Category: Skincare

‘BHA : Betaine Salicylate ‘ The Reason Why COSRX BHA liquid works like magic

Hey You! This a really short post on Betaine Salicylate, an ingredient that I recently discovered from a product I am so found of. Having oily acne prone skin its so difficult to maintain healthy skin without using chemicals. If you are a person like me dealing with acne you probably be familiar with BHA. If you don’t know what that is don’t worry I have attached a link, just click BHA written in blue in the next para. I didn’t want to write my own definition of it as I suck at explaining(lol). But here’s a little bit of what I can explain and have experienced.

BHA is found in a lot of skincare ingredient because of its ability to go deep into to our skin and get rid of all dead skin as well as acne forming bacteria as its oil soluble. It gets it superpowers from Salicylic Acid which is more often used in curing acne but it dries out skin and could irritate the skin if used alone. While I was healing my acne prone skin I didn’t realize that while I was using tropical medication I wasn’t using sunscreen (your skin can be irritated by chemicals and sunburn is the last thing you want with irritated acne, trust me) and neither a moisturizer. It took me a while to realize I was doing worse to my skin. That was until I found about COSRX BHA liquid. I read great reviews about this product and how it is for acne prone skin. So I bought it and have used it now for quite a time. When I was impressed with its result I thought of reviewing the ingredient behind this product.

Betaine Saliva late

Though it has lots of ingredients in it Salix Alba bark water and Betaine Salicylate are the one doing the original work here. While Salix Alba contains salicin which can be converted into salicylic acid Betaine Salicylate does the job double times.

Betaine salicylate has betaine which retains moisture in your skin resulting in hydrating and preventing from irritation or dryness as well as giving the benefits of Salicylic Acid. For me this ingredient is an X-Factor.

Not only is this ingredient safe having no hazardous effect more over it has improved my skin texture and provides smooth skin and provided with a radiant brighter skin.

So this my short ingredient based review hope you find it informative.

Skin Care: Ditching The Basics

When I first had acne I was determined it was due to my lack of having a proper skin care, and I was right but it never occurred to me that even years later while I had a proper skin care routine I wasn’t paying attention on the ingredients and the products I was using on my skin. Though I was following a skin routine religiously I wasn’t an effective one at all. I did a detailed research going through various ingredients, blogs and even product review. This is a short summary of what steps a skincare routine should consist of

  1. Cleanser
  2. Toners
  3. Exfoliators
  4. Serum
  5. Sunblock

Cleansers

The most important thing to consider when buying a cleanser is to note its ability to balance pH of our skin. Though looking for a cleaner based on your skin type is an absolutely good idea but most often those Cleansers make our skin alkaline . While the pH of skin should be around 5 so as to retain moisture and prevent bacterial acne, most cleansers in efficiently clean do tend to strip away the moisture, which is a big no-no for cleansers. I would definitely suggest to look for cleansers that specifically clam to balance pH of our skin no matter what skin type you have.

The second thing is the trend of double cleansing. Though I’m super lazy person my self but double cleansing is necessary regardless if you use make up or not, especially if you have an oily skin. At the end of day or when you return back home clean your face with an oil based cleanser to get rid of all the junk, sebum on your face and of course makeup if have that applied. The thing about oil cleansers is that since its oil it easily removes oil based dirt from your face which water based cleansers can’t. And the good thing is that you can even use oil for this purpose if it suits you.

Toners

As the name suggests its function is to tone skin reducing pore size as well as hydration skin. As much as this step is over looked adding a good toner to your skincare can give you an additional hydration. If you are a newbie you can do without this step too.

Exfoliators

Exfoliation is my favorite step who doesn’t love scrubbing away the dead skin but do you know when you are using physical exfoliators you are in fact doing more harm than good. While on the other hand chemical exfoliators provide the benefit of exfoliation without irritating the skin. A chemical exfoliator with BHA or AHA would be a best pick, more over there are various chemical pads available easily around the market.

Serum

Serums…..Are they really important? I’ve always asked myself. Serums being very expensive were something off my radar since a very long time. And the fact that there are so many characterized as essence and ampoule confused me even more. Serums are definitely more effective than masks( Even though both have their importance) as these are light weight liquid that penetrate the skin. There are so many serums available from vitamin C brightening the skin to pore reducing Hyaluronic Acid, depending on what you want to achieve from your skincare

Sunblock

Half of my teen years I’ve spent getting tan by not wearing any sunblock but apart from tan sunblock is a crucial part of skincare. There are foundations and BB creams that do the work of sunblock, using a BB cream with good spf is definitely time-saving but it’s always advised to use sunblock on it’s on especially if you are outdoor between 1-4pm. A good sunblock should have higher than 30 spf and should be oil free. Look for sunscreen with Titanium dioxide or zinc oxide in them and avobenzone.