredients with no bells and whistles. It was a nice coincidence that BzzAgent invited me to the Paula’s Choice campaign!
Overall my skin is very good and appears to be healthy. I keep a good skin care routine and have been paying attention to quality of the products I have been using. My skin type is normal/dry, I might get an acne spot every now and then, but usually my skin is clear. My main problem, which isn’t too bad, is dryness around my nose and the clogged pores with it. The skin is flaky in the crease, and the sebaceous filaments are clogged dry plugs that stick out. (Not to be confused with blackheads, which I don’t have current issues with.)
The Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant is salicylic acid, which is familiar as an acne treatment. It exfoliates and gets into the follicle that helps to clear it out. It is also an anti-inflammatory, which keeps the redness at bay. These are all qualities we want for banishing acne. But is this good for skin that isn’t acne prone? Yes. Because salicylic acid is also an exfoliator, it keeps the pore clear regardless if you get spots or not. The exfoliation will get rid of the dead skin cells lying on top of your skin as well as the ones clogging your pores that make your skin look dull. And in the end, it will help brighten the appearance of your skin while helping prevent certain types of acne.
Before using the Skin Perfecting BHA liquid, I used an exfoliator in the form of a Clarisonic device. But I think using a chemical exfoliant is what my skin care routine was missing. My concern was really keeping my pores clean, especially on my nose where I notice clogged pores. The Clarisonic will knock off the dry skin but it wont lift out the clogged pores. A chemical exfoliation is going deep into the pore to help dislodge and break down the sebum and dead skin cells. I believe in using both to cleanse the skin in different ways.
After using the BHA for a few weeks, I wanted to test to see how well the BHA works on the sebaceous filaments on my nose. I used a Biore pore strip to see how many plugs I’d pull out. This isn’t a scientific test by any means! I did end up pulling out plugs, but they were lighter in color than usual. I couldn’t tell if there were less than usual. (Who counts them anyway?) To me it looks like the BHA is actually opening the door to dislodge the plugs out easier. And the fact that they were lighter in color, seems to me that it is doing its best to keep the pore clear of dirt.
I didn’t expect the strip to pull out nothing out at all. If the BHA worked like that we would see our sebum plugs come off into the cotton pad, it doesn’t work that way! Obviously, pores are holes and they’re going to fill up with sebum, dirt, makeup, and dead skin cells. So I will be doing this once a week to maintain my skin and prevent blackheads from forming.
I had a sample of the PC Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Lotion, which is more appropriate for dry skin types, so I tried that and hoped that it would solve the dryness issue that I already had. It turns out I actually like the liquid version better. The lotion took awhile to absorb into the skin, and I had rub in the thick white cream to make it disappear. I have no time for that in the morning getting ready. The liquid version is super simple, just swipe with a cotton pad. And I also feel like I use less liquid than lotion and may get more uses out of the bottle.
The BHA liquid didn’t dry out my skin at all, which I considered before using. I assumed putting salicylic acid all over my face would dry it out, as if putting an acne medication would make it peel, but I didn’t have any issues and saw no changes in the texture of my skin.
I will continue to use this product. I think if I were to stop, I will lose the benefit of having the chemical exfoliant and notice my pores getting clogged and my skin duller. I don’t want that, so I will continue to use this twice a day for maintenance. It takes no time at all to use, and the bottle is affordable enough that I wont feel like I am breaking the bank.
The retail price for the 4 fl.oz bottle is $28, but you can save 20% on the Paula’s Choice website with the code: PRBHA16
I wish I could tell you when this code expires, but I don’t know.
Update: This expired on May 31, 2016. I found out when I tried to place an order on June 6th. :/
I received a full size bottle and five trial size bottles of this product for free from BzzAgent for review. I was not paid, nor was I obligated to write a positive review. My opinions and experiences are my own. I do not receive any monetary compensation or any other type of credit with clicked links or the discount code.
