I sometimes feel like the youthful skin of my 20s is a pipe dream, no matter how many products I try. I feel like I’m trying a new routine every few years as the visible signs of aging continue to creep up. Now, with my 40th birthday around the corner, it’s time once again to find products that will help keep my skin hydrated and vibrant.
After reading lots of beauty blogs and researching countless brands, products, and formulas, I found that the clean beauty line Care Skincare is just what I – and other women like me – need to glow with gorgeous, youthful radiance.
What is Care Skincare?
I was first drawn to Care since its products are the results of one beauty executive acting on feedback from real women. During co-founder Ricardo Quintero’s years at Estee Lauder and Clinique, literally hundreds of women told him that their skincare routines were complicated, expensive, or just didn’t deliver. That’s why Ricardo and his wife Pilar spent years deeply researching the beauty products needed for an affordable, effective skincare routine.
Ricardo and Pilar took this information to a team of beauty experts with whom they developed their own simple and safe beauty products for women of all ages, skin types, and skin tones and at a fraction of the cost of overpriced department store brands. Care products are all made cruelty-free in Florida and have no fragrances, parabens, phthalates, mineral oils, or alcohol — all ingredients that may be irritating to skin. Care couples this safety with lower costs and a great value that come from function-over-fashion packaging and a direct-to-consumer model that ditches the price-raising middlemen.
These safety and quality measures are especially important to Pilar, who co-founded Care to create a beauty product that she and other women could use wherever, whenever no matter their circumstances. In the years before Care launched, Pilar had also begun following the clean beauty movement, and what she learned led to the brand’s fully considered name: The Quinteros genuinely care deeply about their customers’ happiness and safety. The Quinteros don’t just say that they feel this way – with their products, they show it.
What’s in the box?
With Care, the Quinteros make skincare uncomplicated, safe, and easy for women like you and me. The Complete Care Set contains five essential products for radiant and glowing skin, including:
1. Deep Moisture Fix Hydrating Water Cream
Care’s Deep Moisture Fix Hydrating Water Cream supports a nourished and radiant glow. You can also use it as a ultra-hydrating mask. Here’s some more info:
- Why you should use it: Deep Moisture Fix is versatile and great for on-the-go moments when you need to brighten your skin. It also protects and nourishes your skin.
- Key ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Caffeine, Aloe, Black tea ferment, Vitamin C
- How to use it: Apply Deep Moisture Fix directly to your face, neck, and décolletage in the morning, at night, or regularly throughout the day whenever you need some extra glow. You can apply the Deep Moisture Fix either on or below makeup, or you can use it as a hydrating mask that you leave on for five minutes. After you remove the excess cream used for your mask, rub this excess into your neck or hands.
- How it feels: Deep Moisture Fix is lightweight and creamy.
- Size: 1.7 oz.
- What the press thinks: Byrdie’s beauty editor called it “a pretty potent cocktail of goodness.”
- Number of five-star reviews: 89 out of 104 on Care’s website
2. Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream
Care’s Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream is formulated to address the special skin between your eyebrows and around your eyes and lips. It hydrates your skin while cutting back on dark circles and puffiness. Here’s some more info:
- Why you should use it: The Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream absorbs and sets quickly enough that it won’t drip into your eyes or mouth. It also hydrates your skin while stimulating collagen production.
- Key ingredients: Caffeine, Fatty acids, Black tea ferment, Safflower seed oil
- How to use it: Once in the morning and again in the evening, use your ring finger to apply the Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream. Carefully and gently rub your cream around your eyelids, between your eyebrows, and near your lips.
- How it feels: The Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream is cushiony and doesn’t drip or interfere with makeup.
- Size: 0.5 oz.
- What the press thinks: Huffington Post said that the Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream is a “dense cream with a light-diffusing finish that softens the look of fine lines and dark circles.”
- Number of five-star reviews: 28 out of 38 on Care’s website
3. Tireless Retinoid Night Serum
Care’s Tireless Retinoid Night Serum renews and repairs your skin overnight. It promotes the body’s natural skin cell generation using Granactive Retinoid™, widely seen as the gold standard of all anti-aging ingredients. Here’s some more info:
- Why you should use it: The Tireless serum reduces the appearance of pores and spots and encourages skin cell regeneration. The result is smooth, glowing, evenly toned skin. Consistency is key.
- Key ingredients: HPR retinols, Vitamin E, Caffeine, Squalane, Alpha-arbutin
- How to use it: Before bed, apply the Tireless serum to clean, undamped skin. You need just a few drops for your entire face, neck, and décolletage, and you should immediately follow serum application with moisturizer use. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, speak with a doctor first before starting a retinol routine.
- How it feels: The Tireless serum is lightweight and flows easily through a dropper.
- Size: 2 fl. oz.
- What the press thinks: A Bloomberg panel said that the Tireless serum “smoothed and tightened skin and even softened wrinkles.”
