Rose FreshFace Primer from Fresh Beauty

That’s a lot of fresh in one blog title, don’t you think?

A brand I’ve been eager to try in recent months is Fresh, an LVMH owned luxury cosmetics company with a clean aesthetic and products containing a lot of natural goodness, from Japanese sake to real brown sugar. Besides, the name just sounds enticing doesn’t it – who doesn’t want to be so fresh and so clean clean?

I picked up a travel size duo ($10 at Sephora) of Fresh‘s Rose FreshFace Primer and Twilight highlighting lotion a few months ago, and was so pleased with the primer that I picked up the full-sized product, at a not inconsiderable sum of $36USD.

I’ll just state this briefly: I don’t really need this product – but I REALLY like this product. It’s frivolous (at least, for me) but is lovely and looks lovely and therefore makes me feel lovely, which is the entire reason I spend all of my money on cosmetics in the first place, really.

According to Fresh, the Rose FreshFace Primer is a silicone free primer that

” instantly creates a flawless complexion that’s ready for makeup application. It is enriched with soothing rose-water and cucumber extract and antioxidant-rich green tea and vitamins A, C, E. Porphyridium cruentum, a smart micro-algae that hydrated the skin where it needs it the most, also helps to maintain optimum moisture levels throughout the day. “

 

I do really like this primer for a number of reasons – being silicone and paraben free, I feel like I’m putting a protective film on my face before slathering it in chemical filled foundations and concealers. Additionally, silicone primers, like Smashbox‘s famous one, tend to leave my face slick and cause foundation to ‘pill’ (like that cashmere sweater your boyfriend accidentally put in the washing machine that one time), and don’t do much at all for makeup longevity on my face. Now, to be totally honest with you, I’m not quite sure that the Rose FreshFace Primer does much for makeup longevity earlier – but being as enamored as I am with it, I’m willing to forgive this product a number of sins.

The primer comes in a 1oz (30ml) tube and has a fresh, whipped cream texture that smells subtly and divinely of tea roses. Due to the design of the tube, it takes some time working out how to dose this correctly, but I’ve found a pea size amount works well to cover my face completely. This doesn’t give any immediate, jarring effects of a perfect face, but does hydrate and seem to fill in pores subtly. What it does, however, is makes foundation apply smoothly, allowing me to use less of whatever I’m using to color in my face that day.

I genuinely don’t know if this product makes my foundation last longer, but I do know that it smells lovely and feels lovely on my face – I’m fairly certain that I could use this, alone, on bare-faced days this summer just to give my skin a bit of pep and rosy glow.

Is it worth $36 for 1oz of product? More than likely not – especially as due to my trouble dosing when I bought this, I wasted quite a bit of it.  I do genuinely like it, despite that (being a sucker for anything vintage, and anything smelling of that most noble of blooms), and would likely purchase again.

Rose FreshFace Primer, available at Sephora US.

Tips & Tricks – MAC Fix+ Mist

Greetings, readers! I apologize about the ‘silence radio’ this week – on top of being without wi-fi (I was bereft!), La Coquette is suffering from a decidedly unglamorous winter bug. Rather than play with makeup, I was fixated on aspirin and Matzo Ball Soup……..

but with my tea in hand, I’m ready to blog again!

On my cosmetics spree two weeks ago, I picked up a bottle of MAC’s Fix+ Mist. Now, if you read a lot of beauty blogs or anything on Makeup Alley, you’ll know that some women say this stuff is the best thing since the invention of mascara in a tube. It refreshes! It sets makeup! It raised my newborn children!

Ladies, they’re lying. I won’t deny that the Fix+ is useful and even a good product, but at $20 for 100ml/3.4oz, it’s expensive for what it is, and unless you’re a real cosmetics junkie like me, it’s not worth the buy… but perhaps I should explain what this product actually IS.

