Product Review: Annmarie Gianni Skin Care

So recently I have had a lot of people ask me which Skincare products I use and it just so happens that the Anne Marie Gianni Skincare line has been kind enough to send me some products to trial. It was an interesting time as due to a lot of upheaval in my personal life as well as lots of travel I found my skin was really breaking out again. It was quite painful and clearly directly linked to stress and hormones (which really are antagonistic to one another). So this was a great opportunity to put these products to the test.

This self-proclaimed Organic skincare line is aesthetically quite simple with an impressive ingredient listing. Anne Marie has a number of products that are directly applicable to breakout and acne prone skin and I was really pleased to see that despite not having the organic certification she had certainly stuck firmly to the principles that would allow her to be eligible for Organic Certification. Those being that all ingredients must be natural and allowable by Organic Certification bodies which would be NOP and USDA in the states, as well as having 95% of ingredients being Organic.

Aloe Herb Cleanser

I have only one word for this cleanser – DIVINE! It was so smooth and easy to use. It had a lovely consistency and took off most of my makeup too leaving my skin feeling smooth, cleansed and moisturised. Despite having a breakout prone skin at various times over the last 7 years, I am in my mid 30’s so my challenge is always to find products that don’t dry out my skin as I really don’t suffer with excess oil and more often than not I find I am dehydrated if I am washing my face often to take off makeup. I really found this cleanser to be perfect for my skin and as it didn’t foam my skin never felt dry. It does use a natural surfactant which is a coco-glucoside and this works really well in the Aloe Vera and botanical base. The citrus essential oils in the cleanser were not strong and so they provided a good anti-bacterial edge without an overwhelming scent. I found this to be true of all the products. None of them smelt strongly and relied just as much on the botanical extracts and essential fatty acid based oils for their activity as on the essential oils.

Neroli Toning Mist

Quite simply as the name suggests this was an Orange Blossom (Neroli) floral water. It smelt lovely (aphrodisiac I am not sure! but uplifting definitely!)and had that typical slightly astringent profile of a good Orange Blossom hydrosol. A really great choice for a breakout prone skin to assist with finishing the cleansing process, and also prepping the skin for the moisturiser. My skin felt nicely balanced and I also occasionally used it to mix with the Ayurvedic Scrub.

Ayurvedic Facial Scrub

My first thought when I saw the little tub of raw powder was “OH NO – i have to mix it myself” which I really dislike doing as it usually puts me off using it at all. I find I am too busy most days to do this and it is usually messy and to be honest if I wanted to mix stuff up being an Aromatherapist I would generally make it myself not buy something. I like convenience!!! However the minute I tapped some of the grey innocuous looking powder into a blob of my Aloe Vera Cleanser I was converted !!!!!!!!!! This finely ground blend of organic healing herbs such as lemon balm and comfrey in a Rhassoul (also known as Ghaussoul derived from the Mountains fo Morocco) Clay base was not powdery or particularly messy at all. It worked phenomenally well and the actual experience of massaging it into my skin to exfoliate was very pleasant. I really noticed a difference in my skin’s texture over this period and remembered to use it twice a week which goes to show how much I enjoyed using it! A very original product – Impressed!! I need some more! I love that it can be mixed into whatever you need so you could mix it with the cleanser or the water or even an oil.

Herbal Facial Oil for Oily And Acne Prone skin

I am a HUGE fan of facial oils for ALL skin types as you will know if you have been following my articles. Made well these products can give you a nutritious blend of herbal healers, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. In right ratio’s you can appease all manner of skin conditions with an oil product and no one should go without, including oily skin types. Ordinarily my skin is not that oily so it was fitting that it did seem a little oilier when I got this product. I still didn’t feel like it was enough for my skin as it was a very fine oil and digested into the skin super quick which makes me think all those people that are adamant they don’t want to use an oil on their oily prone skin will just love this one! I was quite surprised that with sweet pungent oils such as may chang (Litsea Cubeba) and Clementine, as well as Frangipani that the smell of the product was not strong. However it was clearly working to take the redness out of my skin and help clear up the blemishes which I would largely put down to the white willow bark, green tea, licorice and carrot seed and other ingredients along those lines. Even though I found myself using my Waterlily range serums as an adjunct as this oil was just too fine for my skin I still felt that it was working and would not hesitate to recommend this to someone with a much oilier skin type than mine.

Overall my verdict was that the range was definitely made “with LOVE” as stated on the ingredients labels! The creativity that had gone into the different kinds of herbs ( horsetail and milk thistle) and unusual oils (buriti, passion fruit and red raspberry) that you just don’t see used a lot in other ranges showed a clear passion for being a leader in nutritious ingredients. And yes the products were definitely active and functional. There was plenty of adherence to my theories of making products digestible for the skin as well as incorporating lots of essential fats as well as plenty of plant medicines. Definitely a range that would appear on my skin’s ‘menu’! Until next skin dinner time….!

Annmarie Gianni’s skin care line is now available online. Click here to check it out >>