I’m always nervous at trying a new exfoliator. They either break me out in spots because they’re too harsh, or make my oily skin worse. What I like about this Il Makiage exfoliator is that you can be as soft or as hard as you like with the scrubbing, depending on your skin. The tiny balls help clean your skin, but aren’t harsh, and are made of jojoba oil which is good for acne scars.
Table of contents:
What’s the Il Makiage exfoliator good for? What are the benefits?
According to Il Makiage website, the powder polish exfoliator:
- gets rid of excess dead skin cells to…
- …show new skin underneath which makes you look glowy
- reduces uneven skin tone
- frees up congestion
The same as any old exfoliator, right? The difference I found to this exfoliator was that afterwards, my face wasn’t a sore, hot mess. The tiny balls dissolve easily and quickly, so the rubbing isn’t harsh on your skin. Sometimes my skin is red raw when I’ve used exfoliators, especially to the sides of my nose where it’s sensitive. See the below pics straight away after using the Il Makiage exfoliator, where my skin looks its normal colour.
By removing the dead skin cells your skin (unsurprisingly) gets smoother. When you exfoliate, make-up (including foundation) stays on better as it’s got a smoother base to work with.
I exfoliate once every 4 days as part of my skin cycling routine. It’s a very important step to do in skincare, but don’t overdo it as it can irritate. I normally use Paula’s Choice on my skin as part of skin cycling day 2 ‘exfoliate’, but used this Il Makiage instead which got the job done.
The Il Makiage Exfoliator contains Shea butter and Jojoba Oil which have good properties for use on your skin. They include:
- Shea butter – boosts skin moisture – is anti-inflammatory which helps soothe skin problems, and has antioxidants to fight ageing.
- Jojoba oil is great for acne/scaring/psoriasis/sunburn because of all the antioxidants. It also contains copper and zinc which can treat hair loss
Have a look at the rest of the benefits on Ilmakiage.com.
What’s the texture like?
It’s creamy and has small jojoba balls that break up once you rub it into your skin – this helps with the exfoliation but isn’t too harsh unless you really go for it with scrubbing (I wouldn’t recommend if you have sensitive skin). You can see after using, my skin isn’t red or irritated which I sometimes get, so I’m really happy with this.
I rubbed it in for a minute, left it for a minute, then removed with a warm flannel.
Where can I buy it and how much is it?
Buy it from Ilmakiage.com – remember to use discount code welcome10 for 10% off!
It’s £58 for 80ml, or £52.20 (10% off) when you subscribe.
It sounds pretty expensive, but it’ll probably last you a while. It lasted me 3 months, of using a small pea size twice a week.
You get UK free delivery on orders over £50, otherwise it’s £3.95.
Is Il Makiage good for ageing skin?
Yes! I’m 35 (nearly 36 shhhh) and I love using the foundation and concealer with the brushes. The brushes are soft so they don’t pull on my skin. The foundation and concealer aren’t too thick, so they’re easy to apply and they don’t settle in my fine lines, even when I go for a heavier look!
- Foundation – the ‘woke up like this’ foundation contains ingredients: Vitamin E for anti-ageing benefits and hyaluronic acid for hydration, protection and filling wrinkles
- Concealer – the ‘f*ck I’m flawless’ concealer is Oil-free, paraben-free & phthalate-free, enriched with hydrating & moisturising ingredients
See my thorough blogs on the Woke Up Like This foundation and F*ck I’m Flawless concealer. I have the primer also, but I don’t tend to use it as I’ve never liked primer. It always feels clogging, no matter what brand I use. That being said, I have nothing against the Il Makiage one, as it sets my make-up better – see my blog on the primer here.
Available from Ilmakiage.com – remember to use discount code welcome10 for 10% off!
Is Il Makiage a trustworthy brand?
They’re rated ‘Excellent’ on TrustPilot with over 66K reviews which is a pretty big plus.
They’ve got a huge following – 486K on Facebook, 16K Youtube subscribers, and 1.2M followers on Instagram. If you don’t believe all that because let’s be honest, they could have paid for them, it’s worthwhile searching on social media for trustworthy reviews. I’ve been using the brand for over a year, and have tried several of their products, all of which I like and most still use to this day. I first tried the foundation back in 2021 and still use it now after repurchasing myself, along with the concealer & brushes regularly.
Is Il Makiage exfoliator vegan and cruelty-free?
It’s cruelty-free – even featured on Peta:
It’s unfortunately not vegan – it’s possibly due to the ingredient ‘lactose’ which is from milk.
I hope you liked this review. The powder polish exfoliator is available on the Il Makiage website. Buy it from Ilmakiage.com – remember to use discount code welcome10 for 10% off!
Is the exfoliator fungal acne safe?
No, unfortunately, it isn’t.
If you’ve read my other blogs you’ll know I suffer from fungal acne (although it’s not been diagnosed by a professional) It was caused by too much oil in products I was using, mainly Elemis Cleansing Balm to remove makeup. Since then I’ve been obsessed with checking ingredients over at https://folliculitisscout.com. You copy in the ingredients, and it spits out a huge list of results.
The results for this exfoliator indicate 7 ingredients contain triggers for fungal acne (mainly oil which blocks pores):
If you don’t suffer, then the Il Makiage exfoliator is great. I didn’t notice it triggered my fungal acne as I was using it, and I used it for a few months (twice per week) until I’d used the whole bottle but I won’t re-buy just because I don’t want my skin to be unhappy again. Check out my Elemis blog if you want to see how my skin worsened from using it.
Il Makiage products – are they non-comedogenic? I’ve recently looked at the ingredients of Il Makiage’s most popular products – the foundation ‘woke up like this’, the ‘f**k I’m flawless concealer and the Il Makiage primer. Check out the results here.
Thank you for reading my blog! I wrote it in May 2023 and last updated it in March 2024. It's tagged with the category Make up Skincare if you'd like to read more.
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