The older I get, the more I worry about my skin.
It’s always been try and sensitive – and annoyingly it gets used to moisturisers too fast for my liking. One minute it works, the next minute I’m just smearing it about on top of my skin and it still looks horridly dry and flaky. I’m in the midst of a cold bug right now and cannot bear to even think about how dry it’s going to be by the end.
But more worryingly, lines are appearing. Unlike Mr GFB who has the most gorgeous crinkles at the corners of his eyes, mine are all cheek based and though they are fine, there are lots of them. Far more than I’d like. It’s really time to do something about them.
I’ve come across Kiehl’s before – they have three or four sites in Manchester, including in Selfridges. The newest of these is on King Street – an area I’m glad to see finally getting some substantial investment from all sides.
But having never been to Kiehl’s before, rather than wandering willy-nilly and throwing things into my basket, I booked in for a consultation with Lisa, to look at my skin properly and see what it needed.
Taking a deep breath I sat down and we had a chat.
Explaining my issues, Lisa looked at my skin and did a little patch test. As expected my (rather small) t-zone was oily, the rest rather less so – despite wearing an oil based foundation and all the moisturiser I could find.
The diagnosis was simple. Lots of moisture on the dry bits, and an occasional clay mask on the oily bits to keep them under control. I must admit, I hadn’t really thought about my nose and the bottom tip of my forehead very much – my primary focus had always been on the dry bits, rather than the oily bits, but I could see the benefit in the mask to ease the oiliness.
Along with the mask were a heap of other recommendations. Their Ultra Facial Cleanser as an easy way to remove make up without drying, a toner to help close pores (I think Lisa was horrified to hear my complete lack of toner use) and Ultra Facial Cream to moisturise. With these as the base line, I then received additional recommendations to target the areas I’d identified as issues.
Lisa recommended two oil based concentrates first (both of which appear to have a slew of fans on Twitter!) the Daily Reviving Concentrate with ginger and sunflower for the day time and, the Midnight Recovery Concentrate with lavender and evening primrose for, yes you’ve guessed it, night time.
Both to not only replenish moisture levels on the top layer, but deep down in the skin too.
There were also three serums recommended. They can all be layered for an intense effect, or used independently. The first was the Powerful Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate. This would work to ease those lines on my cheeks that were really bothering me. Yes it has been applied to the apple shown above.
The Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate would also help reduce lines by plumping the skin gently and the Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Eye-Brightening Concentrate would help with the under eye lines and crepe-like texture to the skin that I’d also identified.
I was suitably packed off with samples, a set of instructions and my trial began.
The most interesting part of the whole experience for me was how little of every product I needed. Whereas my normal day to day moisturiser would involve me taking a good fingerful and letting it sink in, these used mere drops. It was a whole new way of thinking about skin care. Less is apparently more.
So, with apologies for the make up less pictures. Here is before:
And after:
I can see, and more importantly feel, such a difference. The dark circles around my eyes are less prominent. The crepey skin has softened. The dry skin on my cheeks has disappeared. Even my nose is less shiny!
But the best bit is the lines on my cheeks. They’re still there, but they
don’t look like cavernous dry lines waiting for my smidge of powder to settle into them. The skin on my cheek even looks shiny. Shiny! That never happens!
It was also interesting to note that my spots lessened – even those horrid little hormonal ones that appear once a month on my chin were barely there.
Now, I know that Kiehl’s is pricey, but given the experience I’ve just had, I’m willing to invest. Yeah, it might take me a few months to buy everything I need, but even investing in the cleanser and moisturiser this month, and a serum next, is well worth it, and as I mentioned, you really don’t need to use a lot.
At least I know where I’m going shopping this weekend – oh and they happen to offer a discount to Canal St Card holders. I’ll be using that card of mine!
With thanks to Lisa and Kiehl’s King Street for all their help.