Product Reviews

The setting: Novato, about a month ago. I was breaking out around my mouth. Fearing for my face, while also wanting to try something new, as I often do, I decided to try the Kristina Holey + Marie Veronique skin care line, because I’d heard some good things about it.

I’m not kidding — my skin got better overnight, which sounds an awfully lot like an infomercial when I say it out loud, but dramatic changes like that never happen that quickly with my skin.

Meet my latest skin care love.

Botany babes

The seven-piece Kristina Holey + Marie Veronique skin care line is the Bay Area botanical brainchild of two natural skin care gurus — San Francisco facialist Kristina Holey (she’s been ballyhooed about in all the big mags), and Berkeley chemist/skin care formulator/former high school science teacher Marie Veronique, who also has her own separate skin care line (I’ve got my eye on their Vitamin C+E Ferulic serum), which you can find, along with Kristina Holey products, at the Berkeley Marie Veronique store and online at the Marie Veronique website.

Props to the plants

With products and prices comparable to Tata Harper, Kat Burki and Sunday Riley, Kristina Holey + Marie Veronique is all about fancy foliage, tried-and-true compounds and high-end greens. There’s a face oil cleanser ($40), a toner ($45), three serums ($90-$110 each), a face oil ($95) and a mask ($135).

Marvels of microbiology

Beneficial bacteria is a big deal in skin care these days, and brands like Tula are even putting probiotics into their products. Kristina Holey + Maria Veronique puts a different spin on your microbiome by concentrating on keeping it balanced, with the idea being that your mug’s microbiome is unbalanced if you’re experiencing dryness or breakouts or inflammation. Their products are formulated to bring your bacteria back in balance for clearer, hydrated, even-toned skin.

Familiar faces headline the list of ingredients

All of their products are manufactured in small batches in Berkeley, and they’re good for six months once they’ve been opened. They contain familiar compounds to exfoliate and maintain moisture levels. Some of the ingredients include salicylic acid, glycolic acid, niacinamide, vitamin B3 and B6, and that’s just for starters (there’s a complete list of the ingredients below).

I was happy to see these ingredients front and center, because I know that a lot of people, including me and my combo dry, acne-prone skin, respond well to them.

Kristina Holey + Marie Veronique products also avoid potentially irritating ingredients, like essential oils and synthetic fragrances.

It took me a while to get used to the scents

Not to say that the products are unscented. Some of them are, or at least they have such a natural, nondescript scent that it makes very little impression, but a couple of them smell “earthy.” The Barrier Lipid Complex, for example, smells like a bottle of fish oil, and for the first week I felt like I was slathering cat food on my face.

I mostly don’t notice it now (mostly)…

Clearer, more moisturized skin and less noticeable pigmentation

I’ve been using everything from the line for four weeks, but I saw positive results immediately, especially on the painful red pimple that was on my top lip.

It usually takes about a week for pimples to come to a head and start drying out on my face, but I dabbed the Intensive Repair Serum, which is the treatment for breakout-prone skin, on the pimple on the first night, and it came to a head by the next morning. It was completely dried out within two days, and by two weeks I could barely see any post-acne pigment (to put it in perspective, it usually takes about three to six months for those post-acne dark spots to disappear on me).

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