New on the Shelves: REN Skincare – Clean Bio Active Skincare

Hands up if you’ve heard of REN Skincare.

Hands up if you haven’t *raises hands sheepishly* Yes I confess I knew nothing about REN when I was approached by the brand recently. I’d come across some products from time to time on various foreign blogs but I used to think REN was an acronym for something. Turns out REN is a word that actually means “clean” in Swedish. A bit of a strange choice for a skincare brand from the UK but it embodies the brand philosophy perfectly.

REN Skincare is a new skincare line (since 1999) that is free from unfriendly synthetic materials e.g. petrochemicals, sulfate detergents, synthetic colours, animal ingredients and parabens. In addition, REN products do not contain potential irritants including: glycols and diglycols (such as propylene glycol), PEG’s, PPGs, urea, D.E.A, T.E.A, aliphatic alcohols/hydrocarbons, phthalates, fumarates, amines, alkanolamines, synthetic AHAs/BHAs, polyacrylamide, metacrylate, elastomer, poloxamer, styrene, vinyl, polyquaternium, synthetic chelating agents, nylon, nitriles, nitrates, nitrosamine releasers, bromates, fluor, aluminum and alumina. I know… a lot of that went whoosh! over your head… just as it did mine initially until I paid a bit more attention 🙂

Hence the name REN-“clean”. It uses the latest hi-tech bio actives to extract the most potent and sophisticated natural extracts and above all, smell lovely! The stars think so too, counting amongst others Kate Moss, Uma Thurman, Kate Winslett, Jude Law (!) and Sting (!) as fans.

The 5 principles of REN are Right Ingredients (clean products without additives), Right Science (latest technology to produce skincare formulations), Right Product Experience (making the world a happier place), Right Environmental Impact (reducing the impact on the environment) and Right Attitude (goodwill to men … heh)

The brand bestseller so far have been far and away the Moroccan Rose Otto Body Wash.

If you read my whinge about the one from the Body Shop falling flat on its face, this would be one to watch. It does smell potent and nicer though. Much rosier, less musky. I can’t wait to get into the shower with it! 😛

The other crowd fave is the Glycolactic Skin Renewal Peel Mask.

The full size products come packaged in a double wall cylinder and the products are encased in a plastic like pouch that shrinks as you use it. So you can be quite assured that you are using up practically every drop of precious product in it. I’m going try it and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Now, we all know by now I’m no scientist nor a celeb – I’m a product user and I tell it like it is based purely on feel – how I feel about a product after using it and this is what I’m going to do with REN.

I was sent a trial set of REN Skincare and a sample bottle of Moroccan Rose Otto Body Wash recently and I’ve been using them exclusively for a week to see how it performs. The trial set states that its meant to last a week but I’ve managed to drag most of it out and we are heading into week 2 as I write – not quite the ideal testing period but enough to get a pretty good feel of the products. So if you’re interested to find out, do come back when I do my review next week. I’m not saying anything, but there might be something nice in the offing if we pay attention, yes? 😉

Has your interest been piqued yet? If so, you can find REN skincare products at Tangs Escential counter at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur from 15 June 2009 and at Escentials Urban Retreat Starhill Gallery slightly later. Prices range from RM97-297 which is about there for department store skincare. (2012: Information obsolete)

So, have you heard of REN Skincare before this? Have you tried it? Do share if you have!

Stay beautiful

Paris B

p/s I’ve got a packed weekend with my first paintball session on Sunday morning! Paintball! I’m so excited because its one of those things I’ve always wanted to do but never did and now I can! 😀 Are you doing anything exciting this weekend?