- Number of five-star reviews: 1 out of 1 on Care’s website
4. Soft Sweep Micellar Cleanser + Toner
Care’s Soft Sweep is a dual cleanser and toner that uses micelles as “tiny magnets” to clear your skin of impurities. Soft Sweep does this all while gently exfoliating and moisturizing your skin.
- Why you should use it: Soft Sweep simultaneously cleanses, tones, exfoliates, brightens, and hydrates your skin.
- Key ingredients: Aloe, Willow bark extract, Licorice root extract, Green tea leaf extract
- How to use it: Once in the morning and again in the evening, apply the Soft Sweep to a cotton ball or pad that you then gently rub on your face (just don’t get it in your eyes).
- How it feels: Soft Sweep is light and non-drying.
- Size: 8.0 oz.
- What the press thinks: Self Magazine included the Soft Sweep in its 2019 list of The 12 Best New Skin-Care Products for Combination Skin and described it as “Unlike other toners that can be harsh and drying on skin.”
- Number of five-star reviews: 22 out of 25 on Care’s website
5. The Everything Multi-level Moisturizer
The Everything Multi-level Moisturizer gives you everything you need from a serum but with the easier application and lush comfort of a cream. It bolsters your skin’s moisture barrier while conditioning and repairing dull, dry spots. Here’s some more info:
- Why you should use it: The Everything provides constant hydration and uses antioxidants and peptides to make your skin radiant. It’s the perfect moisturizer to use on the neck.
- Key ingredients: Squalane (plant-based), Fatty acids, Gotu kola extract, Black tea ferment, Turmeric root extract
- How to use it: Once in the morning and again in the evening, apply one or two pumps of the Everything to your face, neck, and décolletage. Make sure your skin is clean first!
- How it feels: The Everything is slightly stretchy but wears light.
- Size: 1.7 oz.
- What the press thinks: Blog Joie de Vivre says the Everything excels at “providing the benefits of a serum in the comfort of a cream.”
- Number of five-star reviews: 41 out of 45 on Care’s website
How I began my Care journey
Now that you know a lot about Care, you might be wondering how I found this brand and why I decided to start my skincare journey with them. Between the buzz in beauty blogs, positive reviews, and thoughtful product choices in the Complete Care Set (no more guesswork!), I was confident that Care took the guesswork out of my routine.
When my Complete Care Set arrived, I immediately noticed the elegant yet simple packaging. Unlike other brands with over-the-top and elaborate boxes with multiple wasteful and ultimately useless layers, Care got straight to the point without skimping on the visual appeal. It’s also entirely recyclable, because the Quinteros’ ethos includes caring for the earth too.
I officially started my Care skincare routine the morning after I got my Care box. After a warm shower, I gently dried my face and applied the Soft Sweep. I followed the non-drying toner with the Deep Moisture Fix, The Everything, and the Eye + Lip Nourishing Cream. With each new product I unboxed and applied, I noticed that Care felt super lightweight and my skin never once felt greasy or caked in thick cream. I repeated the same routine before I went to bed, with the addition of the Tireless serum between applying my Soft Sweep and Deep Moisture Fix.
I kept to this plan for 30 days to get a sense of whether Care would meet the hype. I also tried using the Deep Moisture Fix as a mask once a week to see whether this moisturizer was as versatile as Care claimed. At no point did I find the routine anywhere close to complicated enough to abandon it – and boy, am I glad I kept it up!
What’s the verdict?
After a month with Care, I saw that the brand undeniably meets its values: simplicity, affordably, results, and – above all – care. As Care says in its product listings, my skin appeared brighter, looked more even, and felt less dry. I knew I felt radiant, and my friends noticed it too — it didn’t take long before people were asking what changes I made to my routine.
I’m especially happy about two unique aspects of the Care set. The first is that the Care set includes not just one but two moisturizers – the Deep Moisture Fix and the Everything. I hadn’t previously been the type to try two moisturizers at once, but given the Quinteros’ extensive research and all the press raves, I figured now would be as good a time as any to try double-layering. I definitely felt a difference!
I also think my skin brightness, tone, and moisture improved because of my other favorite Care feature: The Granactive Retinoid™ in the Tireless serum. With other serums, I wondered whether I was wasting my money, but with the Tireless serum’s Granactive Retinoid™, I have no such qualms. I previously hadn’t considered that most skincare routines don’t adequately encourage the growth of new skin cells – instead, they just help improve the appearance of the skin you already have. Since the Tireless serum encourages new skin cell growth, it gives me radiant, pristine skin that shines with my much-sought early-20s glow.
In short, the verdict is: Care meets all the marks it sets for providing a straightforward, affordable, safe, effective skincare routine. The best part is that you too can get in on Care’s skincare improvements – and right now, you can do so with a limited-time discount.
How you can get started with Care
If my skincare goals sound like yours and you think Care would give you the results it’s provided for me, take advantage of this special offer from Care to get the complete set for $99 + FREE SHIPPING! This is a great deal on the set’s retail value of $182. This discount won’t last forever, so now is the time to act. Although the discount isn’t permanent, Care might just be the skincare routine change you make forever.