Tried and tested: The Body Shop Spa Wisdom Africa Shea Butter & Sesame Oil Body Balm.
Verdict: “The Body Shop claims its body butter Spa Wisdom Africa Shea Butter & Sesame Oil Body Balm is a rich and re-hydrating balm, helping protect skin from dryness and leaving it soft, velvety and lightly scented. In my experience The Body Shop body products are often too sweetly scented and leave an oily film on skin. Not in this case; even if the smell is a bit on the sweet side.
The texture is thick while the product is still in its jar but when applied to the skin it gets thinner and somewhat wetter. In my opinion Spa Wisdom Africa Shea Butter & Sesame Oil Body Balm is more of a lotion than a rich cream. It is quickly absorbed, the scent is mildly nutty and nice. This is an OK product – not bad, but it doesn’t wow me.
For someone with dry skin like me, Spa Wisdom Africa Shea Butter & Sesame Oil Body Balm is not rich enough for winter when I’d rather use an oil to re-hydrate skin but in summer it’s fine.
Some products with sesame seed oil can smell like food but this doesn’t which is a plus.
Rated: 3 out of 5.
Tried and tested: Bioline Phyto Staminal Caviar & Retinol
Verdict: “Phyto Staminal Caviar & Retinol by Italian skincare brand Bioline is one of those products I have problems grasping. It is a serum, a concentrate supposed to strengthen the skin in some areas, in this case eyes, lips and neck. The gel-like serum is applied twice daily in circular motions until absorbed by the skin. The product is very modern containing high-tech plant stem cells that according to Bioline will ”provide skin cells with newfound vitality” and ”speed up the skin’s regeneration process for a long-lasting revitalising anti-wrinkle effect”. Sounds great to me!
I am 38 years old and have combination skin with both oily and dry areas, I have adult acne, acne scars and little wrinkles here and there. My experience from similar serums, supposed to beautify, re-hydrate and even out, includes Giorgio Armani Obsidian Regenerating Cream (not very good) and MD Formulations Clearing Complex Vit A Plus (top marks!). After having used Bioline Phyto Staminal Caviar & Retinol for eight weeks I see no results whatsoever. No extra radiance, no diminished lines, and no, no regenerated skin, despite stem cells, caviar and retinol.”
Rated: 0 out of 5.
Tried and tested: La Prairie Cellular Eye Cream Platinum Rare
Verdict: “Luxury brand La Prairie promises that its eye cream Cellular Eye Cream Platinum Rare will improve the sensitive skin in the eye area in nine different ways. To summarise: The rich ingredient platinum together with the products unique cellular complex will re-hydrate as well as diminish colourations and swelling. The skin will tighten and radiate, or so I am told.
Everything about this cream signals luxury. The cream is sold in a beautiful silver box, holding an even more beautiful silver box. The scent is delicious, as is the texture. It takes very little of the cream to cover the whole eye area, even if patting it in lightly takes a few minutes.
I have bluish tones under my eyes and on bad days the area turns slightly yellow. When I don’t sleep properly, which happens a lot, I get bags too. Add to that a very dry skin type with fine lines and you can rest assured this eye cream had its work cut out.
After a week of using this cream morning and night the under-eye bags seemed to have increased so I switched to using it only once daily. Only a few days later the bags started to go away and after another couple of weeks were gone altogether as were some of my fine lines. My skin looked more radiant too. The only thing that this cream couldn’t magic away were the bluish shadows under my eyes and considering the extravagant price I think it should have. But it is still a solid eye cream… if you can afford it!”
Rated: 4 out of 5.
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