The Fix+ is basically a facial mist that combines water, glycerin, and a few fancy ingredients like green tea, chamomile and cucumber to soothe and refresh the skin. Housed in a clear bottle with an (admittedly convenient) black spray nozzle that locks closed for travel, it can be used in a variety of ways – before foundation application as a primer, after makeup application to remove that plastered look caused by an excess of setting powder, as a mixing medium for eyeshadows, and throughout the day to give skin a dewy, fresh look without disturbing makeup.  I personally have been using this primarily after applying makeup, holding the bottle at arm’s length from my face and giving a few quick sprays. The mist is very fine indeed with no large droplets ending up on my face, but the glycerin makes my skin feel a wee bit sticky afterwards. While I do like the immediate effects – my skin does have a bit of a ‘glow’ – I find that this makes my foundation look patchy and strange after a few hours, so I’m not quite sure why some bloggers swear it keeps their makeup in place for hours. It does work well as a mixing medium for loose eyeshadows – it has all of the same ingredients as the MAC pro water based mixing medium, with the added soothing elements.

In short, this product is nice, but if you’re on a beauty budget or just getting your first real cosmetics arsenal together, I’d venture to say that this product would be an extravagant expenditure. It does what it promises, certainly, but isn’t the miracle product that you’ve always been seeking.

Sephora’s Daily Makeup Brush Cleaner

Calling all lazy girls (and boys) – do you feel that cleaning your makeup brushes is overwhelming? Do you hate the downtime between cleansing and drying time? Are you too lazy to buy brush cleanser/baby shampoo, but know that your blush brush is an absolute petri dish of sebum and bacteria? Then do I have the product for you….

I picked up Sephora’s Daily Makeup Brush Cleaner last week, and it’s brilliant. I’d love to tell you that I’m one of those makeup gurus with an arsenal of brilliant brushes from MAC and Bobbi Brown that I wash religiously, but to be honest, my daily brushes are travel sized ones from Essence of Beauty, a cheap (but fantastic quality) brand offered at CVS in the US. Since I apply makeup nearly every day, thorough cleansing of my brushes happens every two weeks at best – and I suspect I’m not the only one like this (to be honest, most girls I know don’t clean their brushes at all – you know who you are). Beauty blogging has made me feel a little bit insecure about my appalling makeup tool hygiene, so I knew that I needed this product.

At less than $7 USD for 60ml, this antibacterial, no rinse spray is a life saver. The travel sized bottle is airport liquid restriction friendly, and it takes only a few pumps to de-funk and un-gunk my makeup brushes. The spray only takes a few minutes to dry (wipe the makeup off first with, according to Sephora, a “lint free cloth”) and they are ready and rearing to go again. The thing is, using a dirty makeup brush deposits the bacteria and oils from your face back on to your skin each time it’s used, picks them up again, and the vicious cycles continue, leading to breakouts – so this is actually a really useful, pragmatic product to own.

The Sephora website currently carries one in different packaging, for $6, but it appears to be the same product.  Get on it ladies, if lazy / busy girls like me can deal, so can you.

Winter Skin Savers for Hands

While I love winter weather, what I really don’t love is the effect it has on my skin, particularly my hands. I have thin, delicate skin on my hands (despite my guitar player’s callouses) that irritates easily with the cold, and cuticles that tend to look especially ragged once Thanksgiving has passed.

While I didn’t always pay such attention to my hands, the French tend to look at one’s nails closely as a reflection on personal character and morality (I swear!) and so having nice, soft hands has become pathos for me. So for winter, I stock up on rich hand creams and cuticle oils, and make sure that my palms are pampered.

While most hand creams will do for year round, the current deep freeze calls for extreme measures, so I am currently using Elizabeth Arden’s 8  hour cream. This cream didn’t earn legendary status for nothing – with its bizarre orange color and strong herbal odor, it hydrates even the most damaged crocodile skins. In the Swiss Alps, English roses swear by this for lips, hands and even faces, making sure that wind burn is only the sort of thing middle-aged tourists get on the slopes.The 8 hour cream will absolutely leave a greasy residue and a strong smell that last for about 15 minutes, but the skin quenching properties are worth the inconvenience – my hands are currently baby soft, with no visible cracks or dryness. The 8 hour cream is expensive (about $20USD for a 1.7 oz tube) but will last all winter long. Use the 8 hour cream sparingly – it is very rich and very thick, and will leave a very shiny, lasting residue otherwise.

