This week I am pleased to bring you my review of Juice Beauty, a new line of skin care from San Francisco that promises better looking skin through organic botanicals. Enjoy!

More and more lately, I am reminded that skin care products are not "one size fits all", and what works for me may not work as well for you. I can only try the products and let you know what it did for me. For the last two months I've been using a new line from California called Juice Beauty. The premise is that Juice's concentrated vitamins, antioxidants and organic botanicals (in accordance with Oregon Tilth Standards), free of synthetic fillers, colors, fragrances, petroleum byproducts and harsh chemicals, will give you better looking skin. I like the idea of organic, botanical skin care, so I was excited to give it a try.

Juice has two classifications of products: daily and treatment. Everything is packaged in frosted glass to protect the integrity of the volatile and photosensitive vitamins, organic plant extracts and essential oils in each product.

Daily Juice
The basics in the Juice skin care line fall under this category, including cleansing, toning and moisturizing. The cleansers and oil-free lotion are in glass pump bottles, the toner is in a glass spray bottle, and the cream is in a glass jar.

Pure Comfort Cleansing Milk ($26 for 4.5oz)
The label says "milk" but this is really a cleansing cream. It's rich and emollient like a moisturizer, and it does a bang-up job at removing makeup, particularly mascara and eyeliner. I think it's best suited to normal-to-dry or dry skin, unless you are willing to remove it with a warm, wet washcloth to minimize residue (the safflower and avocado oils that are perfect for breeaking down makeup may feel a bit filmy on an oilier skin). For my skin, it's a great fit and I only wish the bottle were bigger. I finished mine in the two months that I was testing the products.

Pure Fluidity Cleansing Gel ($26 for 4.5oz)
This is a light, fluid cleanser with enought foam in just one pump to cleanse your whole face. Since my skin is more on the dry side, I have to limit foaming cleansers to just in the morning, so I don't know how this is for removing makeup. It has liquid botanicals of dandelion, white oak bark and sage, as well as aloe vera gel and essential oils of ylang ylang, lemon, rosewood, clary sage and geranium.

Harmonic Tonic Toning Mist ($28 for 4.5oz)
This is a spray toner made with organic bulgarian rosewater, oat beta gluten (good for sensitive skin), aloe vera, grapde seed extract, and essential oils of bulgarian rose and ylang ylang. As long as you keep it away from your eyes, this is a nice, refreshing spray for after cleansing or anytime you need a pick-me-up. This has actually lasted longer than I expected, as you only need two or three sprays for your whole face.

Abundance Nutrient Moisturizer ($40 for 2oz jar)
Juice has two choices in moisturizer, and this one is definitely for normal-to-dry and dry skin. This rich cream is perfect for dry skin - rich but not overly greasy - thanks to shea butter, safflower oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, wheat germ oil, and aloe vera gel, plus liquid botanicals of plantain and calendula, and essential oils of sandalwood and jasmine. I went a little overboard with slathering this on - my recently emptied jar probably could have lasted a few more weeks with more careful rationing.

Quench Oil-Free Moisturizer ($40 for 2oz)
For all other skin types, this is the lotion for you. It's light but still gives a nice amount of moisture to the skin thanks to glycerin and squalane (a natural oil derived from olives). Essential oils of sandalwood and geranium give it a nice scent. Personally, I had to switch to the richer Abundance cream both day and night as this lotion is really better suited to skin that produces a bit of natural oil.

Juice Boosters
All of the treatmemt products fall under the "Booster" category, including vitamin serums, exfoliating treatments and blemish control. The scrub and peel are packaged in glass jars while the serums and blemish treatment are in glass bottles with medicine dropper applicators.

Smooth Exfoliating Cream ($30 for 2oz jar)
This is a different take on the traditional scrub and I like it. This cream looks like a moisturizer, but it's actually a scrub made with tiny jojoba beads and honey that you smooth on dry (not wet) skin, massage in, and then rinse off. The moisturizing base is great for flaky or sensitive skin (it acts as a buffer), but the exfoliating action is effective enough for any skin type. Because you get more of a scrubby feeling when you massage the cream on dry (not wet) skin, even those of us used to exfoliating on a daily basis should be satisfied with using Smooth once or twice a week.

Clarity Blemish Clearing Gel ($40 for 2oz)
This fluid treatment can be used either to spot treat the occasional pimple, or mixed in with your moisturizer or other serum as an all-over preventative treatment. It's gentle but still effective, using sea algae extract, sugarcane extract, citrus extract, apple extract, organic liquid botanicals of willow bark and gotu cola, green tea extract, and essential oils of lavender, geranium, clary sage and palmarosa. I like to mix my serums, varying the number of drops of each depending on what my skin seems to need. On average, I use 2-3 drops of Clarity all over my face, twice a day, to keep breakouts at bay. If I have a spot that needs more attention, I apply a little more directly to that area.

Liquid Calm Soothing Serum ($40 for 2oz)
I also mix this with the other serums depending on how my skin is acting. This serum is more soothing in terms of how your skin feels rather than how it looks; I tried applying it directly to a red, broken-out area of my face, and it didn't really take the red away, but it made the skin feel less inflammed and irritated. If it took all the red away, it would be a perfect product! Liquid Calm contains sea algae extract, aloe vera, green teea extract, organic liquid botanicals of St. Johns wort and echinacea, superoxide dimutase (an anti-oxidant protein enzyme), vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin C, and essential oils of sandalwood, roman chamomile and german chamomile. I use 2-3 drops of this as well, twice a day over my whole face.

Wellspring Restoring Serum ($60 for 2oz)
This is the catch-all treatment product of the line. It has sea algae extract, green tea extract, squalane, organic liquid botanicals of nettle and rosebud, wheat germ oil, borage oil, oat beta gluten, superoxide dimutase, vitamins A and E, and essential oils of bulgarian rose absolute and rosewood. It helps boost moisture in the skin, and has anti-oxidant properties, anti-irritant properties. I use 3-4 drops in my "mix" twice a day over my whole face.

Green Apple Peel AHA Enzyme Treatment ($48 for 2oz jar)
Of all the Juice Beauty products, this one feels the most "active". This exfoliating mask contains organic apple juice, lemon juice, and raw cane sugar to start the surface exfolation (and tingle, so be prepared), then lactic acid, acetic acid, green tea, thyme, white willow bark (related to salicylic acid), sea minerals and grapeseed go a bit deeper to clear out pore debris and make the skin glow. I would recommend this only once a week at the most, and try painting it on thinly with a fan brush (less is more).

I've enjoyed my two months with Juice Beauty, and I've developed some favorites of the line (Pure Comfort, Clarity, Abundance, Smooth, Wellspring). If you are looking for something with botanicals and you're interested in supporting an organic line, Juice is a good one to try.

You can find Juice Beauty at Sephora.com, The SkinStore.com, and JuiceBeauty.com as well as by phone at 888-905-8423.

I hope you enjoyed this issue of The Cosmetic Report!