I’m not much of a “product” person. I don’t believe their claims. They’re expensive. They’re one (or nine) more thing(s) to do in a day. So I rarely buy anything new along those lines.

But I was seeing several people online…oh, alright, What Kate Finds talked about it so glowingly that I thought I’LL TRY IT. It didn’t hurt that they offer a one-month free trial. Free? I’m in.

When you sign up, you take pictures of your face sans makeup and send them off along with answers to a bunch of questions about your skin. Then the skin doctors whip up a prescription specially formulated you and your skin issues…and send it to you, along with a facial cleanser and moisturizer.

It’s a twice-a-day cleansing process. Which, if nothing else, has gotten me into the habit of washing my face twice a day, which I have been very bad about all my life. The cleanser is very nice. Sort of gel-like, very gentle, no scent that I can detect. It doesn’t dry out my skin. I’m typically hard on my face. Usually, I just use bar soap or whatever’s in the shower, with a Buf Puf scrubber and I scrub the heck out of my face so it’s nice and smooth. The Curology instructions specifically say DON’T USE ABRASIVES! So I figured I’d give it a try for a couple of days, but if my face felt like alligator skin, I was going to use an abrasive – Curology is NOT the boss of me!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my skin felt fine. Smooth and nice. I’ve been bufpuffing since I was like 14 years old. I panicked if I was away from home for more than a day and didn’t have one with me. So this was quite the revelation.

In the morning, you use the cleanser, then the moisturizer. You only put the…medicine (?) part on at night, but I’ll get back to that. The moisturizer is LOVELY. And I am a Pain in the Butt about facial moisturizers. I’ve only liked FOUR kinds in my LIFETIME. When I was jr high/high school-aged, I started using my mother’s Oil of Olay (this was back in the 70s so it was the good original formula). When she wasn’t around I’d quickly rub a couple drops into my face and it felt So Nice. After awhile she asked if I was using her Oil of Olay. No, I said. Cuz that’s what kids say when they do things. And I mean, I’m sure if I’d asked her, “my face feels dry, could you get me some Oil of Olay?” she would have done it, so why the lie? But. You know. Teenagers.

There was also The Sugar Incident. On the kitchen counter she had these big white ceramic canisters: flour, sugar, tea and…I have no idea what the fourth one was. Anyway, one time I was getting some sugar out of the sugar canister and I spilled some. Well, a lot. I spilled a lot. And I did a terrible job of cleaning it up. Cuz I was a kid. I made a sticky mess. And of course when she asked, “did you spill the sugar?” I said no. I don’t know why they even ask. She got angry. She yelled that SHE didn’t spill the sugar, and my FATHER certainly didn’t spill the sugar, I was the only left. DID? I? SPILL? THE? SUGAR?

No, I said.

Over the years she would bring it up occasionally. “I know you spilled the sugar,” she’d say. “No, I didn’t,” I’d say. It was our thing.

Anyway. The Oil of Olay. I used that for many years. It did the job, it felt nice, it was affordable and available in every drug store and market. I thought I was set for life. THEN. They changed the formula. It was different. It was awful. It clogged my pores and made me feel like I was having hot flashes before I even knew what hot flashes were. In hindsight, I bet that was when brands started adding sunscreen to skin products (which pisses me off but I won’t drag you down that road today). I couldn’t use it. But my face was just painfully dry without moisturizer (probably cuz I was scrubbing the top layer off daily with the scrubby bufpuf sponge). I then spent, literally, about the next ten years trying to find a good alternative to the now dead-to-me Oil of Olay. Even when they came out at one point with “New Original Formula Oil of Olay,” it was no good. SPF was in everything.  I bought, tried, and threw out or gave away SO many moisturizers in that time period but was mostly uncomfortable. All. The. Time.

Until my niece turned me onto Avalon Organics CoQ10 face cream probably in the 90s. It was not as nice a consistency, it was less watery so took a little more work to get into your skin, but after the desert my face had been in for YEARS, it was such a relief. Until, eventually, they too started adding SPF and their formula changed. For another year or two, I was able to buy old bottles of the original formula off eBay, but eventually, they were all gone.

I got by for a couple more years with trial and sample sizes of expensive brands that were nice but just not in my budget. Eventually, I discovered Trader Joe’s Nourish Oil-Free Antioxidant Facial Moisturizer and it was lovely, inexpensive (under $10) and readily available at Trader Joe’s. And that’s what I still use today. I should probably buy some reserve bottles in case they change the formula!

