One of the questions I now get asked the most from my nearest and dearest when looking for beauty opinions are “what are your must haves from Augustinus Bader?” – The thought hadn’t really crossed my mind to turn this into a helpful blog post for all until this week and narrowing down what I thought were my top five was a harder task than what I first anticipated. For those who aren’t aware for very unclear rules on disclosure – I do work for the brand, but all products have been purchased, and in many cases repeat purchased with my own money, I do like most things from the brand but there are a handful of things I’ve tried which just don’t work well for me either, so as always my opinions are completely honest.
My skin-type is combination, oily – a few years ago I would have fell into the very oily category but there’s been a few positive changes in my skin since my routine has become largely Augustinus Bader, one of which being my skin is far more balanced and excessive oil is far less of a past. One thing that does intrigue me is whether this is just an age thing now and my skin is simply adjusting – but I’m not going cold turkey on AB to see as the results I’ve seen have only been incredibly positive. I also now barely break out, I think I could count the number of blemishes that I had in total in 2021 on one hand.
Whilst I know everyone ages differently and skin types can play a massive part in this, but when I compare my skin to my friends, I feel like my skin is more youthful in appearance than a lot of people a similar age to me. I may be a little deluded, but, I feel like looking at my skin at the grand age of 32, I have very little in terms of the first signs of aging and largely credit my AB routine for helping me “stop the clock” in my late twenties.
1. The Cleansing Balm
This is the only product I’ve ever got around to doing a full and dedicated post about on my blog (you can read that here if you’re interested), and if I’m being honest – I think we should shout about this product more as it’s easily the best cleansing balm I’ve ever tried and has easily become both the product I’ve repurchased most from the brand and the cleanser from any brand I’ve repurchased the most.
This just melts away makeup with such effortless ease, it’s fragrance-free and not packed with heavy essential oils like other ones at similar price points (Elemis, Emma Hardie et al, I’m looking at you) – and it makes it a far more pleasurable experience to use around the eye area. I’m not a first and second cleanse type person, I want one product that does it all at once and as well as doing an excellent job of removing makeup whilst also nourishing the skin and leaving it feeling soft, smooth, and completely clean with just a fingertip worth of product.
I try and only have one cleanser on the go at once and try to use this one time and switch to use another cleanser in my cupboard another time so I’m using up my stash, but when this one isn’t my one in rotation, I’m always very disappointed and my cleansing experience just isn’t as good!
2. The Rich Cream
The bestselling and 100% the moisturiser that I’ve used the most in my life. In the past, I was always onto trying the next thing but the results of this are truly transformative and my skin just loves it. The formula of this is rich but not thick-feeling on the skin in a way that ends up making me feel overloaded or congested. This was the first product from AB that I started using and was honestly the product that transformed my skin in a matter of weeks. I waved goodbye to areas of dehydration that I saw against my oily skin, I witnessed slight under the surface spots that never emerged into a full spot disappear, and overall my skin tone looked more balanced.
This is a product that I have given to the most friends and family out of everything and as soon as the last drop runs out, I can guarantee a WhatsApp message will appear to query… “can I get some more?”, I’ve had friend’s husbands tell me off for getting their wives hooked on The Rich Cream and been told “you’re not allowed to leave” all thanks to this product.
3. The Face Oil
I am an oily skinned girl, and I’ve never found a face oil that I’ve genuinely loved the texture of on my skin. I have a cupboard shelf full of trialled and failed formulas, but the one which has finally captured my heart, has been Augustinus Bader’s The Face Oil. This comes in two sizes, and I really like just having the small 10ml bottles as that lasts me forever, most nights, I add in a couple of drops to my Rich Cream and mix together before applying to my face. Occasionally, I’ll choose to apply this first if I want to experience the texture, and layer my moisturiser on top – however I only tend to do this if I’m using something other than The Rich Cream, as I want the skin benefits of TFC8 directly on my face.
Adding a few drops of The Face Oil in has made an incredible difference to my skin and has been the product that has improved the texture of my skin, and adds a touch more nourishment to the already Rich Cream. It smells – frankly awful, and that’s a comment I get back from every friend and family member – but the results on this product have been unanimous and people have seen just how much it makes a difference.
4. The Serum
When we launched this late last year it sat on my bedside table for a few days before I finally whipped it out and I was kicking myself that I’d made my skin wait a few days to try this. It’s a stunning light gel-cream texture that my skin just lapped up and delivered instant results overnight. The first time I used this I woke up the next morning, and touched my skin, and said “wow” – this is like an overnight mask for me and delivers an extra boost of moisture, softening, and radiance. I’ve given this to a few friends as a treat and the feedback I get from this product is amongst the most praised.
I find it’s not often that products with a lighter formula manage to feel luxurious on the skin, but this one delivers just that. The design of this is a refillable design that the tube lifts out of and also makes it nice and practical for travel whilst remaining to look extra luxe on my bedside table.
5. The Hair Oil
Haircare has been a newer vertical for the brand and the stand out from it so far for me is the Hair Oil. I’ve been using hair oils for over 10 years since the boom of Moroccan Oil and have found lots of good oils over the years and lots of bad ones. This one is so, so light feeling – by far the lightest I have found – and doesn’t overload the hair whilst still feeling nourishment. I use this on wet hair, but really where it comes into its own is in styling, ran through curls this adds a lovely shine and breaks up curls beautifully because it’s so light – I’ve found it keeps in my curls lasting longer as they’re not being weighed down at all.
Honourable mention in the haircare category also goes to the Scalp Treatment which since using, has massively increased my hair growth, but I don’t feel like I’ve been using it long enough to make full comments on performance.
And there we have it -My Top Five Augustinus Bader Products – as I write this up I find it really hard to leave a few products out of the top five, but a top eight just doesn’t have the same ring to it! Purchase direct from AugustinusBader.com
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