Stellar team of skincare! Skintegra!

Hi everyone. I wanted to talk about my favorite skincare brand today. It is a Croatian brand and it is called Skintegra. They have brick and mortar store in Zagreb, as well as the online shop where you can find their products. They have an amazing selection of skincare products and they are cruelty free. They are also very mindful about the environment with their packaging, so there is a huge plus from me as well. Moo likes them as well, so she got into the photo.

I love skincare as much as I love makeup. Probably even more than makeup (there I said it!!) Clear, radiant, healthy looking skin is a dream come true, and I owe a lot of my good skin says to Skintegra products.
A little backup story is in order. About 5 years ago, I have discovered Korean skincare brands and got totally addicted to K beauty products and one million step skincare routine. Ok, it is a ten step routine in K beauty, but when I say ten steps, all of my friends think you need to be some kind of freak to follow those steps every day. The truth is that it is more about layering the products that you skin craves and needs, plus you are not exfoliating every single day, or putting a mask on every night. It comes down to cleansing, using a toner/essence, serum, moisturizer, eye cream and SPF. Doesn’t sound that crazy at all. Masks and exfoliators are used on average two times a week, but when you count all of the steps individually through the week, it seems like it is a lot. The trick is to find the morning and evening routine that works for you. Also, please use SPF EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yes, sun can damage your skin way more than you are able to protect it, even when you have the best products for your skin.

Sometime in 2018 I have noticed Skintegra as a brand and loved their approach to understanding you skin, treating the cause of skin “problems” with great understanding of ingredients that go into it. They use their knowledge to educate their customers, help them find the skincare routine, something that works, without mystifying their products. I love how they communicate to their customers on social media and in store and root for every single one of us when we meet our skincare goals. Slowly, I have replaced my K beauty products with Skintegra’s products and haven’t looked back since. As you can tell, I really love them, and no, this is not sponsored in any way, shape and form. They have no idea who I am.

Let’s dive into the products I have tried so far. Oh, one more digression: my skin type is normal to dry in the winter months and more normal in summer months. I do have some fine lines from being on Earth for 40 years, and overall my skin is not too sensitive. I do not suffer from acnes, but tend to break out every once in a while, especially while traveling/changing climate.

My introduction to the brand was through their face cleansers. As I have mentioned, I was already used to using a double cleansing method where you first go with an oil bases type of cleanser to break down the makeup and SPF on your face, which is then followed by a water/gel/cream type of cleanser to clean all the residual products. Oh boy, I was not prepared for the glory of Atomic and Amphibian. (they both live in my shower now). I have used enough of balm and oil based cleaners to know that Atomic is extra special. The way it emulsifies in touch with water to create a perfect milky consistency to massage your face and remove all the make up and break down the SPF is fabulous. It is like a spa every day. I love that it completely washes off, without any weird film on the face. I follow up with the Amphibian, which is a gel cleanser in divine blue color. I was a bit nervous to use it at first, as I was not so fond of gel cleansers, since they tend to strip my skin. However, Amphibian is the most gentle gel wash I have ever used. It never irritated my skin nor left it stripped. I don’t know how they do it, but it is clearly some kind of magic and witchcraft.

I especially love Superba C from Skintegra. It beats all the vitamin C serums so far. I have tried it after one summer when I had hyper pigmentation marks all over my forehead, despite using a lot of SPF. It slowly faded those spots, while my skin regained the newly found balance. What makes their vitamin c stand out from other competitors products, is that it is more stable than others. I would use vitamin c only at night, since it could react with the sun, but their Superba c can be used in day time routine (with SPF always and forever!) so it helps to work with your skin all day. Holy grail product for sure.

I have realized that I have 3 empty bottles of Architect in my “empties bag”. My long time favorite product. It is just overall good to my skin. I have started using is as it has anti-aging properties, since it is has bakuchiol which acts like retinols, but it is not retinol as it is derived from plants. My skin seems to really enjoy it and it behaves very nicely when I have it in my routine. My complexion is more even and my skin seems more plump, and my fine lines are a bit less noticable.

I have also tried Lunar when I wanted to introduce some peptides to my routine. It has fit nicely in my summer time night routine, as I needed more repair and overall calmness for my skin after being exposed to a lot of sunshine and breeze. It is nicely nourishing without being too heavy and I really enjoyed it. I do not have it at the moment, but I will buy it again when I finish some other products.

My newest addition was Naro as at some point in the late spring of last year I have noticed my skin having some dry patches and some redness around my nose. I did not have a great experience with marula oil, so I wanted to try squalane based product, so Naro sounded perfect. It helped with those issues I had and I have found this little guy to be very useful in the winter months when I need an additional boost of moisture and softness for my face. I use it mainly at night, as it can be too heavy for me in the warmer months during the day. I love to put couple of drops directly on my face and then massage my face before going to bed. I wake up with such a rejuvenated looking skin.

Nectar is also an outstanding product. I love this toner so much. I think we all have a bit of trauma since high school days, when we were first introduced to toners: drying, alcohol heavy toners that would help our teenage skins. What a nightmare! Nectar is nothing like those terrible stripping toners. It is moisturizing, soothing and calming and my favorite way is to use it before a hyaluronic acid serum. It really helps to lock all the moisture to my skin. Pure love for Nectar from me.

As for exfoliators are concerned, I have not had too much experience with them. I got samples from both Lumion and Clarion from the Skintegra store, but haven’t drawn definite conclusions yet. I have tested them one at the time, but have had some breakouts with both of them. I am not sure what to think, as with chemical exfoliators you sometimes have so called “purging” phase before you get to that balancing stage. So, I am not sure if I had a chicken and the egg problem here. Did my skin freak out because of the product, or did the product not agree with my skin? I have purposely tried both even though one is for more oily skin, as sometimes it happens that against all odds, the less obvious choice works better. I will try to test it some more in the future. My skin is behaving really well now and I don’t want to set it off balance just for the sake of trying.

I do not have any Sphynx at the moment, and apparently I have tossed the packaging, but I do like that eye cream and have repurchased it couple of times. It is not my holy grail, but it is very nice and moisturizing cream that doesn’t give me allergies nor watery eyes. I love that you can use it as a lip balm as well. The main problem I have with it is that the packaging breaks after a while and lid comes off, so it is hard to travel with. But who is traveling these days anyway?

All in all, I have lots of favorites from this brand which makes me confident to say it is my favorite. I still have Hydra B to try out, and their SPF, but my Supergoop SPF is going to be very hard to dethrone. Here is a link to Skintegra web shop. Prices are comparable to some other mid-range and high end skincare, but in my opinion Skintegra is well worth it. They also ship internationally. Again, I am not affiliated with them, nor sponsored by them. I am just a skincare enthusiast, and happy to share what I have tried out and what has worked for me. Hope you find your holy grails in whatever skincare brand you love and try.

Have a great skin day and talk to you soon! XOXO, Iva