I love makeup, and oils, and various other beauty-related fripperies, but I have to start this review with a brief aside.
I don’t think it’s my job as a woman to stay looking like I’m eighteen forever. My mother, aunts, and grandmothers are all beautiful women, and deeper lines are going to happen to me too if nothing kills me first. And that’s fine.
Despite that confidence, though, I’m still very much dealing with thoughts such as, “Are you supposed to have your dad’s forehead at this age?”
So, I tried Urban Skin Rx’s Anti-Aging Cleansing Bar.
What’s it like?
It looks so…well, let me back up. I love it when branding has an extra strong theme throughout, and true to its name, this stuff looks professionally medicinal. It’s essentially a bar soap, which is not at all what I was expecting when I was handling the jar! YES, even though it says “Cleansing Bar” on the label, I can make mistakes. Still, I was thinking it’d be a mousse or something and not last for very long, but it’s solid all the way down. Being a glasses wearer, and therefore very visually impaired when I wash my face, it took me a second to not think that this was my moisturizer when I was fumbling about, but in the end, I got there.
Another cool addition was the little round sponges that came in the jar, which startled me upon opening it because I’m naturally nervous; but once I realized what they were, I was kind of thrilled.
I did my best not to misplace either one, buuuuuuuuut, let’s just say it’s a great thing that they give you two in the jar from the get go.
Smell-wise, it’s nice! I thought I was imagining things before I read the ingredients list, but the soap smells like very faint licorice…probably because it contains licorice extract. For those of you who always hated the black jelly beans (whatever, more for me”>, it’s not a very strong scent, and you’d have to be a bloodhound to detect it on your skin post-rinse, but since I love all things anise, licorice, and so forth, I was one hundred percent down.
How was it on your skin, though?
It foams decently, rinses cleanly with minimal effort, and didn’t leave my skin feeling puckered or dry. As for the results, I hate to say this, curlies, but…it wasn’t great. At the same time though, it did its job!
What do I mean by that? Well, this is an anti-aging soap. Urban Skin RX took care of me in that regard—my little ‘frowning in my sleep’ lines did absolutely look diminished after regular use. Unfortunately, it aged me down a bit TOO much because all my heavy teen breakouts came back with a vengeance.
As I’m writing, I’m pretty pimply, and it’s not subtle, and I’m not thrilled. I suppose you could say it’s what I deserve for being paranoid enough to use an anti-aging soap in my twenties—hubris always comes back to bite you in one end or the other, and this time it got me straight in the face. A lot. Mm.
Bottom line?
I’d recommend it!
Maybe it’s not the best soap for me — truth be told, my skin tends to like harsher, more acidic cleansers, but I can’t say it didn’t do exactly what it said on the tin!
I actually plan to see what happens if I just use it as a gentle morning soap, and use my normal sulfuric, coarse-grain stuff on my face at night—after all, life is all about balance! Sure, this won’t work as my exclusive face-wash, but I think as a morning refresher, it might have potential. Since my skin isn’t super delicate, I’d actually be willing to bet that I’m not so much having a reaction to the soap that’s getting me all bumpy; it might just be my natural oiliness flaring up in the absence of the acids and abrasives normally keeping my face in check.
They call themselves the Melanin Experts, curlies—are you willing to try these skin doctors’ offerings? Have you already?
Let us know in the comments! And check out these products and these tips for skincare!
