Karin Herzog "Oxygen Face" Face Cream

Karin Herzog is a well-known Swiss brand which built its reputation by its works with active oxygen. The secret patent on which the whole range is based allows the oxygen to be stabilized into an emulsion, and when applied onto the skin, the oxygen gets gas form and gets injected into the skin.

One of their main products is the Oxygen Face face cream, which is part of the Oxygen cream. It is designed for problematic skin, but it is also fine for normal skin. Oxygen is a natural antiseptic, which makes it great to clean the skin. It also contains salicylic acid, which is a essential ingredient to brighten the skin. The cream is also oil-free, so it can't clog the skin.

Karin Herzog Oxygen Face

It is a little different from a normal face cream. You don't make it melt onto the skin : you apply it, while minimising the contact between the cream and the fingers, to avoid the cream to melt into them. You then wait for it to act, without massaging it.

It can delay a little your beauty routine on the morning, because you have to wait around five to ten minutes before it has completely gone onto the skin, but it is worth it. It really helps balancing the skin. It is also soft enough to be applied on the eyes. 

I find this cream quite efficient. I personally don't use it every day, because it is a little too heavy for a daily use, but on week-ends, when giving the skin a full facial, it is really efficient and nice to use.

It is quite expensive (49 euros), but you really don't need to use a lot of product. I have been using my tube for almost six months now and it is still half full.

Pâte Grise, by Payot

The Pâte Grise – "grey paste" – by Payot is one of these cult beauty products that hardly need any introduction in France, and seems to keep its excellent reputation only through word of mouth generation after generation. I can’t remember having seen any ad for this particular product – ever – and yet it is a cult product unlikely to be dethroned.

Its goal is quite simple : getting rid of spots before they appear. So, when you feel one of these nasty buggers under your skin, you put a good dab of Pâte Grise on it, go to sleep with it, and in the morning, it will have work its magic and the spot will be gone.

It is certainly a wonderful, life-saving product. Simple, isn’t it?

Actually, it is not that simple. Pâte Grise is very efficient, but it is not intended as a remedy against, acne, for instance. For it to keep being useful, it can’t be used every day. It is very useful, but is the skin gets used to it, it won’t keep being that efficient. Moreover, it has to be used at the very beginning of a breakout, not when it is already there. If you use it on a already grown spot, all it will do is either reduce it a little, ot make it grow faster. It helps getting rid of it faster, of course, but if you have a special occasion the next morning... careful.

It can get on your bedsheets, so don’t use fancy ones – although it drycleaning will get rid of it.

Still, even with the extra care you have to take when using it, it is a great product, extremely efficient. It doesn’t dry the skin, which is fantastic, and it gets the job done.

Liquid Gold, by Alpha-H

Liquid Gold is one of the most famous products in the cosmetic industry, brought to you by the Australian brand Alpha-H.
They have a whole range of products made with glycolic acid – the secret of this « liquid gold », but I yet had to talk about the star of the line.

Liquid Gold is a product that presents itself as a serum : you put it on a cotton pad and you apply for the night on your skin, but it differs from a serum in one main aspect : you don’t need to use another product when you have it on. No need for a night cream, or a moisturizer, for it works as all of these.

The glycolic acid which is in Liquid Gold tingles when you apply it – although after several months of use, I have to say that my skin must get used to it, because it doesn’t tingle like it used to, and sometimes not at all. This sensation is normal : the product is very concentrated and it means it is working. During the night, it will keep the skin hydrated, and it quickens the renewal of skin cells. In the morning, the skin is tighter and brighter. Liquid Gold is a very good anti-aging product, it also works very well against acne and acne scars.


Since it is a very concentrated product, you don’t need to apply it every night. Every other night is fine, or even less frequently if you prefer to. The results are flabbergasting both on the long run and after one use.

The only complaint I would have with this product is its price. It is quite expensive and you run out of it rather quickly. I use the 100ml container in two or three months – so, not that quickly, but since it became a crucial part of my beauty routine, I find myself reordering it quite frequently.

"Oh my Cream!" - Cosmetic store in Paris

This article is for Parisians who have trouble finding their favourite cosmetics from abroad outside of the Internet.

