Ask any of my friends and family and they will tell you that I am absolutely obsessed with skin care! I feel like I have pretty much tried everything that is on the market these days (well, maybe not everything, but a lot!!) I have become obsessed with finding a brand or routine that suits my (non-perfect) skin perfectly, and after years of sampling hundreds of products, I am still on the hunt…….
Kiehl’s is one brand which I have been using on and off for years and they definitely have some incredible products (Midnight Recovery Concentrate is an obvious cult product), so when I heard that Cammie Cannella (Kiehl’s VP of global education and customer experience) was coming to Abu Dhabi to promote their latest product …….I was straight there!!
They put on a beautiful demonstration at Tryano in Yas Mall which looked like something from a movie set. They had cute little white ‘director’ chairs surrounded by pretty greenery and sunflowers. They were serving delicious cakes and cookies along with tasty juices…… already we were off to a great start!
The new product which they were there to promote is the Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream. Cammie began her presentation by explaining the background to Kiehl’s and its humble beginnings, which was nice and then she went on to describe the main ingredients which the company use in their products. She talked about the different factors which can be damaging to your skin and focused particularly on environmental conditions. This is especially important to those of us who live in Abu Dhabi where the atmosphere is hot, humid and dusty and we spend our time dashing between the blazing sun and air conditioned spaces (neither of which are good for our skin). Don’t get me wrong, I love the sun and I would find it almost impossible to live here without air conditioning, so neither of these factors are going to change for me. This is why it was great to hear about how I could use Kiehl’s products to help protect my skin instead.
Cammie explained that one of the main ingredients in their new Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream, is Manuka honey, which they have specially sourced from New Zeland. This particular high grade Manuka honey works to help improve skin’s resilience and is known in western medicine to have the highest polyphenol level of all honeys and can work to increase the skin’s ability to recover. Cammie noted that she got to visit the farms in New Zealand, where the honey is produced, which I thought was a lovely touch (………..what a cool job!).
Personal Consultation…….
After the presentation was over, we were invited for a consultation with the Kiehl’s staff to test our skin type and determine which products would work best for us. This is something that I have surprisingly never actually had done, but something that I have always wanted to do, so I jumped at the opportunity. I guess I have just never had it done because I always knew that I had dry to combination skin (……..or so I thought). One of the girls working there tested the level of oil in my skin (first on my forehead and then on my cheek) by using what I can only describe as little strips of paper. After this she used a ‘Dehydration Analyser Tool’ to measure how dehydrated my skin is. Using the results of both tests, we established (much to my surprise), that my skin is not ‘dry’ like I thought it was, but it is in fact ‘OILY’ and dehydrated!! The dehydrated part was not that much of a shock as I know I don’t drink enough water, but I was surprised to find out my skin was oily.
We went on to discuss the type of products I currently use on my skin and I informed her that I usually always opt for an oil cleanser as I find them comforting on my ‘dry’ skin and because they do an amazing job at removing makeup! The girl suggested that next time I opt for a gel cleanser instead just to see how my skin reacts to it……If you guys have any good suggestions please let me know…. But I will definitely find it hard to break from my oil cleansers. If you would like me to give an update on how I get on with this, please leave me a comment below.
Goodie Bag…….
Last but not least, the lovely staff gave everyone a complementary bag of Kielh’s goodies to try out. This contained:
- A very generous full size (75ml) Cilantro & Orange Extract Pollutant Defending Masque
- Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado (14ml)
- Calendula Herbal Extract Toner (40ml) – This is actually what they recommended for my particular skin type along with the matching cleanser.
- Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream (7m) – The star of the show.
If you would like a review on any of these products leave a comment below also.
I guess the main thing that I took from the event was how important it is to know your skin type. Then you can fully determine which ingredients will work best for you and which products you should use.