Geek & Gorgeous is a brand from Hungary that stole my heart and my wallet once I read about it online. They make products with amazing formulations that are simple and effective and I love to support a european brand for once!
The Geek & Gorgeous Cheer Up 6% Mandelic + BHA Liquid is an exfoliating liquid with mandelic acid which is an AHA and salicylic acid which is a BHA. It used in the toner stage after cleansing and before any treatments and can be used up to once a day. It's sold in two sizes - 30ml and 100ml. I went for the smaller one first to try it out and it retails for 11 Euros.
It's a fast absorbing liquid that can be applied with a cotton pad or just patted in with your hands. You should let it sit for a minute, like with all exfoliating liquids and then you can go in with any serums/cream you'd like. It's targeted towards combinaton and oily skin but it's also fine for sensitive skin. The AHA helps with hyper-pigmentation, acne scars and help to even out and brighten up the skin. The BHA gets right into the pores and helps with deeply exfoliating them so it's great if you have clogged pores, blackheads and increased sebum production.
The packaging is very simple and secure as well which I like a lot. It has the typical toner dispenser but you secure it with a plug so there's no chance of spilling it out. It doesn't really smell of anything and the texture is very watery and lightweight.
Try-on
I don't have oily skin anymore, now I'm more dry but I get very clogged pores in my nose/cheek areas and BHAs help with that a lot. I use exfoliating liquid or BHA serum every morning so today I went with this one in my toner stage.
The texture is very nice and liquidy, I went for the cottonpad application. It didn't sting at all, but it's to be expected because I basically live with acids on my face on the daily. I really like the texture and I would say the sensation is similar to my other exfoliating toners so it gets a thumbs up from me so far. My skin did look brightened thanks to the AHAs and the BHA effect is hard to tell because you can always tell that BHAs do something once you stop using them.
Final thoughts
I've been using this exfoliating liquid for quite some time pretty much every morning, sometimes I switched it up with my other ones but this one has been the main star of the morning routine. I must say that I really, really like it. It keeps my skin smooth and my pores less congested which is the main reason why I use BHAs in the first place.
It's not irritating at all and I don't find it problematic when I apply other products on top of it. I like that it comes in the smaller version so you can travel with it or just buy the smaller version when you want to give it a shot and not spend money on the big one.
If you're starting with exfoliators this might be a little too strong but you need to see how your skin reacts as using acids is a very individual thing. My skin can take a lot and doesn't have any issues with this product. If you have very sensitive skin, always patch test and if you don't want to use the product as a toner, you can either use it like a mask and wash it off after couple minutes or you can dillute it in another product. That way you still get the benefits but avoid some irritation that might occure. I think this is a great reasonably priced product that well formulated and works really well and I would recommend it to everyone who wants to try AHAs+BHAs to exfoliate their skin.
Have you tried any nice chemical exfoliators? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!