Whenever you hear about the best antiaging ingredients in skincare, and I'm talking about the truly effective ones, they're always exfoliants: retinol, glycolic acid or salicylic acid work great, but one side effect they have in common is that they can cause irritation. What to do when your skin is sensitive and you want a good antiaging skincare routine, but need to avoid them? Jan Marini has a good answer to this question: enzymes.

While I use retinol, AHA and BHA regularly, I have to limit their use to once a day, and only introduce one type at a time in my routine. If I overdo it, my skin gets dry, and my redness flares up. For people with skin sensitivity, enzymes are a great way to get gentle exfoliation and increase in cell turnover without the irritation. Jan Marini has two products based on papain, a proteolytic enzyme derived from the papaya fruit: the Clean Zyme cleanser and Skin Zyme face mask.


Clean Zyme Cleanser

Clean Zyme is a lightweight green gel that can be used in place of your usual face cleanser in the shower. It feels very fresh and spreads easily on the skin, although it doesn't lather at all. The brand recommends to leave it on for just a minute or two for maximum benefits. This cleanser has a lovely orange scent (it really smells like you're biting into a fresh orange) and is loaded with natural ingredients like honey and aloe, including the papaya extract. It also contains alcohol which is an ingredient I usually try to avoid, but it doesn't concern me in a rinse off product. It leaves my skin feeling very clean, smooth and soft but not at all dry.



Skin Zyme Face Mask

This mask comes in a beautiful jar and has a gel texture that's very easy to apply evenly all over the face. It also smells like orange but not quite as much as the cleanser. I find that it has a very refreshing effect while it's on, up to 20 minutes. To rinse it you need to emulsify the product, either by adding some cleanser or by adding water and massaging for a while for the texture to loosen. It doesn't dry down like a clay mask, but it doesn't wash off with just a splash of water either. After use, my skin feels purified and smooth, without any dryness, irritation or redness flare up.




Both the Clean Zyme and Skin Zyme are products that I enjoyed using and that made my skin noticeably softer without causing any irritation. Because of the refreshing effect I like using them best on warmer days or after a workout. I would recommend them to anyone looking for gentle exfoliation and a skin smoothing effect.


On Jan Marini's website or at Dermstore.



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