Lush Full Of Grace Serum

In which I get creative.

I have a complicated relationship with Lush. There are a handful of products I love enough to tolerate their god-awful scent. The rest-  I could easily live without, especially since I find the smell of their stores mighty unpleasant. I was  pursuing Lush website as I needed to restock a couple of summer essentials (Dream Cream and Silky Underwear powder) and got curious about their solid serum bars. Not that I need another serum or that I had any intention to put this stuff on my face, but I was thinking it might be a very interesting hand product.

Which it is.

Full Of Grace (I love the name) is a smallish bar (about third the size of their body massage/lotion ones) that fits easily in your palm and melts as you touch it. It can get messy, but all you need is a quick rub between your hands to spread the product and coat your skin from cuticles to wrists. The serum feels very rich but sinks in immediately without any greasy residue. It softens the skin right away, including the rougher spots (mine are from typing). The back of my hands which I treat religiously with creams and lotions get a bit waxy for a while, but very soft. It's a nice feeling, overall.

The scent is that typical lush essential oil mess with a side of cheap soap, but it's not too strong or too bad and  I'm willing to deal with it because of the fabulous performance. I wouldn't want it on my face, though. I ordered this serum a couple of weeks ago when the weather was cooler and there was already some minor melting in the package. This is not something you can safely order during the hot months, so a trip to the smelly Lush store is recommended if you want to check it out.

Bottom line: Scent aside, even better than I expected.

Lush Full Of Grace Serum ($13.95, 0.7oz) is available from Lush stores and online (see my warning above).

Photo of my Gracie, just because.

Sensai by Kanebo- Cellular Performance Intensive Hand Treatment

It's becoming pretty clear that if one is looking for good anti-aging hand lotions, the place to find them is at companies and brands that specialize in serious skin care and produce the best treatments for your face. it makes sense, after all. While greasy creams and petroleum gel-based products have their place when you need a buffer between harsh conditions and your skin, they don't nourish or restore your hands, and definitely have no anti-aging properties.

I've been going through sample tubes of Cellular Performance Intensive Hand Treatment by Kanebo Sensai and have nothing but praise for it. It actually plumps the skin and makes my hand not just feel better but also look smoother. The best part is how the cream sink right in leaving no residue on the surface. It's not greasy at all- I can thoroughly slather my hands and then pet the fluffiest of my cats and no hair would stick to me (I have creative testing methods).

I'm often asked about age spots, but I don't have any on my hands so I can't tell you if this Kanebo cream would make a significant difference. What I definitely see is that it keeps my skin very soft and nicely textured even in this weather. Considering I'm prone to scary parching, I'm very happy with it. Not seeing a dry cuticle in weeks has also been a very nice bonus.

Bottom line: Worth the price.

Sensai by Kanebo Cellular Performance Intensive Hand Treatment ($90 for 3.4 oz) is exclusive to Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. I've received several samples as GWP and from the company's PR team.

Photo by Rene Zuber, 1930

L'Occitane Shea Butter Extra-Gentle Lotion for Hands & Body

Normal people wouldn't understand how a 5% shea butter lotion can be not rich enough for one's skin. But if you're like me and share the genetic material of a big lizard you might get it.

I was setting out the bathrooms in the new house and realized that: a) I still can't find the box with most of my full-size heavy duty hand creams, and b)I needed something with cat proof packaging. Since I was already on my way to the L'Occitane store, I picked what looked like the obvious choice, Shea Butter Extra-Gentle Lotion for Hands & Body in the pump bottle.

I'm a huge fan of L'Occitane shea butter products, but usually go for the big guns- the 15% to 25% thick creams. It makes a big difference, because while the Extra Gentle Lotion gives a quick relief right after I wash my hands, it only takes fifteen minutes before they feel tight and dry again and I need another fix.

Bottom line: I'm a freak.

L'Occitane Shea Butter Extra-Gentle Lotion for Hands & Body ($20) is available online and from L'Occitane stores. I bought it at my local mall.

Photo: ucsd.org

Clinica Ivo Pitanguy- Body Care Hands Beauty Formula

Some twentysomethings might have a hard time relating to the anti-aging obsession. I remember 15 years ago not being very religious about my SPF usage and not really caring about antioxidants and vitamin C in my skin care products. But between beauty blogging and pushing 40, things have changed significantly.

