Zenmed Reviews

What is Zenmed?

The folks at Zenmed recently reached out to me and were extremely helpful in deciding which of their products were best for my specific skin concerns. They're especially popular with rosacea sufferers.

 Here is what I told them and their reply:

Now that I'm in my 30s, my biggest skin problem is dark spots and uneven tone. I just look kind of "blah", if you know what I mean. I also feel like the skin under my eyes is not quite as plump as it used to be, which I think makes me look tired. Although to be fair, I am usually pretty tired. Hooray for idiopathic insomnia!

Our L-Ascorbic Booster Serum will be just right for you. I'll send that along with one of our cleansers, a moisturizer and our glycolic booster to slowly reveal the new, healthy layer underneath. 

I checked out the L-Ascorbic Booster Serum details on the Zenmed site, which claimed to soften wrinkles, plump your skin, and minimize dark spots by increasing collagen production. Sounds like exactly what I needed, right? 

You already know this post is all about sharing reviews and details on my favorite Zenmed products. Before we get to that, let me start with a few photos to illustrate how difficult it is for a new beauty product, let alone several, to win a place in my daily rotation.

As you can see, I have quite a few beauty items - lotions, serums, cleansers, etc. - cluttering my bathroom counter. I could also use a new clock, but I'm sentimental and the one I received in Kindergarten still works so well.

That's not so bad, you think? Oh, it gets better.

There may be a beauty product addiction at play here. Vitamins too, but I've already confessed to that here on this blog. If I recall correctly, I said I was not going to keep purchasing vitamins and supplements because they are a scam and a waste of money, possibly even a detriment to my health. But here we are.

Now you know why SN built me so many bathroom drawers. You don't even want to know what's in the cabinets.

(Drawer fronts coming soon...or so I'm told.)

Zenmed Reviews

As with my thoughts, I like to bounce around with my beauty items. I'll swear by a new product I found on clearance at CVS and use it diligently for a few weeks, only to discard it half-used on my next trip to the store. When you've found "the greatest antiaging breakthrough ever" marked down from $29.95 to $2.95, it's hard to resist. You can only layer on so many creams and moisturizers at a time though before you feel ridiculous, bordering on 100 Layer Challenge territory.

Here are my Zenmed product reviews, rated in order of most to least favorite.

Zenmed L-Ascorbic Booster

 

I've been using this product for just over 2 months and it is my favorite of the Zenmed items I received. It's basically two varieties of the antioxidant vitamin C, bottled with a convenient medicine dropper to minimize waste. Price-wise, it seemed a bit expensive (the non-discounted price is $39 per bottle), but mine is still full to the top of the label after more than 60 days of use. That means one bottle should last me a whopping 240 days, which brings the price down to only $0.16 per dose. Not too shabby! If I were shopping for vitamins that promised the antiaging equivalant of this serum, I would expect the per-pill or daily price to be around $0.50.

Topical vitamin C was recently recommended to me at a spa, where I received a microdermabrasion treatment. This and sunscreen were the only two products the beautician swore by. Actually, if you're up for a ridiculous little side story, I received the microdermabrasion at the spa portion of my OB/GYN's office and it was free as part of my new-patient annual pap smear, which was covered 100% by my insurance. How crazy is that?

Which brings me to another important skin tip. (Oh, how I love to ramble on my blog!) A telltale pack of pills may have caught your eye in the earlier photos of my bathroom countertop. I've gone without them for the last year, thinking my body could benefit from a self-prescribed cleanse, and it was a skincare disaster.

 You can buy vitamin C serum and mix up batches of DIY face masks and undergo chemical peels and try painful IPL treatments to burn away acne scars (raises hand), but if your breakouts and horrible skin are caused by your hormones, you're just going to be stuck in a hopeless cycle until you tackle the hormone issue. Although two months of Zenmed usage helped, the biggest benefit to my skin lately has been the pack of magic pills I received after my OB/GYN appointment.

Zenmed Glycolic Booser

This was my second favorite of the Zenmed products I tested. It's basically an at-home chemical peel. I love that it is mild enough that you don't actually shed gross layers of dead skin all over your house. (SN loves this about it too!) Think of it as being like the professional chemical peel I've recommended here on my blog, Dermalure Jessner Solution Acid Peel 14%, but more gradual. You can use Zenmed's Glycolic Booser more than once per week and the results build up over time. It sits on your skin for up to 5 minutes at a time before being rinsed off. I may have accidentally (totally on purpose) lost track of time more than once and left it on for 10 minutes, thinking the results would be even better. More on this later in the post, complete with disastrous photos.

