Ready for winter: Skincare and self-care with beauty brand philosophy
Two weeks ago, I spent the afternoon in a holiday-themed wonderland filled with philosophy products, from eye cream to serum to Christmas cookie-flavoured soap to their 3-in-1 face wash. It was a welcome image of winter, with twinkling logs set up as a faux fire, and cozy couch. But best of all, I got to try their new fragrance and peep the new collection of skincare products ahead of their release.
A day with philosophy
You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to sample one of my favourite skincare lines—which before my visit, I thought was exclusively cake or cookie-flavoured body wash. It turns out, while I was under a rock somewhere, everyone else was using philosophy’s skincare line, Hope In A Jar, and their other fan favourite, the Purity cleanser. But there’s more coming this year, like the Renewed Hope serum that doesn’t seep down your face when you apply it. You can actually put it on and move around because the formula is thick enough to stay in place. It goes on smoothly and has a cooling feel to it.
Ready for my close up, literally
All you do is rest your chin on the ledge, and three flashes go off to detect sun damage, wrinkles, pores and more.
After testing some products, I met with a skincare expert to get an analysis and come up with a personalized skincare routine. What I learned about my skin was that it’s dry and red in my T-zone area, probably because I rub my eyes a lot (especially with seasonal changes aka allergies.) A solution to this dryness is to apply moisturizer daily, every morning. One of my qualms about this was that I usually don’t wash my face in morning unless I’m going to wear full make up (because I always end up a wet mess when I wash my face, so I usually save that for nighttime). But apparently micellar water (I use Nivea’s MicellAIR) does the trick, so you can moisturize after applying it with a cotton pad. And then when you put on the moisturizer, your skin will be clean and glowing.
Although my analysis showed my face didn’t have a lot of sun damage, it was still visible on the scan (see below), so my trusted expert advised me to use products with SPF already in them. (I know, even though I live in Canada, I still have to apply sunblock? Answer is yes). One way to sneak in some SPF is to swap out your regular moisturizer or foundation for ones with SPF. That way it’s automatic and you don’t have to think about. There are also powder foundations with SPF, so you have no excuse.
Turns out I have combination skin, meaning dry and oily. The expert recommended only doing face masks two to three times a week in my T-zone so that I wouldn’t dry out skin in those areas. A good serum applied in the morning is great for soothing dryness, but won’t add oiliness to my forehead and around my chin. And my skin is also uneven and red; I have lots of freckles and dark spots. The serum helps dull and uneven skin as well. (I liked the philosophy one because of the consistency, but there are lots out there. Another one that I’ve been using as a kind of serum is the Rata and Co superfood skin-brightening face oil with avocado. The dark circles under my eyes are minimal and my skin tone is way more even. A little goes a loooooong way.)
If I had to decide on two must-have products from my afternoon with philosophy, I have to say the first is the Purity Made Simple eye cream, which came out recently. It’s cool to the touch and springs back when you push down. It’s soothing and has a lovely light scent, so it’s not over-powering. The other would be the Amazing Graze perfume. I’m really not a person who uses a signature scent in my everyday life—but I’ve been using this fan-favourite for the past two weeks. It’s perfect for daytime and has a fresh, flowery smell.
philosophy will be coming out with a new scent soon.
The Purity line will be adding eye cream to their collection.
And, if you’re already in the holiday mind-set, philosophy has a bunch of stocking stuffers to make gifting easy. Their products are wrapped like ornaments that can be attached to a Christmas tree, Chanukah bush, or they can be given individually. I decided to keep mine for travelling because they’re the perfect size for carry-on.