I discovered a wonderful little concept store in the rue de Tournon, in Paris. Oh My Cream is an online store created by a French beauty-addict tired of seeing the same old products everywhere. The online store now is a real store and beauty institute. 

You can find a lot of brands that you can't find in France otherwise, like Alpha-H, Tata Harper, Aurelia, Ren... 

It is really cosy and welcoming, and the people are very nice. I have bought some products there and was always very well received and advised. 

It is really great to find your essentials in a shop when you are tired of ordering them online, and to discover new ones.

Find them at 3 rue de Tournon, 75006 Paris, or here, or on Facebook.

Alpha-H Liquid Gold Perfecting Mask

I love the Australian brand Alpha-H. Although it is not the most glamorous brand with their white  and no-nonsense packaging, their products are very efficient and do everything they promised.

They Liquid Gold line is especially efficient. I will review the Liquid Gold in due time, but this mask is really great on its own. 

Liquid Gold Smoothing and Perfecting Mask with Lavender

This mask is designed to clarify and brighten the skin. It also makes for a quick chemical exfoliant. The lavender helps to soothes the skin. As with all of their products, it is very concentrated. This mask is concentrated in glycolic acid (one of the AHAs acids), so you feel a mild tingling sensation when you apply it. Ten minutes one the skin are also enough.

I find that it really helps for a quick efficient treatment when you need to unify and brighten your skin on the spot. It really does the trick. It is also a good treatment on the long run, and you don't need that much product for every use so you don't run out of product very quickly. As for all the AHAs products, they are good against imperfections, adult acne and aging.

It really is a good reliable mask. 

It costs 46£ for a 100ml bottle.

What you didn't know you needed to get rid of acne

Acne is a really tricky condition. Although it is very common (between 80 and 90% of teenagers suffer from it at one point or another), it is not that well understood or treated, because it has very different forms and can occur for various reasons that are not always clear.

Let's start from the beginning.

Acne develops as a result of blockages in the pores by sebum. Sebum is vital to keep the skin supple, but when it is produced in excess, it can block the hair follicle and create a comedo. 
There is two kinds of comedo : whiteheads and blackheads. They are basically the same, except a whitehead is trapped behind the skin when a blackhead isn't. Depending on the severity of the acne, you can also get nodules, which are solid elevations of the skin with no visible fluid. When scratched, they can get infected.

Acne comes from the excess production of sebum. Contrary to some beliefs, acne does not come from poor hygiene. You can be the cleanest person on earth and still get acne. This excess production of sebum generally comes from hormonal activity - hence the apparition of acne during puberty. It can also be genetic, or stress-linked. It can also be a consequence of a diet - but more on than later, because this is a controversial topic.
Because the causes of acne are varied, you can get acne at every point of your life. For a lot of people, it will clear out after puberty. But you can still get acne later in your life, should it be from a change in your hormonal activity, or an increased stress-level, or a pregnancy. Infortunately, you are never too old for acne and it can point its head when you least expect it.


With this little summary, let's talk treatment.

To get rid of acne, you will need :

A dermatologist

The first thing to do is go see a specialist. Even if you have to most common form of acne and the least severe, you should go see someone. Getting informed on your own is essential, of course, but the first step to informe yourself is to get the opinion of a specialist. If you don't have the money or can't go see a specialist, a GP will suffice.

I will take this opportunity to repeat that I am not a doctor, and that this post just countains general knowledge about acne that I gained from personal research. It is by no mean a tool to diagnose yourself. I will not advise any medical treatment for acne, although they are numerous and the first thing you should try before cosmetics. Only a specialist can give them to you.

It doesn't matter how young (or old) you are, you should go see a dermatologist, and the sooner the better. There is no shame in having acne. If the treatment s/he gave you didn't work, go back and tell him so.

Medical treatments are varied. They can go from topical creams, to antibiotics, to hormonal treatments, to vitamins. I will not discuss them here, because I do not have the slightest qualification for this. 

I will however say that they are not magic potions, and if one of them don't work, you should go back to your doctor and discuss a change in your treatment.

A good hygiene

Although acne doesn't come from poor hygiene, it can be managed with a beauty routine which keep the skin clean. It can avoid or decrease the risk of inflammatory acne, especially since the skin is vulnerable to infections because of the spots. This is why you should always clean your hands before touching your skin. This is also why going to bed with make-up is absolutely wrong.