Now that my hands have been taken care of, I also need to pay attention to my cuticles – the giveaway of rough winter skin. I’m currently using a cheap bottle of nail oil from Miss Helen, Monoprix supermarket’s beauty brand. This bottle is very tiny, but lasts and lasts (a drop on each nail will do) and is filled with healing goodness – from vitamin E to sweet almond oil. Cuticle oils are widely available in drugstores, but you can also make your own, using any combination of hydrating oils, including Argan, Almond, etc. I use the cuticle oil 3 – 4 times a week, massaging it into my entire nail area, and it keeps rough cuticles mostly at bay, as well as giving a healthy sheen to my nails.

Do you have any winter skin tips? Please share in the comments!

 

 

Caudalie Vinoperfect Enzymatic Peel Mask

The other day, I posted a review for Caudalie’s Cell Renewal Night Cream. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I recommend reading it before reading this review, as they are sister products from the same line.

The Enzymatic Peel Mask is a compliment to the entire vinoperfect range. I imagined it was like a more concentrated version of the night cream, but in fact the ingredients are quite different, and based my experience, apparently more potent.

Like the night cream, this product comes in a small (50ml /1.7fl. oz) tube, in clean white with silver print. I was surprised by the small size of the product, but do appreciate its portability – though I don’t often bring masks when I travel, its small size means it could easily be brought in carry on luggage if you’re flying – for me, an absolute plus.

 

The press release says that this product will create a new skin effect in 10 minutes – “This exfoliating mask tightens pores, reduces sebum, clarifies and renews skin texture. In 10 minutes, reveal a brand new glowing complexion. An innovative combination of peeling and ultra-soothing active ingredients, this creamy mask offers an immediate radiance boost and a unique new-skin effect for all skin types. The skin texture is refined and pores are tightened. The complexion appears fresh, even and luminous.”

The product contains Viniferine, a chemical extracted from vine sap, that is purported to be 62 times more effective than vitamin C, but a look at the ingredient list proves slightly worrying – unlike the night cream which contains mostly wonderful things, this mask contains such delights as benzyl alcohol, which can be incredibly drying for many skin types. The product does contain glycolic acid, which is used in chemical peels by plastic surgeons to resurface skin, so does contain many good, active ingredients.

The cream itself is thick and white – it’s a really pleasant texture, and when applied to the face, feels more like a thick cream than a traditional mask. I applied this, as directed, twice a week, always at night and before the application of the night cream. The instructions direct to leave the mask on for 10 minutes, but I often ended up washing it off before, as the ingredients in this mask are REALLY strong – despite avoiding the eye area, my eyes were tearing and my skin felt odd and tingling. For some, this may be an advantage – this proves that the mask is working, after all – but for me, my sensitive eyes simply couldn’t handle being in such close contact with such a potent product.

Despite my sensitivity, this mask really DID work – my skin looked immediately brighter and smoother, and had a real visible softness to it. I don’t know that my pores were incredibly tightened, or that it lightens dark spots any more than the night cream, but my skin certainly did look fresh and dewy, like I had just gone for a run, almost like an ‘in love’ sort of flush. It does take quite a bit of product to cover the face – I needed two nickel sized dollops of products, but I still seem to have quite a bit of product left, despite that and its small size. I will continue to use it on occasion, as I have felt a different using the mask in tandem with the night cream.

Though this product is supposedly suitable for all skin types, I would recommend that those with sensitive skin and eyes avoid, as I did have a real problem with my eyes watering. The Caudalie website says that the grape acid can cause sensitivity and those who experience discomfort should stop using the product immediately, so I’m certainly not alone in this. If I had not experienced sensitivity, I would absolutely repurchase this product.

The product is sold both at Caudalie and Sephora USA for $40, which I find is a reasonable price for an effective mask, despite the small size.

You can find the product here;

www.caudalie-usa.com

XX La Coquette

P.S. If you’re in the New York area, Caudalie has recently opened a Vinotherapie  spa at the Plaza Hotel on Central Park East. The mask is used in the Vinoperfect treatment, available for $185 USD.

 

*PR sample

Sephora’s Supreme Cleansing Oil

Have you caught on to the cleansing oil craze yet? I have.

Who would have thought that using oil on your face could leave it so incredibly clean? Something about the properties of cleansing oils not only wipe off makeup and residual pollution, but also function as a sort of magnet to oils in the face, meaning that even those with oily skin can use these products without fear of giving themselves pizza face.

