Zelens Z Recovery Intensive Repair Balm: Review

Fortified with powerful collagen-boosting ingredients to help restore the hydrolipidic layer and strengthen the skin's natural protective barrier.

This intense soothing formula reduces perception of unpleasant sensations and enhances well-being of the skin. Recommended for all skin types including compromised, travel-stressed and climate-drained skin."

Benefits

• Instantly soothes and relieves irritated or altered skin
• Supports natural skin repair and recovery
• Replenishes lost moisture and strengthens skin's natural barrier function

The texture is a thicker gel cream. It has an off white cream tone and has no real noticeable scent. It's not fragrance free, but there's nothing that stands out as really notable. It does have a nice cushy moisturizing feel without being greasy. It feels really refreshing when first applied. It's not a light moisturizer, nor is it a heavy deep moisturizer. It's more moisturizing than a regular gel cream.

So does it work? I wanted to love this, it seemed great at first. However, I started to link an adverse reaction to this cream after a while. At first I used this cream sporadically when I felt dry, such as this last winter and while pregnant. While it felt great on application, I noticed multiple issues a few hours later. The main issue was hours later, maybe half a day, my cheeks would turn bright red after using this. A hot, splotchy, bright red. I used to use this on days when my skin felt dry or irritated thinking it would help. It took a while to link the redness to this product. After changing nothing else in my regimen but this one product it was clear every time I tried this that my cheeks turned red hours later.

I also noticed while my skin felt nice at first, it was dried out by the end of the day. This cream doesn't hold the moisture in, it actually made my skin feel more dry hours later. It also has a slight silicone feel causing sunscreen to pill on top. There is a silicone listed in the ingredients. Due to the redness adverse reaction, the dryness hours later and the pilling I would never buy this again. I also cannot recommend it to anyone.

Active Ingredients per Zelens:

Repair peptides: Promote skin repair and regeneration: Hexapeptide-11 and Tripeptide-29. 
Hexapeptide-11: Produced from Saccharomyces yeast using sophisticated fermentation biotechnology. Significantly improves the dermal matrix of the skin. 
Tripeptide-29: Increases the synthesis of collagen and thus plays an important role in the repair of dermal matrix. Also modulates tissue repair and remodelling by activation of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF).

Neuropeptide: Acts as a sensory neuromodulator that modulates the skin's perception of unpleasant sensations (temperature, chemical aggression and tactile sensation). By modulating the release of neurotransmitters, this peptide diminishes the skin's unpleasant sensations and improves its comfort and well-being.

Hyaluronic acid: An important natural component of skin. Zelens uses a low-molecular weight hyaluronic acid with unique moisturising properties. Hyaluronic acid boosts skin moisture, promotes skin elasticity and fills in wrinkles to help reduce their appearance. 

Chondroitin sulfate: One of the components of extracellular matrix of the skin. Reinforces skin A natural molecule present in connective tissue cross-linking with the collagen. Demonstrates firming properties to give the matrix a distinct 3D structure. 

Phosholipids: Major building components in the structure of any cellular membrane essential for all vital physiological processes. These natural skin-identical ingredients demonstrate moisturising, restructuring and protective properties.

Silanols: Organic derivates of silicones produced in the presence of alginic acid extracted from brown algae. Stimulate fibroblast proliferation and activate collagen production and thus have an important role in wound healing and restructuring of the connective tiisue. Silanols also demonstrate moisturizing, anti-oxidant and anti-glycation properties.

Yeast extract: A natural extract isolated from the live yeast cells. Increases cell respiration and metabolism, stimulates oxygen consumption and helps tissue repair and wound healing. Demonstrates anti-inflammatory and protective properties due to a high amount of heat-shock proteins. 

Rosemary leaf: Demonstrates strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. 

Olive oil: Olive oil is rich in primary fatty acids - oleic and palmitic acid. These acids are excellent skin nutrients and lipid replacements for skin that has lost its protective lipid components. Olive oil has regenerative properties and it soothes, relieves and helps to repair dry, flaky skin. It also has antioxidant properties due to the high amount of natural phenols and squalane.

Sunflower Oil: Extracted from sunflower seeds. Rich in linoleic and oileic acids. Demonstrates excellent moisturising and skin conditioning properties. 

Vitamin E (Tocopherol): An antioxidant with a key role in the protection of cellular membranes from free radicals. It is the major antioxidant in the human epidermis with strong protective effects against UV-induced skin damage.

Ingredients:

Aqua (Water), Propanediol, Dimethicone, Glycerin, Cyclopentasiloxane, Phospholipids, Hexapeptide-11, Butylene Glycol, Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Polysilicone-11, Acetyl Dipeptide-1 Cetyl Ester, Tripeptide-29, Hyaluronic Acid, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Methylsilanol Mannuronate, Methylsilanol Hydroxyproline Aspartate, Salicylic Acid, Sodium Chondroitin Sulphate, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Sodium Polyacrylate, Polyacrylamide, Triethanolamine, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Carbomer, Trideceth-6, Laureth-3, Laureth-7, Disodium EDTA, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Xanthan Gum, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Sorbic Acid, Linalool, Parfum (Fragrance), Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate