The Beauty Sleuth

There has been a lot of chatter recently about facial oils and whether or not they are effective for everyone. When I canvased a few people about their thoughts on using an oil as moisturizer or treatment, the responses were pretty typical of what you might expect. ” Won’t that make my skin breakout?”, “I have oily skin, I would NEVER us an oil on it!” and so on. I had shared the same attitude myself, because I do have a tendency toward oilier skin and the thought of adding more oil just seemed wrong to me. There are several brands out there touting the advantages of using treatment oils to improve texture, hydration and even help with skin conditions such as Rosacea or Eczema. That said, I do have to admit that I am not a treatment oil novice and while I could recall clearly some of the reasons I hesitated when it came time to put an oil on my face, I had forgotten what the perks were. Many years ago, I used Clarins Lotus Oil for a time. Lotus oil was developed specifically for oilier skin and I found that while it felt counter intuitive to use an oil on oily skin, the result were balanced, oil-controlled,hydrated skin. So when I had the opportunity to test drive a new skin oil from NUDE Skincare, I felt it was time to re-visit the benefits of using beauty oils again.

In the past I never used a facial oil during the day, simply because my makeup wouldn’t last the day if I did. And as part of my evening ritual, when at the crossroads of choosing oil over lotion, I always skipped a beat before deciding whether to really go there or not. I had to think about what events may or may not be on for the following day —”Would it make my eyes puffy?” “Would I have time to wash my hair if it got oily?” “Would it make me oily all day long?” and so on…You can hear the inner dialogue, right? I am sure if you have ever tried beauty oils yourself, you have perhaps had a few of your own inner convos!

First impressions on Nude ProGenius treatment oil was good— the subtle scent was not over powering at all ( one of my pet peeves with Clarins Lotus Oil ) and is it a very fine consistency. The brands literature says it contains a healthy dose of Omegas 3,6,7 and 9 to nourish the skin and when you think about why we take a a balancing diet of Omegas in the first place, applying externally makes a lot of sense to help keep your skin healthy. This oil is designed for all skin types and the brand has several usage suggestions. As a moisturizer on its own or with a favorite moisturizer by adding a drop or two or as a primer for foundation. For my purposes, I test drove as suggested and found the results were really good overall.

I began my road-test by integrating it with my night time regimen ( I am a huge Epicuren fan ) After cleansing and toning and Pocket Spa hydro therapy, I used two drops of oil all over my face and neck. A little goes a long way so, which is good because this oil isn’t cheap, clocking in at $78 bucks for a 1oz. bottle—You’ll definitely not want to use more than you need. It absorbed fairly quickly and over a course of about three weeks, I did see a noticeably dewier skin quality, without excess oiliness. On several of my test applications, I added a few drops to my Epicuren moisturizer for an extra moisture boost. This made my skin feel really great the following day and I found that when the weather was changing a lot or I was traveling ( at which time my skin tends to be a bit hyper-active; vacillating between excessive oil production or moisture drought!) this was a great way of keeping my skin in good shape and well balanced. Of course the real test came during daytime application. I began by integrating ProGenius slowly, using after my daytime cleanse ritual. I used a single drop mixed with my moisturizer and as with my evening skincare program, I never go without a round or two of Pocket Spa-ing, simply because I find it helps deliver any product deeper into my skin. My skin did not feel oily, in fact after about a half hour, it felt supple and smooth and had a nice sheen. This was a good sign for sure. I continued to use the product this way for about a week or so and would say for me personally there was only one drawback. If you have issue with mascara drooping from your upper to your lower lids, then you will need to be mindful not to get this product to close to your eye/cheek area. Often because I have high cheekbones and long lashes, I am constantly monitoring what I put around my eyes or I’ll end up looking like someone punched me by mid-day! As a primer for my foundation, ( I use Beauty is Life concealer and Tarte clay powder foundation) it was pretty good for all areas, except around the eyes. I use waterproof mascara and when I used the Pro Genius too close to my upper cheek area, it seemed to dissolve some of my eye makeup by mid-day. I alleviated this by avoiding that part of my face all together and stuck to using my usual eye cream there. The end result was luminous looking skin without compromising my eye makeup.

All in all, I would give Nude ProGenius an 8.9 for my test drive. While it did hydrate and give my skin a dewy quality, I could not use it anywhere near my eye areas during day time use. With that, I will limit using this oil to my evening skincare program. The pluses? Waking up to lusciously hydrated skin is always a fantastic mood booster!

Nude ProGenius is $78.00 and available at:

www.nudeskincare.com