If you took a tour of my bathroom sink, you’d notice a few things—among them, that I have a knack for eucalyptus candles and an obsession with hairspray and that I don’t use moisturizer, ever. I bet that comes as a surprise to you, because many think moisturizers are a key staple to every skin care routine (especially a beauty editor’s), but they just never got along with my sometimes-combination, oftentimes-oily skin type. As a result, my vanity is lined with serums that do it all—moisturize, illuminate, clear up blemishes and fill wrinkles—without the heavy, and in my case, usually pore-clogging and shine-inducing formula that moisturizers often don in their pretty jars. Well, until I met a new breed of hydrator: the matte moisturizer.
Sure, there are mountains of different moisturizers that claim to leave your skin matte for hours after applying them, but their formulas are just the same as their traditional counterparts (glossy, liquid—basically everything you’ve come to expect from a lotion or moisturizer) and their subpar mattifying results usually are, too (take it from me). But what about a moisturizer that’s actually matte from start to finish with no liquids or opportunity to be found? The first of its kind, GLAMGLOW’s VOLCASMIC Matte Glow Moisturizer ($54) is completely matte in the jar (it looks like a perfectly smooth satin you’ll want to stare at) and encapsulates all of the benefits hydrators deliver once applied—think softness, moisture, plumping and radiance—with zero shine or excess oil anywhere to be found.
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Just as unique as the formula itself is the list of ingredients, with prickly pear seed, cherry tomato leaf and winter daphne flora making the cut, plus volcanic minerals that act as “tiny microscopic sponges,” as the brand explains, to instantly soak up excess oil throughout the day. As you can imagine, the texture took a little getting used to because it’s pretty much solid in the jar, but once it touches your skin and you begin to blend it in with your fingers, the formula melts on contact for a soft-as-silk feeling you’ll keep coming back to. Plus, there’s something comforting about a shine-free formula that actually works having a nontraditional, different formulation from those that never performed well for me.
The mattifying power of this hydrator is so good, I took it for a serious test-drive and substituted it in for my usual oil-free primer for an entire week. The result? Not a drop of oil all day (not even on my notoriously stressed-out T-zone that I have to constantly blot), supple, baby-soft skin for days and makeup that stayed put until I washed it off. Needless to say, I’ll be buying this by the case once I finish my first jar, and making room for more on my serum-lined vanity, too.
