Photograph from Skin Functional.

One last thing – and I’m going to put this in bold so everyone hears it loud and clear:

Your skin does not define your beauty. You do not need to spend money on products to look or feel beautiful. There is no skincare product that will “fix” a skincare concern that is rooted in an unhealthy lifestyle. There is absolutely nothing wrong with showing signs of ageing. I really don’t want this to be about putting even more pressure on women. This is for people who enjoy celebrating themselves through skincare. 

I really appreciate the way the website is laid out. You can sort products by skin concern, age, skin type and active ingredients; making it a lot easier to figure out what you actually want. 

The website is packed with accessible information. Every product has been very well thought-out and is accompanied by a full explanation of which ingredients are doing the leg-work, what results you can expect from the product, how to properly use it, who it is suitable for, safety tips and even down to the details of the pH level of the product. 

At the time of writing this, I have been using the Smoothing Gel  (Retexturising Honey) and the Anti-Oxidant Complexion Firmer (10% Ascorbic Acid + 3% Ferulic Acid) for two weeks. In the grand scheme of things, two weeks isn’t very long, especially when talking about skincare. However, I haven’t had any bad reactions; I’ve actually had good reactions. If I did have any bad reaction or found out something not so lekker about the brand, I’d take down this post. So the fact that you’re reading this means that, to my knowledge, so far so good. 

I have noticed a general improvement in my skin. Kind of like an airbrushed thing going on. My skin wasn’t bad to begin with but the positive change is visible enough for me to attribute it to these products (I haven’t changed anything else about my skincare or lifestyle). Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t like unicorn juice that will instantly perfect your skin. My skin still looks like skin with pores and wrinkles (yes I have some wrinkles at 23, and I’m totally fine with it) and spots etc. but overall, it looks tighter and smoother. Which is pretty much exactly what the products claimed to do. 

So if I had to say what my skin type is, I’d probably say dry and relatively sensitive. The Vitamin C serum (Anti-Oxidant Complexion Firmer) isn’t recommended for sensitive skin but mine seemed to manage perfectly fine. I did notice a tiny bit of tingling in a couple of spots for a few seconds but it wasn’t anything uncomfortable. As far as I understand, that’s a fairly normal reaction to a Vitamin C product. I didn’t notice any other signs of irritation or redness from either of the products.

The delivery of the products was quick and easy so no issues there.

They even went as far as personalizing a skincare routine for me, based on the products I had purchased. The package also included some nice concise information on which products you should and shouldn’t mix.

I think the price is actually very reasonable. Skincare, in general, isn’t cheap. But if I think about the value for money, I’d definitely order from them again. I really didn’t feel like I needed to sell an organ to get my hands on a couple of things.

I didn’t sit and look through every single ingredient on every product. I honestly don’t have time for that. But in general, it did seem like they did stay true to the non-toxic claim. There were a couple of ingredients that did show up on some lists of ingredients to avoid but those same ingredients were said to be fine on other sites, so really who even knows at this point. My personal judgement is that their ingredients are pretty good but I could easily be proven wrong and if you know something that I don’t, please tell me!

I genuinely had a really good experience with Skin Functional as a whole. Great value for money, fantastic resources and pretty awesome results. Please drop a comment below if you know of any other skincare brands in South Africa that I might enjoy. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!