Will this be the shortest review I ever write? Who knows, but it might be! Why because I can be very short and sweet about the Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Cucumber and Green Tea. I did not like this. There I said it, right off the bat. This cult favorite beauty product was one that was on the ‘to try’ wishlist for years. I finally did, used up the bottle and this may very well be the most underwhelming skincare product I have ever tried. Let’s discuss why.
Skincare review: Mario Badescu facial spray with Aloe, Cucumber & Green Tea
Let’s just cut to the chase: what I feel you are buying when you get one of the Mario Badescu facial sprays is very expensive water. A bottle retails somewhere between €10 – €15 depending on the size you get and where you buy. That isn’t cheap. Granted it is cheaper than my favorite face spray: The Body Shop Vitamin C at €18. But where the Mario Badescua facial spray feels like nothing on the skin, the TBS spray at least feels like it does something more than just sit there.
What are the ingredients like?
In skincare, the ingredient list is key. Here it is:
Aqua (Water, Eau), Propylene Glycol, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Leaf Water, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Water, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Fucus Vesiculosus (Bladderwrack) Extract, Propanediol, Polysorbate 20, Ethylhexylglycerin, Benzophenone-4, Parfum (Fragrance), Sodium Chloride, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, CI 19140 (Yellow 5), CI 42090 (Blue 1).
When you look at this ingredient list it looks like it might be great as it has lots of great sounding ingredients at the top of the list. What I suspect though is that there really isn’t all that much of those lovely sounding ingredients in the product. The problem with ingredient lists is that they need to list the ingredients from most concentrated to least concentrated, but there is no way of telling how much % of the formula is actually made up of those ingredients. In any case, in recent years, many people have been indicating that the Mario Badescu facial sprays include harmful ingredients including fragrance which if you have sensitive skin are better avoided.
What does this spray do for my skin?
My main reason for disliking this product though isn’t the fact that it doesn’t have a stellar ingredient list. I am not an ingredient snob and while my skin can be very reactive to skincare, I have never been able to pinpoint exactly what causes it. It seems to be more a matter of a combination of factors rather than one particular ingredient and therefore product. This is something I also experience with other allergic sensitivities I have such as my hayfever, asthma and food sensitivities, where I can be fine one day, but after a few days of ‘build up’ I start to react. I think it works similarly with skincare for me and with this product I haven’t experienced any allergic reactions, which is great. However, I feel it also didn’t do much that could potentially cause an allergic reaction.
My final thoughts
To me, this works, looks and feels the same as when I would just spray plain water on my skin, which my skin does not like by the way. In short, while this may include harmful ingredients, I feel the concentrations are so low it neither benefits nor hurts my skin. And that’s exactly the problem. I use a facial spray as a first step of hydration before applying the rest of my skincare. It helps as a barrier and since my skin is dry and dehydrated, I can use all the moisture and hydration it can get. I have found that what helps my skin most is to work in thin layers and I use face spray as that first step. This however, did nothing for my skin. It didn’t make it worse, it also didn’t make it better even. What I feel you get when you buy this is colored water with a pleasant scent, but I want more from a product like this.
Would I recommend the Mario Badescu facial spray?
While I understand why some people would not even look into the brand anymore due to the controversy, I remember this brand being one of the most talked about brands for many people with problem skin. I therefore think, many people might still be interested. My reason for saying: don’t buy this, is mainly because I feel it is very expensive for a product that essentially does nothing. I’d rather pay a bit more and get a product that actually does something for me.