I am on a huge skin care kick. I’ve been trying out a line for two weeks and moving onto the next. Since skincare lines are getting clever with the try-me samplers, it’s been somewhat affordable to go on this luxurious skin bender.
Stem Organics has a straight forward tag line:
Everything that you touch or touches you, matters.
Not surprisingly, Stem focuses on sourcing as much organic ingredient as possible. They also purport to be the worlds first 100% climate neutral skin care company. Stem Organics buys offsetting carbon credits to make the company energy neutral. Bramble Berry does this as well.
Here is a link to their sampler kit. It’s $9.90 and that includes shipping. The samples are small. There is enough serum in one little disk for approximately 3 to 5 applications. I am almost through my sample kit.
You can read more about the young, environmentally friendly founders here.
Review: The cleanser is gentle and does its job: it cleans without stripping. It feels no better or worse than Cetaphil. It is pricier – aloe vera juice instead of water, copious herbal extracts and 70% organic cost more. For a rinse-off product, it’s dubious whether all the goodies make a difference.
Personally, I spend my skin care money on leave-on products. Stem sent 1 serum and 3 moisturizers to try. The serum works well. It absorbs in quickly. It fills in crevices and makes my skin appear instantly smoother. This feels nice and gives me a mental boost (“My my my, you look so spry and young! You can go take over the world!”). However, I will not spend $66 for smoothness alone. Vaseline could perform the same function. The real “Wow” factor in this serum is that my skin looks brighter. I can actually see clear pores. It’s a beautiful thing. Seeing more pores and a naturally glowing complexion is worth $66 to me.
The moisturizers are only okay. I didn’t love then because I felt like I needed to apply another moisturizer after them. They were light and not fulfilling (similar to most diet food). Also, there is no SPF in the moisturizers. With skin cancer and wrinkle concerns, SPF would be a welcome addition.
Future reviews to come include Juice Beauty, Daniel Pry Organics, Stella McCartney and Benev. I am hoping to look like a 12 year old once all the testing is done.
My skin is totally happy with some of the trials but one of the beauty lines made me break out. Nothing like getting acne and wrinkles at the same time (sigh).
Yes, BB tries to be energy neutral. Right now our big trauma is that our fragrance cans cannot be recycled locally. In the past, we’ve gotten around it through strange trading programs with honey farmers, bio-diesel makers and the like but this year, we just have too many drums. So, we’re letting them slowly build up as we search frantically for a recycle center to take them.
=) Anne-Marie
I didn’t know Bramble Berry bought carbon offset credits. That’s wonderful!!! AS IF I needed yet another reason to do business with BB 😉
I hadn’t heard of this company or any of the others you listed at the bottom (reviews to come). I look forward to reading what you think of the other stuff as well.