The products: Pai Skincare Chamomile & Rosehip Calming Day Cream, Camellia & Rose Gentle Hydrating Cleanser and Cloth, and Rosehip BioRegenerative Oil
I’ve gone years resisting the pull of the Pai Rosehip Oil (and the super pretty rest of the line), but it’s been long enough. Eventually, you just have to cave in, locate the high-quality thing, and luxuriate in its beauty.
(Similar but different: I had my first cup of coffee at Credo a while back, and it was literally so good that I moaned a little. I think I scared my date a little.)
Camellia & Rose Gentle Hydrating Cleanser ($50 USD/$56 CAD)
My favourite product from this trio is the Pai Camellia & Rose Gentle Hydrating Cleanser, which comes with one of the brand’s dual-textured sensitive skin cotton cloths. It smells gently of lemon balm, and the cleanser and cloth make for a really lovely hot cloth polish experience!
The Camellia & Rose cleanser has a thin cold cream texture and is great for sensitive skin. For those of you unfamiliar with cold cream or hot cloth type cleansers, they’re a very ritualistic experience – you apply a thick layer of cleanser to dry skin (eye area included), gently wipe away all of your makeup and impurities with a muslin soaked in hot water, and finish with a splash of cold water to rinse.
My dry skin really likes this cleanser, but I do have one complaint: my skin is crazy sensitive, and I really wish that Pai offered an even softer cloth for ultra sensitive skin types!
Chamomile & Rosehip Calming Day Cream ($60 USD/$66 CAD)
Pai’s Chamomile & Rosehip Day Cream has a really “clean” ingredient list rich in matricin, azulene, and omega fatty acids, it’s designed to soothe the skin and minimize the appearance (!) of reactive redness.
It was far from hydrating enough for my skin, though (which is dry but not super dry right now), and it didn’t do much for my sensitivity. Ironically, because it left my skin feeling a little tight and dry, it actually made my skin feel more uncomfortable than usual, not better!
For redness and sensitivity, I still think that this Deciem serum is a better option. However, it’s nice that there’s a natural option out there from Pai, and I have no real issues with the Chamomile & Rosehip Calming Day Cream (aside from the fact that it smells like rosehip oil, which I am weirdly and seemingly uniquely adverse to). It just wasn’t the right product for me, you know?
Rosehip BioRegenerative Oil ($40 USD/$40 CAD)
And finally: the crown and glory of the Pai Skincare line!
Pai’s biggest, most cult-followed product is their Rosehip BioRegenerative Oil, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super psyched to try it. I’m split on my thoughts about it, though: on one hand, it turns out that I hate the smell of rosehip oil, and when it’s good quality (like this one is), it actually tints my skin orange.
On the other, the quality of Pai’s rosehip oil is beyond compare. It blends rosehip seed oil with rosehip fruit oil to really pack in the carotenoid-rich antioxidants and sterols, and it’s noticeably more effective as a result. It doesn’t just condition the skin, it helps heal it, which is pretty cool. (I got two accidental scratches from Tunakitten last month, and the one that I was using Pai oil on definitely scarred less.)
This is my third rosehip oil, and it’s by far my favourite. Now Organic’s Rosehip Seed Oil was thin and clear, and Le Serum de Jacynthe’s rosehip oil blend was very good, but it was literally twice the price of this one and no more effective.
In short, I think that the Pai Rosehip BioRegenerative Oil is well worth the price. It’s one of the highest-quality oils that I own, and it hits scrapes and scars with +150% crit damage. Blending it with another oil will help neutralize the scent (try adding a drop of essential oil into some decanted rosehip oil), and 1-2 drops of rosehip oil with your regular moisturizer will make a fantastic overnight treatment.
The verdict?
Overall, I really enjoyed using these products from Pai, and I use the Camellia & Rose Cleanser and Rosehip BioRegenerative Oil on a regular basis. I like that they’re pretty, vegan, and cruelty-free, and I love that their rosehip oil is such a powerhouse.
$40 CAD/oz is a steal for a serum that’s this high-quality, and while it’s not my favourite oil ever, it’s unquestionably fantastic for the price.
Availability: Pai Skincare (US) & The Detox Market (US & Canada)
Pai Camellia & Rose Gentle Hydrating Cleanser ingredients – 80% organic
Water, Camellia Oil, Castor Seed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol (coconut-derived), Vegetable Glycerine, Shea Butter, Cetearyl Glucoside (corn-derived), Sodium Anisate (from basil), Tocopherol, Damask Rose Otto Oil, Geranium Oil, Sodium Levulinate (corn-derived), Lavender Oil, Lactic Acid (from sugar beet), May Chang Oil, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate (from sustainable palm oil), Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (from coconut oil).
Pai Chamomile & Rosehip Calming Day Cream ingredients – 78% organic
Water, Apricot Kernel Oil, Jojoba Oil, Thistle Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol (coconut-derived), Vegetable Glycerin, CO2 extracted Rosehip Seed Extract, Shea Butter, Cetearyl Glucoside (corn-derived), Manuka Oil, Corn Extract, Mixed Tocopherols, CO2 extracted Chamomile Extract, Lavender Oil, Basil Extract, Rose Geranium Oil, Lactic Acid (from sugar beet), Glyceryl Stearate Citrate (from sustainable palm oil), Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate (from coconut oil).