Zenmed AVT Cream

So many face creams, especially ones with expensive ingredients like Hyaluronic Acid, come in itty bitty vials. Zenmed gives you a generous 2.5 ounces and the product goes a long way. This isn't a runny moisturizer, so I like to use it day and night, applying it on top of sunscreen and underneath makeup. The instructions say to mix your serums into it, but I prefer to apply my serums on their own and let them dry before adding other products so that they are not diluted.

The folks at Zenmed are probably going to read that last part and roll their eyes. They emailed me before sending any products and said, "We are looking to educate potential consumers on how to choose the right products for their skin and how to use them for the best results. Because we make so many different products for different skin types and concerns it makes it difficult for consumers to choose the right products for them. Then of course a good number are dissatisfied simply because they don't understand how to use them for the best results."

What can I say? I'm a rebel.

Zenmed Gentle Cleansing Cream

When I received Zenmed's Gentle Cleansing Cream, I was underwhelmed. Cleansers just aren't all that interesting, right? I used this product as an extra step in my nightly makeup remover routine and, to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. It seemed to help hydrate my face much better than the Olay and Cetaphil cleansers I'd previously tried. 

Packed with vitamins and different beneficial oils, I hated to wash it off! My strategy was to cleanse first with my Olay makeup remover, apply this cream, then do something else for a few minutes, like deep-condition my hair and brush my teeth.

Zenmed Organic Emulsion Toner

Although I liked this Zenmed item, I used it far less than any of the others. The problem wasn't so much that it's a bad toner. Really, as far as toners go, it's probably hard to beat this one. My problem was that I wasn't quite sure how to use it. When I saw the packaging, I thought it was a facial spray, like the ones you can mist on mid-day to refresh your makeup and hydrate your skin. With many of the same ingredients as popular sprays, like chamomile and aloe vera, I suspect it's fine to use it for this exact purpose. 

I love facial sprays. Perfect! However, the directions state that you need to rinse it off after a few seconds. Even as a toner, shouldn't I just leave it on? It contains pricey hyaluronic acid - I don't want to waste it! I feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by leaving the toner on and I feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by rinsing it off, so I just don't use it altogether.

That said, I sometimes have bad reactions to skincare products and, when I do, this toner really helps. The photos I'm about to show will surely have the Zenmed reps freaking out, insisting this is the exact opposite of how to recommend a product line, but it's not their fault. I have had this problem on and off for years, long before I'd even heard of Zenmed. I think it's called facial erythema (remind me to ask at my next dermatologist appointment) and it happens when I go overboard mixing and matching skincare products. 

Think prescription Retin-A applied heavily onto newly chemical peeled skin. Then, another coat of Retin-A on top of that, even though the tube specifically warns using more than directed will not improve my results in any way. In other words, I'm a direction-ignoring rebel and I never learn my lesson, even after suffering the consequences time and time again.

Can you see how the skin around my eye looks burned? It feels burned too. It's dry and scratchy, plus a bit puffy and hot to the touch.

This is the same image with the saturation settings cranked up. You can really see the problem now.

When I temporarily ruin my skin, the Zenmed Organic Emulsion Toner is so soothing. One day (probably after receiving dozens of scolding reader emails in response to this blog post), I will stop screwing around and no longer need to worry about this problem.

Other Nifty Zenmed Tidbits of Note

All of the products I tested are non-comedogenic, meaning they do not clog pores.

The Zenmed product line has oodles of 5-star reviews across the internet. They're especially a favorite of Rosacea sufferers.

There's a 60 day money back guarantee.

None of the Zenmed products are tested on animals. Pica and Biscuit think this is a non-negotiable factor when making beauty purchases and I wholeheartedly agree.



One lucky winner will receive the same package of Zenmed goodies I received (L-Ascorbic Booster, Glycolic Booster, Gentle Cleansing Cream, Organic Emulsion Toner, and AVT Cream - a $161 value!) 

The winner will also have the option to vary the products to better suit their own unique skincare needs. A Zenmed rep will be happy to discuss your skin concerns and recommend the perfect products for you. How cool is that?

You could also gift your prize to a friend or family member as a Christmas present, making you the most generous person in the world. Personally, I don't think I could do it. Oh sure, I would enter this giveaway with grand intentions, telling myself how much so-and-so is going to love their luxurious new beauty products, but I think we all know that would go right out of my mind the moment the winning confirmation email hit my inbox.

Open to U.S. and Canada residents only. The winner will be chosen randomly and notified via email. Entering couldn't be easier through Rafflecopter.

Good luck, bloggy friends! Also, this photo is a testament to the wonder of false eyelashes.

For the purpose of this blog post and giveaway, I received free items from Zenmed to test out over several months. All of the opinions expressed are my own, honest and unbiased. I have not received any financial compensation from Zenmed and I have never worked for their company.