My very fave is: Borba Clarifying Microdiamond Cleanser:
($18, Borba)Borba products are a complete line of "cosmeceuticals" created by Scott-Vincent Borba, who's basically like a fancy skincare guy who looks like the type of fancy, happy guy they'd bring in to fix your face on makeover shows. Anyway, he created a ton of skin products, ranging from vitamin powders you mix into water to look like Mary-Kate Olsen or something to cleansers to even gummi bears infused with acai and green tea extract:
No lie. You're only supposed to eat a few a day, but of course I ate the whole bag in one sitting and almost barfed, and we all know barfing's bad for your skin. Good thing I didn't.
But back to the Clarifying Micro-Diamond Cleanser: it's actually created for oily-prone skin, which my skin isn't, but regardless, this stuff is fantastic. It's soft, smooth and smells light and clean, much like the product itself, which contains pomegranate, walnut and soybean extracts and hydrolyzed cotton fibers. The cleanser also has little "micro-diamond" beads that exfoliate and clean your pores, so by the time you're done, your skin is super soft and silky with zero grease factor or tightness. I definitely had way fewer skin mortses (perhaps because it cleans so well) after using this stuff.
My only beefs:
1.) The Website is poorly organized and the product names seem confused -- there appear to be several different vague names for the same product -- Like, is this the same as this? And it looks like the Micro-Diamond Cleanser used to be the Fiber-Knit Facial Cleanser, which is the product I initially bought and used and loved, but now it looks like it's been discontinued and reborn into the Micro-Diamond Cleanser. But those complaints are pretty minor as a user (though I do have a minor in Technical & Scientific Communication, so you can see from where my taxonomic distress stems.)
2.) SHIT'S HARD TO FIND! Sephora used to sell Borba products until about a month or two ago, when I went in and had to ask about three different salespeeps who looked at me like I asked them to please show me something with good gas mileage and comes with a stereo, until finally I found a saleswoman who informed me that Borba products were "unceremoniously removed" from Sephora. (Ooh! Beauty scandal!) She did say they they're available at Ulta -- a tip I appreciated, except a.) there isn't an Ulta anywhere near me, and b.) like a giant squid, I've never seen an Ulta with my own eyes, so I'm not even fully confident they actually exist.
So, looks like I'll be doing my buying at Borba.com. Cool.
