Monday 1 October 2012

Rosehip oils: Trilogy vs Pai


We've blogged about the wonders of Trilogy before (here and here). But Other than christmas gift suggestions, we've never featured any Pai Skincare products here. That is only because we are lazy; pai skincare products have become part of our daily skincare routine and we've not looked back.

Founded by Sarah Brown after she suffered allergy induced acne and skin rashes, Pai is now one of the best natural beauty brands around. As a fellow allergy sufferer, a quote from Sarah Brown, in InStyle really resonated with me.

‘Now I’ve finally achieved true skin confidence, and it’s really empowering. I know it’s hard to completely get rid of an allergy, but knowing what sets it off and staying calm means I can control it.’

there's a lot of truth to that, it's probably why our allergy posts are the most popular around holiday season; getting through thanksgiving, birthday's, any number of religious festivals and new years is hard when you can't eat half of the food on the table.


After my new allergy to phenoxyethanol following exposure to antipodes night cream NOTHING was making my skin better, pre-phenoxyethanol (Now banned for use in certified organic skin care products by Ecocert and COSMOS, the new EU organic certification standard.) my other allergies rarely affected my skin. Now, it's one of the first places to show. Which is incredibly demoralising. True to form, I hit the books hard. How can you repair really damaged skin? time and time again the same answer came up; antioxidants and rosehip oil.

So we took the plunge! I'd been using Trilogy rosehip oil for 2 years with a 3 month break following a very painful skin reaction courtesy of Antipodes. I bought a bottle of Trilogy Rosehip oil and a bottle of Pai Rosehip Bioregenerate Oil and used them TBT experiment style!


Rosehip oil; the benefits

Rosehip oil is full of omega's 3 & 6, not to mention carotenoids. It also contains antioxidants, trans-retinoic acid (vitamin A) in the form of unsaturated EFA's which help to reduce the effects of aging, regenerating damaged skin (including scarring), stimulating cell renewal and diminishing fine lines.
One study has also suggested that the use of rosehip oil (as well as other oils and balms high in fatty acids, such as aloe vera) to help repair radiotherapy-induced damage to the skin. It really is magic.

I used trilogy rosehip oil for three months straight taking 1 month off and then began using Pai Rosehip Bioregenerate Oil for 3 months.

Our other testers (L and Em) did the same, applying the oils just to the face, neck and decolletage.

Trilogy oil vs Pai BioRegenerate - what's the difference?

Rosehip BioRegenerate™ contains a concentrated rosehip fruit oil which contains twice as many regenerative sterols and five times the carotenoids of rosehip seed oil. Pai use CO2 extraction to get the most out of their rosehips and they argue that it is this process that makes their rosehip oil more powerful than cold pressed rosehip oil.
Rosehip BioRegenerate™ also contains vitamin E.

Trilogy keep their secrets close to their chest, we're not sure how they extract it and it's not clear whether their rosehip oil is seed, fruit or both. But their clinical study results are pretty staggering and they've won an awful lot of awards..

The differences in appearance and smell, however, are obvious; The scent of Pai Rosehip Bioregenerate is softer than Trilogy (Beyond that it's hard to explain and both dissipate quite quickly). Pai Rosehip Bioregenerate Oil is bright orange - Testament to the carotenoid levels in the oil, it's also is a little thicker than Trilogy's.

The Result

There is nothing bad to say about either product. After 3 months, Trilogy made our skin look bright and fantastic. But it did nothing to my allergic skin.

Pai's BioRegenerate Rosehip Oil has helped reduce the damage to my skin and it's gotten so much better that it's not at all obvious anymore. If you were to run your hands over my face (which would warrant more questions than, "hey, while you're there; what do you think of the texture of my skin?") then it would be apparent which areas of my face suffered the most from the allergic reaction. Even so, the texture of my skin has improved so much that I am still using it.

L and Em loved Pai and Trilogy, as far as they were concerned both bottles contain skin elixirs.
 So it depends on your needs, for super nourishment and healing of the skin go for Pai, for radiance and moisturising both are equally good.

(Recently Trilogy have released an amped up version of their rosehip oil called Trilogy Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ which contains rosehip seed oil, tomato seed oil, cranberry seed oil, acai seed oil and oat extract. We would have loved to include it in this review but that one's next on our things-to-buy-and-review list!)

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