bareMinerals is well known for their natural, mineral-based makeup (who hasn’t seen the infomercial with ‘swirl, tap, and buff’?) But did you know that bareMinerals also produces several collections of clean skin care products? One collection is called Skinlongevity, which is designed to boost your skin and “jumpstart” its innate behavior in order to behave in a younger, healthier way. So can this line of bareMinerals products really add longevity to your youthful complexion? Keep reading below to find out!
Brand background
Launched in 1995, the bareMinerals cosmetics line began as an effort to create a natural makeup that was less likely to irritate the skin and cause breakouts. The brand’s original products were formulated as loose mineral-powders in order to avoid the inclusion of chemical fillers and binders. Today, the range includes much more than just powder and foundation, with a variety of eye, cheek and lip products as well as several different skin care collections. bareMinerals is on mission to create beauty products that are full of skin-loving minerals and free of harmful ingredients.
Key products
The bareMinerals Skinlongevity line consists of three key products, which we will give a brief description of below.
The most popular product from the bareMinerals Skinlongevity line is the Vital Power Eye Gel Cream. This lightweight gel cream with botanical extracts is said to brighten and revive the delicate skin around the eye area and helps to protect against visible signs of aging. In fact, the brand conducted a 4-week independent US consumer study of 107 women that demonstrated this eye cream could produce smoother, stronger, more radiant looking skin in just 14 days. While these results sound promising, it should be noted that 107 women is a small sample size and measures like “radiance” are very subjective. Regardless, the Vital Power Eye Gel Cream does contain several beneficial ingredients, like peptides, hyaluronic acid, and niacinamide, and has received positive reviews from its users.
Another product from the Skinlongevity line is the Vital Power Infusion Serum, which is designed to revive your skin’s vitality and natural glow with essential minerals and hydrating ingredients. A key ingredient found in this serum is ascorbyl glucoside, a stable form of vitamin C combined with glucose. After being absorbed into the skin, ascorbyl glucoside is broken down into L-ascorbic acid, the most biologically active form of vitamin C. Thus, ascorbyl glucoside has many of the same benefits as L-ascorbic acid, including exerting high antioxidant activity, acting as a coenzyme for enzymes involved in collagen synthesis, and inhibiting the synthesis of melanin. Another all-star ingredient found in the Vital Power Infusion Serum is niacinamide. According to Bissett et. al., niacinamide functions to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, minimize dark spots, decrease redness and skin sallowness (yellowing), and increase skin elasticity.
The final product in the bareMinerals Skinlongevity collection is the Vital Power Sleeping Gel Cream. As the name implies, this cream is applied overnight in order to give you bright, glowing skin by morning. Humectant moisturizers glycerin and sodium hyaluronate help to draw moisture into the skin and shea butter, an occlusive moisturizer, works to lock in this moisture. There are also several silicones in this product (dimethicone, methyl trimethicone, caprylyl methicone, etc.), which make your skin feel smooth and silky, and also temporarily fill in fine lines and wrinkles.
Key formulation
According to bareMinerals, the key formulation behind the Skinlongevity line is comprised of California poppy seed extract, Lempuyang ginger extract, and the patented Long Life Herb Extract.
California poppy is a medicinal herb and flower that is rich in vitamins A, C, and E as well as minerals such as calcium and magnesium. This herb is typically taken orally due to its sedative properties to relieve anxiety, insomnia, and several other conditions. There is limited information on the use of this herb topically, but its benefits are most likely due to its rich composition of antioxidants. Lempuyang ginger extract is a root used in Ayurvedic medicines and Indonesian Jamu herbal medicine. The bareMinerals Long Life Herb Extract is a mineral-rich superfood from Okinawa, Japan, one of the world’s Blue Zones, which is said to improve skin’s resiliency and suppleness.
Unfortunately, all three of these herbs have little to no data proving they are effective anti-aging ingredients. It seems as though bareMinerals is using these ingredients as more of a marketing ploy to draw in customer searching for “natural” and “organic” ingredients. Despite this, the Skinlongevity products do contain some very effective, well-studied skin care ingredients, like niacinamide (vitamin B3), ascorbyl glucoside (vitamin C), and hyaluronic acid.
Reviews
The Skinlongevity Vital Power Eye Gel Cream has received an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on the bareMinerals website. What reviewers love about this eye cream is that it decreases dark circles under eyes and helps to minimize crow’s feet.
The Skinlongevity Vital Power Infusion Serum comes in with an average of 4 out of 5 stars, with reviewers loving that this serum helps to tighten pores and promote softer, more youthful skin. Of note, some reviews for this serum state that it caused them to breakout. This could be an allergic reaction to the many herbs and botanicals used in the Skinlongevity line.
There are no reviews at this time for the Vital Power Sleeping Gel Cream on the bareMinerals website.
In sum, the bareMinerals Skinlongevity are marketed to have “breakthrough” ingredients, such as the California poppy and Long Life Herb extract, but the power of these anti-aging products lies in clinically proven ingredients like niacinamide, vitamin C, and hyaluronic acid.
What Are Alternatives to bareMinerals Skinlongevity?
There’s no need to compromise when it comes to finding skincare that is effective and safe. Carrot & Stick takes a tough love approach to skincare, perfectly balancing the power of plants with cutting edge science. Not only is Carrot & Stick good for your skin, it is also good for the environment as the formulas skip harmful chemicals commonly found in skin care products.