I spend a scary chunk of my waking hours with my hands right in front of me typing or touchpading, so I get to look at them quite a bit. I've been doing a good job using sun blocks, premium hand creams, shielding lotions and any rejected face cream and serum I have. And it pays off. I can't recommend strongly enough upgrading your hand cream to something with active anti aging and brightening ingredients and heavy duty moisturizing effect.

But how "up" should this upgrade be? Is there any justification for the $105 hand cream from Clinica Ivo Pitanguy? Even when you realize that this price is for a 3.4 oz tube, while the wonderful Chanel Body Excellence Creme Jeunesse et Confort is $48 for 2.5 oz, it's still about $30 per 1oz while Chanel is $19.6 pr 1oz.

The Ivo Pitanguy tube I have was a PR freebie. I love this cream and have been very happy with the way my hands look and feel. But is it better than Chanel or Erno Laszlo? I can't say. While I'm pretty sure the two scars I have on my right hand have somewhat faded (an old one from an accident 21 years ago, and one that involved my cat Thomas using my hand as a springboard with the claws on his hind leg), I can't say how much of that is the Ivo Pitanguy and how much is everything else, including several Lancome Absolute GWP products.

I can't find a full ingredient list for the CIP Hands Beauty Formula. They're talking about amino acids and Brazilian maracuja oil, which apparently is passion fruit (passiflora edulis) and has calming, soothing and analgesic properties. But Ivo Pitanguy products are not the only ones on the market using that. On the other hand there's Dr. Pitanguy's himself, one of the greatest plastic surgeons of all times, whose creams and ointments had a legendary reputation (have a look at this article). But since this is a commercial product I have a hard time there's something rare and unique in the formula.

However, if you compare Clinica Ivo Pitanguy to the other top tier brands like Sisley, Natura Bisse or Kanebo Sensai, prices are about the same. I'm just not convinced they are that much better than the equivalent body products from La Mer ($70 for the same size tube of hand cream), Lancome, Lauder or Guerlain.

Bottom line: Awesome hand cream, jaw-dropping price. I'd go with La Mer first.

Clinica Ivo Pitanguy products are available from Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.

Photos of the Ivo Pitanguy clinic in Brazil: pitanguy.com

Lancome Absolue Hand vs. Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Hand Cream

A hand cream face-off

Last week when I talked about using unloved high end face creams and serums on hands, my friend Tom commented on how important it is to keep the paws from showing signs of aging. Crepey skin, brown spots... not pretty. The thing is that most regular hand creams are good for providing a protective layer from drying environment, but they do little (read: diddly squat) in the anti-aging department. We're lucky if they have an SPF, but mostly they're either overpriced Vaseline or some version of body butter. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we need more.

Enter the high-end creams.

While sometimes it seems crazy to pay so much for a tube of cream that sits next to the sink or in the remote control basket, many of these products actually make a difference in the way one's hands look, and that can be priceless. The two creams I've been testing lately, Lancome Absolue Hand and Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Intensive Smoothing Hand Cream, are serious players in this field, and both give my beloved Chanel a run for its money.

Lauder Re-Nutriv feels thicker and takes longer to fully absorb. But the soft and smooth feeling lasts longer. On the other hand (ha! I actually did some of the testing simultaneously, one on each hand), Lancome Absolue offers SPF 15, which is a huge advantage.

Both creams perform well and keep my skin texture nice and smooth. Since sun protection is the number one step in keeping hands in great shape, if pressed to choose one I'd go with Lancome, but perhaps I'd feel differently in cold and dry weather.

In any case, don't forget to apply sun block before getting in your car. It's easy to overlook, but one gets seriously exposed to those evil rays while driving.

Lancome Absolue Hand ($42 for 3.4 oz) and Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Intensive Smoothing Hand Cream ($45 for 3.4 oz) are available from decent department stores and directly from the companies online stores. I got several travel size tubes of both with various purchases at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

Image: amykagawacom

Erno Laszlo Intensive Hand Cream

While my personal holy grail hand cream is still my beloved Chanel (because of the amazingly light texture and the noticeable long-time effect), Erno Laszlo Intensive Hand Cream is becoming another favorite.

