Brandefy Skincare Review
It’s no secret that there’s a lot of good, effective skincare out there, but some of those mega-popular products can be so expensive! So, what do we do when something is out of our budget? Look for more affordable alternatives, of course. The concept of beauty ‘alternatives’ is not new, but recently it got a whole new life thanks to TikTok, and now I’m seeing those videos pop up all over the place. This got me curious to see what swaps are available out there for my own personal high end favorites, and the search led me to one company.
Brandefy started with an app where its passionate community discussed various beauty products and compared them to what’s out there, often finding eerily similar formulations sold at vastly different price points. After taking their users’ requests into consideration, the company eventually decided to launch their own skincare brand with the idea of selling top tier products without the crazy markup. They did this by collaborating with some of the best cosmetic chemists and manufacturers in the industry, and letting their active community decide on the lineup. The end result? A curated collection of affordable skincare inspired by popular high end products at a fraction of the cost.
I was specifically looking for the following:
- Youth to the People Superfood Cleanser
- Skinceuticals C E Ferulic
- Tatcha The Water Cream
I ran out of all of them months ago and kept putting off the restocking because I still had other things to go through first. So glad I waited, because some of these alternatives really surprised me!
1 // Brandefy Superfood Nourish Cleanser ($22) vs Youth to the People Superfood Cleanser ($39) – The look and feel on the skin is virtually indistinguishable. I’m not too fussy about my foaming cleansers and don’t really care if they contain botanical extracts because it’s all going down the drain anyway. But if you are someone who enjoys lots of botanicals, this cleanser is for you! It’s packed with kale, spinach, green tea, aloe, carrot, radish extracts and the list goes on. What I like about the original and the alternative is how thoroughly they cleanse oily and combo skin. Oftentimes, a low pH cleanser wouldn’t foam too well, but this formula foams up nicely, rinses clean, and leaves my face petal fresh without drying it out. I’m definitely handing a win to Brandefy for this one, it’s basically the same as YTTP at half the cost.
Brandefy ingredients: Water (Aqua), Decyl Glucoside, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Polyglyceryl-4 Caprate, Coconut Acid, Sodium Chloride, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Hydrolyzed Kale Protein, Spinacia Oleracea (Spinach) Leaf Extract, Camellia Oleifera (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Hydrolyzed Carrot Protein, Hydrolyzed Lemon Protein, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Lactobacillus/Punica Granatum Fruit Ferment Extract, Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Tocopherol, Menaquinone-7 (Vitamin K2), Melia Azadirachta Leaf Extract, Melia Azadirachta Flower Extract, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Sodium Phytate, Sodium Isethionate, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Fragrance (Parfum).
YTTP ingredients: Water/Aqua/Eau, Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Sorbeth-230 Tetraoleate, Polysorbate 20, Sodium Chloride, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf (Aloe Vera) Juice Powder, Brassica Oleracea Acephala (Kale) Leaf Extract, Spinacia Oleracea (Spinach) Leaf Extract, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Medicago Sativa (Alfalfa) Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Glycerin, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Decyl Glucoside, Sorbitan Laurate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Gluconolactone, Ethylhexylglycerin, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Gardenia Jasminoides (Jasmine) Fruit Extract, Fragrance/Parfum, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Glycolate, Sodium Formate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Limonene, Chlorophyllin-Copper Complex (CI 75810).