So when I say I’m highly selective about face moisturizers, I ain’t kidding. And when I say this Curology moisturizer is nice, I mean IT’s NICE. It specifically states that it does not contain sunscreen hallelujah because I am a grown-up and can put on my own sunscreen if I want to, thank you very much. Please do not force sunscreen me.

Oh, PS, this is not a sponsored post, not an ad, they did not send me free product, they don’t know I exist (well, except to bill me and send me stuff I paid for).

So, thumbs up for the cleanser and moisturizer. Now for the medicated bit. They send what is supposedly a custom prescription for your face, based on the pictures you sent and how you answered their questions. My custom recipe is supposed to target acne, dark spots, firmness, skin texture, and wrinkles.

  • Tretinoin 0.009%
    • One of the most effective ingredients for fighting acne, dark spots, and blackheads
  • Clindamycin 1%
    • Antibacterial that fights inflammation and acne-causing bacteria
  • Azelaic Acid 9%
    • Unclogs pores, improves skin texture, and lightens dark spots

I don’t know what the other 98.991% is – moisturizing fillers of some sort? Anyway, in the evening, you wash your face with the cleanser, let it dry totally, then apply the medicated stuff…and if you need a little extra moisturizing, you use that, too. The medication is supposed to work on your face overnight while you sleep.

Here are the “before” pictures I sent to Curology when I first signed up.

My skin is not bad. But it’s not great. I didn’t have much acne at all as a kid. But when I was pregnant with Katie, and ever since, I get bumps on my chin and by the sides of my nose pretty regularly. I’ll say 1-3 a month. And I have a lot of what I think are sun spots. Save your sunscreen rant. I was sunning heavily long before sunscreen was a commonly used thing. I don’t mind my wrinkles, cuz they’re mostly smile lines and the alternative would be – what, I never smiled?? That’s sad. I’m not a fan of the very delicate crepey skin under my eyes. So…could Curology make any of this a little better?? Let’s find out.

Week 1 – february 22, 2020

This is my face after one week. I’m enjoying the cleanser and moisturizer. The medicated stuff? I dunno. I thought I would “feel it working.” I thought it would feel tingly or…I don’t know. I don’t feel anything. It just feels like a sort of thick “pre-moisturizer.”

Week 2 – february 29, 2020

Still being good about twice-daily washing. GO, ME! I haven’t used the bufpuf on my face even once since I started this test. I will say my skin feels nice. Did it always feel this nice? I don’t remember. I think the real test will be NOT using the product after the test and see if I notice my face feeling worse. 

I will say I’ve had a couple of bumps this week. It says in the Curology info to expect some breakouts in the beginning, as the medicine is “flushing out the toxins.” That’s one of those phrases brands use that I never believe. So are these toxin flushing bumps? Or just regular bumps? No way of knowing.

WEEK 3 – March 7, 2020

More bumps this week. All based around the first one. BUT, my face is SO SOFT. You know how sometimes you touch an old person’s face, like your grandmother or great-grandmother, and their skin is SO SOFT? I almost feel like I’m approaching that. The bad news is I’m touching my face constantly (cuz it’s so soft) right when I’m being told repeatedly NOT TO TOUCH MY FACE (#coronavirus).

WEEK 4 – MARCH 14, 2020

And that ends the one-month trial. Does my skin look different? I don’t think so. Am I glowing? No. Does my skin feel better? Yes.  Is that from the skin medicine/cleanser/moisturizer? Or because I stopped roughly scraping off my top layer of skin 5 times a week? Or maybe because I’m washing my face twice a day as opposed to once or not at all. And does my skin feel $30/month better?? Have I stopped breaking out? Not yet. The one-month trial should maybe a 6-week or two-month trial but I know they don’t want to give away that much free product. I just started breaking out in the third week. I feel like another month would show if that was it, toxin-clearing break-outs over and done with. How long does it take to cleanse of toxins? So many questions!

My final analysis of the one-month trial is that one month is not a long enough trial. I feel like the true test will now be to go OFF the regimen and see if things go downhill or stay the same. So…in the interest of science I will stop doing my lovely, soothing face routine twice a day and replace it with some lower-cost Curology recommendations. They are very nice about recommending drug store products.

I’ll see how things go with the store brands, and report back to you on that in a couple weeks.

So, for now, my conclusive opinion about whether Curology is worth it or not is…I DUNNO. I don’t feel it changed my skin’s appearance at all, but it definitely feels softer. Which is nice, but I don’t think it warrants $30/month.

Have you ever tried it? What’s your experience?

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