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Does PROVEN Skincare Work? We Decided To Prove It.

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Reviewed by Sharon Quinn

Last Updated December 2021

Proven Skincare Review

The Bottom Line: Why We Love PROVEN Skincare

A clinically effective skincare routine customized down to your activity level and the air quality in your home zip code? Yes, PLEASE.

PROVEN’s clean, nontoxic skincare system formulates 3 multifunctional products after assessing more than 47 factors, drilling all the way down to your personal skin concerns, the multivitamins you are or aren’t getting on a daily basis, and even so intimate as the details of your specific allergies. Oh, and did we mention the products are cruelty free and made in the USA by Stanford scientists? Yup.

PROVEN has the solution for every skin care concern you’ve ever had, and they have the process of turning that info into personalized skincare down to a science. Formulated from natural, health promoting ingredients like Vitamin C, Turmeric extract, and Granactive Retinol, you can finally say your skin has met its perfect match.

Pros

  • Quick, 3-minute Skin Genome Quiz
  • Simple 3-product set
  • Cruelty free, no animal testing
  • Clean, nontoxic beauty — no phthalates, parabens, SLS or formaldehyde
  • USA made in FDA-Approved labs
  • Easy, no-fuss routine
  • Subscription options available

Cons

  • Higher price point for skincare products (For 60-90 day use: $145 without subscription/$119 with subscription with delivery option of every 4, 6 or 8 weeks)
  • Longer delivery turnaround in times of high demand, as each skincare set is formulated in the lab specifically to meet your needs

PROVEN Complete Skincare Regimen: Features

3 products: Personalized Cleanser, Personalized SPF Day Cream, Personalized Night Cream 

$145/set or $119/set with subscription service

Customized formulation based on your personal profile: gender, age, skin tone, skin type, sensitivity, location, air quality, water hardness, UV index, humidity, and additional skincare focuses

Proven Skincare Quiz
Proven Skincare Quiz

About PROVEN

Gene expression, lifestyle, location, and skin concern — These four core skincare components form the foundation of PROVEN’s personalized skincare sets, and create PROVEN‘s regimen roadmap to a healthy, glowing complexion.

Using a unique AI-assisted software program, founders Dr. Amy Yuan and Ming S. Zhao have stirred up a once stagnant industry, offering unique and personalized products made to address specific, individual skincare issues. The era of “one size fits all” skincare products has passed, and these two founders have PROVEN that personalization is the future.

Ratings Breakdown

QUALITY

★★★★★
Cruelty free, nontoxic & clean beauty, USA made, scientifically formulated, clinically proven results

VALUE

★★★★
Higher price point for skincare products, 60-90 days worth of daily use in one skincare set, cruelty-free, clean beauty products, made in an FDA-approved and GMP-accredited lab, USA made, travel-size friendly, can be used if pregnant or breastfeeding, made from natural and non-toxic ingredients

CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

★★★★★
Speedy delivery, customer support team response time, personalization of products and educational materials

BRAND

★★★★★
Brand mission, founding story and team credentials, product aesthetic

PERKS

★★★★★
Product personalization at its finest, subscribe and save option, subscription delivery time-frame customization, thorough FAQ’s on website

Unboxing The PROVEN Skincare Set

The square, cardboard PROVEN box delivered to your door unfolds, presenting a beautiful, sea-foam green interior. Here at The Fascination, we love cool packaging, so you can only imagine the look on my face when I found each product neatly and securely organized in a beautifully branded box. The interior fold of the box holds 5 personalized, branded cards that share exactly what’s in each of your products.

Proven Cleanser

Running down the list of the skincare concerns I identified in PROVEN’s Skin Genome Quiz (rosacea, fine lines and wrinkles, firmness and elasticity, and hyperpigmentation), the first card in the stack prompted me to follow up with PROVEN for a formula update in about 2 months after receiving and using my initial formulation. Why? Because PROVEN is so precise in its customization that they want to ensure your products are supporting your personal skincare needs as they change — taking into consideration skin-affecting factors such as seasonal shifts and nutritional changes. 

Behind the first card is a note detailing why PROVEN works, followed by 3 cards, each one designed to provide more information on a specific product in your set. Every card outlines how to use the respective product and lists the exact vitamins and nutrients that have been selected for your personal formulation.

Proven Vitamin cheat sheet

My cleanser consists of azelaic acid, a gentle, non-irritating enzyme exfoliator that brightens and strengthens the skin, calms inflammation and redness, and shrinks the appearance of pores. It has pre+probiotics; pomegranate, grapefruit, ginseng, and green tea extracts; sodium PCA, and Tasmanian pepper. It’s a seemingly long list of ingredients, but when compared to so many off-the-shelf brands, it’s relatively short (and these ingredients are ones I can actually pronounce).

proven skincare collection
Skincare regimine best

PROVEN Results

To be clear, I’ve never invested in a personalized skincare regimen before. The most top-shelf products I’ve purchased were from the likes of Clinique, Pai Skincare, and Youth to the People. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I became hip to the fact that what we put on our skin goes into our body. 😳 Needless to say, with my relatively new focus on clean beauty, I was curious to see if the PROVEN custom skincare set was worth the hype (and frankly, the price).

Now, I’m on day 30 of my PROVEN regimen, and here’s the long and short of it: all of my products still have a month left of use, they’re the cleanest, most customized skincare I’ve ever owned, and my face looks and feels pretty damn good.

