Skincare products are my jam. I take my job as BAZAAR.com’s beauty director very seriously—and by that I mean I will try anything. I’ll happily sacrifice my skin in the pursuit of becoming an all-knowing encyclopedia of all things beauty: I love a lot of products and feel meh about most others. Because for a skincare product to be genuinely great in my book, it has to have a killer combination of chic-but-functional packaging, top-notch ingredient standards, and results that are both instant and cumulative over time. So I was intrigued by Kylie Skin, the latest beauty venture by 21-year-old non-dermatologist Kylie Jenner. My Instagram inbox was already buzzing with questions about the line: Is it good? Should I try it? What should I buy?
I received a PR set of Kylie Skin products a day before they launched. In my box was the Foaming Face Wash, Walnut Face Scrub, Vanilla Milk Toner, Vitamin C Serum, Face Moisturizer, and Eye Cream. I didn’t receive the Makeup Removing Wipes, which is fine, because I’m personally anti-face wipe. To see how the Kylie Skin products truly performed, I decided to swap out all my usual skincare products for the beauty mogul’s new line for an entire week. Below are all my thoughts. (For the record, my skin is fair, combination, prone to whiteheads and redness, and reactive but not particularly sensitive.)
THE RESULTS
If I’m being honest, my expectations for Kylie Skin were low. Formulating skincare products is tough; you’ll never please everyone. One person might love fragrance in their cream while another person is allergic. Some of us need an oil-free moisturizer while others like to slather their face in rich oils. Skin care is extremely personal and nuanced—but the Kylie Skin products seemed to be a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. With only one eye cream, one cleanser, one serum, one moisturizer, one toner, and one scrub, I knew the products were going to be basic and gentle. Which isn’t a bad thing.
Overall, the Kylie Skin products are pleasant and easy to use. If you’ve tried your fair share of skincare products over the years, some of the formulas will feel familiar. The Foaming Face Wash reminds me of Caudalie’s Instant Foaming Cleanser. The toner is like a vanilla-scented version of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Toner, which was once Jenner’s go-to skincare line. I was most underwhelmed by the face scrub and the face wash. I don’t think you need to spend over $20 on either when there are so many options—including fragrance-free ones—at the drugstore. But on the whole, the Kylie Skin products are like a simplified skincare routine template. They don’t address any one issue like fine lines or acne, but instead aim to make all skin types simply hydrated, clean, and fresh.
Though they’re not groundbreaking, the Kylie Skin products perform. By that I mean my dark circles looked drastically less noticeable after just a week of using the eye cream twice a day. Even though I had traveled to Florida and back over the long holiday weekend, my eyes were less puffy overall. I spent the last seven days covering my face in various sunscreens, which always makes me breakout, but my skin stayed relatively calm and spot-free all things considered. The lines around the sides of my mouth were also less noticeable. After a week of using Kylie Skin, my face feels hydrated, soothed, and plump. I’m excited to see what the results look like after a month, though I’ve already added other brand’s products back into my routine. There are always new products to test.
INGREDIENTS
Every Kylie Skin product is free of parabens, sulfates, and gluten. They’re also all vegan, cruelty-free and dermatologist-tested. Several products contain added fragrance, most noticeably the toner and face wash. I’m going to do a top line breakdown of each product’s key ingredients below. If you’re looking to get in a chemistry fight about the merits of certain forms of lipid-soluble vitamin C, go to Reddit.
THE SCRUB
KYLIE SKIN
Let’s talk about the walnut particle-sized elephant in the room: the Kylie Skin scrub. The internet exploded when Jenner announced that her Kylie Skin face scrub relied on walnut as an exfoliant. Fans were quick to say her scrub was nothing more than a pricier version of the drugstore classic St. Ives Apricot Scrub. Dermatologists have long cautioned against using scrubs with naturally-derived physical exfoliants like walnut and apricot, since the jagged edges can lead to micro-tears in the skin. I used the scrub once in my week of trying Kylie Skin. It was…fine. My skin didn’t turn red at all, but it did make it baby-soft to the touch. Use it once a week or twice a month if you happened to buy the Kylie Skin set that includes the scrub. But I wouldn’t seek it out when there are plenty of walnut-free scrubs and chemical exfoliants available at any drugstore these days (just look for one without microbeads, please).
THE SERUM
KYLIE SKIN
The Kylie Skin serum infused with vitamin C, an essential skincare ingredient for brightening up dark spots, boosting collagen production, and adding free-radical antioxidant protection. It doesn’t smell like old pennies, which if you’ve used some potent and pricey vitamin C serums before, you know exactly what I am talking about. The second ingredient after water is Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, a form of vitamin C that is easily absorbed by the skin. It’s also known to be less irritating than other forms of vitamin C, making it better for sensitive or reactive skin. Other ingredients in the serum are hydrators like glycerin, safflower seed oil, and panthenol, as well as antioxidants like ferulic acid and green tea leaf extract. This serum is a win in my book—it’s gentle enough to use every morning and absorbs quickly into skin, so you can move right on to moisturizer and makeup. If you’re looking to add a vitamin C serum to your routine and don’t mind spending a bit more than what you’d find at a drugstore, pick this up.
