New Thing I Love

Y'all know how I have the oiliest skin in the land. Indeed, it's hardly genteel to shout this from the rooftops, but if I had a dollar for every Clean and Clear oil absorbing sheet I've applied to stem the problem, I could have 3-bedroom-with-a-view on Park Avenue. Yes, the kind with a concierge. :-)

You'd think, by the age of 38, I might have moved into less-greasy mode, and I suppose I have. It's just that less greasy by my standards still means "requiring large volume of loose powder" by yours. So I am shocked, and thrilled, to report a new product (really two new products) that have radically diminished the shine while improving the glow. (Could a line actually live up to its far-flung claims???)

Meet L'Occitane Brightening Renewing Serum:

(I got this on my excursion with Yulanda in early September. At the time, I thought I was high on drugs for spending $60.00 on something to "de-age" and "brighten" me. But I'm not proud. I bought it. And it really is firmalicious!)

It worked so delightfully - not to quell grease as much as to "firm" and "redefine" my "aging skin" - that I allowed (ok, asked) my mother to buy me the Immortelle Very Precious Fluid SPF 40.

Yes, I use sunscreen 40 and when my skin looks baby soft line-free at the age of 85, you can credit the SPF (or the fact that my sebaceous glands will have been basting my visage in grease for 8 and a half decades). But I will give it all up to the block. The only problem: it costs $56.00 CDN per ounce. Wait, let me sell you on the concept.

On entering the store, L'Occitane bombards you with these pretty "French Country"-esque flowers called fleurs immortelles. As in immortal, get? The "cool factor" (they quickly advise) is that the flowers have been out of water for months but they are still, like, flowery. And not so much dried flowers as flowers that are living sans water. Oooh. Contained within these little buds is the veritable secret of youth!! (They tell you this outright in case the metaphor didn't take.)

Immortelle fluid is the basis of both the Very Precious and the Renewing Serum. In fact, some people can't take the "volatility" of both products on a daily basis. Of course, I'm not one of them. Which is why I get to spend on both. But the benefits are also two-fold. (OK, I made that part up.)

This is the fantastically weird claim which appears to be true: If you've got oily skin, the SPF40 version of the Very Precious - as opposed to the less expensive SPF 15 version - is the indicated formula.

You know how usually when you have greasy skin, the higher the block, the more like a basted turkey you look by the end of the day? And the more likely you are to breakout and feel bad about being some almost-40-year-old with zits? Well, mysteriously, the 40 works better than the 15 to mattify and calm the oil glands?!?! Now, not having tried the 15 I cannot corroborate that it wouldn't do as well, but the 40 is pure awesome on this account. So awesome I intend to continue spending $56.00 for the foreseeable future.

Has anybody out there tried this line? If yes, I'd love to know if you concur with my assessment.