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- Clean skin-care products can sometimes be hard to find in drugstores and cost more than traditional ones.
- I have sensitive skin that's prone to redness and acne, so I've been looking for clean skin-care products that are also affordable too.
- S.W. Basics has products that have less than five ingredients, and everything costs less than $30. It's also easily found at Target and Amazon.
Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on your cleanser or moisturizer and thought, what are all of these things? Because I definitely do.
Ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate create the lather in your daily cleanser, while silicone adds slip or texture to your moisturizer, and parabens are preservatives that help keep your products fresh. Depending on your skin type and sensitivity, these ingredients can also cause irritation.
I have sensitive acne-prone skin so I've been trying to avoid a lot of these questionable ingredients if I can. Recently, I started using S.W. Basics, a skin-care line with products that have less than five ingredients and cost less than $30. I tried out its $30 starter kit so I could see what its most popular products (cleanser, toner, and cream) were like.
Every product is made with five or less ingredients, and prices are all under $30
S.W. Basics is a certified B corp, so it's been verified as a company that has positive social and environmental impacts, and you'll see that in the packaging and formulas.
The kit itself is packaged in cardboard and the jars are glass - there's no unnecessary plastic. The ingredients are also all things you've probably heard of and might even have in your kitchen, like apple cider vinegar. They're also organic, fair trade, or sustainably farmed, and formulas are vegan, and free of synthetic preservatives, parabens, phthalates, and sulfates.
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The first one I tried was the cleanser, which contains just rose water, tea tree oil, and vegetable glycerin.
The cleanser felt smooth, and since it didn't have sulfates that made it lather up, it felt almost like just putting water on my face. It smells like rose water, but in a pleasant and light way. The glycerin is hydrating, and the tea tree acts as an astringent; it's been used as a natural acne remedy for years.
Because the texture is so watery, I put a little onto a cotton pad and swept it over my face - it was satisfying to see dirt and residue from my day on the pad and not on my skin. The formula didn't make my skin red and my face didn't feel tight either. My skin also didn't tingle from the tea tree, which was an added bonus.
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The toner contains apple cider vinegar and overwhelmingly smells like it, which is fine for me as I like ACV but might take getting used to if you're sensitive to that acidic smell.
The toner also contains witch hazel (perfect if you're already a user of the super-popular Thayer's Witch Hazel toner), and clary sage and sandalwood essential oils, which help to balance out the apple cider vinegar scent a bit.
It has a relatively similar consistency as the cleanser so I used a cotton pad for the toner too. While I did notice a bit of redness (probably because of the ACV), it wasn't worse than usual. I'm redness and acne prone with sensitive skin, so many things tend to make me red.
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The cream was very hydrating, and after applying, I noticed that my face was shiny but not overly oily.
Since there are no preservatives or stabilizers in the cream, it was solid when I used it so I had to break it up with my fingers before rubbing onto my skin. The packaging clearly discloses this so it didn't come as a surprise to me.
Looking at the ingredients, I know olive oil is a good source of squalane, an oil that's similar to our skin's so it's a good hydrator. But it also contains coconut oil which had me a little worried because it can often be comedogenic for me. The jar says that it can be used on the body though, so it's not totally wasted if I do have breakouts on my face. The moisturizer felt a little heavy so I could feel it sitting on top of my skin, and the shea butter scent lingered for a while after I applied it. If I use it during the day, I just wait a bit before I follow up with makeup, and I use it as a night cream too.
Clean skin-care can be expensive and hard to find in drugstores, so I love that S.W. Basics is in an affordable price range that maxes out at $30 and is readily available at places like Target, Amazon, and even some CVS locations.
Buy S.W. Basics Starter Mini Kit for $29.19 at Amazon
Buy S.W. Basics products from $4.50-$30, at Target or Amazon
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