Why Axis-Y?
I’ve been very loyal to my Beauty of Joseon Radiance Cleansing Balm but I was intrigued by the Axis-Y Quinoa Balanced One-Step Gel cleanser – I love to save time in my routine and also ensure I get a thorough cleanse
I recently wrote about calming serums and I go through them very quickly, as I apply them to my entire neck and chest. I like to have a wide choice of different types so I can tailor my routine to how my neck is feeling each day.
My face can take pretty much any product I throw at it, now that I hydrate properly, but my neck gets irritated easily. No matter how well I hydrate my neck, it needs to be treated with a lot of TLC. The Axis-Y Artichoke Intensive Skin Barrier Ampoule is a great all-rounder, focused on both hydrating and soothing, plus it even has anti-aging benefits.
Both of these products are from Axis-Y’s 6+1+1 line and Axis-Y says that all of the products in this range have 6 ingredients that are nutrient-rich, 1 core ingredient that targets a concern and 1 effective technology. You can also find lots of the other products in this range here.
Axis-Y Quinoa Balanced One-Step Gel
Ingredients
This cleansing gel has a selection of soothing plant extracts, such as centella asiatica and green tea, but the ones I’ll focus on here are hops, tea tree and quinoa.
Both tea tree and hops can help with acne and inflammation, making them ideal components for a cleanser with oil that isn’t being followed with a second cleanse.
The inclusion of quinoa is really smart because it has lots of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects. Some cleansers can be very drying but the combination of quinoa and gentle cleansing agents will help avoid drying out your skin.
The gentle cleansing ingredients make a nice foam and it also has soybean oil to truly make it a double cleanse in a single bottle!
Experience
This is medium thick, jelly-type gel: easy to spread and emulsify. It makes a nicer, richer foam than my previous Western gel cleanser and it’s thicker than what you get when you emulsify an oil and balm cleansers. It’s satisfying but not heavy – it doesn’t feel like it would clog my skin, although soybean oil might be risky for someone who is acne-prone, so you’d want to patch test this carefully.
My skin doesn’t get squeaky clean, which means it’s not drying for me. I feel that my skin is overall cleaner than when I use just the Beauty of Joseon Radiance balm.
Although the Beauty of Joseon Radiance Balm leaves my cheeks a little softer than the Axis-Y, I do need to double cleanse my T-zone regularly – the joy of combination skin with dry cheeks that don’t like double cleansing.
The Axis-Y definitely effectively removes sunscreen and it did even get off my super waterproof mascara, although I had to really work it into my skin for 5 minutes. I will probably stick to a biphase micellar water for mascara that in future.
Although it has a slight scent which is herbal and refreshing, I got a lot of it in my eyes whilst removing my mascara and it didn’t sting at all – which just adds more evidence to how gentle this cleanser is!
The Axis-Y Artichoke Intensive Skin Barrier Ampoule
Ingredients
There are so many great ingredients in this ampoule: too many to discuss in detail so I’ll stick to the most important aspects of the ampoule!
Some ingredients provide hydration, like hyaluronic acid and glycerin, but aloe water and aloe juice soothe as well as hydrate. I’ll talk more about aloe in a future article, when I review Benton’s aloe range.
I’ve written about centella asiatica before and I’m always happy to see it on an ingredient list, particularly for something that I want to calm my skin.
Then you come to the real powerhouses here for inflammation and anti-aging: liquorice and artichoke. Liquorice helps reduce pigment and is soothing. Artichoke is great for calming skin, and also can also have an effect on skin roughness and elasticity.
Experience
When I wrote about the Beauty of Joseon Calming serum and the Mary & May Centella Asiatica serum, I talked about how the Beauty of Joseon was more hydrating and the Mary & May was more calming.
The Axis-Y ampoule doesn’t compromise on either calming or hydrating: it does both perfectly! I might pair it with either the Beauty of Joseon or the Mary & May for extra soothing but it really isn’t necessary. My skin is happily calmed when I just use the Axis-Y and so I’ve been using it more than the other two recently.
The texture of the Axis-Y is more spreadable than the Mary & May but not as watery as the Beauty of Joseon. This means it’s the a lovely texture: even though I am drawn to thicker textures, my skin needs to be pretty damp to spread them easily.
Sometimes I get distracted in between steps so a serum step that is thick enough to feel comforting but thin enough to spread easily gets my ultimate seal of approval! The Axis-Y ticks every box for the ideal serum for me: hydrating, soothing and calming but also anti-aging – and at 50ml, it’s larger a lot of other serums.
Final Word
Both of these Axis-Y products are highly effective and using them means I can reduce how many products I need. Rather than using two cleansers and serums, both of these products work so well that I can cut out other products but still have happy, healthy skin!