City Beauty Review

SKIN CARE REVIEWS

06.11.21DISCLAIMER
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City Beauty was launched in 2002 by Victoria Renee after years of searching for a product to improve her thin lips. She wasn’t able to find a product that worked for her, so she set out to make her own. The result was City Lips, a lip gloss that instantly plumps the lips while also providing long term benefits.

One product turned into an entire range of beauty products, from mascara to serums to eye creams and more. City Beauty products primarily target skin aging concerns — such as fine lines, wrinkles, and discoloration — but the collection includes products for all skin types and ages. City Lips remains one of the brand’s most popular products.

Our City Beauty review will give you all the details on the brand’s best selling products. We’ll discuss the key ingredients in City Beauty products, including how they work and whether or not there’s any research to back up these ingredients. We’ll also share some City Beauty reviews so that you can get a better idea of what customers really think of these products.

What are the Best Skin Care Products of 2022?

What Are The Top 10 Best City Beauty Products?

City Beauty offers a range of products that include lip care, eye care, body care, and facial products. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 best selling City Beauty products.

City Lips

City Lips is not your average lip gloss. Upon application, you’ll notice a slight tingling followed by a subtle plumping effect after a few minutes. Notice that we used the word ‘subtle’. Sure, this is a plumping lip gloss, but don’t expect to have lips like Kylie Jenner after using it.

What’s great about City Lips is that it not only improves the look of your lips while you’re wearing it, but the formula also contains ingredients that provide long term benefits, such as hyaluronic acid and oligopeptides. City Lips is available in high-shine clear and 13 different shades — ranging from a sheer pink to a deep red — so there’s no doubt you’ll be able to find a color that’s perfect for you.

City Lips Matte

If you aren’t into high-shine lip gloss, then City Lips Matte is for you. This innovative matte formula offers the same lip-rejuvenating benefits of classic City Lips, in a velvet-smooth matte finish. You’ll find the same key ingredients in this formula — hyaluronic acid, oligopeptides, and jojoba oil — that help to improve the hydration of your lips while smoothing out lines and wrinkles. However, City Lips Matte is only available in 3 colors: blush rose, pink taupe, and rosy mauve.

City Beauty Sculpting Cream

After City Lips, this brand’s next best selling product is the City Beauty Sculpting Cream. This lightweight, silky cream is said to help skin look firmer, tighter, and more lifted by nourishing it with essential building blocks that give skin a taut, springy feel. So what exactly are those “essential building blocks”? In this case, the brand is referring to the peptides in this formula. Peptides are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins — like collagen and elastin — are important components of your skin that keep it firm and youthful.

City Beauty Illuminating Dark Spot Corrector

If you’re struggling with hyperpigmentation, you’ve probably tried your fair share of dark spot correctors. So is the City Beauty Illuminating Dark Spot Corrector really any different than the others on the market? Yes and no. After evaluating the formula, we noticed that this serum contains some pretty standard ingredients that you’ll find in many dark spot correctors, such as alpha arbutin and resveratrol.

The major problem with the City Beauty Illuminating Dark Spot Corrector is that it contains a high concentration of denatured alcohol — it’s the fourth highest concentration ingredient! While denatured alcohol gives products a weightless feel and provides a temporary tightening effect, this ingredient is not doing your skin any good. Research shows that topical application of alcohol-based products can lead to skin dryness, irritation, and even disruption of the skin barrier. For this reason, we can’t recommend the City Beauty Dark Spot Corrector. But don’t worry, we’ve rounded up a list of the best dark spot correctors that we do recommend.

City Beauty Intensive Night Serum

A night serum is a crucial step in any anti-aging skincare routine, and this City Beauty night serum could be a good addition to your routine if you have dry, thinning skin and you want to improve the look of lines and wrinkles. The formula contains a high concentration of goji berry extract and peptides that help skin look firmer and more elastic. You’ll also find epidermal growth factor in this night serum, which has been shown to support the renewal of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. The result? Smoother, younger-looking skin.

