Focus on Pixi Glow Tonic

First of all, sorry for the extremely long hiatus. New job, work, life, blah blah blah. Let's just crack on, shall we?

So I want to start a new series of posts entitled "Focus on... find me a dupe". Basically I'm pretty interested in skincare and the science behind it. There are so many products out there that are hyped up and are seen as "holy grail" skincare products. But what makes them work? Why do they do what they do? And most importantly, can you get the same results with a cheaper product?

First stop, Pixi Glow Tonic (aka the blood of angels if the blogasphere is anything to go by). It's been recommended by Caroline Hirons and many a beauty blogger as their toner of choice. When I went to pick it up in there store in London the rooms was full of packages of this stuff waiting to be sent out in the post, that's how much people want to get their hands on it.

Ok, so what are the claims? Pixibeauty.com market it as "Oxygenating. Exfoliating facial glow tonic. It helps tone, firm and tighten the skin. It removes dead skin cells for healthier looking skin. For normal to dry, ageing and sensitive skin. Alcohol free." So it's an exfoliator. (Sidenote; Oxygenating?! Please.) If you know a little bit about exfoliators than you may know that there are chemical exfoliators (which exfoliate the skin with acids, bare with me, it's not as scary as it sounds) and physical ones, which are the products that have little scrubby bits in them. Now exfoliating your skin with acid can sound pretty scary, but chemical exfoliants are usually much kinder on the skin, as sometimes scrubbing your face with physical particles can actually cause micro tears in the skin. Anyway, I digress. This is a chemical exfoliant. Now again, we can break the types of chemical exfoliants down even further. There are AHA's (Alpha Hydroxy Acid's) and BHA's (Beta Hydroxy Acid's). Now I'm just going to leave this here, because this is an excellent link that will tell you much more about the difference between these AHA's and BHA's than I can.

Now lets look at the ingredients.

Ingredients: Deionized water, Aloe Vera, Witch Hazel, Horse Chestnut Extracts, Propylene Glycol, Glycolic Acid and Ammonium Glycolate, Hexylene Glycol, Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose, Urea Dextrin, Alanine, Glutamic Acid, Hexylnicotinate, Ginseng Extract, Potassium Alum, Diazolidinyl Urea, Biotin, pixi Natural Fragrant Oil.
Active ingredients: Glycolic Acid-5%, partially neutralized by Ammonium Hydroxide.

Pixi Glow Tonic is an AHA as it contains Glycolic acid. What do AHAs do? Well they work well in reducing fine lines, hyperpigmentation, and spots. They are also quite good for dryer skin as they draw moisture in. So you can see why a product with all of these benefits would be seen as a holy grail skincare item, right? That's the positive side. The negative side is that chemical exfoliants rely on the PH level being between 3-4 to exfoliate. And what is Pixi Glow Tonic? According to my PH test, it's 5, which is really to high to be used as a chemical exfoliant. Plus, this product contains only 5% glycolic acid, and that has been lowered by the Ammonium Hydroxide. Basically, you are not getting as much bang for your buck as you think.

Now for the best part. Dupes. What Pixi Glow Tonic essentially is, as an AHA exfoliant, with a few soothing ingredients. Let's have a look at some other AHA exfoliants that are available in the UK. Now these may not come in the same format as the Pixi Glow Tonic (a liquid that you use as a toner) but they are all AHA's that's sole purpose is to do the same good things to your skin.

• Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Exfoliating Facial Pads 60s available at Boots Superdrug and ASOS 
• 2.8% glycolic acid. Quite low, so good as as starter AHA
•  PH Level 4 – 4.5 (on the higher scale, but still lower than Pixi Glow Tonic)

• Olay Regenerist Night Renewal Elixir 50ml available at Boots and Superdrug
• Contains between 8-10% glycolic acid
• PH Level 3.8

• Avene Cleanance K 40ml available at Boots  
• (this also works as a BHA as it contains Salicylic acid as well as Glycolic acid
•  PH Level 3.6

• Eau Thermale Avene TriAcneal 30ml available at Boots
•  6% glycolic acid
• Can't find the PH Level of this product, but according to Paula's Choice it is at an effective level.

•  Bravura London Purifying Calendula Toner 13% 100ml available from Bravura London
• We're getting to the big boys now with 10% Glycolic Acid and 3% Lactic Acid
• PH Level 3.8 

•  Bravura London 15% Glycolic Acid Detoxifying Gel 50ml available at Bravura London
• A whopping 15% Glycolic acid
• PH Level 3.5

 Now the majority of these products are available on your high street, apart from the last two which are available online from Bravura London. These come at a much higher percentage, so are AHA's that I would recommend you work up to. If it were me, I would start with one of the first four products I've recommended and eventually work my way up to either one of the last two products.

Phew! I hope you've learnt something from today's post. Skincare can be very daunting, especially so many products are hyped up as the next big thing without any information on why. Happy exfoliating!