Glossier Skincare Alternatives While We Patiently Wait For International Shipping

Even people who aren’t borderline mentally-ill obsessed with all things makeup will have felt the ripple effects of Glossier. The brand, launched out of top beauty website Into The Gloss, has been kind of revolutionary, if revolutionary isn’t too ridiculous a term for rubbing stuff onto ones face. It’s a sort of back-to-basics, natural, but with cool twists, smudgy-yet-perfected take on makeup and skincare. It’s also sort of unapologetically cool girl inspired, featuring models with perfect glowing skin and bushy eyebrows laughing at each other’s jokes and basically suggesting you can’t sit with them. But boy, will you want to sit with them.

For those outside of the USA, though, sitting with them is still a logistical impossibility. International shipping has been teased since the launch, and although we’re now assured it’s coming at the end of the year, some of us are still grasping for immediate gratification. Here are the best ways to approximate the Glossier effect in the meantime.

Their Milky Jelly Cleanser is described as a conditioning face wash, meaning it does all the cleansing and all the hydrating in one. I’ve found bountiful evidence (Googled around) to confirm my suspicions that there is more than a passing resemblance to the CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser. From what I can gather, the Milky Jelly smells like roses, while the CeraVe smells like nothing, which is a plus or minus depending on your preferences. The CeraVe also appears to be slightly less efficient at removing makeup than the Milky Jelly, but you do get an enormous amount for the price, so double cleansing is not outside the realms of possibility. Glossier associations aside, though, the CeraVe is truly a delight to use, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Glossier also has a range of serums they call Supers – Super Bounce, Super Pure and Super Glow, targeted for specific skin needs. And I’ve noticed a surprisingly active ingredient similarity between them and offering from budget serum powerhouse The Ordinaries. The Bounce has the same actives as The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% +B5, the Pure as The Ordinary Niacinimide 10% + Zinc 1% and the Super Glow has more than a passing resemblance to the Ordinary Ascorbyl Glucoside Solution 12%. While I don’t doubt the quality of the ingredients are better in the higher-priced-for-half-the-product Glossier, until they are within or reach, take advantage of these cheap, effective alternatives.

The Glossier Priming Moisturiser has drawn many comparisons to old cult product, the Embryollise Lait-Crème Concentrate. I’ve never used it, because it is not the greatest for the acne prone, but a moisturiser that reduces redness, smooths skin and leaves things really nice and sticky for makeup application is the Nivea Men Sensitive Post Shave Balm. I love rubbing in a pea sized amount pre-makeup, because it makes my skin feel pleasingly laminated, and also makes everything you apply on top melt in in a gorgeously natural way. While the skincare benefits may be lesser, the instant gratification factor is second to none.

Because I’m an international jet-setter, I have actually experienced first-hand the joys that are the Glossier Balm Dot Coms. They’re amazing, thick balms which actually hold their substance and don’t become thin and slippery when heated to body temperature – plus they have the best flavours. I really do recommend them. However, if the simple, greasy-glow look is what you’re after, any sort of petroleum jelly will do. My recommendation is the CeraVe Healing Ointment.

Glossier also offers a rosewater face mist. While hardly a radical product, I do support the thesis that wetness is the essence of beauty, and nothing achieves that quite like a finishing mist. You can very easily buy rosewater from Amazon or the supermarket and put it into a spray bottle, but a recent find of mine has been the Lumion Skin Natural and Hydrating Oxygen Mist. It kind of smells like swimming pools, but its minimal ingredient list offers antiseptic, calming and moisturising effects with no irritation. It also gives tons of cool-girl glow.

Gentle makeup removal, science-y active serums, a pleasingly sticky moisturising base, a dewy multipurpose balm and a dew enhancing mist aren’t exactly the craziest innovations in skincare. But combined, they do help enhance that sort of youthful, effortless beauty standard so popular in the Glossier adverts. And until we can buy what they’re selling, we can now at least buy into it.