I’ve tried a number of cleansing oils, but many of them are excessively expensive. So when Sephora recently launched their own cleansing oil in their French stores which, like most of their products, is very reasonably priced, I was eager to try it.

The oil comes in a sea green colored plastic bottle, containing 4 fluid ounces (190ml) of product, with a black pump top. At 9.90 Euros (about 12 dollars), it is far less expensive than the Shu Uemura cleansing oils, which cost about $35USD for a comparably sized amount of product….. though after trying this, I do think it is a bit like comparing apples and oranges.

The product is paraben and soap free (excellent for those with sensitive skin), and contains a number of different oils; mineral oil, jojoba seed oil, cotton seed oil, sunflower seed oil, etc. The bottle instructs to apply to dry skin, then add water to transform the oil into lotion, and rinse. It really did remove my makeup beautifully, particularly stubborn waterproof eyeliners, and neither stung nor irritated my skin. When applied to wet skin, to remove foundation, I did like that the product foamed a little bit (the main principle of cleansing oils is that, upon contact with water, they emulsify to become a cleanser). The problem, however, is that the quality of ingredients is inferior to those contained in more expensive cleansing oils, and the Supreme Cleansing Oil did leave a residue on my skin that required face wash to remove. What I LOVE about cleansing oils is their ability to multitask – I’m psychorigid about skincare but incredibly lazy, so something that cleanses and removes makeup is like manna from the gods. In short, the product gets points off for making me use a cleanser (and copious cotton discs) to remove the oily residue left over. With that being said, for the price, I really can’t complain. It’s effective and does its job, and does manage to remove makeup gently, leaving my skin soft and my delicate skin on my eyelids soothed. In short, it’s not a bad product for the price, it works well enough, and it’s paraben free. I wouldn’t repurchase, but I don’t regret my purchase either !

Sephora has not yet launched this product in the US, but based on their recent push of their store brand skin care range, I don’t doubt this product will be arriving in their American stores as the trend for cleansing oil grows stronger.

If you’re living in the US or the UK and are looking for an alternative, Shu Uemura makes of course an excellent cleansing oil, as well as DHC (made with olive oil), L’Occitane en Provence, Laura Mercier, and my personal favorite, Kanebo.

If you’re in France or Asia, you can pick up the Supreme Cleansing Oil at Sephora;

http://www.sephora.fr/Maquillage/Demaquillant/Visage/Super-huile-demaquillante/P112301

Wet n Wild Eye Make-Up Remover

One of my favorite things about returning to the USA are my 2am adventures at CVS with my mother, where we fill our shopping caddies with cheap delights unavailable to me in Paris. One of the brands I’ve been hearing more about is Wet n Wild, who have apparently started to produce some incredibly cheap and surprisingly good quality products. When I realized I had left my eye makeup remover back in Paris and very little selection at the drug store I visited, I decided to grab their pretty, purple eye makeup remover off the shelf – at only $1.99, I figured I could see if it worked and if not, the low price wouldn’t prevent me from chucking this in the garbage bin.

Frankly? $1.99 was too much to pay for this awful product – it isn’t even worth the plastic it’s housed in. I know that Wet n Wild has made great strides from when they were known for glittery glosses favored by 12 year olds, but this product was downright awful ! It looks much like nail polish remover, which should have been my first warning – and is oil free (which is worrying to someone who adores cleansing oils as much as I do).

Not only did this product not remove my makeup – even just a coat of mascara and a light eyeshadow wash – it stung my eyes worse than ANY product ever has. The product claims to me suitable for sensitive eyes and hypoallergenic, opthamologist-tested, but these claims seem to be a little bit dubious – my eyelids were red and swollen for HOURS after using this ! I literally only saved it to blog about how awful it is.

I know that quality is often relative to price, but Sephora makes a wonderful bi-phase eyemakeup remover for about the same price for a similarly sized bottle, as does my local Monoprix supermarket – so Wet N Wild has NO excuse. The ingredient list gave me a fright – the second ingredient listed after water is  butylene glycol, an alcohol product and a known skin and eye irritant. That Wet N Wild would choose to use this as the primary ingredient for their product really boggles the mind. The product also contains several types of fragrance and linalool, so I very much doubt that their claim of being hypoallergenic and suitable for contact lens wearers is valid.