2 // Brandefy Clinical Vit C + E + Ferulic Defend Serum ($49) vs Skinceuticals C E Ferulic ($182) – There’s a reason everyone is trying to imitate Skinceuticals, it’s one of the best and most effective brightening serums on the market. It helps even out the skin tone, brighten discolorations, boost skin resilience, smooth uneven texture, improve the appearance of fine lines, and provide really strong antioxidant protection and anti-pollution defense. But that price, ouch!! Even though you only use a few drops at a time, almost $200 for a single bottle is more than most people spend on their entire routine. Here’s the thing though, no matter how many alternatives I try, I always keep coming back to the original because there’s nothing like it. Skinceuticals is a very serious company with mountains of research and scientific trials behind each and every one of their products, so creating a near-identical alternative might be impossible. It’s not even in the same league as YTTP and Tatcha, which are both fantastic but more easily dupable, no offense to either brand. C E Ferulic serum contains the golden ratio of antioxidants that have been proven to work best in this exact combination: 15% pure vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid), 1% vitamin E (alpha tocopherol), and 0.5% ferulic acid. Brandefy lowered the percentage of Vitamin E in their formulation to below 0.5%, making the antioxidant cocktail slightly less effective, although I’m not a chemist and can’t tell you how to calculate the actual difference in effectiveness. Don’t get me wrong, I think Brandefy Clinical Vit C + E + Ferulic Defend Serum is one of the more impressive alternatives I tried so far, and you’re getting an excellent product for your buck, but it’s just not the same, so I’m going to give a win to Skinceuticals here.
Brandefy ingredients: Water, Ethoxydiglycol, Propanediol, Ascorbic Acid, Glycerin, Polyglyceryl-10 Laurate, Ferulic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Tocopheryl Acetate, Pentylene Glycol, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Malonic Acid, Vanillin.
Skinceuticals ingredients: Water, Ethoxydiglycol, Ascorbic Acid, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, Laureth-23, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, Triethanolamine, Ferulic Acid, Panthenol, Sodium Hyaluronate.
3 // Brandefy Water Cream ($29) vs Tatcha The Water Cream ($72) – Tatcha’s bestseling moisturizer gained a lot of hype for being one of the best products for oily and combination skin. You know how sometimes you would use a gel-cream and it immediately sinks in, leaving you with nothing but a matte face with tight pores? The Water Cream helps normalize oil production while keeping the skin looking radiant and supple, never matte and overly dried out, kind of what I imagine normal skin looks like all the time. Brandefy version feels extremely close to the original, despite having a very different list of ingredients. It wears just as comfortably, and makes my combo skin look like normal skin without clogging pores. I’m obsessed with both the original and the alternative, but Brandefy gets a win here because their Water Cream formula is beautiful and almost three times cheaper.
Brandefy ingredients: Water, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Butylene Glycol, Niacinamide, Propanediol, Glycerin, Pyrus Malus (Apple) Fruit Extract, Triheptanoin, Lactobacillus Ferment Lysate, Saccharomyces Lysate, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Hull Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Ipomoea Batatas Root Extract, C9-12 Alkane, Ammonium Polyacryloyldimethyl Taurate, Polyurethane-100, Glyceryl Oleate Citrate, Diheptyl Succinate, Carbomer, Xanthan Gum, Lactic Acid, 1,2-Hexanediol, Decyl Glucoside, Hydroxyacetophenone, Capryloyl Glycerin/Sebacic Acid Copolymer, Chlorella Vulgaris Extract, Sodium Benzoate, Caprylyl Glycol, Fragrance (Parfum), Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol.
Tatcha ingredients: Water, Saccharomyces/Camellia Sinensis Leaf/Cladosiphon Okamuranus/Rice Ferment Filtrate, Dimethicone, Propanediol, Glycerin, Diglycerin, Diphenylsiloxy Phenyl Trimethicone, Gold, Belamcanda Chinensis Root Extract, Rosa Multiflora Fruit Extract, Houttuynia Cordata Extract, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Lecithin, Pistacia Lentiscus (Mastic) Gum, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Mica, Peg-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Dimethicone/Peg-10/15 Crosspolymer, Dimethicone/Phenyl Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Disodium Edta, Tin Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Butylene Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Parfum/Fragrance, Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol.
Check out Brandefy to learn about their other products and upcoming launches at brandefyskin.com.
Have you found affordable alternatives for your favorite high end skincare?