THE EYE CREAM
KYLIE SKIN
The product I was most impressed by was the eye cream, as you can see from my before and after photo. I never in a million years expected it to lighten my dark circles—since most eye creams just feel really good but fall short on actually doing anything other than plumping fine lines. In the formula there’s caffeine, green tea extract, and pomegranate extract to temporarily reduce puffiness under the eye. The cream also has a slight peach-yellow tint to it, which really helps to disguise darkness under the eye. Antioxidants like vitamin E and vitamin C keep skin plump and subtly lighten dark circles. The fragrance-free formula also has jojoba seed oil to keep your under-eye area hydrated without adding so much moisture that your Kylie Cosmetics concealer starts slipping around. If you buy only one product from Kylie Skin, make it this one.
If you buy only one product from Kylie Skin, make it the eye cream.
THE TONER
KYLIE SKIN
The toner is alcohol-free and really more like a lightweight moisturizer than a traditional toner or essence. The formula is milky, and the vanilla scent is a little more prominent than the Kylieskin.com description of “lightly fragranced” implies. I don’t mind fragrance in my skincare products, personally. But for some, added fragrance can be sensitizing and lead to dermatitis. If you take issue with perfumed skincare products, you’ll probably have to avoid the toner.
My skin leans toward dry, so I looked forward to sweeping on the toner after cleansing my face. It added so much moisture back into my skin that I only needed only a tiny dot of moisturizer. Squalane is high up on the ingredient list, which is a moisturizing agent that can help strengthen your skin’s own moisture barrier. There’s also jojoba, apricot seed, and avocado oils for an additional boost of hydration. The toner is absolutely not a necessity in any skincare routine, but if you have dry skin, it’s an extra step of pampering. If I had to pick a favorite product from the line, it would be a tie between the eye cream and the toner.
THE MOISTURIZER
KYLIE SKIN
The moisturizer is far more rich than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. If your skin is oily, you’ll want to use only the teeniest tiniest dot. Like, the size of small pearl. Shea butter is the star ingredient here, plus the humectant glycerin that draws moisture into your skin. There’s also skin-calming aloe and oat bran extract, which is probably why my skin that’s prone to redness felt so soothed over the course of the week. It’s fragrance-free but does contain orange peel extract, which is commonly used in fragrance but can also double as a skin conditioner. Some people might scoff at the price of $24 for 1.75 fl oz, but considering how little you need to use, I think the moisturizer is a great deal. If you have dry skin you’ll probably love it. If you have oily skin, I would be a little more cautious.
THE FACE WASH
KYLIE SKIN
The ingredient list on the foaming face wash is relatively small:
Water/Aqua/Eau, Potassium Cocoyl Glycinate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Potassium Cocoate, Glycerin, Hydroxyacetophenone, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate, Citric Acid, Polyquaternium-39, Fragrance (Parfum), Sodium Benzoate, Actinidia Chinensis (Kiwi) Seed Oil, Sodium Hyaluronate, Phenoxyethanol
The gentle cleansing agents are derived from coconuts, plus there’s moisture-boosting ingredients like glycerin, kiwi seed oil, and hyaluronic acid. You only need one pump to wash your entire face, but I found two pumps to be more effective. It won’t take off stubborn makeup or mascara, so you’ll still need a makeup remover. The face wash would be a nice second step in a double cleanse routine, but it didn’t blow me away. I’ll keep using it in the morning when my skin doesn’t need a deep clean, then stick to something a little more hardcore at night.
THE PACKAGING
I have a few notes on the packaging. The design and pink color is cute, I’ll give Jenner that, but I wish there wasn’t so much plastic. I like the applicator of the eye cream—it’s perfect for travel and prevents me from sticking my grimy finger in a jar over and over again. In fact, I appreciate the lack of jars in general across the line. The packaging is air-tight and protects the product from oxidation and contamination.
The only product packaging I have beef with is the toner. The formula is considerably runny. Whenever I would turn the bottle over to get a few drops on a cotton round, some of the toner would inevitably flow out around the cap. The toner also leaked a little when I packed it in my luggage for the long weekend (it’s bigger than the TSA carry-on limit, as is the face wash). Perhaps Jenner should consider repackaging the toner in a glass medicine dropper type applicator instead.
KYLIE SKIN
The Kylie Skin 6-piece sets are being restocked on June 5, followed by a restock of the entire Kylie Skin line on June 10th. More products are expected to launch later this year. (Kylie, if you’re reading this, please make a sunscreen!)
