I scoured through beauty forums for close to two weeks before dropping a whole $10 on my very first face mist. I came across Alteya Organics’ Bulgarian Rose Water by complete accident, strolling aimlessly through Warsaw and stepping into a niche perfumery I knew to be filled with beautiful scents, miraculous creams and ‘Made in France’ candles that I could not afford.

The face mist was the only product that came at a decent price, so for the rush one gets from buying into ~luxury~, I soon found myself leaving the store with a tiny hot stamped bag in my hands (velvet handles, to be sure).

The face mist was beside the point – I’d gone into the store to buy into the revelry of it all. Little did I realise, this measly $10 spend would soon become a real solution to some of my biggest skin concerns.

The entire experiment made me wonder – is the face mist hype real or are they just expensive bottles of water with cute names?

Let me break it down for you.

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Identify Your Skin Concerns

Having tackled acne, I was on the lookout for a product that could help me get rid of the red blemishes that at times made me feel like a Dalmatian blushing after chewing on its owner’s Prada slingbacks. Okay, maybe I’m being a touch dramatic but we’re all familiar with the insecurities that arise from imperfect skin. My brand new face mist claimed to reduce redness (read: boost my confidence) and it contained water from steam-distilled petals of Rosa damascena – a Damascus rose used across Asia as far back as the 10th Century for its ability to heal and hydrate, but most of all, for its incredibly heady fragrance. Around 300 years later, the rose travelled to Europe and it is grown today in the heart of Bulgaria’s region aptly known as Rose Valley.

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Know Your Ingredients

It wasn’t long before I’d started digging into the properties of other mists. More often than not, the ingredient lists are 90% organic, packed with nourishing plant oils, humectants and amino acids. Depending on your beauty goal, you could easily swap a Damascus Rose for another leading ingredient such as grapes, filled with antioxidant-rich resveratrol (thumbs up for the cult Caudalie Eau de Raisin), lotus which controls the production of Sebum, or anti-inflammatory aloe herbs and brightening green tea (looking at you, Mario Badescu).

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What Happened After One Month?

After a quick consultation with Dr Google, I learnt about the astringent and antiseptic properties of rose water – perfect for acne-prone skin as they speed up the fading of scars and blemishes. I know what you’re thinking: you could probably name at least one hundred other beauty products that make the same promises, but I was on a mission to *realise things* as much as Kylie Jenner strove to do so in 2016. I started spraying my face daily for over a month and watched my complexion closely, waiting for a miracle to happen.  

Spoiler alert: dreams do come true.

One bottle of rose water later, here I was with smoother skin, waving goodbye to red spots, feeling more confident and ready to swipe that plastic at my favourite perfumery once more. I’m not trying to say the problem was solved –  some blemishes were still there but at least they were fading. By that point, I was even confident enough to swap foundation from a BB cream (yay!) or leave the house make-up-free to let the sun feed my skin with some vitamin D (slathered in sunscreen, of course).

So what did I really learn from all of this? I learnt that a face mist is like the tomato sauce to your spaghetti – the essential base, that is. A better, albeit less tasty analogy, would be a sponge. Think about it like this: the more moist your face is after cleansing, the more it will soak in the product you are about to put on.

Before I send you on your way, here are a few tips for finding your perfect mist: navigate your skin problem and read the ingredients; I never trust products that say they can make me look fresher, younger or energised. Try the ones that offer concrete solutions and remember to test them out for a longer period of time. You know what they say… Rome wasn’t built in a day and no spaghetti was ever made without tomatoes.

Words and images, Marta Knàs.

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