My 2nd Skeen: Skeen+ Refining Matte Powder

Last summer I had blogged about my latest skincare novelty discovery from Skeen skincare (post here).

I had purchased their perfect eyes powder eyecare product, which basically was a powdered product that turned into a lovely eyelotion when applied to the eye area.

This brand has originally been designed for men, and I was a bit iffy to try out something based for the male skin on my sensitive (and female) skin. Nevertheless, the products from Skeen are made without perfumes and artificial colour elements, so it turned out to be a really lovely summer (and travel) eye care product. In the winter I need something more balmy for my eye area, though.

It turns out that more people have discovered Skeen, as I have been reading up on in in the British and Spanish Glossy magazines. It is also being sold on SpaceNK these days, and they say the following about it:

Skeen was originally created for men, but women rapidly became converted after stealing the products from their partners' beauty cabinets. Women now make up 30% of skeen+ clientele, adding to the brand's notable success in France, Italy and Spain.

Hurray, I like the ideas of women 'borrowing' cosmetic items from their boyfriends. Because honestly (girls), how many times did you find out that your expensive cream suddenly tended to get a bit emptier after your boyfriend stayed over for the weekend??
(ok, that depends on how metrosexual your boyfriend is (and he has his own stuff), or how anti-preening he is, but lots of men love to borrow some of that 'lovely smelling stuff' from their girlfriends.

Ok, I promised myself to buy the Poudre Mate Refiner from them as well, advised by and tested on me by the saleswoman.

I had the perfect excuse to do so. The official Skeen+ site offered a free product with any purchase from their site. How could I resist when I already really wanted to try the Mattifying powder?

 

The freebie is a full sized Intensive Reviving Corrector Gel and contains Contains 0.1% Vitamin C, Vitamins A and E, natural hygroscopic agents, caffeine, and natural menthol according to their site. Sounds interesting for those days when your skin does not want to wake up.

The back of the box has a pletora of Western languages available for a concise description. Oh, they added Dutch (they must know I have been buying this, LOL).

The ingredients:

I always prefer a relatively short list of ingredients, as it limits possible sensitivies or irritations. Still, the ingredients available should preferably be doing the job properly.

The instruction sheet is quite detailed and has some relevant information on it:

Let's take a closer look: It is not merely a mattifying product, however, it claims to have 0.02% Pure Glycolic Acid in it, and that helps to dilute larger pores.

According to the description, you can apply it straightly on a cleansed skin in the morning, or after your moisturizer. Also, you can use it as a top-up and mattifying product for over your makeup during the day.

That is so lovely: it has more functions to it.

Results (because we all want some beneficial results from our skincare!)

An instant effect because it reduces facial shine and a long term effect as it dilutes pores and cleanses them as well.

Skeen+ describes the advantages of a powder product over of a cream product in this part of the information sheet: (mind that the product does turn liquidy after applying it to the skin)

That makes sense to me: Philosophy also works with pure vitamine C powder that you can blend with your skincare.

It also makes it more travel friendly if you want to carry it with your hand luggage on air-based travels.

The product has the same construction and effect as the Perfect Eye powder I purchased this summer, only with a different function.

It applies as a white and dry powder upon the skin:

And after some soft tapping or rubbing motions: it becomes liquidy and creamy:

It almost looks like I have been using the same pictures, he he, but my skin looks paler in this picture (instead of my slightly tan picture of this summer) so this is really another product I have been testing out.

Results after a couple of days:
It does what it says on the instruction sheet! It gives a mattifying effect on the skin, without that 'I tried too hard to be matte' look that I often get with lots of facial powder. It mattifies for at least 5 hours or more, so it is effective indeed. Plus, it does not irritate my skin at all.

I cannot say too much about the pore-diluting effects of this powder, because those are long term effect, and I have simply used this for a couple of days only. However, it almost seems that my pores are a tad smaller.

Moreover, it is winter time, so I am already less shiny than I am in summer. My skin still has the tendency to be a bit more greasy at the t-zones, so I am happy to have a oily-zone reducer. I am curious how it will work during the summer, though.

Overal, a wonderful product with a innovative formulation for reducing that difficult problem of the oily t-zone.

I bought this from the official website (here), and they ship all over the world, but as I mentioned, it is being sold on spaceNK as well.