For the 2 dollars, you might be better off buying vaseline, which isn’t ideal, but will remove your eye makeup in a pinch !

Caudalie’s Vinoperfect Cell Renewal Night Cream

So after a (way too long) hiatus, La Coquette is back and bringing you beauty news and reviews!

I received a package of Caudalie‘s newest products just before the holidays, with their cell renewal night cream and mask, the latest products in the Vinoperfect range. These two products promise to resurface, brighten, and detoxify skin.

I’m a big fan of Caudalie’s products, being a devotee of the Beauty Elixir for years. I love the idea of wine grapes, which are so good for our heart, being used in skin care, and was delighted to find the two products nestled inside swathes of bright green tissue paper, reminding me of the vines in the Bordeaux area, the company’s hometown and lifeblood.

The first product I’ll be reviewing is the Cell Renewal Night Cream – I’m saving the mask for a later post. From Caudalie; “This peeling night cream helps your skin to renew itself. It delivers gradual and continuous exfoliation for a new-skin effect that ensures unique high tolerance. Dark spots and imperfections are visibly diminished, the skin texture is refined and pores are tightened.”

The product contains “an extract of vine shoots, Viniferine, patented by Caudalie and titrated in this product formula at 550ppm…. recognized as one of the most effective plant molecules, it is suitable for the most sensitive skin” (which, beauty addict that I am, still comes across as a very foreign language).  The product also contains, amongst other active ingredients, a gentle glycolic acid peel, provitamin B5, hyaluronic acid and grape seed oil, and is paraben free. In short, a healthy dose of everything that should, in theory, create incredible skin.

As always, packaging is important to me, and I very much enjoyed the clean look of silver on bright white, which gives the product a pleasing, slightly clinical look. The fact that the product is in a tube, as opposed to a jar, is a plus – it’s more sanitary, and makes dosing more easy.  The only drawback is that the silver text (as seen in the photo) on the tube rubbed off with only minimal time in travel bags, but the tube itself is sturdy and hasn’t damaged.

As for the cream itself, I have been using it nightly after washing my makeup off for the past month, skipping my usual night cream and exfoliators, since the product is meant to exfoliate skin as you sleep. The product itself is an opaque white cream, that applies smoothly without being  very sticky. My relatively sensitive skin didn’t feel any tingling or burning upon application, contrary to what I experienced when I tried the complementary mask.   The cream doesn’t feel as rich as some of my other night creams, so the feeling took a few days to get used to – the nature of the product also requires me to use an eye cream (since it is inadvisable to use it around the eyes).  I do like products that do everything for me at once, so this was a slight drawback, and I would have preferred something a bit richer and more hydrating. Upon application, my skin texture did look immediately smoother and my pores refined. The fragrance is lovely and herbal, like many of Caudalie’s products, and this didn’t give the slick and shiny look that so many night creams do, which is an advantage.

The first week of using this product, I broke out – and if you read my blog, you know that breakouts are very rare for me. I was horrified, but decided to stick it out and continue using the cream to see if I had any real results. The blemishes did clear up, and my skin seemed to adjust after about 2 weeks of use. After a month of use, I can honestly say that my skin DOES look more luminous – my freckles seem faded on my nose and cheeks, and my skin has a slight ‘lit from within’ glow. I don’t see my skin texture being refined in any noticeable way (my makeup doesn’t apply, for example, any more easily), but the glow alone is for me, a real result. This has the added benefit of having calmed much of the redness in my skin, which is unusual for a product that exfoliates – my cheeks appear less flushed and the broken capillaries around my nostrils are far less noticeable. I do think that this is due to the unique mix of ingredients – the shea butter, for example, counteracts the irritants of the glycolic acid, etc. The mask I received seems almost unnecessary, considering the effectiveness of the cream

Verdict? I’m very satisfied with this cream. It’s not perfect – as mentioned before, I would prefer something a bit richer and more hydrating – but I have seen real results after only a month of use. I think this product would be excellent for those in their 20s and 30s looking for a skin booster and to erase some of the discoloration caused by pregnancy, or sun damage. This product promises luminosity and brightness, and it certainly delivers.