City Beauty Line Smoothing HydroMask

This bio-cellulose sheet mask is primarily composed of humectants (butylene glycol, glycerin, trehalose, betaine, etc). The humectants in this mask act like a moisture magnet, drawing moisture into your skin to improve hydration. Humectants also provide temporary anti-aging effects because the extra hydration is extra volume, which effectively plumps out the skin and makes lines and wrinkles less noticeable. However, this effect is transient — as soon as the moisture content in skin decreases, lines and wrinkles will return to normal size.

But one ingredient in this mask that does provide long term benefits is niacinamide. According to the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, niacinamide can repair the skin barrier and improve skin moisture, as well as reduce inflammation, blotchiness, hyperpigmentation, acne, and wrinkling. Niacinamide is truly a multi-tasking ingredient!

City Beauty InvisiCrepe Body Balm

With a thick (yet non-greasy) texture, this body balm could be a good option if you’re struggling with dry, crepey skin. The formula not only offers full hydration and support for your skin barrier, it also benefits your skin’s production of collagen and elastin to help smooth and plump the look of saggy, wrinkled skin. One of the key ingredients in this formula that supports the natural production of collagen is ribose. You’ll also find supporting key ingredients like niacinamide, barley extract, and probiotics in this formula.

City Beauty Youth Rejuvenating Cleanser

When choosing a daily facial cleanser, it’s important to look for one that is pH-balanced and gentle enough to cleanse without over stripping and over drying the skin. And this City Beauty cleanser is formulated to do exactly that. The surfactants in this formula help to clear away excess oil, makeup, and other impurities on the skin, while aloe vera leaf juice and sodium hyaluronate help to draw moisture back into your skin.

City Beauty Line Blurring Wrinkle Filler

If you’re going out for date night or have a big event to attend, you may be on the hunt for a product that can instantly smooth away lines and wrinkles so that your skin looks flawless for the night. The City Beauty Line Blurring Wrinkle Filler should be able to help thanks to the high concentrations of humectants and silicones. Like we mentioned above, humectants attract moisture, which subsequently “plumps” the skin. Silicones form a film on the surface of your skin, and this film helps to hide wrinkles. But keep in mind that these effects are temporary and will disappear once you wash the product off.

City Beauty UpLift Firming Serum

Another City Beauty product that is claimed to provide an almost instant effect is the UpLift Firming Serum. After applying this water-based facial serum, the brand states that you should notice fimer, smoother, and more lifted skin within 30 minutes. Like many of the City Beauty products, this serum contains plenty of ingredients that draw moisture into the skin to give it that plump look, such as glycerin, sodium hyaluronate, algae extract, and aloe vera. Plus, the inclusion of goji fruit extract helps to promote a tighter, more lifted appearance.

What Are The Key Ingredients in City Beauty Products?

The City Beauty line is designed with skin-rejuvenating and collagen-supporting ingredients, such as:

  • Sodium hyaluronate
  • Oligopeptides
  • Resveratrol
  • Vitamin C

Let’s take a closer look at these key ingredients and how they may benefit your skin.

Sodium Hyaluronate
You’ll find sodium hyaluronate in many of the City Beauty products — including the popular City Lips and City Beauty Sculpting Cream. Sodium hyaluronate is the sodium salt form of hyaluronic acid, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) that is able to hold more water than any other natural substance—up to 1,000 times its weight in water! This is why using products with either hyaluronic acid or sodium hyaluronate can help to improve skin hydration.

In addition to improving skin hydration, sodium hyaluronate can help to reduce signs of aging. According to the scholarly journal DermatoEndocrinology, the most dramatic histochemical change observed in aging skin is the marked disappearance of hyaluronic acid in the epidermis (the top layer of skin).

Therefore, the City Beauty products that contain sodium hyaluronate may help naturally reduce signs of aging by decreasing epidermal water loss associated with sun exposure, low humidity, and other external factors associated with skin dryness. The result is smoother, softer skin with decreased wrinkles and a more plump appearance.

