Skincare!

I've been wanting to review my skincare products for the longest time but never got down to it. But well, I can begin now.

I've been a Dermalogica fan ever since I started earning my own money, about 6 years ago. Yes, like, jump off the deep end eh. Their products are not cheap. But well, the facials did wonders for me, and I was ready to start a skincare regime.

Let's start with the AgeSmart dynamic skin recovery spf30. What a mouthful. It's a moisturiser+sunblock (I like these kind of products, saves so much time and hassle in the morning). Smells really wonderful too, because it has white tea (Dermalogica products has no added fragrance). I usually use it with 3 drops of the skin hydrating booster (which is my all-time favourite product). Apparently, one drop of this holds 1000 times its weight in water!

However, a few weeks after starting on AgeSmart, I started having problems on my nose - dry peeling skin. Uh oh. But, at about the same time, I had finished my supply of Cellnique's skin action sebum gel (a miracle at keeping my nose blackheads-and-whiteheads-free). So could it be due to withdrawal symptoms from the gel?

My therapist informed me to use a moisturiser (Dermalogica's skin smoothing cream) before putting on the AgeSmart one. I tried. Hasn't worked. The problem's still there.

Then I decided to embark on the Miracle Water - SKII's famed Facial Treatment Essence. It's been about 2 months of nightly usage. My cheeks seem softer, but no change to my nose. (Truth be told, I don't really expect it to be "miracle water", I don't really know what it does except for anti-aging. So, you can ask me again about it in say 10 years and I'll tell you how it works in that department.)

Anyway, what did bring change to my ailing nose was the SKII facial I went for. That was almost miraculous. I think the mask did it. No more dry peeling skin, yippee. The nose still has slight bumps and whiteheads which are not usually there, but I haven't renewed my Cellnique supply, so I guess that's logical. In fact, I don't intend to renew my Cellnique supply, although that product used to be indispensable to me. I'm skeptical. How can a product that works so well not be copied by another company? Is there some dangerous ingredient in it I don't know anything about? Or are other skincare companies just not aware that all those dots on the nose are a major problem for most Asians?


Well, I'm still on the lookout to update my regime. I've used practically everything I can from the Dermalogica range. And there's an old wives' tale that says that after a while, your skin becomes "immuned" to your skincare, and it shows that it's time to change brands. I stepped into a Clinique counter the other day and got a free consultation (plus a free small bottle of the new Clinique's Superdefense SPF25/PA+++ Age Defense Moisturiser, which I just started using this morning and I absolutely love its texture!). I got tempted by its rather reasonable prices, and I like its clean-cut packaging. And, doesn't "Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion" just sound so inviting?

A very good friend told me, best to invest in your skin now, cos when a wrinkle comes, there's no undoing it. I guess that's why the skincare industry thrives so well - gullible, susceptible women like me don't mind paying to make sure that wrinkle doesn't appear! :P