Being half French, I was subjected to the likes of the ‘Parapharmacie‘ in my early days. And now I see articles about the best French beautyproducts everywhere.
These products might be the reason why my skin still looks young and fresh at 35. Add some good genetic material to that (my mom is hardly wrinkled at 60 years of age), and there’s the answer.
Many times people have asked what I use for my daily beauty routine, and frankly it isn’t that much. You just need to have the right products. What’s nice about the Parapharmacy -phenomenon is that most products you’ll find there are developed by dermatologists or based on natural ingredients. Otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed to be sold there.
So now I’ll reveal my little beauty secrets…
I splash cold water on my face each morning, and use a small amount of facewash from ROC or Vichy. Three times a week I scrub with Dermalogica‘s daily microfoliant. It’s a powder that becomes scrub in contact with water. When it’s all rinsed off, I pat my face dry with a towel. Then I use a bit of cleanser from ROC, as a sort of pre-hydration. I alternate moisturizers, but always prefer the non-perfumed ones. Just keep it as basic as possible. At the moment I use either Origins or Kiehls (Ultra Facial Moisturizer or BB cream), and Vichy Normaderm on the T-zone.
Also important is to repeat the cleansing ritual before going to sleep. Surprising for many; I generally don’t use a night cream (as I don’t believe in all these anti-ageing blabla) but just spray some mineral water mist on my face (you have these sprays from Evian, but they are quite expensive here). Sometimes in winter I might want to plump my skin because of the cold and use my daily rejuvenating Make A Difference Plus cream from Origins again (it says both day and night on the package anyway), because it has a fresh gel cream ‘non-greasy’ texture.
And you know what, there is no actual beauty secret. Everyone has different skin and different needs. Just enjoy life, laugh and take good care of yourself. That’s half the job.