When you have acne-prone skin, it can be really tempting to overwash your face, because the oilyness makes it seem like it is dirty. It is not, and overwashing your face actually worsen the problem. So you have to find a way to keep the skin perfectly clean without washing it with agressive soaps or treatments. It has to be clean, because if it isn't, there is no way any product will penetrate the skin.

The first thing is to get a cleanser designed for acne-prone skins. I would recommand La Roche-Posay Effaclear Purifying Foaming Gel for Oily Sensitive Skin. It is a really efficient and respectful product. It really cleans it well, without attacking it. 

Effaclear Purifying Foaming Gel by La Roche-Posay

The Balancing Cleanser with Aloe Vera by Alpha-H is also great, but more expensive. 

Kiehl's makes a good cleanser too : Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser. It is a little exfoliating, so you don't need to use it every day for it to be effective. It does a good job at purifying the skin. 

Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser with Amazonian White Clay by Kiehl's

If you have a lot of money, there is always the Eve Lom Cleanser, best cleanser in the world. A cult product which comes in a pot and leaves the skin radiant.

Generally, I find that products that come in oil (like Shu Uemura Skin Purifier, a wonderful product but unfortunately unfitted for my skin) are not right for acne-prone skin, because they have a tendancy to clog the skin. 

Cleansing Beauty Oil Premium A/l by the wonderful brand Shu Uemura

As for the products that are very foamy, like The Body Shop Foaming Cleanser, they tend to dry it. So, careful with this product, it is not for a daily use.

Teat Tree Skin Clearing Foaming Cleanser

You might think that drying your skin will balance it, because acne come from to much sebum, but you will actually make it create more sebum to compensate. Drying products are bad for acne-prone skins (except for medical treatments ; some of them really dry the skin, but it is intended. A good rule, on your own, is to avoid drying or agressive products).

Milky makeup removers are a little tricky. The thing is, it is not recommended to leave them on the skin, even if the bottle says you don't have to rinse it. I got this trick from my beauty therapist. It can be comedogenic after a while, so be careful with these cleansers. Generally, always take the ones intended for combination, oily and sensitive skin. If you absolutely prefer milky makeup removers, I find that ultra-mild cleansers for babies are really effective.

When you have used your cleanser, to make sure your skin will be completely clean, you can use a micelle solution designed for your type of skin. The best micelle solution I found is Bioderma Sébium H2O for Combination or Oily Skin. It is really soft, but really efficient. You can also use it durig the day when you think your skin gets a little oily, or in the morning after waking up, it is really refreshing.

Bioderma Micelle Solution for Combination and Oily Skin

A good hygiene will help manage acne and will get your skin ready so the products can act.

Products that respect your skin and work for you

Unfortunately, acne-prone skins are really sensitive to all kinds of things, and a product that doesn't do anything in one person will trigger a breakout in the next. It is really difficult to say what your skin will bear and what it won't ; you just have to try and see. 

For a daily routine

An acne-prone skin is still a skin with the same basic needs as the others. So, always moisturize. You just have to find a light moisturizer which will work well without drowning your skin.

Alpha-H Hydrator Gel does a good job and is especially fitted for oily skins.

Alpha-H Clear Skin Daily Hydrator Gel with Eucalyptus

Nuxe "Crème Prodigieuse" is also very respectful of the skin, and leaves it soft and well hydrated.

Karin Herzog is a very good but expensive brand. Their moisturizer, Oxygen Face, can be used with oily skin, it balances it. You apply it on the skin and let it work. It is a little heavy for a daily use, I find, so I generally only use it on week-ends.

A really great moisturizer. Karin Herzoh makes wonderful products, and is one of the favourite skincare lines of Kate Middleton - and she certainly has great skin!

If you don't know where to start, brands like La Roche-Posay, Avene or what you will find in your pharmacy are generally good quality products and they will not attack the skin.

It can be difficult to find efficient and respectful makeup, but with experience, you will know what products are comedogenic on your skin. 

In general, it is a good rule not to cover your face with powders, or oil-based products, or rich creams. Powders can be okay if they are dermatologically tested. I find that the Bare Minerals are really respectful and generally don't trigger any kind of breakout. The cheaper brand by Sephora is also fine. Most others do, however. 

