SKINCARE | Don’t buy products from Herbivore Botanicals

You know me and my obsession with natural skincare products. I started to be interested in Herbivore Botanical‘s products after finding out about their Blue Tansy mask. This was at the height of my blogging days, and I had enough skincare for up to eight lifetimes, but I still bought a jar to try. I love blue tansy as an ingredient, and May Lindstrom’s the Blue Cocoon is one of my saviour products. A few months later, I noticed that my Blue Tansy mask, which used to be a beautiful ocean blue colour, is now grey, smelled weird, and also much thicker in texture. This is example #1.

I didn’t think much of it, and I continued being obsessed with their products, ordering a skincare kit which contained travel sizes of the Pink Cloud cream, Prism exfoliating serum, and the Rose Hibiscus spray. As a skincare hoarder, I bought it and never opened it, leaving it in the box, sealed tight, for a few months. I ordered it in November 2018, and come July 2019 when I was finally ready to use it, I opened the box to find that my Prism serum, which is supposed to be transparent, is now a weird brown murky colour, and Pink Cloud cream had essentially dried up in the jar.

I reached out to Herbivore on Instagram asking about this, and they said that their products are all natural so colour discolouration is normal. However it doesn’t explain why Pink Cloud essentially dried up in the jar. While Pink Cloud was still usable, it is no longer that whipped texture, and is instead slightly hard and needs a few spritzes of the Rose Hibiscus Spray to become spreadable.

Now, right before I discovered the mess of NEW products I had from Herbivore, silly me made another order, this time because they were offering a 30% discount and a free mini of the Bakuchiol Serum. I love retinol, and any products that claims to have retinol-like benefits, I latch onto and won’t let go. So I ordered some products for the promo. While I haven’t received it in the mail yet, I see a post by Chemist Confessions on Instagram talking about the lack of protective packaging used by Herbivore.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Chemist Confessions (@chemist.confessions)

This really made me think that YES! Despite Herbivore’s products all containing some kind of active ingredient, coupled by the lack of preservatives, means that they should be trying HARDER to put their products in airtight containers which will prevent oxidization, right? But no, they do not. Their products are clearly drying out in the bottle, and are turning bad earlier than they should be. This is a sign that the ingredients contained within the products are not as effective as they should be, and may even be completely ineffective.

Oh, and don’t forget this Reddit post about contaminated products made by Herbivore… Do you want to be putting mold on your face?

If you’ve noticed that I haven’t linked a single product here, it was done deliberately because I really don’t want you to buy their products. There are SO many products and brands out there that are equally, if not more amazing, and you really shouldn’t have to waste money on Herbivore’s products with the selection we’re faced with today.

Just another disclaimer that I’m not a scientist, I’m just some girl on the internet who loves skincare and who works hard at her day job so she can go and buy skincare products. Just based on that alone, I wouldn’t recommend buying Herbivore. Spend your hard-earned money somewhere else!

I purchased everything mentioned in this post. All opinions are my own, and based on my personal use and experience of the products.