Hi, guys! Here's a post I wrote awhile ago but never got around to posting. Hope you like! Now I must get back to my statsyntaxing (I love concatenations, hehe).
Back in September, I went to Barneys with L on a perfume sniffing mission. We accomplished that, I found
my perfect lip gloss, and got a bunch of skincare samples from Eve Lom. I've already mentioned a couple of them on here, but I figured I should do a full "review" of them in one place.
Eve Lom is a London-based skincare company best known for their cleanser, which is oil-based and is meant to be used with a muslin cloth. They also claim that it works as a makeup remover, cleanser, and toner in one. Now, I love oil cleansers, and am well familiar with how they work. Eve Lom's is thicker than true cleansing oils, more of a paste, but it becomes more liquidy as you rub it between your hands. They recommend applying a penny-sized dollop to your dry face, making sure to massage thoroughly and work the product in to break down your makeup, including heavy eye makeup. Then, you get the muslin cloth wet with hot water and lay it over your face, letting it sit for a few seconds before wiping away and repeating the process. I don't know if the muslin cloth that came with my sample was full size or not, but I sincerely hope it is not, because it's so weirdly shaped and sized that I find it to be somewhat of a hindrance in the actual face-washing process. It's much longer than it is wide, to the point where it's simultaneously too long and too narrow (looking at the Eve Lom website, though, it seems likely that this is one of the "travel size" cloths, so the full size ones are hopefully better). I tended to lay it over my face diagonally, since that covered the most real estate, but it was still less than ideal. I did think it was really cool how any makeup that got on the cloth just washed right off, like magic! But I didn't actually find it to be a terribly effective cleanser. Yes, it managed to get my face makeup off without issue (unless you consider the several minute process to be an issue, which I most certainly do when I'm tired and just want that shit gone), but it was much less successful with eye makeup, even the relatively light eye makeup I tend to wear. It never fully removed my non-waterproof mascara, so I can only imagine how less than stellar it would be at removing something waterproof! So, all in all, I found it to be much more trouble than it was worth, and gladly returned to my usual
Shiseido oil-
Philosophy Purity combo, which has never let me down. And which, together, are cheaper than the smaller size of Eve Lom, and last longer (I get 6 months from that combo, and the Eve Lom spokespersonn said the travel size tub would last about 2.5). If, however, you're the type who really loves thorough face cleansing pampering and don't wear much eye makeup and are fine with putting off bedtime to repeatedly wipe at your face with a weirdly shaped cloth, you may find Eve Lom's cleanser to be just the ticket! (Okay, that's not fair, because lots of people really love it. Google and go read their reviews, because I obviously am not one of them.)
$50 for 1.7 oz, $80 for 3.4, $135 for 6.75, available from
Barneys and
Space NK (all purchasing information is valid for the US)
While the cleanser didn't work out for me, the rescue mask
most definitely did! It's a clay-based mask with chamomile and little exfoliaty particles. They recommend slathering it on thick and then rubbing it off in an upward motion once it's dried, but I am cheap and was not about to waste the precious in such a wanton way. I spread it on thinly as an overnight treatment, and found it to be really effective at reducing redness and blemish size. It smells funky, but the results are really great. L bought me the small tube for Christmas, and I eagerly await its arrival!
$50 for 1.7 oz, $85 for 3.4, available from
Barneys and
Space NK
The moisturizing serum is supposed to provide intense hydration, but I did not find that to be the case. When I applied it when my skin was so grouchy about retinoids, it did nothing to reduce the flakiness, and when I used it once my skin was more cooperative (just its normal oily self) I found it pilled up horribly under my makeup. To the point that I had to wash my face and start over. Fortunately it was a later class day so I had time to do that, but I was still very displeased.
$95 for 1 oz, available from
Barneys and
Space NK
The moisture mask, on the other hand, was marvelous at healing my dry, cracked, flaky skin. Much like with the clay mask, I didn't apply as much as they recommend, sticking to a thin layer all over my face. They say to leave it on for 10-15 minutes and then wipe off the excess with a tissue; I found there was rarely much excess left after that long. It had a siliconey feeling which left my skin very velvety and soft, but it must also have the smiles of unicorns or something in it because after using it 3 times in 2 days, my dry skin was completely gone (though admittedly, the L'Occitane shea butter scrub helped, too). Great stuff. If you need some intense hydration and the usual methods haven't worked (for me, that meant argan oil, honey, and general moisturizer, though not all at once), Eve Lom's moisture mask may be well worth your while. I didn't try applying it before makeup, so I can't say how it fares under products; I think it's probably best as a nighttime treatment.
$90 for 3.3 oz, available from
Barneys and
Space NK
So, I had two major successes, one major fail, and one "meh that's so much work and it doesn't even clean my face very well and why is the cloth so small and OMG THIS IS TAKING FOREVER", so I would say I view the brand favorably. I still have some of the moisture mask left, and I've transferred it to a little tub so I can have it should my face decide to be stupid again, and I am so psyched to get the clay mask. Two big wins from one brand? Not too shabby. We'll just pretend the moisturizing serum never happened...
Have you tried anything from Eve Lom? What did you think? What's your favorite emergency moisture solution?
