Kiehl’s Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser and Pore Refining Tonic Review

purchased

I purchased the full range of Kiehl’s Rare Earth products ages ago, and totally forgot to review them. Luckily, I still had these two sitting around in my box of unopened skin care items [a goo hoarder? where??], so I decided to give them a shot and actually document my experience this time around. My biggest problem with pore-minimizing products is the fact that they can really dry out my skin, which in turn can make the situation even worse. Currently, I have some uncomfortable bumpy breakouts on my cheeks, so I’m ready to try just about anything to get rid of them.

Kiehl’s Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser and Pore Refining Tonic
Kiehl’s Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser and Pore Refining Tonic

Rare Earth line of products was first formulated by Kiehl’s decades ago, and now their upgraded formula includes the famous Amazonian clay “to help purify and detoxify skin, while minimizing pores.” For this product test I’ve been using both the cleanser and the toner for two weeks as part of the AM routine, alongside my current skin care.

Deep Pore Daily Cleanser has the texture of a thick gray’ish milky paste, and whenever I see a cleanser like that, I immediately imagine that it will be gentle on the skin. In addition to Amazonian clay, it contains Diatomaceous Earth particles for gentle exfoliation. This scientific-sounding name makes it seem like a fancy ingredient, but it’s actually just a type of of dirt, or as Kiehl’s describes it “a natural skin-sloughing ingredient found in fresh and salt water, attached to cultivated solla, rocks, and seaweeds”. I was surprised to see that this thick paste foams quite well, meaning I probably won’t waste too much product; and the fancy dirt exfoliates better than I expected – it’s the mildest physical abrasive that I have encountered so far in cleansers. The product claims include softening and minimizing pores, gently cleansing the skin to remove dirt, oil and toxins. I believe that Deep Pore Daily Cleanser lived up to all of those claims, because even after the very first use, my face felt softer and the skin looked matte.

With all those minerals at the bottom of the bottle, Pore Refining Tonic looks like those two-step makeup removing systems with separate layers that you need to shake before use. It smells a little muddy, but not any worse than any clay product. I’m sure many of you tried at least some form of clay masks, and it kind of smells like that, but lighter. The product is supposed to minimize the appearance of pores, remove excess dirt [yeah, let’s remove dirt by applying more dirt! *just kidding*], impurities and toxins; and make the skin look softer, smoother and more matte. I normally used it right after the cleanser, so I didn’t fully experience its standalone purifying abilities, but it certainly made my pores look smaller, and kept my combination skin matte for several hours, which is a big achievement considering how quickly my T-zone becomes greasy during the day. I think at this point I pretty much single-handedly support the blotting papers market 🙂

My overall thoughts about both products are quite simple: I think they are good choices for combination skin type, especially when used together. Both the toner and the cleanser contain alcohol, so I wouldn’t recommend them for people with dry or very sensitive skin.

THE VERDICT
Deep Pore Daily Cleanser and Pore Refining Tonic both can be considered good products to try for people with oily or combination skin. They worked well to keep my T-zone matte for several hours after the initial application, and after two weeks of use the pores around my nose and on my chin look smaller and much cleaner than before.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY
Deep Pore Daily Cleanser – $22.50, 5fl. oz. Available at Kiehl’s, Nordstrom, Birchbox.
Pore Refining Tonic – $21.00, 8.4 fl. oz. Available at Kiehl’s, Nordstrom.

Shop Rare Earth collection:


Have you tried anything from Kiehl’s Rare Earth line? What are your favorite mattefying products?

Ingredients:
Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser – Aqua / Water, Kaolin, Glycerin, Alcohol Denat., Sodium Cocoyl Glycinate, Coco-Betaine, Acrylates Copolymer, Sodium Chloride, Ci 77891 / Titanium Dioxide, Solum Diatomeae / Diatomaceous Earth, Phenoxyethanol, Peg-14m, Glycol Distearate, Sodium Benzoate, Aloe Barbadensis / Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Salicylic Acid, Avena Sativa Flour / Oat Kernel Flour, Tocopherol, Sodium Hydroxide, Allantoin. 

Rare Earth Pore Refining Tonic – Aqua / Water, Alcohol Denat., Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Silica, Zinc Oxide, Methyl Methacrylate Crosspolymer, Kaolin, Methylparaben, Zinc Gluconate, Aloe Barbadensis / Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Avena Sativa Flour / Oat Kernel Flour, Menthoxypropanediol, Hamamelis Virginiana Distillate / Witch Hazel Water, Allantoin, Salicylic Acid.


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