What am I testing?
I will be road testing products from Kama Ayurveda, UMA and Elizabeth Arden.
Kama Ayurveda
In pre-COVID-19 times, I went to a physical Kama Ayurveda store, where I spoke to a human being (and not a bot), who suggested a night and day routine for me.
I was pleased that the sales assistant asked what skin concerns I was trying to address; my age; skin type, and so on. She went to choose products for me and explained how to use them. Her competence left me thinking that Kama Ayurveda should run staff-training boot camps for their counterparts at Forest Essential’s.
Morning routine
The morning routine is a cleanser, toner, moisturizer and followed by sunscreen. I am using a different sunscreen (below) as the Kama Ayurveda sunscreen is Zinc Oxide (it smells of ginger, is not an SPF 30 and is as easy to spread as dried cement).
Rose & Jasmine cleanser, Rosewater toner and eladi hydrating face creamEvening routine
The only addition to the evening routine is a brightening beauty serum.
Biweekly
I am to use a physical exfoliating scrub and a brightening face pack.
How long will I be roadtesting products? Will I use any other products?
I’ve learnt a few things from my previous product roadtests:
- No one uses one product range, and a realistic product assessment of skincare products must permit the use of (e.g.) other brand’s face masks. How will I know if Kama doesn’t mix well with (e.g.) 111 Skin sheet masks if I don’t try?
- A 30 – 40-day road test is more than sufficient to get a good indication of what results to expect from Kama. Truthfully, COVID-19 is a constant reminder that no-one has time for a 60 day or 90-day product test. Life is finite.
What are my expectations
Ordinarily, I would want skin whitening to be an outcome of using the Kama products, but honestly, as it is summer, I will settle for skin brightening, no tanning, no acne or break-outs. Importantly, the products should not damage my skin barrier. For the record, this is the state of my skin today:
Other products I am testing?
My Eyebrows
Uma Oils is an Ayurvedic brand out of Los Angeles (Hollywood). As I am rooting for this brand, I will be testing many of their products. This brow oil is “intensely nourishing”, and there are no indications on the labelling that it promotes hair growth.
The product has castor oil, and argan oil – both of which we associate with hair growth in Asia. Westerners are very sceptical about the use of oil for hair growth because the oil molecules are too big to penetrate the skin/hair gland.
I don’t subscribe to this. I expect that there will be some hair growth in/around my eyebrows and at the very minimum, no hair fall.
Sunscreen
Elizabeth Arden is probably most famous for their 8-hour products rather than their prevage range, which is in a higher price bracket. I have never used this sunscreen before, but I am fascinated by the number of anti-oxidants it has. This sunscreen is more expensive than ultrasun (US$ 68 for 40ml!!) , and I want to use it for 30-40 days before I form a view on its usefulness.
See also
Clinique: 60 day product review of full range of products
Shiseido: 30 day product review of Shiseido vital protection range
Forest Essentials product review: 4 months, multiple products