The price point depends on the market and would absolutely affect my choosing to repurchase this product or not – while it goes for a relatively reasonable 35,80 Euros in France (for a 1 oz bottle), it sells for $68 USD in the United States – nearly double the price ! With that being said, I’ve paid much more for night creams that didn’t do anything other than hydrate, so if you are seeking a product that is natural but effective at brightening the skin, this may be worth it for you.

Find the Cell Renewal Night Cream at :

Sephora USA

or Caudalie France

 

*PR Sample

Cheap Thrills – Christian Lenart Eau de Roses

Let me introduce you to my favorite cheap product:

Christian Lenart’s Eau (aromatisée) de Roses is something I discovered haphazardly a few years ago in a supermarket here in Paris, and have continued buying it since. It comes in a wonderful blue glass bottle that reminds me of Art Nouveau Paris, and the elixir itself has a lovely, floral smell. It costs less than 4 euros (about 5 USD) for a 200ml bottle, and lasts for ages.While this product isn’t PURE rosewater – it does contain trace amounts of antifungals and alcohol but the main ingredients are rose, and water, and the formula is paraben free.

 

I use this rosewater as a toner, or even to hydrate my skin in summer when cream is too much – and this tends to be the product I reach for. It’s cheap, effective, and the packaging looks rather chic indeed in my boudoir. If you’ve never tried rosewater as a toner, remover of face (not eye) makeup, or even just to refresh your skin, you should try it – my friend Shilpa says her mother even combines rosewater with her face masks, which she’s done religiously for years, to leave her skin soft and soothed.

The rose, of course, is excellent for sensitive and dehydrated skin, and won’t irritate the skin of those with redness and rosacea. You know I love anything with a rose fragrance, but I use this product for its effectiveness!

Christian Lenart products are manufactured by Kisby Labaratories, and can be found widely in France. Their website does have an online store, and it appears that they ship to the U.K., though I’m not sure about the U.S – check it out in English here.

If you’re looking for a really special product, try Santa Maria Novella’s Aqua de Rosi, housed in an incredible vintage style bottle.

You can also make your own rosewater, using the instructions on this wonderful blog I found (put it in a fancy bottle and give it out as a holiday gift, or keep it for yourself !):

http://tenfunkyowls.blogspot.com/2010/05/diy-rosewater-toner.html

What are your cult skincare products?

Avène Diacnéal Cream

If you’ve been following my blog, you must be well aware of my obsession with pharmaceutical skin care. My current addiction ? Avène’s Diacnéal, which is described as ‘Treatment care for acne prone skin’.

Now, I don’t have problem skin per se, but like any girl in her mid 20s (or 30s, or 40s, or 50s !), I do get the occasional spot. I started using this after a beach related breakout this summer, and have recently rediscovered it as a makeup base – why ? This pearly gold cream mattifies my skin and makes makeup hold gorgeously, since I am not fond of makeup bases (ie: Smashbox) that tends to make my skin very slick.

This is very much a medicated product, with 6 percent glycolic acid and 0.1 percent retinaldehyde, both of which calm redness and  smooth  skin’s texture by sloughing off dead skin cells when used regularly. While I haven’t been using this product long enough to notice a permanent effect on my skin (I had used it as an emergency spot treatment) , it does do short-term wonders, as mentioned above, for mattifying, as well as making my skin feel very smooth.

Due to the active ingredients the Diacnéal, this product could be harsh on dry skin, which is why I layer it underneath my regular day cream. According to a friend who suffers from rosacea, this works wonders calming her inflamed skin and has significantly reduced both redness and irritation, though this information is secondhand !

At about 10 euros for a 30ml tube, this is an inexpensive solution to not only rosacea and acne, but also those suffering from scars (which the active ingredients will diminish over time). This is my star product from the Avène skin care line, which is packed full of healing thermal waters from the Cevennes mountains in central France. Use only a very small amount, otherwise skin might feel tight, and somewhat sticky.

I’ll post progress reports of my long-term use with the product – though with Avène’s products being voted as best of beauty in both In Style and Allure magazines in the USA, it can’t hurt to try it yourself !

Avène’s entire skin care range is available on drugstore.com

For more information about the company, visit their website:

www.aveneusa.com