I was torn about making this review or not because this is not only a Romanian brand, but it’s also from a small business that is most likely not available outside of the country so it will probably not be interesting for those of you who are not from Romania. But, since I do like to share everything with you guys and this face cream is part of what I think makes my skin looks so amazing even through a very stressful month of December, I think it should be mentioned. Because even if you can’t get this exact face cream, maybe you can choose something similar if you’re like me and you want to use anti-aging products while still having other skin issues.

Grigorescu Cosmetics (or Cosmetice Grigorescu like it’s the Romanian name of the brand) is something that I found at a fair this last autumn in Sinaia. My mother asked me to bring her back a natural anti-aging face cream because she had some positive experiences in the past with those types of products. I got this face cream from a stand where a young man was presenting the products, but I didn’t have many options. It was either him or two other girls and honestly, his face cream was more affordable. I don’t know anything about this brand asides from the fact that it’s a family owned small business and they’re from the city of Constanta. The face cream came back to me again because my mother didn’t like it but I decided to give it a try because I hate throwing away products that I buy because I feel like I’m throwing my money away.

Packaging:

The face cream comes in a glass jar with a lid and it contains 70 grams. The jar was really packed, up to the lid so they really put as much product as they could in there. There is also a cute purple and blue label on it with the ingredients and all, so the main information is available on the packaging, which is important to note because some small brands are lacking in this department.

Texture:

This is where it become tricky. While the cream does feel nourishing on the skin and it has a pleasant scent, it does come off as very thick and a little bit greasy. That’s why my mother didn’t like it and that’s why I use it only in the evening. A little does go a long way. For example, you don’t need as much for one use as I put on the back on my hand just for the purpose of taking the picture.

Ingredients:

Sweet almond oil, grape seed oil, shea butter, bees wax, vitamin A, vitamin E, neroli essential oil (bitter orange blossom oil) and lemongrass essential oil.

This is an all-natural face cream. No preservatives, no parabens no anything. The vitamin E is the one thing that acts like a light preservative. So, it’s all just good stuff for your skin.

Price and accessibility:

Like I said, these products are available only online, through the brand’s online shop. Or, if you’re from Romania, you may find them at handmade fairs. It’s sold for about 11 euros, which may seem like a bit much, but not really considering the prices of skin care nowadays, plus it’s a handmade products and it really does last for a long time. I use it for a month now and I didn’t even use a quarter of that jar.

My overall opinion:

Look, I get why my mother didn’t want to bother with this cream because it goes rather thick on the skin and it doesn’t completely absorb. It feel like vaseline, probably because of the bees wax, It does feel like a hard body butter, the kind you have to warm between your hand before you can apply it on the skin. But, the ingredients do their job. Yes, my skin does look oily when I go to bed and I can’t say that I like that effect. But strange enough, not only didn’t it break me out, but my acne is a lot better . In the sense that I had none for a few weeks now. Not even the occasional white heads that I often used to get. So, I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t break me out and my skin looks and feels amazing in the morning. Of course, I do cleanse my face in the morning, but I feel like this face cream makes my skin look and feel good and it contains only natural ingredients.

I don’t know yet if I would repurchase it because it is a little bothersome to feel something a bit greasy on the face at night, but I do want to try more natural face creams because I feel like this return to basics that i did over the last few weeks is better than any other expensive skin care. yes, I still use a ”normal” moisturizer in the morning but I will try and replace it. I have my eye on another brand of handmade cosmetics to try something from them, but if I don’t like them, I just might repurchase this cream from Grigorescu Cosmetics to use it in the evening because my skin looks so good and for the first time in a log time I no longer feel the need to use foundation. I will tell you all about my complete morning and evening skin care routine which is extremely simple now and mostly consists of all natural products and I do believe that it saved my skin, but this will be a separate blog post.

So, what I’m saying is, don’t dismiss natural cosmetics. Sometimes, I think the skin just needs natural ingredients without the added stuff and synthetic ingredients from the labs. Just look around at your local fairs. You may find all kinds of little gems there!