Why heelllloooooooo!

A lot has happened since I was posting regularly.  I have a new job, I’m in grad school, I’ve gotten my hair done, like, twice.

The main thing, though, is that I moved back to my hometown of Pittsburgh.  There’s a lot going on in this town – hopefully I’ll actually, uh, experience it at this point, as I mostly have been studying or getting the house together. That second part, though, is all done and includes a beautiful vanity formerly owned by my grandmother that perfectly holds up my homemade circle light!

One of the fun things I have had time to do is, of course, snoop around town for good beauty/face care shops, and I’ve already fallen in love with Pittsburgh-based Una Biologicals!  They have a storefront in Lawrenceville, a ‘Burgh neighborhood that my good friend Rachel nicknamed “PittsWilliamsburg” because of its uncanny likeness to the ultimate hipster neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn (though it’s only one street long, it’s a very packed street!).  In fact, my first hair appointment when back in town was in Lawrenceville, and upon revealing that I’d just moved from Brooklyn, two or three stylists looked up and said, “Oh cool!  What neighborhood? I used to live in Brooklyn!”  It gave this ol’ girl a nice little feeling of home, yanno?

Anyways, it makes sense that such a great, innovative and, well, cool company would be based in one of Pittsburgh’s coolest neighborhoods, and I really enjoyed wandering around their store before Christmas.  First off, it smells divine; secondly, the employees are extremely knowledgable and helpful; and third, there’s a whole range of stuff beyond just typical skin care like face washes and lotions. They have deodorants, salves, and tons of stuff for just general not-getting-sick-or-if-you-do-here’s-an-concoction-to-help.

I’ll certainly be back to get more, but everyone knows pre-Christmas is a time of frequently checking one’s bank account and almost fainting, so I just got the one thing I figured would most give me an idea of how their products work and if they’d be helpful for me.  (Speaking of fainting at money stuff, Una is very reasonably priced, which I’ll talk about more later.)

So, here it is, the Una Biologicals Acne Prone Facial Cleanser ($20)!

The first thing you may notice is that it separates – it’s made up almost completely of different types of oils, so yeah, that’s gonna happen.

All you gotta do iiiissssss . . .

Shake the hell out of it, of course!  This is it all mixed together; it separates really fast though, so you gotta apply it quickly.

The smell is great – not overpowering, but natural, calming, and a bit earthy/floral.  Now, what I sort of love about this product is how novel it is. While there are ton of different oils to put on your face, both topically and as a cleanser, this is the first one I’ve used that’s so concentrated.  This gives it a texture that “sticks,” so to speak; it isn’t drippy once it’s spread around your skin.  And even though it looks yellowish in the bottle, it’s pretty clear when applied.  Here’s a close-up of what it looks like.

Part of the novelty of it is also the different ways you can use it to cleanse.  I asked in the store if I should wet my face beforehand, and she suggested I try that and also . . . not doing that, and see how I like it.  The bottle itself says to use a washcloth.  Usually, I wet my hands, give ’em a quick shake, and then put it on.  Sometimes, when I want it to be more “potent,” I just apply it directly (which I’m doing here).  The bottle also says to only use two pumps, which is what I do unless I accidentally over-water my hands (it’s a thing!).

As I said, it doesn’t move.  I love this – I like how “neat” (as in tidy) it is.  This is me with a face full of it.  Which I swear is true, as I know it looks like there’s nothing to see!

I do use a washcloth after I’ve applied it; I dampen it and gently exfoliate my face, rubbing in the product a bit, and then rinse and use it to wipe off the cleanser after.

I was totally shocked the first time I used this how clean my face felt. I really, really didn’t expect it to cleanse as well as it did.  Also, my combination skin tends to go back to its normal level of oiliness in my t-zone relatively fast with crappy cleansers.  This stuff left my face not only clean and matte for hours, it was incredibly soft.  Like, craazzzzyyy soft.  I couldn’t believe it.  It even felt as if the normal acne bumps and lumps were a bit tamed.  In addition, there was definitely less redness, even with using the washcloth.

So, what about long-term?  I’ve used this cleanser every morning since Black Friday weekend, and I really think my acne has improved, for sure.  Those lil’ bumps are much more predictable – PMS is the best predictor for the worst offenders, but other than that, only teeny tiny ones are popping up.  No matter what, anything that comes up (and again, it’s fewer and further between) has been a lot easier to deal with/get rid of since starting to use it.  I think the texture of my skin has gotten better as well – after a pretty stressful nine months, I really needed something to get my skin back into shape, and I’m genuinely thrilled to find this cleanser.

As a final note: That amount (about 60% of the bottle) is what’s left after all of this time, which to me is a great deal and well worth the $20.  I was just talking with someone the other day about how even the “cheap” cleansers out there are at least $10, and they don’t last nearly as long.  Just two lil’ pumps of this is all you need, and it shows in your bank account – and your face.  Get ready to see a lot of Una stuff on here, I can’t wait to try literally everything else!  Oh, and if you’re interested, it seems like from their Instagram page that they attend different conventions and whatnot where you may be able to find them and test things out in person.