Guten Morgen

My favorite part about traveling in Europe is the pharmacies, or apotheke in this case. I visited my brother in Germany for Christmas and stopped into literally every single one I walked by. The Germany apotheke have a few different brands that the other pharmacies through Europe don’t have, specifically Germany brands Dr Hauschka and Weleda. Since it was cold AF I decided to grab both brands cult products and give see how they held up in the freezing weather.

Not sure how I’ve never tried Dr Hauschka, I’ve been wanting to get my hands on some forever. It’s half the US price in Germany and they sell sample sizes, so I grabbed their top selling Rose Day Cream to try during the day. The texture is super rich, which I love but can only use during winter months due to having combo skin and large pores. Enriched with extracts Rose Petals and Rose Hips, Shea Butter, Rose Wax, Avocado Oil, Marshmallow, and St Johns Wart, this natural moisturizer deeply hydrated while soothing irritation and calming redness, making it perfect for cold winter weather. The texture is hella thick, so you only need to use a little, I cut it with a few drops of Biossance Squalane +Vitamin C Rose Oil to make it spread. My skin felt hydrated all day and definitely protected from the cold winds and nasty winter weather that I was definitely not use to.

For my night cream I grabbed the Weleda Skin Food. I had already ordered one of these off Amazon and have been using it on my hands but I keep forgetting to throw it in my travel back (twice now...). The packaging says it’s for hands, elbows, dry patches, but I love to use it as a night cream when I’m really dry and flakey (after a few too many nights of retinol?). One of its main ingredients is Lanolin, an emollient from sheeps wool that is one of the best skin protectors. A slew of natural oils and waxes make this thick cream feel and smell like happiness and dreams. I wouldn’t recommend using this every night as it is pretty dense, but on those occasional nights where you need intense hydration, give it a go.

All in all I loved both of those.  Even though my skin was dry from the elements, my skin is combination, so regardless of how dry I feel, my pores are still large and can get clogged from heavier creams.If you are combo and want to try them, avoid using them on the nose, center of the forehead, or areas where you frequently get large pores.I used the Sephora Collection Charcoal Nose Strip after using these and it did the trick for cleaning them out.

Crème de la Monk

I worked for Lancôme when I was 18 years old and discovered the original Absolue Night Cream (which has been reformulated many times since), which was super dense, intoxicatingly fragrant, and made my face look like magic the in morning. Despite my combo/oily/large pore prone skin, I have an obsession with really thick face creams. Something about the rich texture that makes my skin look and feel so plump, unfortunately if I use them too many days in a row I break out. Fortunately I travel a ton and airplanes are dry as hell. For the past year I've been living off some La Mer samples I happened upon as my in flight cream. Even though I know it has mineral oil and whatever else questionable ingredients, I love it. As I was packing for NYC and saw my empty La Mer sample, I remembered I had the Fresh Crème Ancienne hanging out in my fridge! I haven't used this cream in years, but like the original La Mer it has a rich texture that feels like you could cut it with a knife and spread it on some toast. As I'm coming to the end of my 5 hour flight (which took off at 6:45am) I'm feeling exhausted, restless, sleep deprived, and my skin feels so hydrated, like the nasty recycled airplane air hasn't had any effect on it at all.

Crème Ancienne has one of those cosmetic stories that though it may be all hype and just a story, it has me sold. Based on the formula for the original face cream, Crème Ancienne is hand made by monks in a monastery. Like seriously? A monk makes this cream, I wanna know what kind of monastery this is and how do I sign up to hang out there for a week and slather this stuff on my face all day. I mean do these monks look super young? Whatever, they probably don't even use it. It contains hydrating ingredients Meadowfoam Seed Oil rich in fatty acids to nourish skin, Vitamin E for free radical protection, Chamomile Wax to decrease dry patches and soften skin, and Rosewater to soothe.

Fresh also makes some amazing claims for dry skin: Moisturizing for 28 hour, anti-oxidative benefits for 24 hours, Immediate smoothing of wrinkles, and 97% of users felt it moisturized and prevented dry skin while 90% noticed a nourishing effect.

While the ingredients aren't super advanced or really geared towards firming, lifting, or brightening, Crème Ancienne makes for one hell of a night cream or travel cream due to the protective barrier is creates on the skin. If you have dry skin or are on a plane frequently, I highly recommend you try Crème Ancienne. The cream starts at $145 for 1oz, but you use so little that this cream will last you for awhile.

Flaky Face

I've been using tretinoids every night for the past few month, plus chemical peels, and microneedling, my skin was just starting to flake everywhere and nothing was helping.  I've been between night creams since finishing my Clarins Multi Active Night Cream, and using just ialuset hyaluronic cream and facial oils.  I happened upon a former favorite, Elemental Herbology Facial Soufflé Overnight Cream $84 that the amazing girls from Mecca Australia gifted me a few years back.  The dense, balm like texture, and intoxicating smell make this cream an all around amazing experience.  It doesn't feel like it fully absorbs, it lays like a protective barrier on your skin through the night so you want up with super supple hydrated skin.  Within 3 nights, my flaking was gone, and I was even mixing my tretinoid gel into it.  I'm so sad I only had about 2 weeks left of cream to use, but my skin is looking a hell of a lot better.