St. Botanica - Product Review worth the hype?

Hi Everyone,

I am back again after a long hiatus. Things always don't go as we planned and my content creation journey is one such. Every time I try and stick to the plan something major comes up that I cannot stick to the schedule I had initially thought of, especially considering the entire lifecycle from content idea - to execution - to post production - to the final scheduling and posting takes tremendous effort and time.

Anyway, I am back now and I want to stick around this time and be super consistent. This week I am here with two products from St. Botanica one would be their hair care range and the other skincare range. Let's look at each of them in detail below.

https://youtu.be/6BodWvkXFsc

I have linked the YouTube link for the detailed review, however, if you are in a position not to listen or watch the video here is the gist of the video

Please note this is an honest review and it is not sponsored. This is my personal opinion and considering we are all different individuals and our hair and skin is very unique, your opinions may differ and hence the product links are provided.

1. St. Botanica - Moroccan Argain Hair Conditioner

Product Link: Check it out here.

Review:

I bought a 500 ml bottle for Rs. 899 from Amazon. The link I provided above is for Rs. 399 and a 100 ml bottle.

The bottle claims it has pure ingredients like Argan Oil, Vitamin E, Avocado oil, Wheat protein etc., and it is free from Parabens and Sulphate. The ingredients and the values such as Cruelty free, Vegan etc of the brand looks on point and promising .

However, the claims and the results were showing me otherwise. I tried this product on my hair with various permutation and combination such as 1. Oiling hair, followed by Shampoo and Botanica conditioner, 2. No oil, different shampoo and Botanica conditioner, 3. Oil Different Shampoo and Botanica conditioner etc., no matter how many times I gave this is a try with various combinations I still didn't feel any difference in my hair.

In fact, it made my hair very limp, dry and frizzy. It also ended up giving me an oily scalp within 24 hours and I had to wash hair the very next day. Not to mention, I have very fine hair and not voluminous in spite of that I had to squirt out a lot of product to cover my hair. This is not something I expect in a conditioner.

The product mentions it is for all hair type but I am not sure if it is specifically designed to handle humid weather like Mangalore as it absolutely did not work out for me. This is a hard no for me.

2. St. Botanica - Vitamin C 20% + Vitamin E & Hyaluronic Acid Professional Face Serum

Product link: Check out the product here.

Review:

I bought the product from Amazon for Rs. 1199 for a 20 ml bottle. But currently, they are offering it at a price of Rs. 899 for 20 ml.

Vitamin-C can be quite tricky when introduced to skincare routine, so I wanted to be less judgemental of this product. Again as with the hair conditioner, I did give this multiple tries but to my utter disappointment this was a fail as well.

The product mentions it is for all skin types and is ok for every day use. However, a serum of such high concentration cannot really be used on normal, dry on sensitive skin. It needs to be used with precaution. A warning on the product might have been a good start.

Considering skincare is such a hype right now and everyone wants to join the bandwagon as it should be, given we really need to take care of our skin, it can be quite tricky when brands come up with stronger ingredient products with no warnings.

People with normal, dry and sensitive skin should ideally start with just 5% of Vitamin-C in their skincare and level up as and when required if their skin is able to tolerate it. At any given point, Vitamin-C above 20% is ineffective and the skin will reject it.

I have used Vitamin-C in the past with great results, however, this particular brand ended up irritating my skin a lot and caused acne in spite of taking care of the perquisites such as squeaky clean face before the application and switching from night to day care instead.

The YouTube link I provided above also has some details towards the end as to how can you introduce Vitamin-C in your skincare routine, what are the Do's and Don'ts and the benefits of using Vitamin-C in general. Do check it out if that is something you would like to know.

I hope this blog was somewhere helpful in deciding if these products or the brand is worth your money or not. Let me know if you have used any of their products and if it has worked out for you or if you would like me to try something and review it.

Thanks for reading this. You can follow me on my instagram: @gaana_bhat or @withlove_gaana and also, please don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell notification on my YouTube channel for latest updates on product reviews. I would love it if you could share this with your friends so we all can help each other out and grow as a community.

- with love,

Gaana 💕