Here’s how my 30 days with PROVEN products went:

PROVEN Skincare: Week 1

Week 1: I carefully took the products out of the box and lined them on my bathroom counter, the mirrored bottles reflecting what I hoped would soon be comparable to my new, rejuvenated complexion: glistening, sleek, and quite smooth in feel.

Personalized Skincare From Proven

Honestly, I struggle to really stick to a routine when it comes to self-care. The only thing I manage to do without any reminders is take my fish oil supplement in the morning. Literally, that’s it.

So, the thought of having a list of products that needed to be applied to my face twice daily has been a huge deterrent in my search for the perfect skincare routine. PROVEN’s 3-product system is the perfect solution – it’s quick, simple, and like their ingredients, no BS.

It’s simple, instead of a 5-to-12-product, shelf-filling, cabinet-cramping skincare set, PROVEN‘s lineup consists of a space-saving three products: a cleanser and two moisturizers; one for daytime and one for the evening. The cleanser is applied in the morning and at night. After each wash, you simply follow with the appropriate moisturizer.

Each morning after massaging the cleanser into my skin (and silently praying my blackheads would finally dissipate and my pores would instantly shrink), I splashed my face with water and applied PROVEN’s SPF moisturizing lotion.

proven personalized skincare

Beware, your face will be a little ghostly white after you apply (and for good reason). Sunscreen is everything when it comes to keeping your skin looking young. PROVEN‘s moisturizer creates a noticeable, protective barrier, which results in your complexion appearing a bit lighter than normal. I regularly followed up with a tinted moisturizer on top, and voila, my skin color was back to its usual tone. 

It took me a few days to fully acclimate to the sensation of the facial cleanser. I know — that may sound off-putting, but it honestly comes down to my own skincare experience.

I’m used to cleansers that foam; ones that make it easy to scrub your face with the self-affirming satisfaction that you’ve done an excellent job — because you’re suds-up from ear to ear. This is not the case with PROVEN.

Instead, the cleanser was very smooth with very little (if any) lather. I could feel the impossibly small granules of the exfoliant sometimes, but I made myself count for a few seconds to ensure I was washing thoroughly.

personalized cleanser tests
personalized cleanser tests

PROVEN Skincare: Week 2

Week 2: Noticing breakouts wasn’t the highlight of my experience, but it’s a necessary evil when targeting skin problems. I rarely breakout, so when I saw small pimples and a fair amount of blackheads rising to the surface, I knew one thing to be true: PROVEN‘s products were cleaning out my pores in a way that my standard routine simply wasn’t.

Toward the end of the week, I broke out in a rash under my chin and decided to half my product usage. Part of me believes it was caused by the protective mask I had worn for nearly an entire day, but without being sure, I figured it was best to remove and reduce any new variables.

Proven Skincare night cream

Post rash outbreak, I contacted PROVEN’s customer service team to see what they thought about the reaction – Was it anything of concern? Should I have stopped using the products entirely?

Exactly 5 minutes after sending their team a note, I received a reply from one of their licensed aestheticians. 5 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. You don’t just purchase a skincare routine when you buy from PROVEN. You’re investing in a customer-focused company that is there for you through the highs and lows; the glowing skin and the…well… unruly rashes.

The aesthetician advised:

“When using new products, the different formulations and ingredients increases skin cell turnover rates which can lead to your skin purging. During this phase, you may experience breakouts, dryness, and/or minor irritation as your skin is adjusting to new ingredients and the changes from your new products.

With some users, this cycle typically takes 28 days for the skin to adjust before seeing the benefits in their skin. However, with others, it may take a little longer as this truly depends on your skin. To ease your skin’s reactions, you may consider alternating your PROVEN products with a generic moisturizer or taking a few days off until your skin has acclimated to the strength of PROVEN. Also, you can try cleansing with cold water as this will help to calm and hydrate your skin.”

Week 2 Proven  Skincare

Wow, a speedy reply, reassurance that change doesn’t happen overnight (meaning the brand isn’t claiming to be a miracle worker), and a few solutions I could try to calm my irritation. 5-star customer service delivered in a total of 5 minutes.

PROVEN Skincare: Week 3

After a few days of going full-stop on using the products, I began alternating use with a gentle cleanser. The rash went away, and I was a happy camper.

Week 3 Proven Skincare

PROVEN Skincare: Week 4

I went back on my twice-a-day routine and my skin was still purging a bit, but nowhere near as noticeably as week 2.

As I sit here writing this at the end of my 30 day trial, I can confidently say that my skin has calmed down, I have no noticeable breakouts, and my overall complexion looks great.

Week 4 Proven skincare

PROVEN Skincare: Final Thoughts

PROVEN promises results but acknowledges that everyone’s skin is different. Results may take longer to see for some than for others. Results may be more apparent for some than for others. In my case, the concerns my customized products address are mostly preventative measures. Combating fine lines and wrinkles means being diligent with SPF application and routinely using skincare products made from top of the line ingredients. So, I wasn’t expecting to see a new face in the mirror after 30 days. My more-even-complexion one month in was truly an added bonus since I had decided to invest in the future of my skin, long-term, beginning with my PROVEN purchase. 

If PROVEN’s price tag is a deterrent, think of it this way: Each set can be divided by 2 months of use: you’re actually looking at a $60-$72 a month for a skincare set (cleanser and two moisturizers) that’s fully customized (including avoiding ingredients you’re allergic to), USA made, and scientifically formulated in an FDA-approved lab to target exactly what you need.

For those reasons alone, to me, PROVEN is absolutely worth it.

Proven Skincare Testing
Proven Skincare Testing