SHEET MASK | Saturday Skin Cotton Cloud Probiotic Power Mask

When probiotics in skincare first came out, it was an exciting time for me as I was really into yogurt and promoting good gut flora in my digestive system and there were some good studies that showed that probiotics in skincare were beneficial to the skin barrier. At the time, Saturday Skin's Cotton Cloud Probiotic Power mask was the only probiotic mask I knew of though even now I don't think this is something many brands do. 

Purchased by me

SKINCARE | Antipodes Baptise H20 Ultra Hydrating Water Gel and Culture Probiotic Night Recovery Water Cream

When it comes to my skincare routine, I am very much a serum girl. That is the step I focus on and generally spend the most money on as that is where ingredients are most concentrated. Without a serum in your routine, you will never get the targeted results you want especially when you get older. As a result, I constantly swap out my moisturizers depending on what sheet mask I have used that night or how my skin is feeling first thing in the morning. It is rare that I stick with the same day/night moisturizer unless I am reviewing something so when I opened up these jars of day and night moisturizer from Antipodes to try, I expected to just say "Oh, these are nice" and then move on to something else once I got bored or had something new land on my desk. What ended up happening was a true love affair where I would hungrily look at these two products and apply them slowly and methodically "American Psycho" style. The fact that I have not talked about a moisturizer on Cosmetic Proof for one year and have not given a dedicated review to a singular moisturizer in THREE years speaks volumes to just how much I have been enjoying both these creams!

Press samples provided

SHEET MASK | JM Solution Lacto Saccharomyces Golden Rice Mask

So, I had a bit of a sore throat this week and although it wasn't one of the key symptoms of COVID, I had to stay in one day from work just to keep an eye on things and after much saltwater gargling, propolis spraying and just sleeping, I awoke the next morning to a normal-feeling throat. In pre-COVID times, I wouldn't have thought twice about going into work, but now we are checking temperatures, asking "how are you feeling questions" and making an extra effort to keep ourselves and others healthy even if it may just be a simple cold or allergies. We've also been eating a ton of vegetables and fruit since going into Quarantine and with such minimal exposure to people (neither my husband or I have been using public transit), the only way either of us will get sick is from stress or something truly random that we catch from outside. I haven't had a cold or flu in over a year so fingers crossed that everyone stays healthy for the rest of the year!

 Purchased by me

SKINCARE | TULA Limited Edition INSTA BRIGHT Energizing and Brightening Sheet Mask

I wanted my 100th sheet mask to be EPIC which meant that it was most certainly going to be holographic and though I had been looking at a couple of different brands, when Shayna from A Pop of Colour alerted me to the new INSTA BRIGHT Energizing and Brightening Sheet Mask from probiotic skincare line TULA, I knew I had found my 100th mask. After using TULA products over the last couple of months (a review of their Pro Glycolic Resurfacing 10% pH Resurfacing Gel Toner is coming!) with positive results, I knew that good things were about to happen with this probiotic blend of Lactococcus Ferment Lysate, fermented birch water, hyaluronic acid and lemon extract. I was ready to experience THE GLOW!

PR samples

SKINCARE | Probiotics in Your Skincare? First Impressions of Tula!

Back in February, I was introduced to a brand I had only heard about at Cosmoprof, but never tried since it was only available in the US through Neiman Marcus, Spack NK and Nordstrom, but never fear because now Tula is shipping to Canada! I received a discovery kit back in February to get to know the brand so these reviews will be somewhat more brief then my usual skincare Bible-length blog posts, but I will soon have full reviews coming over the next few months!

Tula, meaning "balance" in Sanskrit, is an interesting brand because of the addition of probiotics or healthy bacteria in their skincare formulations. We all know how important yogurt is with their bacterial cultures and probiotics in skincare works the same way. Just like having healthy gut bacteria or flora, our skin's surface also has something called a microbiome which is a unique collection of microbes that are perfectly balanced at keeping our skin happy. Adding probiotics has been shown to help with inflammation and aid in hydration. Likewise, if this balance is disturbed, the good bacteria can turn bad and cause skin conditions such as acne. Since this is a first impressions post, I will not delve too much into the the biology of probiotics, but I will when I review the full sized products!

PR samples, Affiliate Links