The Under-The-Radar “Miracle” Moisturizer We Can’t Get Enough Of
For someone so impulsive in most other regards, I spend a curious amount of time (and effort) “researching” things before I put them on my face. You might say that I have trust issues: I’ve gone through so much trial and error with skin care over the years that I’m no longer willing to give anything a go without first digging up everything I can find about the product. I need to be able to Google every ingredient and surface every review, positive and negative, before I can feel like I’m making the right decision.
Not so long ago, I took the plunge of testing a specific moisturizer without conducting my usual OCD background check on it first. This was a highly-regarded, extremely popular formula that models, makeup artists, and fellow beauty editors swear by, and even so I considered myself awfully brave for throwing caution to the wind by trying something I didn’t know very much about ingredients-wise.
And still, sometimes bravery is just foolhardiness in disguise—because this beloved industry favorite gave me an itchy rash on my cheeks and three (three!) volcanic eruptions on my chin after just two days of use. I had been wronged again. Around this time, I somehow came into possession of The Better Skin Co. Mirakle Cream ($34). I knew nothing about it, the Internet knew nothing about it (I could not for the life of me track down a review, let alone the full ingredients list), and the kitschy, colorful pattern on the tub ran directly counter to the minimalist, apothecary-like tubes and tinctures I’m usually drawn to.
I did, however, like what I saw, and I don’t mean the pink-and-yellow print (which, by the way, is Uzbekistani in origin). The story behind this brand-new formula goes as follows: Trained aesthetician Natalya Rachkova emigrates to Seattle from Uzbekistan in search of the American dream. She brings her secret recipe for her famous “miracle cream” along with her, and sets up a new practice in her new country. Word gets around, the cream builds a reputation, and beauty industry vet Murphy D. Bishop II, who’s worked with Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Stila, and more, catches wind of it. In 2013, he teams up with Natalya to scale up the original recipe to meet demand and market it to the public.
Cut to me, three years later, panicking about the state of my face. “Genius In a Jar,” the packaging whispered to me. “Gluten-free, paraben-free, surfactant-free, fragrance-free. One-stop, skin-saving, problem-solving, all-purpose cream. Transforms skin.” Beeswax, coconut oil, sea buckthorn, shea butter, cocoa butter, aloe, soothing algae—well, hell, I needed a miracle.
Not sure if it was the alleged miracle or the aloe that addressed my disastrous breakout almost instantly, but it happened. The irritation was soothed, at least—those cysts would take a few days (or weeks, unassisted). And I’ve continued using the cream these past couple of months, not necessarily because I feel it lays claim to mystical properties beyond my imagination (and really, what does?) but because it seems to work and it feels nice.
I’m frequently promiscuous with my beauty products, but this is one I’ve been sticking with: The texture is rich but not at all greasy, which is hard to find in a cream that’s hydrating enough to dispel winter flakiness, and it leaves my skin feeling just the right amount of moisturized throughout the day. It doesn’t contain any anti-aging heavy hitters, or exfoliating hydroxy-acids or unicorn spit—it’s really very simple in formulation, a real “basic,” and that’s what I like about it, and probably why my picky skin likes it, too. My complexion seems smoother, brighter, clearer, and generally more comfortable thanks to this one product alone… which I guess might be kind of a miracle? Maybe? Who’s to say.
