I Replaced My Retinol With Tulip-Based Skin Care & Now I’m Hooked
Bustle.com - July 2022
Standing in a tulip farm is like being inside one of those scenic desktop wallpapers you know you’ll never see IRL. And yet there I was: at the Bloomeffects tulip farm in the Netherlands, among rows upon rows of different colored flowers for as far as the eyes could see. I traveled to Amsterdam to see how the skin care brand creates its “field-to-face” collection of beauty products, and, after spending a full day in the picturesque field with co-founders Kim and Hein van Haaster, I learned that the tulip is so much more than a pretty flower.
To coincide with the trip, I decided to test the ingredient by only using tulip-based skin care products on my face for two full weeks. Topically, it’s supposedly a hydrating, skin-smoothing extract that rivals other anti-aging ingredients in the beauty world (even rose). I’ll admit I was skeptical that a mere floral could give my beloved retinol a run for its money. Tulips are Instagram-worthy flowers that look great on my credenza and smell bright and fresh, sure — but all my favorite ingredients tend to come from less visually appealing sources or are lab-derived and have scents similar to hot dog water (lookin’ at you, fermented green tea extract, cholesterol, and algae).
After cleansing, serum-ing, moisturizing, and masking my complexion with the botanical for just a few days, my glow looked... unparalleled. I had plump, bouncy, petal-soft skin — the kind of skin you’d hope a regimen based on floral extracts would deliver.