This post has been on my mind for FOREVER, so I was so stoked to finally hit publish today on what is basically a skincare Bible. I don’t think it’s any secret around here that I’m abit of a skincare junkie. Rather, I’m an ingredients junkie. Sure – I lovelovelove me some good skincare. But I wouldn’t say by any means that I’m a poster child for a flawless complexion; if anything, skin was always one of my biggest battles, especially growing up, with everything from breakouts and redness to oil and unevenness. Through it all, I became a wee bit obsessed with knowing which products actually work the way they say they do, and what ingredients are the most useful, important, or recommended for tackling specific concerns.
You’ve also heard me talk about one of my personal favorite skincare brands quite a few times – Colleen Rothschild.
Colleen Rothschild’s skin products have been favorites of mine from the start for a few reasons.
- They’re INSANELY high quality. Sure, they might feel like more of a splurge, especially if you’re used to a drugstore-only routine. BUT, I always say, there are a few things in life always worth the splurge: good men, good coffee, good shoes, and good skin. 😉
- They have skincare solutions for nearly every skin concern. Whether you’re looking for something ultra-hydrating + nourishing to replenish dry winter skin, need some extra toning on a more oily complexion, or want a headstart on rigourous anti-aging (because it’s never too early!), CRB has a product for you.
- Colleen Rothschild products are multi-dimensional. They’re not just a one-and-done ingredient – oh no. Each product has a really carefully formulated combination of ingredients to help balance out your skin and bring out its best.
- There’s some extra goodness inside Colleen Rothschild products since she’s got a secret signature ingredient inside EVERY skincare product: Level E3. Level E3 is like straight outta a James Bond movie if James Bond cared about facials and wrinkles – ha! It’s her exclusive technology that helps the other key ingredients in each product work harder + smarter for more efficient, effective results.
Speaking of ingredients, let’s hop right into this with 10 ingredients that should be on your bottle labels + in your skincare routines.
OH BUT WAIT – Colleen Rothschild’s Stock Up for Spring Sale is happening NOW – perfect timing amiright? 😉 Her sales don’t happen often but are FABULOUS when they do, and truly the best time to stock up on old favorites or treat yo’self to a new wishlist-worthy product.
Take $25 off your order of $100+ with code SPRING25 at checkout, or $50 off your order of $200+ with code SPRING50! (My usual code for y’all for CRB is ERICA20 for 20% off, so you save more during this sale – carpe diem and TREAT YO’SELF accordingly!)
OK…the best skincare ingredients to include in your routine. I’d be remiss in talking about the best skincare ingredients to include if I didn’t mention what NOT to include, too – some ingredients to watch out for that are no bueno, as more and more scientific evidence is published connecting them to toxins, chemicals – even cancers.
If your skincare says sulfate, paraben, formaldehyde, etc – it’s not considered “clean.” Granted, I have a loooooong ways to go myself on “clean beauty” and absolutely do not have a totally clean collection yet, but it’s a goal to work towards! In the meantime, we’re focusing on some good-for-you things to look for on your labels that are some of the best of the best skincare ingredients to make sure you’re intentionally adding into your morning and/or nighttime routines.
1.) Hyaluronic acid – hydrating!
I’ve talked about Hyaluronic acid MANY A TIME here, for good reason – it’s a little superweapon in a bottle! Your body actually makes it naturally – it’s what keeps things cushioned + lubricated in your body, in your skin, joint fluid, connective tissues, etc! You make less over time, though, so supplementing in your skincare is important to help keep things smooth – and they work well paired with Vitamin C products, too!
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
It’s got hyaluronic acid for plumping, but it’s also got a unique blend of Coral Grass + Micro-Algae inside and a tri-peptide complex to help minimize the appearance of fine lines WHILE adding hydration. Bless.
ALSO, Colleen’s Extreme Recovery Cream for a more *intense* hydration station! This is a great nighttime cream that’s a bit more intensive – besides hydrating, it works to strength your hydro-lipid barrier and be anti-aging, too.
2. + 3.) Glycolic acid + Lactic acid – resurfacing!
Glycolic acid is one of my personal favorite ingredients to use daily! Technically speaking, both glycolic and lactic acids are alpha-hydroxy acids, or AHAs, which we’ll talk about in a hot sec. 😉 The gist is that they work chemically to disconnect skin cells from each other, which is SUPER helpful when said skin cells are dead, lifeless, gross flakes just hanging out needing to be unplugged from your pores.
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
The Glycolic Acid Peel Pads with Blue Agave
This is one of the latest launches from Colleen Rothschild and I knew from the second it arrived on my doorstep that I’d lovelovelove it. It’s actually a spa-strength treatment – at a FRACTION of the price of a spa facial, if you count up all of the pads in your tub! The pads work to dissolve dirt, debris, and sebum that’s clogging your pores (yuck), while renewing your natural renewal process, targeting fine lines, hyperpigmentation, and any other imperfections for a fresher, brighter, glowier complexion (bless). It basically revives your cell turnover process to essentially resurface your skin, which is incredible + important for keeping things youthful and glowy! It’s also got hyaluonic acid inside, as well as other ingredients for soothing, calming, + hydrating and not just resurfacing, so you’re clarifying and exfoliating without stripping or irritating.
4.) Vitamin C – brightening!
Vitamin C is important for boosting your skin’s natural radiance + clarity while ALSO working to defend against environmental things like pollution, sun damage, stress, etc. It can be really beneficial for tackling something like hyperpigmentation (aka dark spots on your skin from something like the sun!) if the concentration is high enough.