Oligopeptides
Many City Beauty products contain oligopeptides as key ingredients. For example, City Lips contains palmitoyl oligopeptide, which works by stimulating collagen production in fibroblasts. More collagen equals plumper, more youthful looking lips.

On the City Lips sales page, the brand cites that one study performed specifically on women with thin, dry lips showed that oligopeptides decreased lip wrinkles by 29% and increased lip volume by up to 40% in just 28 days!

Resveratrol
Resveratrol is one of the key antioxidants used in City Beauty products, such as the City Beauty Dark Spot Corrector. As an antioxidant, resveratrol helps to protect the skin against free radical damage. This is important because the harmful effects of free radicals occur as direct chemical alterations of the cellular DNA, the cell membrane, and cellular proteins, including collagen. Damaged collagen manifests as signs of premature skin aging, including wrinkles, lines, and sagging skin.

Vitamin C
Another antioxidant used in City Beauty products is vitamin C. Vitamin C not only helps to protect the skin from free radical damage, but also provides several additional benefits to the skin. For example, vitamin C stimulates the synthesis of new collagen in the skin. By increasing the amount of collagen in the skin, signs of aging will be diminished and the skin will appear more firm. Lastly, vitamin C is known to reduce the appearance of dark spots and improve uneven skin tone.

How Much Do City Beauty Products Cost?

City Beauty is a luxury line and the products are priced accordingly, which is in line with department store brands. City Lips is $35, City Beauty Sculpting Cream is $67 for 1.69 fl oz, the Line Smoothing HydroMask is $60, and City Lash is $90 a tube. Under Eye Recovery Cream retails for $50 and the Line Blurring Wrinkle Filler is $79. Products are available for one time purchase or if customers sign up for auto shipments, they can receive discounts.

Where to Buy City Beauty Products?

City Beauty products are sold directly to consumers from the brand’s website (citybeauty.com).

What is The City Beauty Return Policy?

City Beauty has a 60-Day Money Back Guarantee that states, “We want you to love your purchase. That’s why every product is covered by our 60 Day Money Back Guarantee. Try it for 60 days and if you’re not completely satisfied, for any reason, send it back and we’ll refund the full amount of your purchase, minus shipping.”

Is City Beauty Cruelty Free?

Yes, City Beauty is cruelty free.

City Beauty Reviews

City Beauty reviews on the brand’s website are overall very positive. The product with the most reviews is City Lips, which has received over 700 5-star customer reviews. Many of the City Lips reviews mention that the customer was surprised at how well the product worked.

For example, one City Lips review says, “This works! I have never written a review before but I am so impressed by this product that I felt compelled to write. It does exactly what it says it will do and you end up with fuller plumper lips. I love it!”

Another City Lips review says, “I am tossing out all my other lip balm products. This is best. It keeps my lips hydrated for a long time. I can see a difference in my lip lines; no other product has helped.”

City Lips has also received plenty of press coverage. For example, Refinery29 said this about the City Lips, “First of all, it works. Secondly, it has the pretty shine of a gloss, but boasts the longevity of a liquid lipstick, too.”

Another product that has earned many 5-star reviews is the City Beauty Sculpting Cream. There are some City Beauty reviews for the Sculpting Cream from customers who noticed some impressive skin-tightening after using this product.

For example, one City Beauty review says, “I was skeptical when I first bought the sculpting cream, but I thought I’d try, since they had a money back guarantee. I couldn’t be more pleased! This stuff really works!! My sagging jawline was tightening up in a couple of weeks of use. I apply twice a day and the results are astonishing. I highly recommend this product to everyone.”

The website Your Tango included the City Beauty Sculpting Cream in a 2019 round up looking at 30 Best Night Creams To Reduce Aging, and the Line-Smoothing HydroMask was also included in a 2018 story in FabFitFun looking at “All the Best Beauty Products You May Have Missed in September.”

