Product Review: Mario Badescu

I’m not going to lie. I never had acne problems as a teenager, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I danced a lot, drank tons of water, hated wearing heavy makeup and really took care of my skin. Well, apparently, I’m making up for lost time as an adult, haha! I’m just now getting over having five painful zits after dealing with them for over a week so that’s why today’s post is all about beauty!

Having beautiful, glowy and healthy skin is tough. With so many products out there, I wanted to give you some feedback on a brand that I re-discovered. Hey, cleaning out your beauty drawer helps you know.

Mario Badescu first came into my life several years ago when I was shopping Nordstrom’s NSale. I was browsing with my sales associate and she led me to this wonderful lady who told me about the brand. So, today, I’ll be giving you some reviews on a few of the products I’ve tried. 

Healing powder

I’ve been using this shine-free loose powder for a long time (seriously, I talk about it a lot) and although, it’s a treasure of a drugstore find and my shiny forehead is a bit more controlled, I still have some oily skin. When I first got this product years ago, I was SO ecstatic to try the healing powder that I dusted it on my forehead without reading the instructions. It said to use sparingly. Yeah, they’re not kidding. When I looked in the mirror, I looked like I was putting on Geisha makeup. And this is after I tapped my brush to take the excess off, haha! I decided to mix a very small amount of the healing powder into my makeup powder and have been doing that ever since with my healing powder.

My acne usually clears up in a day or two, but my stress levels were too high. I had one zit right after another. It was the kind that hurts when you make any kind of facial expression. Anyway, after trying a home remedy (more on this later) and washing my face, I dabbed this powder on my nose and T-zone where my under-the-skin zits were and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and my zit was wayyy less red than it was the night before! I also love the fact that it didn’t dry out my skin either.

If you have oily skin, this paraben-free, sulfate-free and phthalate-free healing powder does a great job absorbing excess oil too. You can mix this with your powder or wear it alone. Just make sure you use a very light hand when applying. Several things to note, this powder has not been tested on any animals (I know this is important to some of you out there) and can get messy so be careful. For about $12 a jar, I’m definitely happy with this product! 

Drying cream

I dabbed this drying cream on the zit I had on my nose when a pinhead finally surfaced. In my opinion, the cream dried out my skin a little bit too much. However, it did say that this is for under-the-surface bumps and I didn’t blend it in like the instructions say to. I just dabbed it on and left it on top of my zit. When I went to bed, I covered it with a bandaid so I wouldn’t get product all over my pillows. I’ll give this another shot in the future and will update this post when I use it per the exact instructions, but for $17/jar, you get a lot of product if you only get a some zits every now and then.

Here’s some other MB products I’ve used:

Drying lotion

I was very intrigued about using the drying lotion right away as I had several zits at the time I bought these products. I must say that the cool thing about the drying lotion is that you don’t shake the bottle before using it. All you do is take a q-tip, insert it down into the pink stuff, pull it out and then dab it onto your zit. When I first tried this product, I put this product on the problem areas of my face and two out of three zits dramatically shrunk when I woke up the next day! Could this stuff have originated from David Copperfield? Maybe… ::winks::

Mario Badescu packed this little bottle with a lot of power and for $17/bottle, over 200 people agree with me it is well worth the price! Just note that if the product mixes together, keep the bottle upright and just give the two ingredients time to separate. This drying lotion is also paraben-free, sulfate-free and phthalate-free! Yay! 

Glycolic Foaming Cleanser

The foaming cleanser is great! The instructions say to use it only several times a week. This is pretty accurate because you don’t want to strip your skin of natural oils and dry it out. This glycolic foaming cleanser definitely removes dirt and makeup. I’ve used it with my Clarisonic (a huge God-send of a beauty tool by the way!) and got a good deep cleansing and my skin felt baby soft! My recommendation would be to use it 2-3 times a week at max.

A little goes a long way so it’s not bad for $16/bottle!

You can also buy Mario Badescu skincare sets depending on what you’re looking for. For pretty decent prices, these products did indeed live up to the beauty associate’s praises! 

My ultimate goal is to get back to having skin that looks as close as possible to this:

Yep, this is me with BARELY any makeup (no foundation or powder) on, just Oil of Olay (momma’s long time secret) blush, eye makeup and some light pink gloss.

Clear, glowing and beautiful skin really does make one feel confident. This picture was the happiest I have ever physically felt. I was in the best shape of my life with no skin problems. And you know what? I am determined to get back to feeling and looking that way!

What tried and true skincare products do you love that has helped with acne?

SHOP THE PRODUCTS:

I’m not sorry for this long post because I feel like you deserve to know what products are/aren’t good. Don’t worry there will be plenty more posts to come! Happy Friday! 

Note: I purchased these beauty products myself. I was not gifted these products nor was I compensated or asked to review this product from Nordstrom, Mario Badescu or any other other (beauty) retailer. All opinions are solely my own. Since we all take care of ourselves differently, skin results will vary for everyone.