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
The Vitamin C Treatment Complex
Speaking of high concentrations, this bad boy is a really potent form of Vitamin C that penetrates your epidermis (aka your skin’s outermost layer) 16x MORE EFFECTIVELY than ascorbic acid – it stimulates your collagen production, so your skin really just ends up RADIANT.
5.) Retinol – anti-aging!
You’ve heard me talk alllll about retinol before – and Colleen Rothschild retinol products, at that! Retinol is a concentrated form of Vitamin A, which is reaaaaally good for regenerating your skin cell turnover. It’s typically pretty darn concentrated and CAN be a bit agitating for more sensitive skin, especially if you’ve never used it before, but it’s typically something “trainable” where you can start off using once a week, then up to twice or 3x as your skin gets used to the formulation and regeneration process.
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
The Retinol Supreme Night Oil, Retinol Supreme Eye Serum, + Retinol Treatment Complex!
The Colleen Rothschild retinol regimen is a good one, friends. Her Retinol Supreme Night Oil is one of my fave products since it works double duty: regenerating thanks to the retinol, but also moisturizing thanks to plant-based oils. It’s actually got the highest concentration of stabilized retinol to really encourage your skin’s renewal, as well as Vitamin C to tackle environmental toxins, AND nine plant-based oils for preventing flaking or irritation that can come with other traditional retinol treatments. A REALLY solid product to wear at nighttime to literally wake up renewed + radiant.
Next up, the Eye Serum. It works very similarly, but is formulated slightly differently to account for the delicate skin around your eyes specifically! So this one’s got Saloprine 8 added inside, which locks in moisture – it’s actually been clinically proven to boost your moisture levels by 6000% (yes, six THOUSAND) after 28 days of continued use. CRAZY!!! Another ingredient in the eye serum is for lifting + firming your eye area to reduce puffiness.
Last, the traditional Retinol Treatment Complex. Another potent product that targets the five primary causes of visible aging. It minimizes your wrinkles, clears your pores, and brightens up dull skin.
6.) Charcoal – detoxifying!
Charcoal, when it’s “activated”, actually works to bring bacterias, chemicals, dirt, or any other crap to the skin’s surface – so it’s great for fighting acne or just “clearing out” your face, so to speak – ha!
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
This is one of my FAVORITE charcoal masks I’ve ever used – and I’ve tried SO MANY. It’s effective without stripping your skin or feeling TOO intense, if that makes sense. It’s got other ingredients inside too, besides charcoal, including French Kaolin clay, Vitamin C, Willowherb, and glycolic acid.
7.) Antioxidants – protecting!
Antioxidants in your skincare are important for things like free radical protection, or protection against other environmental aggressors like pollution, etc.
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
The Cocoa Bean Cleansing Balm – This stuff reminds me of one of my favorite spas on Planet Earth at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, PA – yup, where Hershey chocolate is made! This stuff is a fabulous cleanser that removes makeup, impurities, the works – and it’s got cocoa butter inside for antioxidant protection, vanilla bean for gentle exfoliation, hazelnut oil for ultra-rich hydration, and rice bran for decongestion. I mean – luxury!!! I recommend using this stuff when double cleansing.
The Matcha Tea Treatment toner we talked about earlier has green tea extract, which is also an antioxidant.
8.) Alpha-hydroxy acids – decongesting!
Alpha-hydroxy acids, or AHAs, come from natural substances like sugar cane, grapes, etc and work by basically melting the “glue” that keeps our skin cells together, helping with how your skin naturally sheds itself. (Gross,but cool, amiright?)
There’s a Colleen Rothschild product for that! Try…
Pomegranate & AHA Resurfacing Mask!
Which also happens to be big with antioxidants! The pomegranate + fruit enzymes work to gently loosen any flaky, lifeless skin cells to leave you fresh + glowing, brighter and tighter than before. There’s also aloe leaf extract inside this mask to help balance everything out and reduce any excess drying or flaking from the chemical exfoliation at work. Some higher concentrated AHA products are only available from beauty specialists or dermatologists, but lower concentrations – between 5-10% in products – can be used daily! So this is like the perfect at-home instant facial for congested, uneven, and/or just problematic skin.
9.) Probiotics – repairing!
I don’t think any CRB products have probiotics in them (yet!), so if you’re on the hunt for probiotics in your skincare routine, I recommend Tula since ALL of their products have probiotics inside! (My code for Tula for you is COMINGUPROSES to save 15%).
But there are PREbiotics in this Colleen Rothschild treatment toner – which is a great product for reducing inflammation AND banishing breakouts! Bless up. It helps minimize redness while also detoxifying, minimizing pore appearance, absorbing excess oil, AND serving as an anti-septic to fight breakout-inducing bacteria!
10.) Rose – soothing!
Rose is in a lot of facial sprays + mists because it’s a soothing ingredient that can help calm irritation or lessen redness.
There’s a Colleen Rothschild productfor that! Try…
This is a more unique toner from anything I’ve seen before since toners usually have a reputation for being harsh or stripping on the skin. Not this one! It’s actually got crystal properties inside – rose quartz, rhodolite garnet, and malachite extract – which are also known to evoke positive energy (so cool!), as well as hydrating humectants like rosehip seed oil and prickly pear extract to be skin-soothing and conditioning.
PHEW. This has been a post of truly biblical proportions in size – ha!
I hope it was helpful + that you can shop the Stock it Up Spring Sale for some re-stocks of old favorites or to find a new one!
How many of these ingredients are in your skincare routines already? And are you shopping the Colleen Rothschild sale?
*Thanks to Colleen Rothschild, a brand I lovelovelove, for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions + thoughts presented are entirely my own. Thank YOU for supporting the brands that support Coming Up Roses!
