Hello! I'm back with another new-to-me product from the land of natural skin care, one that has again managed to take the place of two products: Ursa Major's Brighten Up Vitamin C Serum. Trialed on another recommendation from a lovely employee at Take Care, this particular product won my heart by not only being a pleasant smelling Vitamin C serum (a lot of them smell like vinegar or hot dogs), but the added rose hip gives it just enough moisture to act as a lovely day moisturizer under my SPF.

In my experience this light yellow creme sinks easily and rapidly into the skin, and for this oily skinned gal is enough to get her through the day. Your mileage may vary, but since I've also successfully layered this under gel moisturizers without any issues, I feel pretty safe in saying this would work for most skin types.

I can't currently point to any immediate brightening effects since this serum was replacing a different Vitamin C product that I'd run out of, but all in all I'm very pleased with it, and how it feels on my now retinol induced sensitive skin.  Would recommend!

On a dark and stormy night in December, my friend Jessy and I were wandering around Georgetown when we happened to walk past was felt like a calming oasis in the desert of holiday madness. She asked me what the shop was, I had no idea, but immediately noticed May Lindstrom on one of the shelves. And then of course I had to freak out a little and go inside, because DC doesn't really *do* brands like May Lindstrom in store, and other than Caroline Hirons glowing reviews, I'd never been able to get my hands on them. All that intro to say that today I'm very excited to share with you a new shop on my radar: Take Care.

(I know this post has lots of pictures, but I couldn't help myself. Beautiful shop + new camera = ALL THE PICTURES.)


According to their website, "Take Care Founder, Becky Waddell, created Take Care after seeing a need for a healthy skincare and lifestyle community in Washington, DC.

She passionately enjoyed plant-based skincare for years but always found it difficult to discover beautiful, effective brands in one place - so, she created a space herself! She relishes in bringing together special brands and sharing them with her community."


And while I know it sounds corny, Ms. Waddell has really created a beautiful showcase for some of the most premier all-natural brands I've ever heard of, in a really soothing atmosphere. Both times I've gone in the staff was approachable and knowledgeable, chatting with me about my skin concerns, things I've tried in the past, my routine, etc. etc., all without creating an atmosphere where I felt pressured to buy something. I went around the whole place touching and smelling and become familiar with brands I'd never expected to see outside online orders.

In addition to May Lindstrom, it was so fun and exciting to get my hands on brands like Josh Rosebrook, Mahalo, and the much talked about Vintner's Daughter. I tend to lean heavily towards the "made in a lab and tested under pristine conditions" type of skincare for the most part, so the sensory appeal and efficacy of their more "natural" counterparts are a bit of a mystery to me. For DC to have a store like this that allows me to really get in to the down and dirty of some very high end skincare is the kind of stuff dreams are made of.


I signed up for their newsletter because apparently they also do classes in the larger back space (yoga, face massage, etc.) so I'll keep you all updated how that goes! I also bought something (are we surprised?) but rather than make this mammoth post any larger I'll save the details of that for another day.