Spend-Worthy: Suki Skincare

I’m taking a big step here by personally recommending a skin-care brand. Since hitting my teenager years over a decade ago, it is safe to say that I have spent more money (both mine & my parents’) on beauty products than I have on food.

After adopting a fully-sustainable lifestyle over 5 years ago, I’ve spent my money on nothing but eco-friendly options. Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed many times & pass my “misses” onto to mum, who happily uses anything she gets for free (while I’m just trying to replace her addiction to Suave).

For the past 4-5 months, I’ve reeled in my spending & haven’t had the chance to try anything new. As expected, my list of skin care brands I want to try continues to grow. At the top of that list? It’s always been suki.

Why suki? Lots of reasons!

+ Ingredient lists I can always pronounce, which include nothing but natural, organic, fair trade & local ingredients.

+ All products are certified cruelty-free.

+ Sublime packaging that is easily reusable & recyclable.

+ An uber-impressive rating from the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (though not all of their products are listed yet).

+ Company founder, president, and sole formulator, Suki Kramer is in her 40s, but looks 23 – if anything, that should be all the proof you need that these products work!

Mentioned in nearly ever major magazine, suki is an even more amazing company than I realized. A few fun facts that I learned recently: all products are made & shipped from their factory in Northampton, Massachusetts (about an hour from me!); 100% owned by Suki herself and staffed 95% by women; active supporter of 16 worthy non-profit organizations, including the Clean Water Fund, Co-op America, Friends of the Earth, Breast Cancer Fund, and Cancer Prevention Coalition.

OK, so I love what suki stands for … but I’m not going to recommend something if I haven’t tried it myself. The opportunity to test a few suki products, selected especially for my skin (see them in the picture above, which I took in my bathroom), presented itself and I jumped at the chance!

For the past month, I’ve been using sukiface transformative cleansing clay and sukispa bio-active purifying face serum twice a day, every day. It was less than a week before I started seeing results: smaller blemishes, less redness, more even skin tone, and less newly-formed blemishes. The results only got better as I kept using the 2 products. Right now, I have one zit … just one; that hasn’t happened in years. I’m still a bit flabbergasted at how well this stuff works – I’m just waiting for my skin to break out in a zit orgy (but keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t).

The only drawback? Cost – $43.95 and $75 respectively. I’ve been looking for an all-natural, DIY recipe to help keep my skin clear, but in over a year of research, I have yet to find one that really works. If you could only splurge on one skin care product, I’d recommend the sukispa line of serums. Yes, they are $75-80 a piece, but since you only use 2-4 drops with each application, they last 1-2 months before you need to buy more. They strong, concentrated, and powerfully effective.

Sometimes, the old saying is undeniably true – you get what you pay for.

[Image taken by Victoria Klein]