Founded by Britni Ricard, Cota Skin is an LA-based skincare brand that offers a collection of six skincare products for all skin types.
Britni has always been passionate about recreating the skincare routine shared with her by her late brother. To commemorate her late brother, she named her company using the abbreviations of his musician stage name Chev Off the Ave (COTA).
In this Cota Skin review, we’ll give you all the details on the Cota Skin products, including the key ingredients and the research that supports (or doesn’t support) their use in skincare.
We’ll also share some Cota Skin reviews so that you can get an idea of what customers really think of these products.
What Are The Top 6 Best Cota Skin Products?
At the time of writing this review, Cota Skin offers a collection of six products that you can purchase individually or in kits. Here’s a breakdown of each one:
Cota Skin Hyaluronic Rose Mask
Cota Skin Hyaluronic Rose Mask is a soothing hydration mask with real rose petals suspended in a silky gel that’s formulated to calm skin.
While this mask certainly sounds dreamy, there’s one problem: we cannot determine whether or not these claims are true because the brand does not provide the full ingredient list for this product.
The brand only provides the “highlighted ingredients” in this product, which include hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, glycerin, and ascorbyl glucoside (a vitamin C derivative).
These are all beneficial ingredients, however, without the full ingredient list we cannot determine whether the brand uses appropriate concentrations of these ingredients.
Furthermore, we don’t know if the formula contains harmful ingredients like fragrance, denatured alcohol, parabens, etc.
Bottom Line: While the highlighted key ingredients in Cota Skin Hyaluronic Rose Mask sound promising, we don’t have enough information to fully review this product at this time.
Cota Skin Cream
The Cota Skin Cream is a facial moisturizer that’s said to help heal damaged skin, reduce the appearance of wrinkles, and prevent dry skin. This is one of the few products by this brand that actually lists the ingredients.
We noticed the formula contains a decent amount of retinol, the gold standard ingredient for reducing signs of aging like fine lines, wrinkles, uneven texture, and enlarged pores.
There’s also a pretty high concentration of tea tree oil in this cream, which is good news for those with acne-prone skin. That’s because tea tree oil has antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Due to these properties, tea tree oil has the ability to kill the bacteria that are responsible for causing blemishes. Tea tree oil also soothes any redness and inflammation associated with existing blemishes.
Lastly, there’s quite a few skin-softening emollients in the Cota Skin Cream, such as shea butter, rosehip seed oil, olive oil, and hemp seed oil.
Bottom Line: The Cota Skin Cream is ideal for those with signs of aging, as well as those with acne-prone skin, thanks to the combination of retinol, tea tree oil, and non-comedogenic emollients.
Cota Skin Cleanser
Cota Skin Cleanser is a facial cleanser that can be used to remove dead skin cells, as well as dissolve oil-soluble impurities like excess oil, makeup, and grime from your face. This helps to unclog pores which can be associated with certain skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and large pores.
The base of the Cota Skin Cleanser consists of skin-soothing green tea leaf water. Additional soothing ingredients in this formula include oat kernel extract and panthenol (pro-vitamin B5).
Like most cleansers, the key ingredients are surfactants, such as coco-betaine and coco-glucoside. A surfactant molecule contains one end that is hydrophilic (attracted to water) and one end that is lipophilic (attracted to oil). This allows surfactants to attract and suspend oils, dirt, and other impurities that have accumulated on the skin and wash them away, leaving the skin clean.
Bottom Line: The Cota Skin Cleanser combines surfactants with soothing ingredients like green tea and oat extract, giving you a cleanser that cleans and soothes the skin.
Cota Skin Rose Toner
The Cota Skin Rose Toner is said to help remove excess dirt and traces of oil and makeup, while also correcting the skin’s pH balance and controlling acne by helping to clean and close pores.
Unfortunately, this is all the information we have on this product. The brand does not provide an ingredient list or any “highlighted ingredients” for this product.
Bottom Line: We don’t have enough information to review Cota Skin Rose Toner at this time.