The vlogger Anne P Makeup and More reviewed the City Beauty Sculpting Cream in early 2019. She used the cream for a month, concentrating on her jowl area and under the neck. She said she didn’t feel that it had a tightening effect, but that people told her face “looked more toned.” When Anne compared before and after photos of herself after using the cream for a month, she said she didn’t see any difference. Her conclusion is that the cream did not help sculpt her neck and face, but she did say the cream worked well as a moisturizer.

Our Verdict

Overall, we think that the City Beauty products are formulated well with a combination of innovative ingredients and tried-and-true skin care ingredients.

Pros

  • Products contain evidence-based ingredients (sodium hyaluronate, vitamin C, humectants, etc)
  • Many positive City Beauty reviews

Cons

  • Some products contain synthetic fragrance ingredients
  • Mid-range price point (e.g. City Beauty Sculpting Cream is $67 for 1.69 fl oz)
  • Delicate ingredients will degrade over time in products that are packaged in jars

What Are Some Alternatives to City Beauty?

City Beauty may not be for everyone, because of the price point or perhaps the products don’t react well with your skin. That’s why we’d like to recommend a couple alternatives for you to consider.

One brand we recommend is Formulyst because they believe in long term skin care treatments rather than short term cover-ups. The comprehensive line of products addresses everything from wrinkles to dark spots to dry skin and more.

If you like the feel of a lightweight moisturizer, try Formulyst Super Hyaluronic Water Moisturizer. Hyaluronic acid helps keep skin plumped, hydrated and dewy looking. This oil free formula is packed with multiple types of hyaluronic acid and it works as a moisture magnet by drawing water to the skin.

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.

References
BBA Biomembranes, May 2012, pages 1410-1419.
Dermatoendocrinol. 2012 Jul 1; 4(3): 253–258.

OUR TOP SKINCARE PICKS

1

Carrot & Stick

Carrot & Stick takes a tough love approach to skincare. What does this mean? It perfectly balances the power of plants with innovative science, offering the best of both worlds. Read More
2

Formulyst

The philosophy of Formulyst is long-term and effective skincare, rather than covering up any imperfections. The comprehensive line of products tackles everything from wrinkles to dark spots and dry skin. While some brands rely on unnecessary fillers and scents, Formulyst focuses on ingredients that help create results, such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Read More

City Beauty Sculpting Cream Review
City Beauty Sculpting Cream is an anti-aging moisturizer designed to visibly restore skin’s elasticity by lifting, tightening, and firming the look of sagging skin. Its formula is said to nourish your skin with the vital building blocks that give young skin its taut, springy feel. While this sounds promising, we...
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Restoring Hand Treatment Review

City Beauty Restoring Hand Treatment is said to target the obvious signs of aging hands, such as dark spots and crepey skin. This formula contains emollients that will help to lock in moisture, such as shea butter, sweet almond oil, and several synthetic emollients. One unique key ingredient is Opuntia Ficus-Indica (prickly pear) stem extract, which helps to soothe and hydrate the skin. The formula also contains green and brown microalgae. This microalgae helps restore a firmer, thicker look and feel to crepey skin. It supports the proteins collagen and elastin, while also helping to lock in moisture. The final key ingredient we’d like to highlight is licorice root extract. Licorice root extract is well known for its anti-inflammatory and skin-soothing properties. But licorice can also provide a considerable skin brightening effect thanks to a component called glabridin, which means that City Beauty Restoring Hand Treatment may be able to help get rid of age spots on your hands
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Advanced Eye Cream Review

City Beauty Advanced Eye Cream is a rich cream that is said to deliver deep, soothing hydration while helping to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and dark under-eye bags, resulting in a brighter, smoother, more youthful look. One of the key ingredients in this City Beauty eye cream is Albizia Albizia Julibrissin (Persian silk tree) bark extract, which works by counteracting the harmful effects of glycation. Glycation occurs when sugars enter the circulation and attach themselves to the amino groups of tissue proteins, such as collagen, rearranging their structure into advanced glycation end products (AGEs). As a result, AGEs cause once healthy collagen and elastin fibers to lose their elasticity, thereby becoming rigid, more brittle, and prone to breakage. Albizia Julibrissin bark extract can also neutralize or detoxify the products as they are leading up to glycation, resulting in a reparative effect on tired skin, in particular a loss of radiance and suppleness. 

