Have you heard that old chestnut about faces changing a great deal between the ages of 28 and 30? It's something people who haven't seen me for about a year have been trotting out with fairly hilarious predictability (ah, Asian bluntness about physical appearance, so 'charming'....) and to be fair, I've noticed it too, in myself. With painfully dry and sensitive skin, I'm very conservative with skincare, and the shapes of my main routine and supplementary one remain largely consistent; I try new things* only when companies discontinue/reformulate my favourites, or when I can visibly see their decreasing efficacy due to changes in my skin condition/needs.
Since my last major update a year ago, my skin has become even drier, and noticeably thinner / less tight, so my aim has been to incorporate stronger, more regular anti-ageing products while keeping my skin as calm and comfortable as possible. That's the context for the entrance of these:
Mentholatum Sunplay Super Block SPF50+ PA++++ (ingredients)
Avène Antirougeurs Fort (ingredients)
Avène Eluage Gel (ingredients)
The Organic Pharmacy Skin Rescue Oil (ingredients)
REN Vita Mineral Emollient Rescue Cream (ingredients)
MOISTURISERS
REN Vita Mineral Emollient Rescue Cream has proven far more effective than Avène Cicalfate (my longstanding barrier repair balm) at healing up or at least significantly mitigating flakes and rough dry patches overnight, though Cicalfate still wins out for irritation/rashes. I experience the former far more often than the latter (no likey to experiment with skincare, remember?), and almost constantly in winter, so REN's mix of heavy-hitting emollients with some bonus anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ingredients strikes the perfect great balance for my skin. Its main 'healing' ingredient is magnesium sulphate (the same reason Epsom salts are good for eczema), which is also present in Cicalfate, but without Cicalfate's zinc oxide content (very drying on my skin with sustained use), which means that I can use the REN cream daily if needed, reserving Cicalfate for specific emergencies.
...So I need both. In my usual manner of self-justification, here are some swatches :P
Next to the barrier repair balms, Decléor Expérience De L'Âge Rich Cream (despite its champion moisturing properties) looks more silkily light than thickly rich. Of the two balms, Cicalfate emerges from the tube as a much thicker cream but it's much lighter and easier to spread across the skin -- it's REN Emollient Rescue which feels more like a gluey bandaid proper (no, srsly, it practically boings across the skin -- v fun -- see how 'self-contained' its swatch seems?), and requires strategic warming between hands / pressing on /massaging in, though I've come to enjoy the ritual and its clean rosewater scent.
Its boingy bandaid-y character means that the REN, like the Cicalfate, actively forms a slightly shiny (though not sticky/heavy) water-repelling barrier across the skin -- after working excess product into the backs of my hands, I can feel/see the REN balm repelling water and keeping my hands soft many handwashes later. Used this way, as a protective/preventative (rather than repair) balm on my most eczema- and flake-prone areas during the day (hands, sides of nose, around mouth) has actually so far kept off all the flare-ups I usually expect in winter. :D
The Organic Pharmacy Skin Rescue Oil is entirely to be blamed on Lola's Secret Beauty Blog, whose fabulous reviews of skin oils rekindled my interest in this brand (a local one I'd liked and used many years ago but had abandoned for FrancoJapanesier skincare pastures). Of its oil serum offerings, I chose the Goldilocks option of Skin Rescue (Antioxidant seemed potentially irritating/overkill for my skin; Rosehip too basic) and am very happy to report no irritation and very effective soothing/healing/moisturising of patchy or flaky areas in a refined, light oil texture that sinks in immediately and works for day as well as night. For Skin Rescue Oil's runniness compared with my current oil serum, Decléor Aromessence Iris:
TREATMENTS
Their Diroséal (now discontinued) was the product that made the most difference in subduing my rosacea years back and strengthening my skin barrier, but I still like to keep some redness-mitigating thing in reserve for plain red'n'bumpy irritated skin days, if not rosacea flares proper. Unfortanately, Antirougeurs Fort, their purported replacement for Diroséal, is almost offensively useless. Without the dose of retinaldehyde which made Diroséal effective, this is in effect a basic moisturiser that's tinted slightly yellow, which is more expensive and less efficient at even that job than most of the brand's other moisturisers (I like Trixéra+, marketed for body, best) -- hence my finishing an entire tube simply in establishing its meh-ness: I really need to trowel this stuff on to achieve even basic hydration.
For all its comparative faults (unnecessary fragrance, really unnecessary violent orange tint) Eluage gel, which contains the same 0.05% retinaldehyde concentration as Diroséal, but in the most emollient formula of all Avène's retinaldehyde products (including 1% hyaluronic acid for hydration), is a winner for me. If your skin is just moderately dry, you may prefer the Eluage cream (works out cheaper) and normal/oilier skins might try the Ysthéal emulsion as an alternative to this. My skin can't handle most potent / buzzy actives, even in their overpriced, over-buffered watered-down designer cream incarnations :P So I'm very glad that retinaldehyde (one of the most well-documented effective anti-ageing ingredients) works for me, knocking back emerging lines and refining any crepey skin texture (especially around my nasolabial folds and undereye area). I use Eluage gel every third night, applied all over a just-cleansed face, and give it half an hour or so to work. Then I'll add eye cream and any overnight moisturisers/sealants like my current REN/The Organic Pharmacy mix.
SUNSCREEN
As my very dry skin can't cope with such a high dose of zinc oxide (it gets itchy and flaky by about midday), I need to layer the Sunplay over a thin coat of Ducray Melascreen Emulsion (all-chemical) which functions as a buffer; if you don't have issues with ZnO it will stands alone as an excellent facial sunscreen -- its PPD of 16+ matching Ducray's. Personally, the hunt goes on -- I prefer emulsion/cream formulas to runny milks, and would love a zinc-free PA++++ formula I could use neat -- but for now, this one is the best of the new breed.
Postscript: Innisfree Soybean Firming Eye Cream
In other skincare news, I haz new eye cream! Long-time readers will know that this is A Bit Of An Issue. My undereyes are even more apocalyptically dry than my everywhere-else, but the few creams rich enough to keep fine lines (and sometimes actual cracked and bleeding skin D:) at bay tend to puff up my eye bags, irritate my already allergy-ridden eyeballs, or require trowelling on to the extent that my life descends into an endless cycle of "apply half tub of eye cream,""clean trowel,""repurchase eye cream". So it's kind of a miracle when (around once per hundred items) I find an eye cream that can substitute for my eye-wateringly expensive staple, Sisley Sisleya Global Eye and Lip Contour, even if only for part of the year. Since October I've had to switch from the Innisfree Soybean Firming Eye Cream back to Sisleya for the extra moisture needed in winter, but I'd been using it very happily all summer/early autumn as a subtly firming, lightweight-yet-very-moisturising, dark-circle-ameliorating wonder potion! Which sinks in just as quickly and sits just as prettily under makeup as Sisleya, to boot.
Innisfree Soybean Firming Eye Cream Ingredients
