Indulging Your Skin This Christmas!
It’s Chriiiistmaaaas! (Apologies if you now have the dulcet tones of Noddy Holder in your head for the rest of the day, we’ve had him in ours for weeks now…) But annoying festive jingles aside, Christmas is a time for indulgence, especially after a year like 2020.
So what do you think of when you think of Christmas indulgence? Mince pies for breakfast? Enough roast potatoes to feed the street? More than enough bubbly and chocolates to feed the street? Or perhaps you’re more about indulgence in the gift giving department rather than what you’re eating and drinking.
Either way, have you given much thought to your skin? Our faithful companion, our skin keeps us protected from the elements all day, every day. So surely it deserves some kind of extravagance?
Some people certainly think so. And they’re taking the indulgence to the extreme! Throughout history to the present day, people have been using wacky, expensive and sometimes downright ridiculous things on their skin. So just for fun this week, here’s some of our faves…
Milk bath, anyone?
Made famous by Cleopatra, who was renowned for her beautiful skin, milk baths are still popular. Cleopatra is rumoured to have used donkey milk, infused with honey and lavender.
Not just an indulgence, milk is a rich source of lactic acid which is a type of alpha hydroxy acid, or AHA. AHAs encourage skin rejuvenation by gently exfoliating away dirt, grime and dead skin cells from the pores.
So Cleopatra really was onto something!
How about some arsenic? Or lead?
Back in the 18th Century, women wanted to have as pale a complexion as possible (clearly fake tan hadn’t been invented then). In order to do this, they turned to what any self respecting beauty addict would, erm, lead.
Mixed with vinegar (mmmm), they’d apply it to their faces to look flawless and to cover up their smallpox lesions. But as they slowly developed lead poisoning , they realised that the grey hair, extra dry skin, severe abdominal pain and constipation just wasn’t worth it.
So they turned to arsenic instead. Incredibly, arsenic was deemed much ‘safer’ than lead and had the same skin lightening effects. Unfortunately, arsenic also began slowly poisoning people, leading to the death of red blood cells (which did indeed lead to pale skin), baldness and eventual death.
Unbelievably, arsenic based skin care products hung around until the 1920s.
Vampire Facials
Kim Kardashian made the vampire facial famous a few years ago, and it really is as brutal as it sounds. In a nutshell, a doctor will take a blood sample, spin it in a centrifuge to separate the red blood cells from the platelet rich plasma (PRP). The PRP is then re-injected into your face, leaving your face looking bloody and raw.
The vampire, or PRP facial is said to minimise fine lines and wrinkles, even out skin tone and improve its texture.
An indulgence or not, the choice is yours!
Cashing in on Covid?
Perhaps the most incredible (read that as good incredible or bad incredible, it’s entirely up to you, we couldn’t possibly pass judgement…) skin indulgence is this face mask . No, not a face mask as in a relax in the bath face mask. But one that’s meant for wearing in public to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Made by a luxury jewellery designer (who employs immigrants from all over the world at his studio in Israel), the mask is made from, wait for it… 250 grams of 18k gold and 3,608 natural black and white diamonds equalling around 210 carats.
It’s a fully functioning face mask that complies with all the necessary regulations and was commissioned to help keep staff in work during the coronavirus pandemic. And at a whopping $1.5 million, we think it should certainly do that!
But, y’know, if you’re going to get maskne from wearing a face mask for long periods of time, you might as well make it a good one, eh?
The world’s most expensive face cream
How much do you spend on your moisturisers and other skin care products? Even if you go really high end, we’re willing to bet you probably don’t spend this much…
At an eye watering $1,550 (yep, that’s a four figure sum) the Guerlain Orchidée Impériale Cure Face Treatment promises to “accelerate the renewal cycle of your skin to leave you with a visibly younger-looking complexion in 28 days”.
We just hope it doesn’t actually make your eyes water.
(Oh, and the recommended treatment dose is to use this four week treatment twice a year. So that’ll be $3,100 please…)
The right skin care - the most indulgent treat for your skin?
Indulging your skin can of course mean doing all you can to look after it and keep it happy. Especially so if you have skin that experiences acne breakouts, sensitivities and general contrainess.
Our range of skin care products has your skin covered from gently cleansing, to day and time time hydrating, supporting, nourishing and soothing. Our hero ingredient is our blend of alkalising silica salts that work deep within the layers of your skin to support all its individual needs.
We have contrary, stressed out, acne prone skin ourselves, and we really struggled to find skin care products that supported our skin as well as feeling as if we weren’t just using medicated skin care designed for acne sufferers.
So annoyed were we at not being able to find skin care that suited us, we decided to indulge ourselves and make our own. The problem was, it was so good, we had to share it! And that’s how Sönd was born.
If you’re looking for the ultimate in skin loving, plant based, cruelty free, harsh ingredient free, indulgent skin care, then you’ve just found it. So go on, treat yourself! We might be indulgent, but our price tag isn’t. Start your new year on a high, in your best ever skin.
Sources:
https://www.thecut.com/2013/12/most-dangerous-beauty-through-the-ages.html
https://www.allure.com/story/kim-kardashian-west-regrets-vampire-facial