It's thicker and takes a couple of extra seconds to fully absorb and also leaves what I can only call "an aftertaste" - a fuzzy feeling similar to what you get after wearing kitchen gloves- on my palms-which disappears after about 15 minutes. The greatness is in the immediate hydration and comfort my skin gets, even under dire circumstances, as I discovered after an unfortunate encounter with a very harsh detergent. The Erno Laszlo cream fixed the situation immediately.

Add to that the SPF 25 and a fairly large tube (4 oz), and this is a very good product, as long as you don't have issues with the texture.

Erno Laszlo Intensive Hand Cream ($55) is available from Nordstrom, Saks, Dillards (and I'm pretty sure I remember a Laszlo counter at Bergdorf), as well as from the company's web site. I got my tube as a PR freebie.

Photo: Life.com

Insert Lemon Jokes Here- Lush Lemony Flutter

The best thing about Lush Lemony Flutter is the name. It sounds light and airy, and makes you think about fluffy things, like lemon meringue pie. You'll need to adjust your expectation before trying it, because this thick buttery cream smells more like a lemony shoe shine (I'm always amazed by Lush fanatics who claim the products smell "yummy". From my experience, the best I can hope for is pleasant).

It comes in a little pot you need to dip your fingers (germaphobes will shudder), and you only need very little to grease your scales. I'm unconvinced of its merit as a hand cream, because it takes too long to stop leaving prints on my keyboard (and it makes cat hair stick to my hands). It feels nice when the grease is gone, though.

I can see why you'd want to use in on calluses and anywhere that needs to be seriously buttered, so it's good to have around. It's just not a fun product and doesn't feel lush and luxirious. The small packaging is convenient, but I much prefer the travel size tubes from L'Occitane.

Lush products are available online and from their stores, the latter is where I bought mine ($13.25).

A mental tour to Haute Provence- Le Couvent Des Minimes Hand Cream

Can a product that comes from a place that look like the one in the pictures above be anything but awesome?

That's the village of Mane in the Alpes de Haute Provence, France. It's the home of Le Couvent Des Minimes, makers of a bath and body line which they claim to be based on old recipes dating from centuries ago, and more important, eco-friendly, not tested on animals, nature-based, containing no animal products other than honey, and only minimal use of petrochemical derivatives (that's mineral oil to you and me, an ingredient that might not be harmful, but makes my poor skin suffocate and dry under its "protective" layer). So it's all good, unless you have a problem with parabens, which was used in the cream I tested.

The line has a L'Occitanish vibe, both in the range of products (sugar scrub, body balm, hand and foot creams, lip balm, soaps, shower gel, and body lotion) and the packaging. The ingredients also look familiar: lavender, honey, shea butter and verbena. I got to try the honey and shea Nourishing Hand Cream, which, indeed, reminds me of a similar L'Occitane product. It goes on thick and has about a minute of very sticky feeling before it's absorbed.

The hand cream has she butter listed at the top of the ingredient list, right after water. So it's not surprising to see how rich nourishing it feels. Oddly enough, my cuticles still prefer my beloved Chanel cream and remain dry without it, but every other part of my hands is happy. Furthermore, I had a patch of itchy, red skin on both arms (always happens when the weather changes). On a whim, I decided to put on some of this cream and practically saw the redness disappear right there in front of my eyes. I'm not sure which one of the ingredients is responsible (there are several oils and extracts listed that may have a skin calming effect), but I'm thankful.

I also smell good, because the honey scent is lovely and lasts longer than I'd expect. The honey scent here is reminiscent of Ginestet Botrytis more than of other (in)famous honey perfumes like Miel de Bois or L'Occitane Honey Harvest. It reminds me of a honey over a well-buttered toast and is definitely on the foody side, so beware and try something else if the mention of these scents sends you running for cover.

I've spent way too much time looking at photos of that area of South France, including drooling over vacation rental homes in Mane and other quaint villages in the area. I had to remind myself that: a) I don't like mountains all that much and b) I get claustrophobic from too much nature exposure. City, please!
It still looks gorgeous, though, and all those lavender fields make me want to roll in them.

The hand cream was a PR freebie and is available for $22.50 at Belk, Dillard’s, Bon Ton and Olive & Company stores nationwide, as well as from Dillard's web site.

