December’s Brand Spotlight is coming up a little late but I have lots of products to talk about so I decided it’s okay if I had a few extra days to try these. The brand I chose to spotlight for the month of December was Acure (or Acure Organics). I first got introduced to this brand through Birchbox and if I remember correctly, the first product I tried by them was their facial moisturizer (or day cream) and I remember being impressed by it and wanting to check out more products by the brand. Then, a few months later I received another product by this brand and this time it was their facial cleansing gel and that gel alone is the reason I chose to spotlight Acure this month. I’ll talk about the cleanser in more detail later but basically I was so impressed with it that I wanted to see what else this brand has to offer.

So a little bit more about the brand itself – Acure is a family owned company that focuses on sustainable and natural / organic products. All of their products are gluten, paraben, sulfate, phthalate and artificial color free so if you are looking for a natural brand, this is definitely one to check out. The products can be found at Whole Foods if you are someone that doesn’t like to order online but what I recommend is ordering either directly from their website or the way I did it- on Amazon. Amazon has by far the best deals for these products (we are talking almost half the cost than at Whole Foods).  With that being said, all the links that I will be providing for the products (all the titles of the products below are hyperlinks) are going to be directly from Amazon since I think that’s the best deal.

Also, always make sure to read their directions when buying their products. Here’s an example of what’s on the conditioner bottle “Apply to wet hair. Massage into scalp and hair, working through the ends. Rinse thoroughly. Feel free to belt out some horrible 80s tune you listen to when nobody’s around. Whatever, you totally do it”. And this kind of stuff is almost on every bottle. I love it.

These products won’t be listed in any order – I don’t particularly like the first ones best and last ones the least. I am just going to talk about them in the order that makes sense to me which is grouped by category – hair, face,body, etc.  So let’s begin…

Hair:

Lemongrass + Argan Stem Cell Shampoo – Since you aren’t supposed to use clarifying shampoos too often I only got to try this out 3-4 times throughout the month but I do think if you are in the market for a good clarifying shampoo, this one is worth checking out. I use a clarifying shampoo once a week at most (I try to only do every other week) but I use so much product in my hair on most days that I feel like it’s necessary for me to use clarifying shampoos. For those who aren’t familiar with clarifying shampoos – they are pretty much a deep clean for your hair. They are used to get all the product build up out of your hair and if you’re someone that goes several days without washing your hair and frequents dry shampoo ( I fall into this category), it’s necessary that you use a clarifying shampoo at least once every other week to get all the product build up out. That being said, clarifying shampoos should not be used too often because they can strip your hair of necessary oils and can leave your hair looking duller with overuse. This shampoo seemed to get the job done nicely and I love the bottle that it comes in – very convenient for use.

Argan Hydrating Conditioner – I did not buy the corresponding shampoo and conditioner set but I did want to try the Argan conditioner because I’m all about argan oil and while this was an okay conditioner, it by no means blew me away. It smells nice, not too overwhelming and just like the shampoo, I love the bottle that it comes in but would I say this is something you need to go out of your way to buy? No. The shampoo claims to have triple repairing action and can be used for every hair type so in theory it sounds great but I did not see any significant results from this one.

Leave In Conditioner – This leave in conditioner with argan oil and argan stem cell is for all hair types and is supposed to be sprayed evenly over hair and brushed out. I applied it to wet hair before styling. I honestly did not see any difference from this leave in conditioner at all but sometimes it is difficult for me to see a lot of results from hair products because there are 5-6 products in my hair at all times. This is also one of their more expensive products so I don’t think it’s worth checking out. I’ll continue using it until I run out since it sounds like it is still probably providing some benefit for my hair but I am not going to repurchase this.

Face:

Facial Cleansing Gel – This is hands down, my favorite Acure product. This is the perfect facial cleanser that will get all your make up off and leave your face feeling ultra clean and your skin will feel so smooth. It also smells amazing (and for me, anything that has a citrus like scent automatically qualifies as “amazing”). This product is actually advertised for oily skin but I do not have oily skin and still swear by this. I would highly, highly recommend picking this cleanser up. This comes in a squeeze tube as well just like the shampoos and conditioners and the size it comes in will last a very long time. If you purchase anything at all based on this Brand Spotlight, this should be the product you choose.

Day Cream Gotu Kola Stem Cell + 1% Chlorella – Aka the facial moisturizer that was the first product I ever tried by this brand.  I never did end up re-purchasing this but I know enough about it to review this product as well. This smells really fresh (that citrus scent again) and is not too heavy for a day cream. This can be used year round as it does a great job moisturizing without leaving your face feeling “heavy” with product. I do think there are better moisturizers out on the market but I do think this one is still worth checking out.

Brightening Facial Scrub – I am all about facial scrubs and I actually really liked this one. It is green – just a warning – and you do look a bit ridiculous while you have it on but it’s worth it in the end. It does end up leaving your skin brighter and I think the price is definitely right on this one. I feel like I’ve used scrubs that had less of an effect on my skin that were significantly more expensive than this one.  I would give this one an A and would recommend picking it up. Also, note the directions on the back – “Seas” the day with natural exfoliation from the ocean! Organic sea kelp and lemon peel gently exfoliate your skin while French green clay removes impurities from your pores without taking your natural moisture with it. Madonna lily stem cells help brighten. “Sea” the difference today!

Night Cream – I honestly can’t say too much about this product because I had an allergic reaction to it so I only used it several times. The first time I used it, I ruled the reaction to be because of a different product but as I kept using this cream and stopped using the other one, it was clear to me what was actually causing the reaction. I am passing this on to a friend and am interested to see her opinion on it. I will make sure to update this if she comes back to tell me that this is a life changing product, so that no one misses out.

Body:

Energizing Body Wash – This isn’t a bad body wash but I really disliked the scent so I can’t say I would recommend it just based on that fact. Scents are definitely a thing of personal preference though, so don’t rule this out just on my opinion. If you are at Whole Foods, smell this for yourself and maybe, if you like the scent, try this out. It’s a nice body wash and leaves your body feeling clean and soft but I just can’t deal with that scent. Too much for me.

Body Lotion Mandarin Orange + Moroccan argan stem cell – I was so excited to try this because mandarin orange is one of my favorite scents in the world but I was really disappointed with this one. The disappointment didn’t have to do with the scent (the scent itself is great) but had everything to do with the fact that this is so hard to rub in. No matter how I tried applying this – on partially wet skin after the shower, on completely dry skin, no matter what, it was so difficult to get this all the way rubbed in. Just because of that, I am not a fan of this lotion.

So this was definitely a very long and in depth brand spotlight just because there were so many products to discuss but I really hope this was helpful for someone thinking about trying this brand. Let me know if you have any questions about any of the products I mentioned above!

The brand I’m trying out in the month of January is Boots No 7. I got quite a bit of products (mainly make-up) and so far I’m really impressed with a lot of them so look out for that post at the end of this month! Also, I am always happy to hear recommendations of brands that you guys would want me to try out for this series! I have a running list for the next few months but I am always happy to try something that is requested as well!

As always, thanks for reading!