Bare Mineral MATTE Foundation with SPF 15 - Fairly Light

It is extremely important to find these products that will work just well with your skin, because the comedogenic products are more efficient at triggering breakouts than the anti-acneic products are at eliminating them. 

For other skincare products

There are all kinds of products on the market that claim to treat acne : masks, serums, exfoliants... Here is what I have gathered from my research.

- Do not exfoliate that much. Or at all, actually. If you absolutely have to, do it with a soft exfoliant, and not more than once a week. The softest I found is the Exfoliating Gel with organic angelica water and essential oil by L'Occitane. It is really pleasing to use, the texture isn't aggressive. 

Exfoliating Gel by L'Occitane en Provence

But in general, for acne-prone skin, chemical exfoliating products are really better against spots.

The best one I ever tried is Liquid Gold by Alpha-H. It is glycolic acid in a bottle : you use it every other night alone on the skin. It really does wonder against breakouts, acne scars and wrinkles. Really, really effective to give the skin a clearer and plumper look. 

- Masks are not magic treatments. They don't clear out the skin in one evening, but they can help, purify it if you use them well. Open your pores with hot water in a bowl and a cloth over your head, apply the mask and let it really work. Take it off with a hot cloth or warm water. Use it once a week ; more, and they tend to dry the skin.

- The secret overnight treatment : Payot "Pâte grise". With acne, there are no magical treatments. Except this one. You apply a little bit of the paste on the spot that starts developping and keep it there during the night. It is not supposed to penetrate onto the skin. It really helps reducing spots.

Pâte Grise by Payot

Keep things simple

I believe Eve Lom when she says we are doing far too much for our skin and the skin doesn't like it. It stops functionning properly. 

When you have acne, it can be really tempting to use a whole lot of products on your skin and hope they will work. It is good to let the skin breathe and work by itself sometime. 

As a rule, it is not a good idea to drown the skin with lots of products. Acne-prone skin is very sensitive, and you don't want to attack it, you want to balance it gently, not attack it to change its nature.

Cleanse, moisturize and treat. You don't need that much more. Keep things simple.

Money (but not that much)

Acne requires money, unfortunately. Visits to the doctor, trials of products... : it can quickly add up. 

The good news is, you don't have to ruin yourself to treat acne. A lot of products can be found with a budget : stick with the ones you find in your pharmacy, they are generally between 10 and 20 euros, and will last several months.

Avoid fancy make-up which promise the moon and keep things simple on your skin. Get freaky with the eyes and the mouth if you absolutely have to.

Self control

Don't pick your skin. Just don't. It will worsen your acne, while leaving your skin scarred.

Patience

This is probably the most important item in my little list. When you go to the dermatologist, and get out with a prescription, or when you buy really good products, you are under the impression that your acne will clear out for good with one product.

Actually, it never works this way. Acne takes time to clear out. Even with the most effective products, you generally see the effects after weeks of using them. It is actually quite logical, because acne comes from an unbalanced skin, and you want to balance it again. It can't happen overnight.

Managing it takes time. The time to try a product which happen to be inefficient, or to worsen your condition, to try another one and see if it works... The time to find that one product which used to work doesn't anymore, and you ave to find a replacement.The time to understand why your acne came back, what changed in your life to make it reappear... 

Patience is the key. It is hard, but necessary. With a good beauty routine, products you can trust and a good knowledge of yourself and your skin, it does get better, eventually.

Good luck!

Eve Lom Rescue Mask

Eve Lom is one of the most efficient and well-known brand for facial products. I discovered it just recently because it is not distributed in France, where I live. I have to order it online, but it is quite worth it.

Eve Lom is the brand that gave us the "World's Best Cleanser", according to Vogue, and is recognised as the Queen of Cleansing. This mask is a emergency treatment for tired and stressed skin. It is made with Camphor, Almond and Honey-infused Kaolin Clay.

Eve Lom Rescue Mask, 35£ for 50 ml

It is really efficient when you have a puffy skin or when it is prone to redness.

I have two beauty tips with this particular mask :

As a regular mask

I prefer to use it after I prepared my face with hot water steam mixed with essential oil (lavander or tea tree, depending on my mood). For even more efficiency, I put a cloth on it, and leave it for fifteen to twenty minutes. It creates a slight tingling sensation when you are applying it. The smell is quite fresh, I rather like it. It is a really dense mask, so you don't use the tube too quickly.