Images: Vaucluse and Provence 360° virtual tour

High and Low- Bliss High Intensity Hand Cream

The best thing about being used to really good products is being able to identify and dismiss low performing lotions and potions. Today's underachiever is the over-hyped High Intensity Hand Cream from Bliss.

It's not a bad cream, but given a very dry skin and winter conditions, my finicky skin, which used to a daily pampering in Chanel's wonderful hand lotion and generous doses of L'Occitane products, is not impressed. The cream absorbs fast, provides some relief, but on bad skin days it's not enough, and it doesn't protect much from harsh environment.

My biggest issue with this cream is the scent. Synthetic and lemony, it just doesn't feel luxurious, and at $18 for 2.5 oz (compare to L'Occitane at $25 for 5.2 oz), the least it could do is make me smell good.

Image of Victorian hand beads: SaraJane's

Excellence

Discovering what a huge difference the right products made for my face in terms of clarity, texture and radiance has prompted me to do something for my hands. We all know how hands are the first to show signs of aging, given how exposed they are to the elements and how easy it is to conveniently forget to slather them in sunblock. I haven't got any sun spots or freckles on the back of my hands, though they are a bit tanned. I have always been good about using hand creams and protective gloves, but my skin is dry and could certainly use some help.

I picked Chanel's nourishing and rejuvenating hand cream , from their Body Excellence line, on a whim, the same day I got the wonderful Tulip Noir nail color, determined to make my hands worthy of the gorgeous polish. I've been using it ever since, and the results are good enough to get me hooked on this product.

There are other great hand creams on the market. I love the ones from L'Occitane and Crabtree & Evelyn. Bliss hand cream is also great, despite its synthetic lemon scent. They are all good in terms of moisturizing and softening. However, Chanel's cream combines moisturizing with the effect of a shielding lotion: It envelopes the skin with a thin, barely-there barrier. It's not sticky and doesn't leave any stains on the keyboard, but my hands feel incredibly soft and smooth.

I have other shielding lotions, including my absolute favorite, SkinMD, which is the one I'd recommend for those who don't have aging concerns just yet. Chanel's cream is superior because it also improves skin clarity. I can't say how well it fights age spots, but after almost 4 weeks of religious use, there's a visible improvement in texture and color, a lot more than I've hoped for. I haven't had a dry cuticle in weeks. According to the little brochure that came in the box, age spots are reduced within two months, so I'm hoping for even smoother hands in a month.

The cream is very lightly scented (it is a Chanel, after all). It's floral as you'd expect, but the fragrance doesn't linger and doesn't get in the way of my perfume habit.

Shielding Season

The latest development in the fight against dry skin seems to be shielding lotions. It makes sense, since they are not marketed as a feminine luxury item, have no scent to speak of and are something that everyone who suffers from dry winter skin can keep at their desk and use as needed. The bottles are anything but girly and cutesy, very much like Neutrogena's Norwegian Formula hand cream, that men and women are equally happy to use.

The first lotion of this kind I have tried, SkinMD Natural, has earned my love and devotion and even made its way into my list of favorite products for 2006. It was that good. I keep my bottle close and enjoy the relief it brings to my hands and non-stickiness. I use it on any body part that seems to need it and in emergency it even goes on my face.

The latest shielding lotions I tried, Gloves in a Bottle, is different that SMDN, and while a reasonably okay product, it's nowhere near as good. I only tested it on my hands, the part that gets dry more frequently and that I don't slather with body butters as much as I do the rest of my body, because of the stickiness factor. My cats can live without becoming greasy, and so can my keyboard.

While SMDN gives my hand a feeling of being well moisturized and I can feel the calming effect instantly, GiaB did soften the back of my hands but gave me a tight, dry feel in my palms. Clearly not what I was after. It does have the shielding effect, and kept my hands from becoming drier while out in the cold, but it didn't add anything to a skin that already felt dry. My guess would be that it would work well for someone who needs only the protection part of the shield, since it does form a nice barrier from the environment, but if you're looking for some serious healing action, this isn't the right product.

A look at the list of ingredients shows just how different this is from SMDN. My guess is that more than all the plant extracts that aren't used in GiaB, what makes SMDN so great is the aloe vera gel. The stuff heals, hydrates and gives skin a serious boost. While Gloves in A Bottle may be an effective protection against the elements, my already dry skin needs more than that to be happy.