Cota Skin Collagen Mask
The Cota Skin Collagen Masks are under eye masks that are claimed to give your skin a “boost of vitamins” in order to “replenish skin’s nutrients and achieve a brighter, more revitalized eye look.”
Once again, this is all the information we have on this product. The brand does not provide an ingredient list or any “highlighted ingredients” for this product.
But here’s one thing you should know about collagen skin care products: collagen is a very large, complex molecule with long chains of amino acids that form a triple helix structure. This inhibits the protein from being absorbed deeper than the epidermis (the uppermost layer of skin).
So if collagen can’t penetrate deep into the skin, should you just forget about using collagen skin care products? Not necessarily. It’s best to look for products with ingredients that can be absorbed into the deeper layers of skin in order to stimulate collagen synthesis, such as vitamin C and peptides.
The Cota Skin Collagen Masks may contain these ingredients, but we can’t say for sure since the brand does not provide the full ingredient list.
Bottom Line: We don’t have enough information to review Cota Skin Collagen Mask at this time.
Cota Skin 24K Gold Serum
This serum is one of the few products that the brand provides the full ingredient list, so let’s evaluate the Cota Skin 24K Gold Serum formula.
In the description for the Cota Skin 24K Gold Serum, it’s said to be “a waterless facial serum”, however, water is the very first ingredient in the list of ingredients for this serum. Pretty strange, right?
Moving on, you can probably guess that gold is one of the key ingredients in this product based on its name. While gold adds a sense of luxury to this serum, there’s no published research showing that gold offers anti-aging benefits.
Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Tsippora Shainhouse tells Healthline, “Gold may have some antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, but there is no evidence that it’s better than any other more commonly used ingredients that have more scientific data.”
One interesting ingredient in this serum is “Dendrobium nobile stem extract”, an extract from a species of orchid.
According to a study published in 2018, the Dendrobium nobile orchid species contains natural compounds that offer promising anti-melanogenic and anti-oxidative effects. In simpler terms, this means that the extract may help to reduce the appearance of dark spots while also preventing signs of aging.
Bottom Line: While the gold in Cota Skin 24K Gold Serum likely isn’t doing much for your skin, the formula includes an orchid extract that may help to reduce the appearance of dark spots while also preventing signs of aging.
What Are The Key Ingredients in Cota Skin Products?
After reading our descriptions of the Cota Skin products above, you may have noticed that this brand does not provide full ingredient lists for all of their products on their website. Due to this lack of transparency, we are unable to determine the concentrations of these key ingredients.
As for the few products that have full ingredient lists, we noticed that the formulations contain beneficial — yet pretty common — ingredients, such as:
- Glycerin
- Hyaluronic Acid
- Niacinamide
- Retinol
- Vitamin C
All of these ingredients have research to support their benefits when applied to the skin.
The brand combines these ingredients with plenty of soothing botanicals, such as green tea, squalane, rosehip oil, and more.
How Much Do Cota Skin Products Cost?
Cota Skin products are mid-range in terms of cost; they aren’t cheap but they are ridiculously expensive. For example, the Cota Hyaluronic Rose Mask costs $50 USD.
Where to Buy Cota Skin Products?
Currently, Cota Skin products are sold exclusively on the brand’s website.
What is The Cota Skin Return Policy?
The Cota Skin return policy states, “No returns or refunds are permitted for online orders.”
Is Cota Skin Cruelty Free?
Cota Skin does not have any information on their website regarding animal testing.
Our Verdict
Overall, we cannot recommend Cota Skin products because the brand does not provide enough information for us to fully evaluate the products.
Pros
- The highlighted key ingredients are beneficial (however, we don’t know what concentrations the brand uses)
Cons
- Brand does not provide full ingredient lists for all of their products
- No Cota Skin reviews on the brand’s website
- Unknown if Cota Skin is cruelty free
References:
Healthline “Do Gold Facials Really Work?”
Eur J Med Chem 2018 Jan: 143; 1254-1260