City Beauty Advanced Eye Cream also includes diamond powder as a key ingredient. Diamond powder contains light-reflecting particles that help to instantly reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles by giving the skin a diffused, “soft-focus” effect. However, the beauty benefits you get from diamond powder are temporary. This is because diamonds are inactive and do not penetrate the skin. When you wash your face, you’re washing off the diamonds, which prevents them from providing any sort of long-term benefit for your skin. Lastly, there are several hydrating ingredients in this City Beauty eye cream, such as red algae extract, knotted wrack extract, aloe vera, and more.

INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Under Eye Recovery Review

City Beauty Under Eye Recovery is said to brighten the look of dark circles while smoothing the appearance of fine lines and puffiness. One of the key ingredients in this City Beauty eye cream is nylon-12 fluorescent brightener 230 salt. Even though the name of this ingredient is pretty complex, complex, the way it works is simple: it absorbs UV light and re-emits that energy as diffuse visible light. The emitted light illuminates the shadowed areas of wrinkles, enlarged pores, and other skin imperfections, thus significantly reducing their appearance. In addition, the structure of the particle combined with its encapsulation coating diffuses the light reflected from the skin’s surface giving a soft-focus effect, thus further reducing the appearance of skin imperfections. But we’d like to point out that the effects of this ingredient are only temporary and will disappear once you wash off the product. 

Like many eye care products, the City Beauty Under Eye Recovery formula includes caffeine. As a natural stimulant, caffeine causes vasoconstriction (constriction of the blood vessels) and stimulates blood flow when applied to the skin. Vasoconstriction can tighten and firm the skin due to the removal of excess fluids and possible stimulation of the lymphatic drainage system. This function also aids in reducing the amount of blood that accumulates under the eyes (a major factor that contributes to dark circles).
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Line-Blurring Wrinkle Filler Review

You’ve probably heard of acne spot treatments, but what about aging spot treatments? That’s exactly what the City Beauty Line-Blurring Wrinkle Filler is: a spot treatment that fills in creases and instantly blurs the look of wrinkles. This formula contains high concentrations of several different types of silicones (dimethicone, cyclohexasiloxane, cyclohexasiloxane, cyclopentasiloxane, and more). Silicones improve the spreadability of a product and leave a silky smooth skin feel. Due to this easy-to-spread consistency, silicones can easily fill in fine lines, wrinkles, pores, and other texture. 

City Beauty Line-Blurring Wrinkle Filler also features diamond powder as a key ingredient. Diamond powder contains light-reflecting particles that help to instantly reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles by giving the skin a diffused, “soft-focus” effect. However, the beauty benefits you get from diamond powder are temporary. This is because diamonds are inactive and do not penetrate the skin. When you wash your face, you’re washing off the diamonds, which prevents them from providing any sort of long-term benefit for your skin. While the effects provided by the diamond dust are only temporary, there are several ingredients in this spot treatment that could provide long-term benefits, such as peptides and ceramides. But we’d like to point out that City Beauty uses low concentrations of these beneficial ingredients (less than 1%). We know this by looking at the ingredient list (which is in order of descending concentrations). All of these ingredients are listed after the preservative phenoxyethanol, which cannot be used in concentrations more than 1%
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Microbiome Night Mask Review

City Beauty Microbiome Night Mask is a sleeping mask that works with the body’s nighttime renewal process to help balance the skin’s microbiome, support the skin’s natural barrier, and reduce the appearance of wrinkles. It is said to promote visibly smoother, denser, and younger-looking skin in the morning. The mask mask contains probiotics aka the various strains of helpful bacteria that collaborate with your skin to restore the skin’s microbiome. The microbiome is a population of many types of bacteria (over 10,000 different species) that are both good and bad. When there’s more bad bacteria than good, skin conditions like acne, sensitive skin, and bumpy, uneven skin texture can develop. Thus, keeping the microbiome balanced is critical in maintaining healthy skin.

