As you may have seen, I was in Paris about a week ago. I was visiting my sister-whom-I-love-so-so-much who moved there indefinitely. In addition to drinking good yet inexpensive wine, going to Euro Disney and seeing Abraham Poincheval locked in his rock, I also discovered two things about my skin.
- I clearly have dairy sensitivity. Why do I say that? I had cereals with cow milk the whole week long (something I NEVER EVER do) and I probably ate twice my weight in cheese. Right from the beginning of my trip, I started developing small red breakouts on my neck, cheeks, temples and jawline. It was itchy half of the time and, under 48 hours, it would vanish to make room for new ones to form. Since I’ve been back, I stopped eating dairies and my skin has returned to new-born level softness. (I’m sparing you the details about all the other symptoms that have nothing to do with my skin.)
- My skin is beyond sensitive. Don’t do what I do; I have the bad habit of trying a new moisturizer every time I go on a trip. The risky part is that, if it doesn’t work with my skin, I’m kinda screwed. Armed with my new moisturizer, of which I won’t divulge the name (hint: it starts with “Neutro” and ends with “gena), I hydrated my skin all week long, morning and night. At that point, nothing catastrophic had happened other than not being nourishing enough — it made my foundation patchy on my dry skin. It’s when I got back to freezing Montreal that I saw the extent of the damage… Ouch! After only two days, I started having those red patches along the width of my forehead, on the sides of my nose and on my cheeks. My skin, incredibly dry and irritated, was scaling like a snake shedding its skin.
With my soy milk carton in hand, my moisturizer buried in my trash and my lobster face, I started looking through my drawers in hopes of finding a miraculous lotion. I was in “taking back control of my skin” mode. What did I find? A rose moisturizing cream and serum by Fresh and soothing mask by Skin Ceuticals. And I mean, lucky me, because those three products truly saved my skin… in less than four days. My skin returned to smoothness paradise (probably even more than before this whole thing started) and it went back to its normal shade (aka beige).
Rose Deep Hydration Face Cream and Serum by Fresh
Those products work incredibly well together, but if your skin doesn’t need that much TLC, you can certainly use only one of them. The magic operates thanks to five key ingredients: rosewater and rose oil, angelica leaf extract, vitamin E and hyaluronic acid. It has an in-depth and long lasting moisturizing effet in addition to having plumping superpowers. It also feels like I’m diving my face right into a bouquet of flowers every time I apply it. For a fresh flower fan, it’s pretty trippy.
Phyto Corrective Mask by SkinCeuticals
Three goals: to freshen, to soothe (hallelujah!) and to restore. All of that happens because of ingredients like cucumber, thyme and olive. (Okay, it does smell like a drink at a cocktail bar, but just like the bouquet thing, it is far from unpleasant.) The dipeptide, which cools down the skin, and the moisturizing hyaluronic acid wrap up the list of benefits. It’s important to know that the product was specifically developed to treat temporary skin stressors. So whether your skin is scorched like mine, or dried out because of an Aquamermaid class or simply sunburnt, this mask — which you can leave on for ten minutes, all night long or the whole day as an intense moisturizer — will heal your poor little skin.