As an eye treatment

If you mix a little bit of the product with some warm water and apply it under your eyes for no more than five minutes, it really decreases puffiness and dark circles.

Kusmi Tea BB Detox

As I am obsessed with every new product who might improve the skin and as I just love Kusmi teas, I had to try this one!

It is a new tea from the range of Detox by Kusmi. It is a blend of green tea, maté, roobois, guarana and dandelion. Green tea, rooibois and maté are proved to have antioxydant and anticarcinogen effects. It also helps reducing cholesterols levels. Rooibos helps with nervous tension, and dandelion reduces the risk of infections.

All in all, it is quite tasty for a detox tea and very good to drink. I am quite skeptical regarding any direct effect of this tea on the skin, but since the ingredients are all very healthy, it really can't harm. I think the effects on the skin might be increased by a general diet.

Anyway, as every tea Kusmi does, it is a very good tea, and with all its claims, as soothing on the tongue as on the conscience.

"Crème Prodigieuse" Moisturizing Cream by Nuxe

I want to present one of the best creams I ever tried. Nuxe is a wonderful brand with very efficient, luxurious feeling products, although not overpriced. They are very pleasing to apply, with wonderful smells and textures, and this one doesn't disappoint.

The Crème Prodigieuse, which loosely translates to "Miraculous Cream" is an anti-aging, anti-oxidant and anti-akin stress moisturizer. It is designed to suit normal to combination skin, whoch makes it a perfect match for me. This cream really balances and calms the skin.

One of my all time favourites !

Contray to a lot of products aimed at combination skins, this one manages to be efficient, light and very  pleasing to apply. The smell is incredible, and although the cream blends very easily, you kind of have the feeling of applying a rich and luxurious texture onto your skin. It is a very nice change from the medical feeling you get from a lot of creams designed to help balancing the skin.


I find it does a very good job at calming redness and puffiness. It also helped me get rid of breakouts in time of stress.

I used it for a whole year daily and now I use it every other day now because, like every cream you use too often, the skin gets used to it and the cream loses its efficiency. I alternate it with Alpha-H Clear Skin Hydrator Gel, and while this one is a very good product, I always am very happy to go back to the Crème Prodigieuse as this is one of the most wonderful product I ever tried.

It is 22,3€ and a tube stays for two or three-months in average.

Din Beauty Night Cream with Hyaluronic Acid

Din Beauty is a new brand that I discovered in The Green Stil, a beauty box specialised in organic cosmetics. It is a brand of eco-friendly products, with a multicultural backgournd. The founders aim at joining the wisdoms of East and West to create a brand of organic and respectful cosmetics.

Night Cream by Din Beauty

I got this Night Cream some time ago, and tried it by curiosity. I don't use night cream because my skin generally doesn't tolerate it, I prefer using Liquid Gold every other night. But this one I was quite surprised with.

It has hyaluronic acid in it, which is used in cosmetic surgery to fill soft tissue defects, such as wrinkles or acne scars. The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) cleared it for its uses in cosmetics in 2003. It is also very used in a medical context.

So, now to the actual cream! The packaging is very simple, not the most attractive, but I don't really mind that. The cream is odorless and melts easily with the skin. It is actually very light, it didn't trigger a breakthough during the night, which is rare with my skin. It really lets it breathe, which I was quite surprised about, since it has shea butter in it. Shea butter is really good for the skin, but my I generally can't even put it on my face without triggering all kind of problems. With tbis cream, on the morning, my skin was definitely plumper, softer and clearer. It is also an anti-aging cream, which are mostly preventative of wrinkles, so I think I might consider using this cream more regularly from now on.

UPDATE : I have used this cream every other night for a month now, alternating with Liquid Glod by Alpha-H and it is really a great cream. Every morning, the skin is plumpier, softer and it gets rids of very redness and flaw. After several weeks, it really helps make the skin look well-rested, plump and glowing.

You can find it on line, and it comes at 16,90€ for 50ml, so it is quite a good price, especially since you don't need that much product every time.

I will definitely keep an eye on this very promising new brand.