Let’s talk SKIN CARE! Part 2

Hello hello!

Ok, now that all the elephants are out of the room (see part 1 of this post for details here), let’s move on to some other skin care products I am enjoying 🙂

Continuing with Olaz, I am currently using the Olaz Definity eye cream:

Now, one thing I am quite unsure of (much like the deal with day and night creams) is whether the skin around my eyes really is a “different species” altogether…so much that it would necessarily need a separate cream. Why would this part of my face be so different compared to the rest of my face? Have you ever wondered about that?

I remain critical about this…sure the skin there is thinner, sensitive and all that…but a whole new branch of the cosmetics industry dedicated to eye skin care? Hmm..

Well then, let’s take a look at the ingredient list of this eye cream and find out if anything on it is particular to the eye area, or it could easily be used on the rest of the face too (and vice versa…can day cream be used on the eye area?)

So, cyclopentasiloxane, together with dimethicone are used as slip agents…That explains why the cream has such a silicone-ish feeling to it. This guy is on top of the list 😉 For the rest, this cream is light and absorbes quickly. It doesn’t have a scent.

Clycerin is a humectant. It is highly hygroscopic, meaning it loves water, and absorbs it readily. Together with silicones, emollients and oils it helps with moisturizing.

Sunscreen (titanium dioxide) among the first ingredients. Important overall, not just around the eyes.

I see also the vitamin bunch here (niacinamide, tocopherol and tocopheryl acetate, panthenol)…just like in the day cream, perhaps in lower concentrations.

Acetylglucosamine is an amino sugar which helps with skin lightening. That makes sense, since the cream is supposed to diminish dark under-eye circles. I don’t suffer from dark under-eyes, so I cannot be sure of the effectiveness of the cream for this particular problem…but the ingredient is there, has been proven useful, and is high on the list.

Palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 (also -3, also matrixyl) is a basically 5 amino acids attached to a fatty acid. Supposedly it helps with cell-cell communication. Cells talk to each other all the time and their (mis)-communication is quite a topic of research. Apparently, this compound “tells” cells to build new cellular matrix…which could be pretty helpful with repairing skin damage, possibly wrinkles. From what I understand, it can counteract the damaging effect of the Sun, like retinol (alcohol form of vitA) does, without the side effect of being a skin irritant. (Retinoids can cause irritation to people with more sensitive skin.)

Collagen doesn’t hurt…You know collagens are important for skin elasticity, which goes to hell as we age. Not sure whether collagen in creams does anything really. If it doesn’t stimulate the skin to produce it, which sadly is the case…then, what’s the point? I don’t have to burst your bubble, you already know that no cream in the world can prevent aging…loss of skin elasticity included.

Sodium hyaluronate is a salt of the hyaluronic acid. It’s good – prevents loss of skin moisture.

Those were the “active” compounds in this cream, as far as I can see. I deem nothing wrong with using this product as my day/night cream. And vice versa, my day cream contains plenty of goodies which my eye area would benefit from.

Moving on…

The next product in my routine is from The Body Shop – the Tea Tree Blemish Fade night lotion:

As this cream is supposed to help with blemishes, I use it especially in certain days of the month around my cycle, when my skin is at its worst.

This cream is also very lightweight and absorbs quickly, leaving the skin matte and fresh. It has a slight scent. I use it mostly in the evening because it doesn’t have strong SPF. (BTW, that is pretty much all you need from a good day cream vs a night one: decent SPF!)

I quote the ingredient list as mentioned the website of TBS:

FULL INGREDIENTS

Water, Propanediol, Glycerin, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Calophyllum Inophyllum Seed Oil, Silica, Acrylamide/Ammonium Acrylate Copolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Polyisobutene, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Titanium Dioxide, Phytosphingosine, Polysorbate 20, Sorbitan Isostearate, Limonene, Citral, Leptospermum Petersonii (Lemon Tea Tree) Oil, Tocopherol.

Overall, it’s a fine cream…it contains some goodies: tamanu oil (=Calophyllum Inophyllum Seed Oil), tea tree oli, phytosphingosine, tocopherol (vitE). 

BUT…oh, Body Shop, there is a BUT, even though I wish otherwise!

The product is marketed as a tea tree bla bla cream…and a quick look at the ingredient list immediately shows you that there isn’t much of it in here. Tea tree oil is in the middle and end of the list. Same goes for phytosphingosine and vitE…somewhere in the end of the line.

For the rest, generic cream ingredients…

Disappointing, I’d say. Don’t get me wrong, still a fine cream…just not living up to its tea tree promise all that much.

You have had enough of my blabbing by now, right?! So, let’s leave the plant oils post for part 3 😉

And definitely let me know in the comments what your skin care routine contains and whether you are satisfied with it, ingredient-wise! I am always on the look-out for good products that will, at least superficially, hide the aging process hahaha