We asked two beauty journalists to use our skincare for a month- here's their honest review.
In my past life, I was a beauty journalist at ELLE UK magazine, followed by a short stint at Women’s Health before taking the helm at Byrdie UK - an online magazine for beauty and wellbeing devotees. During those 15 years, I tried the best of the best skincare products, which means I have a critical eye when it comes to stocking up my bathroom cabinet.
Nowadays, as wellbeing editor at Rituals, I have become a true fan of the brand but, if I’m being honest, I just didn’t trust that our skincare care would stack up against the high-priced, doctor-driven brands I usually choose. And so, I called on two fellow beauty editors, who have their fair share of incredible products and treatments at their disposal, to use our skincare exclusively for a month. My two stipulations – they had to have a Visia Scan before and after to record their skin quality - markers like texture, pore size, pigmentation and inflammation were all recorded. The second? They had to be completely honest and unbiased about their experience using our products. Here’s how they got on.
Shannon Peter
Skin Type/Concern: Combination (oily/normal), main concern pigmentation
Rituals does skincare? I’m embarrassed to admit that even I, a seasoned beauty editor, had no idea. I’m a fully paid-up member of the Rituals bath and body fan club (there’s no body wash more satisfying than the Foaming Shower Gel, trust me), but for the skin that resides above the neck? It was yet to experience any kind of Rituals magic. Needless to say, a month-long trial of a Rituals skincare regime tailored to my exact concerns was a task I couldn’t turn down.
Luckily for me, my skin has always been fairly balanced. But now, with a ten-month-old baby in tow, I had a new set of pain points to contend with: dullness, dryness and tired-looking eyes. A Visia scan confirmed it. This clever tech takes multispectral images of your face to analyse everything from redness to blemishes, wrinkles to sun damage. My diagnosis? While my skin age was a charming 9 years below my actual age of 32, my areas of concern were dark spots, sun damage and a general sense of dullness.
My new routine was simple yet comprehensive – and definitely more targeted than the slapdash approach I had been taking since giving birth.
Morning routine:
Micellar Water
Vitamin C* Booster
Glow Eye Cream
Lightweight Moisturiser
SPF 50 Daily Advanced Moisturiser
Evening routine:
Melting Cleansing Balm
Micellar Water
PHA and Provitamin B5 Booster
Niacinamide Booster
Glow Night Cream
Shop all our skincare products here.
The experience:
The first thing I noted was how Rituals’ skincare perfectly balances real results and a laser focus on ingredients with the more (dare I say it) ritualistic nature of a skincare routine. As such, the textures are nothing short of heavenly: the serum boosters are silky to slip over the complexion without rendering it sticky; the cleanser transforms from a rich balm to a soft milk that rinses away with ease; and the night cream is suitably decadent and blanketing. My only gripe about texture? I wish someone warned me that a little (and I mean, a little) of the eye cream goes a very long way – on first use, I felt like I was patting it in for five minutes!
A notable mention goes to the sunscreen. It feels as hydrating as it is protective, and although it is necessarily thick, it sinks into near-invisibility. And I’m impressed with the range of serum boosters – you can mix and match to suit almost your every skin concern.
If I were to tweak anything about the formulas? Perhaps the scent. While my skin isn’t sensitive to fragrance, I tend to prefer my skincare unscented although I have a feeling that would detract from the overall sensorial experience created here.
The results:
So yes, the products are a joy to use. But do they work? I definitely felt a marked difference in hydration within a week or so, and friends commented on my glow – even through the fuzz of a Facetime screen. A fortnight in, and on ultra close inspecting, I had started to see a reduction in the smattering of hyperpigmentation that tops my cheeks.
When the 30 days were up, my follow-up Visia scan was just as celebratory. There was a marked improvement in dark spots (+5% improvement on the right and +4% improvement on the left) while on a visual basis, I swear my skin looks and feels brighter, bouncier and more hydrated. I’m pretty sure a fair few of these formulas will be entering my permanent skincare rotation from here on out.
Mica Ricketts
Skin Type/Concern: Oily, enlarged pores
Despite working in the beauty industry for the best part of a decade, I have never had a skin scan. In truth, I’ve always been self-conscious about my skin. I think most people with acne will relate, but as a teenager I would do anything I could to draw attention away from the angry cysts and red spots that would plague my skin. Now that I’m 35, my breakouts are less unpredictable, but I still have lots of discoloration and scarring left from past spots—and hormonal spots are still a monthly occurrence.
