*Disclaimer* This post is just my opinion on some of MB’s products and some facts about MB! This is not a post to attack MB or those who like using it!

Mario Badescu has to be one of the most popular skincare lines. Those with sensitive skin have definitely heard of Mario Badescu before as it is mainly directed for sensitive and acne prone skin.

But do you know what’s actually going on with the company and their products? If you’ve experienced breakouts and other forms of distressed skin from their products, you’re not the only one.

Here’s what I’ll talk about:

• Is Mario Badescu a Reliable Company?
• The Tea on Their Most Popular Products
  • Facial Sprays
  • Drying Lotion
  • Enzyme Cleansing Gel
• Is Mario Badescu Worth the $$?
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Is Mario Badescu a Reliable Company?

Mario Badescu is one of the most widley known skincare companies. It’s sold at Ulta, Sephora, Amazon, and sometimes Walgreens.

Since it’s so popular, it must be a pretty legit company right?

Well, in 2013, ex-workers of MB filed a lawsuit against the company for failing to reveal the use of extrememly strong steroids in their products. These steroids were proven to have detrimental effects on the skin:

• dry, red, irritated skin
• enlarged capillaries
• risk skin atrophy (makes the skin EXTREMELY thin)
• ETC

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t really know this lawsuit stuff until I actually started doing the research.

Oh, everyone else knows? I probably just live under a rock.

A previous fan of MB from observer.com now claims the brand is “a horrible, unethical company” after using the products and developing miserable skin from them.

When the steroids were removed from the products, the sudden removal only contributed in the skin of customers to react even more. MB literally made their customers’ skin addicted to their products… the withdrawl symptoms were not good:

“The number of panicked messages I [blogger of observer.com ] get from readers reporting dry, itchy, red, irritated, broken out skin after using Mario Badescu is significant enough to constitute a trend.”

Hm. Yikes.

Furthermore, MB claims it makes its products with “simple, gentle, fresh-botanical-based ingredients.” I don’t know about you, but steroids above the reccommended prescription level that could deform my skin doesn’t sound very gentle.

While MB’s products probably don’t have steroids (or something else that’s bad) anymore, I can’t say that the company is very trustworthy, as they clearly care more about making profit than their customers’ skin.

Their Most Popular Products

MB’s most popular products are the Facial Mist Sprays (seriously, I see them everywhere!), the Drying Lotion, and the Enzyme Cleansing Gel.

1. Facial Mist Sprays- $7

When I first became a skincare junkie, I would constantly hear all these great things about MB for sensitive skin and their facial sprays. I’d also see a lot of Youtube videos/Tik Toks where they would have a bunch of MB products and aesthetically spray it onto their face.

For one thing, the spray bottle doesn’t spray evenly at all. When I used it, the spray wouldn’t be an even, fine spray like it was in the Youtube videos.

Second, while the product contains a lot of hydrating ingerdients, there are a lot of harsh fragrances and dyes. These ingredients can definietely upset sensitive skin if you’re not careful. With the exception of a few filler humectants to hydrate your skin, the sprays mainly contain water and fragrance.

2. The Drying Lotion- $17

Lets break down the ingredients list first: The first ingredient is Isospryl Alcohol- aka rubbing alcohol. As the name suggests, this drying lotion deprives your skin and those pimples of moisture. If you don’t already know, most alcohols dehydrate your skin. This is great to remove the moisture from those large pimples, but puts your skin at risk for more redness, sensitivity, itching, and scarring- especially if the product contains Benzoyl Peroxide or Salicylic Acid which both react negatively with Isospryl Alcohol.

To balance out these risks, there is calamine (the pretty pink stuff at the bottom). Calamine is used to treat minor itching and minor reactions. Zinc Oxide is also to help prevent rashes/reactions to the harsh drying products. Finally, the product also includes a common humectant, Glycerin. This draws a little moisture back into your skin.

But does this product actually work?

Yes it does, but you should be cautious if you have sensitive skin.

3. Enzyme Cleansing Gel- $14

The first couple of ingredients in this includes water, glycerin, and a couple of emulsifiers (allows ingredients to mix), papaya and grapefruit extract. The remaining ingredients include salt, fragrances, preservatives, parabens, and dyes.

While some preservatives and parabens may not necessarily be as harmful as others, some (like the ones in the product) can cause endocrine disruption and development of allergies.

By the way, if you use MB’s Acne Facial cleanser, it also includes similar ingredients as this one and also has Sodium Laureth Sulfate which strips your skin of natural oils.

In general, the ingredients can cause some concerns for your skin, but in general, the last ingredients are very minimal compared to the beginning ones. If you feel you don’t have sensitive skin, this product may work for you.

Is Mario Badescu Worth It?

There are definitely some products from MB that work and don’t include a bunch of unnecessary fragrances and dyes! I would definitely reccommend finding the best products without any fragrances in them for your skin.

I tried searching for products with the best ingredients list from all of MB’s products (not including their sunscreen and body care)

-MB Cream Soap for Sensitive skin: It isn’t formulated to fight acne and isn’t reccommended to be used on eye area, but it cleanses well without over stripping face of natural oils and includes antioxidants. I’d recommend this for those with normal-dry skin.

–MB Hylauronic Dew Cream for all skin types: the ingredients list looks really good until the end, but the good ingredients really hydrate your skin! I’d recommend this for those with normal-dry skin.

If I missed anything you’d like me to talk about on this post let me know in the comments!

Like this blog post if it helped you!

Love, Moe

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