Current Skin Care Boosters I'm Using: Boscia Smoothing Facial Polish and Bright White Mask

If you are looking for a gentle exfoliant with natural ingredients, Boscia's Smoothing Facial Polish might be a good contender.  There's a whole slew of good for your skin ingredients in this baby, with no scratchy granules in sight.

Instead of sand like granules, I'd describe the little bits in this scrub as more cooked oatmeal like in a lightly lathering formula.  In fact, I was a bit skeptical initially due to the lack of scrubbing granules that I normally associate with facial exfoliators, but my skin feels soft, clean, cooled (yes, cooled), and refreshed after I use the Smoothing Facial Polish.  This is currently on sale for half off ($12.50) at Boscia.com, and I think it's well worth it!

I follow up the Smoothing Facial Polish with Boscia's Bright White Mask ($38), an antiaging mask designed to brighten, hydrate, and smooth the look of skin.  According to Sephora, these are some of the ingredients that help do that:

• Sea Fern Algae: Helps in suppressing the synthesis of melanin and reduces the appearance of age spots and hyperpigmentation. 

• Stay C-50: Brightens the skin, supports the natural production of collagen, helps in suppressing melanin production, and repairs the appearance of skin damage caused by UV radiation.

• Matrixyl 3000: A peptide blend that fights the appearance of wrinkles and makes skin look more lifted. 

• Salicornia: Hydrates and limits water loss.

It is indeed bright white, and has the added bonus of being a peel off mask.  I learned the hard way that a thin layer of the mask is almost impossible to peel off, so a thick layer is definitely the way to go.  Even then, it's a rather time consuming process as the mask peels off in smallish bits, so think "leisurely" when using this.

The peel is strong enough to remove small facial hairs, but not strong enough to extract blackheads (more's the pity, that would have been awesome).  Still, my skin looks smaller pored and smooth after I use this, without a doubt.  I've been using the scrub and mask together about once a week as a booster to my regular skincare regime, to good effect.

Boscia Haul and BB Creams

First up, apologies for the lack of posts last week.  I'm in the midst of writing a grant application, which has entailed 12 hours days and lots of hair pulling.  I'm still not finished, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Totally unrelated but perhaps timely given my absence, I'll be posting a giveaway tomorrow :-)  Secondly, Boscia had a really nice sale and GWP a few weeks back that I took advantage of, resulting in all you see above.  I haven't delved deeply into Boscia's line of products, but now I've got quite the variety of items to indulge in.  All this came to only:

Gotta love that!  I was curious if the sale was motivated by looming product expiration dates, as Sephora also has some of the same items deeply discounted.  More than likely that's the case, as the pink boxed items have this on it:

So, Boscia has moved to the front of the line of product rotation.  I'm quite pleased with the two B.B. creams in the mix.  I've been mixing the bronze with the regular, although I think I overdid the bronze initially.  In some pictures I look suspiciously oompa loompa.

 

I'd say these provide medium coverage and they are working nicely with my oily skin.  The regular B.B. cream comes in one self-adjusting shade, which did indeed blend well with my skin tone.  The bronze B.B. cream is quite a bit darker, and could be used for contouring or darkening lighter foundations.  Both have a subtle shimmer to them that does not translate as sparkly or shiny, and based on the below picture I'd say the bronze has gold flecks and the regular has silver. 

I apply with a foundation brush, which helped with any pore settling issues.  The resulting finish is smooth and natural looking, so these may now be my foundation choice for the rest of the summer, considering their SPF 27 and PA++ content.  What is PA++, you may ask (I did)?  Appareintly, it's a grade of UVA protection that provides superior defense against the rays that cause collagen damage and photo-aging of the skin.  Considering the semi-tropical climate I live in, that's a good thing.  The formula also includes Abyssine, a naturally derived survival molecule, to shield and soothe skin,  Hydroxyprolisilane to promotes skin elasticity and reduce the appearance of fine lines, and Beta-Glucan to provide essential moisture and protect against environmental damage.

 Boscia B.B. creams are $38, and mine were both part of the GWP, making them free :-)