One unique ingredient in the City Beauty Microbiome Night Mask is Orobanche rapum extract. In studies, this botanical extract was shown to offer numerous benefits, including protection of skin stem cells, reactivation of cellular metabolism, stimulation of skin cell differentiation, reinforcement of the skin barrier, reactivation of natural exfoliation, and protection of the skin’s microbiome. Pretty impressive, right?
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Blue Defense Hydrogel Review

City Beauty Blue Defense Hydrogel is a hydrating facial moisturizer that gets its name from its ability to protect against damaging blue light, also known as HEV light, which is emitted from electronic devices, digital screens, (smartphone, laptop, TV, tablet, etc), fluorescent and LED light bulbs. Long-term exposure to concentrated concentrated sources of blue light energy can cause skin damage, including inflammation, uneven skin tone, and weakening of the skin’s surface. The ingredient in this formula that protects against blue light is called B-Circadin, which is an extract from the Lespedeza Capitata plant. B-Circadin helps to maintain the skin’s circadian cycle, thereby allowing the skin to better repair and regenerate. 

Another key ingredient in the City Beauty Blue Defense Hydrogel is hyaluronic acid, a hydrating ingredient that is well-known for its ability to hold 1,000 times its weight in water. In fact, this product is formulated with a hyaluronic acid matrix gel-base. It is said to instantly liquify upon skin contact and therefore absorb faster and attract water deeper. To help prevent moisture evaporation, it also forms a protective seal on top of the skin’s outer layer in order to keep your skin hydrated for up to 72 hours.
INGREDIENTS

City Beauty Uplift Firming Serum Review

City Beauty Uplift Firming Serum is a concentrated formula that is said to help skin look firmer, smoother, and more lifted within 30 minutes. This serum is said to promote more youthful skin by not only supporting collagen and elastin, but also giving your skin the fuel it needs to to make more collagen and elastin. This fuel is called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). It powers every cell in your body, including your skin. One of the key ingredients in this serum that supports collagen production is marine ferment. There’s also an algae extract called laminaria saccharina that helps support collagen and elastin levels, boost skin hydration, and reduces wrinkle appearance. 

Another key ingredient in this City Beauty serum is goji berry extract. Goji berry extract functions as a potent antioxidant, protecting the skin from free radical damage. Additionally, the red flesh and pulp contain carotenoids, such as zeaxanthin and beta-carotene (vitamin A). Beta carotene has the ability to increase cell turnover and regeneration in the outer layers of the skin, giving the complexion a healthy glow. The final key ingredient we’d like to point out is turmeric root extract. The main bioactive component of turmeric extract is called curcumin, a bright yellow polyphenol. Curcumin has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and also has the ability to fade dark spots by inhibiting melanogenesis.
INGREDIENTS
Related
  • Barbara Brease Original review: Jun 26, 2020. Reply

    I tried the The Multi-Action Sculpting Cream and my skin was irritated by it. I also could not handle the smell of the fragrance. I wondered if the ingredients of the fragrance were the irritant. Since they are not included in the labeling,, I contacted the co. via chat was told it is “synthetic rose powder.” Fragrance may include any number of the industry’s 3,100 stock chemicals (IFRA 2010), none of which is required to be listed on labels. Tests of fragrance ingredients have found an average of 14 hidden compounds per formulation, including ingredients linked to hormone disruption and sperm damage (EWG & CSC 2010)

  • Martha Robinson Original review: May 08, 2020. Reply

    I bought your wrinkle cream that advertises to reduce wrinkles. It is very cakey. I can not wear it. It is very obvious how flakey it is, It does lighten wrinkles, but it is too cakey to wear in public. Very disappointed in product.

  • Bob Smaracko Original review: Apr 27, 2020. Reply

    I placed an order on the City Beauty website. It was only partially filled. I submitted an email support case a week ago. It has not ever been answered though the auto reply that I received when I submitted my email indicated a 48 hour response time. A week later, nothing. Be cautious!

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