So I said I would give an end of week review on RE9 as I'm new to the line. Please read the previous post regarding What RE9 is and what comes with this skin care line. First off the claim of Arbonne's Skin Care Line RE9, is that you will see visible results in 24 hours. This is true. I can't really say anything else about that claim, because it's a bold claim and one that is hard to believe until you try the line. With any anti-aging line, my biggest worry is that it's going to make me break out. RE9 did break me out after about three days of using it. However, don't stop reading yet. First my testimonial of any skin care product is based on the fact that I've used almost every skin care line on the market. Secondly I'm and esthetician and went to school to study the skin, and ingredients in products. Lastly, like any customer my expertise is in my personal results as well. So yes it did break me out, but only a tiny bit. This may seem counter-productive, however I can play it safe and use fragrance free dove soap, but cause my skin to keep looking horrible (and it did). I mean despite the fact that I am indeed an esthetician, I have horrible skin, mostly due to sun damage and of course to nutrition and stress and aging. So no, Dove soap bar doesn't break me out, but it also doesn't get rid of my fine lines, ruddiness, large pores, UN-even skin tone, and sun-spots!
Now back to me breaking out and NOT freaking out. There is a difference between other anti-aging skin care lines and Arbonne's RE9 Advanced anti-aging skin care line. The difference is simply the ingredients. Read the back of a night cream of a top line department store anti-aging product. You will find mineral oils among other gross pole clogging irritants. Now I want to take a minute and write a disclaimer: I do not have a problem with mineral oil per-Se, it's an oil that comes from sheep's wool, which is kind of gross, but of course it's cleaned and sanitized and fairly natural to be honest. So I'm not buying into the anti-mineral oil claims. Petroleum oil on the other hand is horrible for your skin and is not a natural product. Both mineral and petroleum oil are horrible products for those with acne sensitive skin, or oily skin especially. If you have extremely dry skin, it's still not the best option, but it's probably fine too. What does mineral, and petroleum oil have to do with anti-aging skin care? Well those two mentioned oils are very cheap and not good for your skin--very pore clogging. The "high-end" lines all use these cheap oils, which means your not paying for product, your paying for fancy packaging and marketing. The actual products of high-end skin-care and make-up lines are kind of a joke in the SPA world for estheticians, because they know what's "really" in those products. So I'm still breaking out, and the only products I'm using are Arbonne, so why am I fine with it? Because...Arbonne's anti-aging lines use vegetable based oils that are very soothing and good for skin. They are not pore-clogging at all, and can address the moisture loss skin experiences, as well as healing sensitive skin issue's, such as Roseacea, with out the heavy weight oils, other lines use. My breaking out has nothing to do with the high quality vegetable based oils, that Arbonne uses, it has to do with all the other cell-turn over ingredients that are being used. Such as Alpha and Beta hydroxy acids, to name a few. It's the acids that are causing me to break out AS THEY SHOULD! Acids in products work to safely remove dead skin cells and help your skin to more quickly turn over new healthy and radiant skin. In the process of cell turn over a person with clogged pores will experience the pores being cleaned out and forcing the acne to the surface quickly, which also means that once the pores are cleaned out and the acne is cleared up, which acids to a great job of, my skin will not break out at all because my pores will remain clean with continued use of RE9 products. I might also point out that I'm only breaking out a tiny bit and it's not noticeable to others, only me, because I'm always starring at my face closely in a mirror. Now if I was using a heavy mineral oil based night cream and I was breaking out, I would be able to recognize that I was breaking out because the mineral oil is clogging my pores and making my skin worse. RE9 has no pore clogging oils, so I'm aware that I'm breaking out, because my skins being cleaned out to reveal smaller pores and healthier skin. Lastly while I'm speaking of pores, let me explain something. Pores are a duct in the skin that secrets oil. Pores are good for you, they protect your skin from infection and environmental toxins by providing a layer of non-visible barrier oil. Some people produce too much oil, and they need help keeping there skin clean. Others do not produce enough oil and have very dry skin that need extra oil (vegetable oils.) It's a misnomer that you can get rid of pores. You cannot. But you can reduce the appearance of them, by keeping them clean of excessive oil and dirt. That is why leaving make-up on your face while you sleep not only could possible make you break out if you have sensitive skin, but also cause your skin to look aged and dull. So I'm breaking out, it's do to my skin being cleaned and repaired.
Now for my review. One thing that is very exciting to me, is how fast the products are absorbed into the skin. This means I don't have to put on moisturizer then walk around the house waiting for it to absorb before I put on eye cream, then walk around the house for thirty minutes waiting for it to absorb before I apply my make-up. It's the waiting time between products for them to absorb, that keeps people from taking care of their skin, nobody has all day to wait. The RE9 products absorb instantly. Literally right away all of them absorb instantly even the rich and creamy night cream and neck cream (heavy does not have to mean pore clogging oils) that I use. I can do this whole skin care routine in five minutes including washing my face. My skin looks really great too. The best way I can describe it, is healthy and hydrated. I look like I drink tons of water, even though I don't. If my skin looks really amazing after four weeks, which I think it will based on the great results for one week, then RE9 will be an amazing product. My skin started out very damaged, dry, oily, sun-spotted, fine-lined, ruddy, red, and dehydrated. RE9 has a big job ahead of it's self, which I think it can handle.
~Love...Monique
