In the first installment of my DHC Skincare review, I looked at the Olive Essentials Set. In this installment, I review some of the other DHC skincare products: Rich Moisture, Extra Nighttime Moisture, Concentrated Eye Cream, Eye Bright, Facial Scrub, and Q10 Cream. I will look at Velvet Skin Coat in a final installment later this week.

DHC Mositruizer

• DHC Rich Moisture is a standard moisturizing lotion. It has a nice rich feel and good packaging. liked it fine.  However at this price point, I prefer Estee Lauder Daywear.
• I liked DHC Extra Nighttime Moisture a bit better. This is a rich overnight cream with olive oil and sodium hyaluronate. With its $30 price tag, it moisturized for me just as well or even better than some much more expensive products. I would consider buying this after my current products run out, especially if I was already making a DHC skincare order.
• DHC Concentrated Eye Cream is another one that I like quite a bit. This thick eye cream did a great job moisturizing the under eye area, and my skin there looked and felt wonderful the next morning.  It is a good eye cream for its price point.
• Eye Brightis a light gel with cucumber for cooling, caffeine for depuffing, and licorice for brightening. It felt nice on the skin and absorbed well. I am kind of a sucker for eye gels, and this one really is quite nice, especially for summer!
• The DHC Q10 Cream is a standard anti-aging cream. I personally have not used any given  co-enzyme Q product enough to see areal effect from it, but I know of others who rave about it for its antioxidant and anti-aging properties. Obviously from a sample, it would be hard to say much about this one either. It felt fine, and I liked it as a general moisturizer. If you have had previous success with Q10 or are interested in trying it, the DHC  Q10 Cream could be a good choice.
• Finally, there is the Facial Scrub. This is an apricot scrub that is pretty effective, but not quite as harsh as some other apricot scrubs that I have tried. It was OK for me, and I think fans of apricot scrubs would like it.

Overall, I have been impressed with the DHC skincare products that I have tried. They also have many other products that look interesting. Take a look at the DHC website for more information.

I also tried DHC skincare Velvet Skin Coat and will cover that later this week in a post comparing it to Smashbox Photofinish.

Update: The DHC Velvet Skin Coat review is here: DHC Velvet Skin Coat

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DHC Skin Care Kit

DHC skincare makes some great olive oil skin care products. Since DHC is based on olive oil (in fact one product is solely pure olive oil), a common first thought is: Won't DHC skincare items cause break outs? But the general reports from both the DHC skincare company and from consumers is that the products, even the pure olive oil, do not clog pores. Instead, olive oil helps to dissolve the gunk that can sink into them. This has been my personal experience as well.

The use of olive oil for skin care can be traced to the ancient Greeks, who used it for its moisturizing properties. Extra virgin olive oil from the supermarket can be used on dry skin, put in the hair as a treatment, added to the bath, and more. When used as a cleanser, it dissolves makeup quite well, including waterproof mascara.

So it is not surprising that DHC, a popular Japanese company focusing on skin care, does well with its olive oil products. I found myself with eleven different products to try when I was given a bunch of samples. Now that I have used them, I am reviewing them in two parts. Today I will cover what DHC skincare calls "The Olive Essentials Set." The next installment will look at some of their other items.

DHC skincare has a variety of cleaners, moisturizers, and other products. But they focus their advertising on a basic regime consisting of an olive oil cleanser, soap, toner, and pure olive oil.

• DHC Deep Cleansing Oil is my favorite of the bunch. I had tried this in the past and had forgotten how much I loved it.  DHC Deep Cleansing Oil looks like oil, and initially feels like oil, but it quickly turns into a moisturizing lather that dissolves makeup quite well and rinses clean without feeling drying. It has pretty good reviews at MakeupAlley, where one reviewer noted the seeming inconsistency with an olive oil that rinses clean. Yet it does just that. I too am fascinated by it and I love how it works and feels. I am definitely buying this stuff. (2011 update-This has been my regular cleanser for years now. It simply is the best!)
• Another basic product is theDHC Mild Soap, whose ingredients include olive oil and honey. Why a soap when there is already a cleanser? The DHC literature states that the cleanser is best for people who wear makeup or have oily skin because the cleanser breaks up makeup and oils, while the soap gets rid of "finer impurities." The soap certainly feels fine and I suppose the extra step doesn't hurt, but I don't know that it really is all that necessary. I felt perfectly clean using just the cleanser and rinsing well. I also tend to be lazy and hate extra steps. So for me, the soap is not a necessary product. However, people who don't like the idea of an oil cleanser or who prefer a bar soap will find that the DHC soap cleans efficiently without an oily feel.
• The next step in the process is toning with DHC Mild Lotion. This is an alcohol free toner with cucumber and glycerin. I found it to be a pretty standard toner: Nothing wrong with it, but I found no reason to rave about it either. It worked as it should and tingled appropriately. It didn't seem particularly drying. In reality, I just am not a big fan of any toners and don't tend to use them. I don't find that extra step necessary, nor do I buy arguments that it is required to properly prepare skin for a moisturizer. So, I wouldn't buy this item, but fans of toners might be perfectly happy with it.
• Finally, there is DHC Olive Virgin Oil. This is pure olive oil that DHC skincare states is in one of the purest forms available. I have read of many people who are happy using pure olive oil on their face, whether it be the DHC product or simply extra virgin olive oil bought at the store. I know that it can be a great skin softener, that it has antioxidants, and it can help lock in moisture. But it just isn't for me. I love the cleanser because it rinses clean. But the oil sits on the face. Yes, it absorbed after a bit, and to be fair, my skin felt quite soft the mornings after I tried the oil. But I still didn't care for the oil on my hands, oily feeling on my face, and oil on the towels. Also, I use several specialty products that really need a different kind of moisture over them. DHC suggests that when other products and moisturizers are used, the oil can be put over those to "prevent hydration from evaporating from the skin. It does get rave reviews on the DHC site.

The upshot is that I will be buying the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil, which I just adore, and passing on the rest. From reading other DHC skincare reviews I suspect that my thoughts about the other products are due to my own proclivities. Plenty of people like the other products.

For those wanting to test some of the products themselves, DHC provides a Catalog upon request that includes 4 samples. The literature I was provided states that those are the DHC Deep Cleansing Oil that I reviewed here and the Velvet Skin Coat, Q10 Creme, and Concentrated Eye Creme, all of which I will review in other installments. DHC skincare also allows customers to choose up to four samples with each order. Update: once on their mailing list, you will continue to get catalogs with different samples each time.

Update: Part II is available here: DHC Skin Care Review, Part II.

The review of Velvet Skin Coat is here DHC Velvet Skin Coat Review.

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