A great brand for men and women

With so many skincare brands on the market, it can be difficult to understand which one works for you: What cleanser should I use? What makes a good moisturizer? Do I even need eye cream?

Truthfully, that’s why we love customized skincare brands that offer a step-by-step regimen to take the guesswork out of caring for any skin type. And, that includes Geologie.

The brand, which used to cater more towards a male audience, is shifting its gears to gaining traction in the good-for-everyone, unisex skincare space. It’s simple, personalized products actually work. After putting it to the test, we think it’s worth a try — especially if you’re just starting out with a skincare routine of any kind.

To play on the unisex angle, there was no better way to give it a go than by bringing my boyfriend, Michael, along for the ride. We tested the brand for a week straight and continue to use it now, so we offered our first-impressions review below.

Geologie offers a range of products and kits, from the Sensitive Acne Duo Trial to the Daily Sensitive Skincare Routine Trial ($40). Use this link for 20% sitewide.

Every Geologie personalized routine set contains proven, trusted ingredients that have been used and trusted by dermatologists. In short, what you’re getting isn’t your average line of products.

What’s great about the brand is its brief and fully custom quiz that helps the brand understand the ins and outs of your skin type. For instance, on my quiz, I selected that my main skin concerns were sun and UV protection, minimizing pores (because those aren’t fun) packaged in a formula designed for sensitive skin.

“The key thing about our skin quiz is that we’re not trying to bury you in 100 questions around details that don’t matter,” Steve Xu, MD, board-certified dermatologist and head of Geologie’s medical advisory board, told the New York Post. “Every question we ask is targeted and directly impacts the formulation you receive.”

Moreover, he thinks it’s important that Geologie asks about skin sensitivity. “It allows us to start our clients on the best formulation,” Xu adds. “I also think it’s really important we can ask about what the key concern is; it helps us understand what a client’s goals are.”

Geologie Skincare Review

Cue the drumroll (🥁), because this is the moment we’ve been waiting for: is Geologie worth it?

In short, yes. As someone who has an entire skincare cart and already knows when and how to use retinol, as well as what ingredients to help treat those pesky, once-in-a-while acne flair-ups (spoiler alert: it’s salicylic acid), I appreciate the “dummied-down” approach to skincare — it’s straightforward, user-friendly and effective and calming on the skin.

But, let’s start from the beginning. Michael has predominately dry skin (though not ultra-dry; just a bit flakey at times at the apples of his cheeks) and is a sucker for anything that will give him baby-soft skin. My skin, however, is mostly sensitive and has a few dry spots: along my jawline, besides my ears and around my nose.

After taking his quiz, we each received different regimen numbers based on our skin types and needs. Mine was 13 and his was 19, which was interesting because our skin types aren’t so different.

We unboxed the Geologie package as soon as it arrived. His kit came with two Everyday Face Washes (one for the shower and one for the sink!), Moisturizing Morning Cream, Eye Cream (the dark circle formula) and Night Cream (.05% retinol formula), while mine included the same products, with the only deviation being the Tone Control Morning Cream to replace his moisturizing one. The brand also carries a wonderful Sun Protection Duo ($65) that’s perfect for any skin type, any time of the year.

We appreciate the travel-sized bottles (super convenient) and how the ingredients are listed right at the front of the packaging (a.k.a. no more trying to locate it in 0.001-sized font. For instance, my Tone Control Morning Cream details “5% Azelaic Acid, 2% Hyaluronic Acid and 1% Niacinamide right where I can see it.

The bottom line is this: we both enjoyed trying a buzzy, new (to us) skincare line and, while we have a brief set of cons, none of them were deal-breakers. We feel like our skin benefitted from using Geologie‘s regimen, and are looking forward to continuing using this step-by-step routine in the coming weeks.

Pros:

• Customized skincare products for men and women that are developed by a team of dermatologists and skincare experts
• Full-sized products are easy to travel with
• Ingredients are written on the front of the packaging
• Non-irritating, easy to use products
• Wonderful for people who have never tried a skincare routine (or had one, but was ineffective)

Cons:

• Some skincare products felt a bit too heavy on the skin, so make sure to identify you’d prefer a light-to-medium consistency within the notes section on the quiz
• No “fresh scent” — this can be because we both said our skin types are sensitive, but we would have loved that “clean” feeling — this can also be requested on the skincare quiz
• Not sustainably packaged or reusable

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