The first time I bought rhode, it was almost a joke. A friend dared me to see if the internet's favorite lip case was worth it, and I expected to write it off in a week. That was over a year and two winters ago. I'm still using it, which is the most honest review I can give anything. What follows isn't a fresh first impression. It's what happens after the novelty wears off and a product either becomes furniture in your routine or quietly disappears.
01The honeymoon, and the crash
The first month was easy to love. The Glazing Milk gave me that soft, dewy look immediately, and I got a little smug about it. Then the first winter hit. My apartment radiator runs dry and hot, and by January my cheeks were flaking under all that glaze. This is the part nobody posts about: the glazed look falls apart fast on a compromised barrier. No amount of dewy serum fixes tight, peeling skin. If anything, it sat on top and made the flakes more obvious.
That's when I almost gave up. Instead, I changed how I was using the line, and that's really the story here.
02What I learned to do differently
The turning point was treating rhode as a layering system rather than a set of individual glow products. I stopped leading with the Glazing Fluid in winter and started leading with the barrier. Nights became: a generous layer of Barrier Restore Cream, and on the worst nights, a thin press of Glazing Milk underneath it while my skin was still damp, to give the cream something to lock in. The flaking stopped within a week.
Here's the detail I never see mentioned: the order and the moisture level matter more than the products themselves. Damp skin, thin layers, richest thing last. Once I got that right, the same products that failed me in January were carrying me through February looking fine.
03The lip treatment, one year later
The thing I was ready to mock became the thing I never travel without. A year in, I've gone through more Peptide Lip Treatments than I'll count, and the reason is boring and real: it's the only lip product that survives my habit of chewing my lips when I'm working. Byrdie described the finish as "plump, pillowy," and after a year I'd add: it's the reliability that got me. Same cushiony comfort, tube after tube. I keep the salted caramel by my keyboard and the unscented in my bag.
04The advanced moves I actually use
A few habits I've settled into that a first-week reviewer wouldn't know:
I use the caffeine cooling step strategically, not daily. On a normal morning it's overkill. Before a long flight or a day I know will show on my face, ten cold minutes genuinely resets how puffy I look. Rationing it makes it feel special instead of routine.
I mix, rather than stack, on oily-season days. A pea of Glazing Fluid blended into my moisturizer gives me the glow without the four-o'clock slick that comes from layering them separately. Purists might wince. My afternoons look better for it.
I've learned to read the Glazing Milk as a barometer. When it stops sinking in fast and starts sitting on top, that's my skin telling me it's dehydrated and I've been slacking on the cream. It's a strangely useful early warning.
05The second winter, and what changed
The second winter was the real test, because by then the novelty was long gone and I was just a person with dry skin and a radiator. What surprised me was how differently it went. I wasn't reacting to flaking anymore; I was heading it off. Late autumn, before the air turned, I quietly switched the whole routine into its cold-weather setting: barrier cream first in my priorities, glow layers second, the caffeine step saved for the mornings after bad sleep. No crisis, no drawer of abandoned products. My skin just stayed calm through January, which the first-winter version of me would not have believed.
That's the part that turned me from a skeptic into a quiet regular. Not any single formula, but the fact that once I understood the system, it became boringly reliable. Boring is the highest compliment I give skincare. Exciting skincare usually means something went wrong.
I also stopped over-shopping. In year one I bought things because they were new or because a video convinced me. By year two I owned four products and repurchased the same four. The Glazing Mist never made it back into rotation, and I don't miss it. If you want to see the full range for yourself, it's on rhode's store, but I'd genuinely tell a friend to keep the list short.
What two winters actually taught me
The lesson wasn't that rhode is magic. It isn't, and it doesn't claim to be. These are well-made cosmetic products that give hydrated, healthy-looking, glowy skin when you respect what they are. The lesson was that the glazed aesthetic everyone chases online is downstream of a boring foundation: a barrier that isn't wrecked. Get that part right and rhode delivers the look effortlessly. Skip it and no serum on earth will save you.
rhode — the four I kept repurchasing
Barrier Restore Cream, Glazing Milk, Peptide Lip Treatment, Caffeine Reset Mask — the pared-down list a year and two winters left me with.
🧴 Minimalist peptide skincare · individual products run ~$18–$38 · founded 2022 by Hailey Bieber. Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Would I buy it again? I already have, more times than I meant to. If you want the full current lineup, it's all on rhode's site. But if you take one thing from a year of my trial and error, let it be this: buy the barrier cream before you buy the glow. The glow is easy once your skin is calm. I just had to ruin a winter to figure that out.
Want gear like this on your content calendar?
Join AffluencerHub, get AI-matched to brand programs that fit your audience, and track every click to commission in one place.
Apply as a Creator