The secret to a youthful-looking complexion? According to this French brand, it’s ditching the stress and using its new luxurious anti-ageing cream. JO UPCRAFT reports from Phuket.
The secret to a youthful-looking complexion? According to this French brand, it’s ditching the stress and using its new luxurious anti-ageing cream. JO UPCRAFT reports from Phuket.
“Stop worrying, stop thinking...” says my yoga teacher Pan in a soothing voice. I cast her a cynical side-eye as she instructs our group to “listen to the wind in the palm trees, inhale the fresh aroma of frangipani and feel the warm shards of sunlight” hitting our bodies.
I try to do what Pan says, but how can I stop worrying? There’re so many things weighing on my mind: Did I turn the oven off before I left for this trip? Did I accidentally off end a coworker yesterday? And can my group members see my underwear through the yoga leggings I’m wearing now?
As for not thinking, that’s not happening either. How could I, when I’ve got a farewell party to arrange, my sister’s birthday present to shop for and a lot of information pertaining to Sisley Sisleya L’integral Anti-age – the brand’s new face cream – to digest?
Which brings me to my next point. The only reason I’m in the Downward Dog pose at Amanpuri resort in Phuket at 7am is because this class led by Pan is part of Sisley’s plan to prove what it has spent the last 10 years working to confirm: that stress directly affects how fast the skin ages. And, judging by Pan’s super-chill aura, her bendy body and her line-free face – did I mention she’s in her 60s? – it seems like the brand’s claim has a ring of truth to it.
We already know that pollution, smoking and excessive sun exposure damage the skin. Now, through the investigative field of behavioural ageing, the scientists at Sisley have discovered that general angst, too, marks our faces – more so than even genetic and environmental factors.
Jose Ginestar, scientific director at Sisley, elaborates: Stress can, among other things, negatively impact your diet, exercise routine and sleep, all of which can disrupt the life cycle of the cells in the body, adversely affecting cellular growth, repair and renewal. What results is the premature ageing of the skin, with wrinkles, fine lines, sagginess, dullness and sallowness rearing their ugly heads.
The brand thus advocates a slower-paced lifestyle to maintain a youthful mien – along with the use of its new Sisleya L’integral Anti-age cream, of course.
The cream, which smells of lavender and marjoram, is heralded as the brand’s most significant skincare breakthrough to date and claims to tackle all signs of ageing at once. This it does with the 50 active ingredients packed into its formula, including Persian acacia and lindera extracts, said to increase cellular energy and promote skin cell renewal respectively, and a yeast-and-soya-protein complex that reportedly works on extending the lifespan of skin cells.
It is designed, too, to suit every skin type (including male skin) and is available in two textures: Sisleya L’integral Anti-age, a light cream with a silky texture, and Sisleya L’integral Anti-age Extra-rich, a richer formulation for dry to very dry skin.
Taking up the brand’s suggestion, I indulge in everything that makes me happy while in Phuket – being by the ocean, keeping to a fresh and nutritious diet, exercising, reading and being pampered – and use its new cream every morning (after yoga) and evening (after a soothing bath).
After three days, I’m so laid-back, I start worrying that I’ve stopped worrying and thinking altogether. But, seeing as how my face now boasts less obvious fine lines and wrinkles, and has a dewy plumpness that takes years off my look, I decide that that’s not a bad thing after all – and put all my unease to rest.
