My skin-care aim in life is to pare everything down to two products, one in the morning and one in the evening. And I think I’ve cracked it. I will never be parted from Skinceuticals C E Ferulic in the daytime, though I am so paranoid about dark spots that I don’t use it in high summer (at the time of writing we haven’t even had high spring). But that’s just me—you will be fine with it provided you are religious about applying sunscreen. And in the evening, devoted as I am to a good retinol, my potion of choice for the past four months has been Drunk Elephant Bouncy Brightfacial Masque Illuminateur.
This got rave reviews everywhere when it was launched, but I didn’t try it because I assumed from the name that it was some kind of mask. In fact it is a nightly treatment, one that contains salicylic acid and, much more interestingly, azelaic acid. This is quite a powerful combo, by the way, so get a sample first if you have sensitive skin. Anyway: azelaic acid is fantastic on oilier skins. As well as providing a little light resurfacing, it is marvelous at keeping pores free of clogs. It is also a powerful antioxidant.
Cumulative use of this product has had an extraordinary effect on the tone of my skin (I have an oily T-zone but I apply it all over). I wake up and everything is smooth and velvety and, unusually for me, completely matte, even down the sides of my nose. This uncustomary mattness is what made me sit up and take notice. Prolonged use nightly—and, as I say, it has been months now—has resulted in visibly improved evenness across my whole face. It used to be perfectly normal for me to wake up with random and inexplicable redness somewhere, like a small allergic reaction (but not) or with a patch of skin that had suddenly become mysteriously dry overnight. But all that’s in the past.
My skin has never felt, or looked, more comfortable. I’ll still use foundation if I have to glam up, but the rest of the time I use a pea-sized amount of tinted moisturizer (or BB or CC cream) and that is plenty. All the bits of uneven skin that I felt I had to conceal with product now no longer need concealing, unless they’re eye bags. It’s quite a result, isn’t it, from one little bottle of something with a silly name?
But that’s not all. I have some historical brown spots, from a lifetime spent either ignoring admonitions about sunscreen or applying it in the morning and never topping it up. Bouncy Brightfacial has not got rid of them, but I am convinced that it has stopped new ones appearing. This isn’t as fanciful as it sounds because azelaic acid sort of zaps emerging pigmentation issues before they make it to the top layer of the skin. It’s basically an unsung hero. I’ve barely got space to mention the exfoliating effect, so I’ll just say that if you have oily or even acne-prone skin, it gives AHAs and BHAs a run for their money. Also I don’t use moisturizer on top; just this. It’s perfect.
India Knight is a U.K.-based journalist and the author of India Knight’s Beauty Edit: What Works When You’re Older
