You may remember that back in November I did a review of Deciem after having visited their flagship stores and factory in Toronto. I had experienced the brand before but this was the first time I got to see products up close and in person and purchase a large sampling. Since then I've become rather obsessed and have purchased items repeatedly - in the name of blog research of course ;). I'm not affiliated with the brand in any way and haven't been able to even squeeze a few free samples from them so this post is purely written as an obsessed shopper. For those of you mindful of your skincare, Deciem is cruelty free and all the products are made in their factory in Toronto.
I love that the price point is so low you can sample many different types of products for the price of one conventional product, even cheaper than one drug store product actually. The shipping is great since it's free on orders of $25 or more, but I'm even more excited to see that Sephora.ca has started carrying a few Deciem products. I was going to re-order my Sanskrit Saponins Cleanser from Sephora to take advantage of the beauty rewards and samples but unfortunately they where out of stock on Friday, so I went ahead and ordered off the Deciem site.
Another item I've loved is the Lactic Acid 10% $6.70. I use this on my face as well as on my arms to deal with Keratosis Pilaris. It's made a huge impact on my KP and has really smoothed my skin. It's gentle enough to use on my face without irritating my very sensitive rosacea skin. I've purchased two more of these since I use it on my body as well as my face and run through it quicker. I've since switched to the PRO Retinol Body Oil $20 for my KP and alternate it and I also really recommend that because it's smoothed out my dry rough skin and makes my skin really soft. Both are great, the body oil is a bit better because it moisturizes at the same time that it exfoliates.
Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% $5.90 is another great one and if you have acne or sensitive reactive skin this is a great item to use along with your acne treatment. It's got really great skin healing properties, balances sebum production and reduces inflammation. If you want to matify your skin, zinc is great.
Other honourable mentions are the anti aging items like 'Buffet' $14.80 (chocked full of a variety of peptides, and Matryxl 10% $11.50 - both really plump up the skin and smooth out lines. I don't use these that often but I do like to use them if I'm going out somewhere fancy. I'm more into the age prevention products than the age correcting products.
I've also tried and so far love the High Spreadibility Fluid Primer $7.90 for wearing below my foundation. It's a high quality silicone primer that fills in lines and dryness and skin texture and allows you to spread your makeup quickly and evenly. I really like the way my makeup looks with this, especially my under eye area. The only negative I've seen is if you use slightly too much you do get a bit of makeup transfer (onto my phone to be specific) and it takes a bit longer to set. There is a second makeup primer meant for oily skin called High Adherence Silicone Primer - this one matifies and blurs pores.
Most of these products I've used are serum based and very easily layered together. The consistency is nice and light and feels slightly thicker than water and they absorb pretty quickly. They have information on their website on how to create a regime with these products and what order you should wear them. They pretty much all play nicely together except for Vitamin C and Niacinamide, in which case you either alternate days or do one at night and one in the morning. There are also oil products like Rose Hip Oil, Argan and Marula oil and those you would layer after your serums.
If you guys have any questions about any of the products here, or anything on their website you are curious about, let me know. I'm happy to discuss products in greater detail in the comments, but I wanted to share my skincare obsession with you in this post and give you a bit of a four month update since my November purchase.
This picture cracks me up. How's this for a beauty guru photo?
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Some of you may remember my mention last year about Deciem Hylamide Photography Foundation. I discovered this product so randomly and ever since it's been a holy grail product in my makeup bag. I don't even know how to really categorize it other than it is a primer like product that corrects skin tone, blurs imperfections and optimizes light reflection. You can mix it with foundation, wear it on top, or wear it as a primer as I do.
The company and especially the founder behind that product is very interesting and I've been following them for a long time now. The company is called Deciem which has several sub brands of product lines called 'niod', 'hylamide', 'the ordinary', 'the chemistry brand', and many more. You may have seen their first cult hit product 'hand chemistry' at your local pharmacy, and they recently sold their 'Grow Gorgeous' brand to another company to fund product development. Deciem was founded by Brandon Truaxe who has founded several other companies in the past, and as part of a non compete contract that he signed when he sold one of those companies, he could not produce skincare for face for three years. Deciem became known as a cult favourite in the UK for their 'hand chemistry' lotion which used hyaluronic acid - women in the UK purchased this hand lotion to use it on their faces. I purchased a tube of it when I was in Paris and have also been using it as my face cream What is amazing to me about this brand is that they are not only a Canadian brand, but they own a lab on their site that produces and develops ALL of their products. When I was in Toronto this week, I actually saw their head office and peeked into their adjoining lab space. Usually cosmetic companies are actually in the business of marketing products that they have produced by other cosmetic chemistry companies. They start from a marketing perspective and then follow through with the product. Deciem actually is in the business of skincare. Much like generic pharmaceuticals, Deciem is creating generic options for skincare active ingredients that cost pennies to produce.
When I was in Toronto, it was my mission to find the Deciem stores and look and play with the products. I was particularly interested in their 'The Ordinary' line which is individual active ingredient serums such as stable 23% vitamin c, retinoid 2%, azelaic acid 10% (my rosacea prescription is this acid), Niacinimide etc. My first venture to find the store I accidentally ended up at their head office (after a 2 mile walk) and the closest store was 3 miles in the opposite direction. It was so neat being able to see their very active lab on one side of the building with their office space on the other side of the building. I saved my trip to the Deciem store for the following day.
I was amazed when I saw the prices at the store that these little bottles of active ingredients where so affordable. Take for example this lactic acid I got for $6.50 CAD. Sunday Riley Good Genes (lactic acid percentage not known - I've read that it's possibly 40% but the PH is too acidic to allow the ingredient to work) is $147 CAD for the same 30ml. The Niacinimide 10% + zinc 1% was $5.90 CAD but the similar Paula's Choice 10% Niacinimide is $42. These active ingredients are actually very cheap ingredients to produce but what we are paying for in these other brands is the marketing (first and foremost), the combination of other ingredients (botanicals, fragrance, color, carriers), and the stabilization of all of these multiple ingredients together. Deciem uses no fragrance or botanicals, just simply stable carriers such as high quality silicones or emulsions.
I made my purchases of a few products. The Vitamin C 23%, Niacinimide + Zink (reduces inflammation and redness), Lactic Acid (exfoliator), Hylamide Sensitive Fix (for my rosacea) and the Niod photography fluid. When I got home I realized that their Azelaic acid is the very same active ingredient in my rosacea prescription (finacea) at a a slightly lower percentage. This prescription is cheapish for me since it's covered under my extended health benefits, but in the US it is very pricey at about $300. I also ordered the Organic Cold Pressed Rose Hip Oil for $9.90, and I really want to order the Niod Sanskrit Saponins Cleanser in the future and the Niod Hydration Vaccine. The whole Niod line is very interesting and I plan to write about it in the future after testing it out. I've been using my purchases shown below for the past 5 days and my skin is glowing! I'm happy to report that I've had no break outs or skin freak outs in my very fussy and reactive skin.
If you've tried this brand out before I'd love to know your thoughts. I think it's so cool to be able to purchase pared back active ingredients and really customize your skincare, and see immediate results because the product is so stable and concentrated.
Here is an article about the brand Meet Deciem, The Toronto Beauty Disrupter.
Deciem "The Abnormal Beauty Company"｜The Ordinary, Hylamide and Niod lines
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