When it comes to Rituals, I swear by the foaming shower gels, salt scrubs and body creams, as for their skincare I have to be honest and say that it really wasn’t on my radar. So, the chance to really put the Rituals skincare lineup through its paces definitely appealed to my journalistic side.
The initial results from my Visia scan weren’t all that surprising. My skin type was oily, naturally, and the main areas that the therapist identified as having room for improvement were pores—I have a lot of very visible and enlarged pores—and pigmentation in the skin from brown spots on the surface and UV damage beneath.
I have to admit that I was a little sceptical when I received my new Rituals routine I was going to be trying over the following 28 days. I’m used to trying a lot of different products for work and I’m no stranger to a more potent formulation. This new routine seemed a whole lot more pared-back and gentle.
Morning Routine:
Cleansing foam
Vitamin C* booster
Hydrating eye cream
SPF 50 Daily Advanced Moisturiser
Evening Routine:
Melting Cleansing Balm
Velvety Smooth Cleansing Foam
Niacinamide booster
Hyaluronic acid booster
Hydrating eye cream
Glow night cream
Weekly Treatments (alternate each week):
Purifying charcoal mask
Enzyme cleansing powder
Shop all our skincare products here.
The experience:
The thing that jumped out most to me was the lack of salicylic acid—an ingredient I swear by in my usual routine for keeping my skin clear, calm and decongested—so I was interested to see how my spot-prone skin would adjust without it.
I have to say, the products really do deliver. The velvety smooth cleansing foam has a beautiful cloud-like texture that lathers up on the skin to leave it fresh and clean without feeling stripped of a morning, while the cleansing balm was one of my favourite products of all—a luxurious gel-to-oil texture infused with sweet almond oil and moringa that smells incredible and left my skin so bright and glowy. My skin got on well with both and I thoroughly enjoyed the cleansing step of the routine both evening and night.
The boosters were also a surprise hit for me. The vitamin C* booster smelt lovely and definitely helped to illuminate my often-tired looking skin (I have two young kids so sleep is in short supply), while the niacinamide appeared to keep my blemishes in check throughout the month with the hyaluronic acid adding a nice dose of hydration.
The one thing that I definitely missed in my routine was a daytime moisturiser. Despite being oily I do like to use a day cream before my SPF and while the Rituals sun protection did have a hydrating texture that I’m sure would be moisturising enough for some, I felt that my skin was starting to get a little dry later in the day. The SPF 50+ itself sank in really well and didn’t look at all chalky as some do, but personally I prefer an SPF that has a little extra luminosity or glow to it as I’m often in a rush and find that a more radiant SPF can double as my make-up base for the day. The glow-boosting night cream, however, I adored—it was quenching, brightening and I actually would have been happy enough to use this during the day too. A surprise hit for me as someone who can be incredibly fussy with moisturisers.
Lastly, the treatments. I have to be totally honest here and say that if I’d had to use these any more frequently than once a week then I probably would have given up as I like my skincare masks and topical treatments to be fast and easy to use. (What can I say? I’m lazy!) Both the charcoal mask and the enzyme powder have to be mixed with water to transform them into a paste that can be massaged onto the skin, which in itself felt too much effort for me. However, I do have to say that the enzyme powder was actually very good. Infused with papaya and pineapple fruit enzymes, it really did seem to nibble away at the dead, dull skin cells leaving looking instantly brighter and feeling smooth. The charcoal mask was nice—it definitely dialled down excess shine and made my skin look a little tighter and more fresh—but the fact you have to leave it in for 20 minutes just felt a little too long without a dramatically transformative result.
The Results:
Coming off the back of a really busy month where I’d also been taken out for a week with flu, I was surprised at how good my skin was looking when I returned to the clinic. My usual hormonal breakout a couple of weeks prior hadn’t hung around for as long as usual, and there was very little pigmentation left behind from the spots that I usually get around that time. Before we sat down to get the results, Evita, the therapist, even commented on how fresh my skin was looking and that it seemed visibly less inflamed and congested than when she had seen me previously.
To me, the most impressive result was the improvement in UV spots—coming down from 66% to 52% in just a few weeks—which was a really pleasant surprise for me. While my other areas of concern—pores and brown spots—weren’t markedly different, these are definitely areas that can take a little longer to target in comparison with things like hydration and texture. The fact that both myself and the clinic therapist thought that my skin looked markedly smoother, more even and less congested was testament enough to me that these skincare products work and I’d happily incorporate the cleansers, boosters and SPF into my regular routine going forwards.
Our reviewers were paid for their reviews but were asked to write a 100% honest and unbiased account of their experience with our products. The Visia Scans were paid in full by Rituals at ClinicBe.
