I had high hopes for it, as I'm sure many of you did. However it's not awesome. I didn't expect miracles, I'm a realistic person, but it just doesn't work for me. My skin does get a bit oily in the t-zone, and it gets extremely dry and flaky from acne medication. I don't have acne all over my face, just a few pimples here and there, but since I am a girl, I do get breakouts around that time of the month. MaxClarity did not get me through my "special time."
The reason I started this was because I was tired of Proactiv. My mom got me Proactiv a few years ago and I've been off and on with it. When their new "gentler, creamier" version came out I was excited and re-bought it. Unfortunately, the cleanser still feels like tiny (aka "micro") shards of glass being rubbed all over my face for 2 minutes. That's not exactly how I want to wake up in the morning, or go to sleep at night. My face gets all red and sometimes it hurts for an hour afterwards...nothing I do makes it better.
Anyway, MaxClarity Foam Deep Cleanser definitely doesn't make my face burn...but it also doesn't do much. It does however make my face feel like I just had a face lift. It's so stiff even before I use the Acne Treatment--afterwards I need to put on lotion so I can apply my liquid makeup. Ya okay maybe I shouldn't wear coverup, but there's a reason I'm using acne treatments. And yes, I do need lotion for the makeup to go on evenly and nicely--I've tried many of them and I really like this one (blog coming soon) so I don't want to stop using it. In any case, I'm worried that if I use lotion I'll undo the whole treatment thing.
Also most acne treatment have 3 steps--1 cleanser, 2 toner, 3 treatment--in that order. This system tells you to use cleanser and treatment in the morning---cleanser toner at night. The lack of directions is really annoying. The 1 paper that came with it lists the directions as I said above, and on the actual bottles it says to use the cleaner-treatment routine more then once a day.
Another thing is that the 2 month batch they sent you definitely doesn't last that long. The bottles are small, and you use some of them (cleanser and treatment) more then the toner. One thing to watch out for is getting the foam out. Make sure you shake, and listen to them when they say point the nozzle straight down. Also the cleaner expands a lot. So press it a little bit and wait a second to see how much it expands and then use more if you needed. The Toner is the least dense so it doesn't expand as much. You don't need a lot of Cleanser. When you try it out you'll see what I mean (that is if you decide to buy it after this review). As you massage the Cleaner in your skin it will feel very soft (since it is foam), no shards of glass here!
So you know the system does come with a Foaming Wash which I mostly use for my face--it's advertised to be used on the body, but it doesn't really foam much.
Back to Proavtiv--Cleanser is made of shards of glass that cut and and make your face red and irritated--the Toner has something in it that makes the Cleanser hurt you even more by increasing the redness--the Treatment does work sometimes but you need to wait forever for it to sink into the skin so you can put on makeup and get out the door. That Refining Mask they keep advertising lately does have some good points:
1. dries out pimples in a couple of nights (definitely not overnight ) 2. better then the spot Treatment.
However it smells really bad and obviously dries the skin around the pimple because that is unavoidable so I usually get nickel size dry disgusting patches for a week after my pimple goes away. It's really bad because even if you put on lotion (even the moisturizer which comes with Proactiv) it can't moisturize it enough and putting on liquid makeup makes it look horrible! I can't wear any makeup when I have the dry patches. I would show you a picture but I vowed never to use the Refining Mask ever again. I did give it a try for many months. I'm not just making these accusations out of thin air.
Okay so I'll stop babbling. Here is a summarizing table.
Cleanser | Toner | Treatment | Extras | |
Proactiv | · Shards of glass · redness, irritation, pealing, burning · fresh-ish feeling · gets rid of makeup and oil | · Enhances the irritation done by the Cleanser · too liquidy · uses up fast · needs cotton ball or other applicator | · Slow absorption · works decently · definitely gets used up faster then the other 2 · too small | Moisturizer · bad smell (like Vaseline) · doesn’t moisturize well · very small Refining Mask · way too drying · smell is horrible · works after a few night |
MaxClarity | · Expands a lot when the nozzle is pushed · Doesn’t get rid of makeup · Extremely drying · Fast absorption | · Fresh · not much use for it; didn’t see a difference · only goes on at night | · Extremely drying · Uses up very fast · Goes on clean · Absorbs fast | · Foaming wash: not very foamy, descent · Good as a body wash · Has some “beads” in it |
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