A year of Lockdown with no financial support left me more In The Red than I’ve ever been in my life. I needed something to get me feeling back in the pink, and my recent Caudalíe Facial at the French Pharmacy was the very thing.
Why Caudalíe? And why The French Pharmacy?
With Margot and I each in need of specific items of skincare, there was only one place to go:
The French Pharmacy – our new favourite #DestinationShop
Regular readers will know how deeply I mourn my favourite Beauty Retailers, who fell beneath the blunt axe of Landlords’ Greed: The Garden Pharmacy and BeautyMART. John Bell & Croyden survives, but with a multi-million pound facelift that robbed it of its unique charm. Without an expert retailer offering a wide range of brands to visit, I’d started spending all my disposable income on fashion, rather than beauty.
But then Margot and I met the founder of The French Pharmacy, Dr Marine Vincent at a Gallinée event in 2019.
Dr Marine’s two shops (the original French Pharmacy is in Clapham, the second opened last year in Marylebone) are now our favourite destinations when it’s time to shop for Beauty. I have yet to enter a traditional French pharmacy and come out with any regrets, and with a French pharmacy brand, I am pretty well guaranteed bang for buck, or more accurately, frisson for franc.
The French Pharmacy have the French Facialist (naturellement, oui?) working in the pretty and well-equipped treatment area downstairs. The services available include treatments using French brands Decleor and Caudalíe. On the day that we visited, Dr Marine informed us that there was a Caudalie promotional event coming up at The French Pharmacy the following week, with Caudalíe visiting to deliver a signature facial and showcase new products.
How do we love thee, Caudalíe? We cannot count the ways!
Margot and I are both longtime admirers and purchasers of Caudalíe. We were delighted to defer our skincare purchases, have our skin assessed and treated, and then choose our latest skincare purchases from the Caudalíe stable. This would mean two visits to the French Pharmacy in a week, and no-one who knows either of us will be surprised to hear that we viewed that not as an inconvenience, but as a win-double!
If you can arrange it, having a facial before investing in new skincare will make the experience more pleasurable, more informed and give you better value.
A facial from an excellent practitioner, using products that smell absolutely heavenly, with massage and application techniques that you yourself either don’t know how to do, or are too lazy to do, is absolute bliss!
You can research at home all you like, but despite all that mugging up and swotting, there is one area where ‘book learning’ or internet-delving can’t really help you.
It’s a simple truth that one can grow terribly accustomed to one’s dear old face, and become either absolutely blind to changes that are occurring in it, or hyper-conscious of things that aren’t actually happening!
So having your skin assessed by an impartial expert (especially one armed with an interesting little machine that can have a look below the surface) is invaluable in alerting you to any biases, false assumptions and tunnel vision that could lead to you make poor purchases.
Information + Relaxation = Greater Value
This next bit is important: I view the terms ‘complimentary’ and ‘redeemable against purchase’ as effectively interchangeable. (And because I view these terms as interchangeable I can’t actually remember which of the two terms applied to this Caudalíe promotion, but rest assured, one of them did.)
Margot and I booked our Caudalíe facial treatments to follow one another. Our lovely practitioner was happy for each of us to remain in the room, watching the other’s treatment take place. If you can do this with a pal, it increases the information yield because one of you watches what the therapist is doing and picks up new tips and tricks, whilst the one on the couch can completely relax and bliss out. Then you can compare notes afterwards.
The Caudalíe Facial
The Caudalíe Express facial is designed to deliver immediate radiance, and the centrepiece for both of us was a mask application. Skin is cleansed, and according to specific needs, receives either gommage or exfoliation, and a massage followed by an application of appropriate serums/oils/moisturising cream.
The Consultation
Questions for us about age, allergy, concerns and preferences, and then a very interesting look at our skin photographed, magnified, and assessed against specific markers. I was quite surprised by the technical assessment and very pleased I’d had one before plunging ahead buying what I thought I needed.
My lifelong dislike of water (if not mixed with tea, coffee or alcohol) has meant that any professional that has ever looked at my skin has delivered the unsurprising news that it is dehydrated. I’d sensed a recent change in texture, but had put this down to the effect of a particular wonder product, and ageing. I seemed to be less oily in the T-zone, and drier around the jaw. But it turns out, I’m not dehydrated any more!
This was a big shock and after a moment of reeling at the news I figured out that it’s probably because I routinely eat a few pieces of fruit a day now. Before lockdown, I viewed fruit as an ingredient in yoghurt, ice cream, cake and jam, but not as a thing to eat on its own. Way To Go, new healthy me.
The only area of slight concern for me was Sensitivity, but that was a very slight concern, and I scored very highly on Melanin with hardly any sun damage.
We agreed that the focus of the facial would be on the Vinosource-Hydra range: I like light textures and a lot of moisture, and I’d had my eye on those pink jars and tubes from the moment I’d walked into the therapy room.
The Caudalíe Products I Purchased (and the one that I didn’t, but that I will buy soon)
That mask. Oh my God, that mask. Margot and I both adored that mask. The Vinosource-Hydra Moisturising Mask is cooling and soothing with a refreshing floral scent that is stimulating and uplifting but not over-powering. A perfect wake-up/ or wind-down product – especially since you can apply it in a thin layer at night and sleep in it!
However, I haven’t invested in it yet because I’m crediting a previous French Pharmacy purchase (the La Rosée – 3 in 1 Regenerating Stick Mask) with taming my T-Zone (which is now less oily and more aligned with the rest of my face), and I’d like to use more of that up before taking the Caudalíe one home to be my new best friend.
There were two products I needed to buy: a moisturising cream and a facial oil. I like to use a soft, fresh cream every morning, and a night cream, heavier cream, or facial oil at night. The texture of the Caudalíe Vinosource-Hydra Grape Water Gel Moisturiser is exactly the kind of thing I like: light and fresh, and with an exuberant, bouncy air about it.
I needed to buy a new facial oil, as this is an integral part of my somewhat haphazard routine. Sometimes I’ll just press facial oil into my skin, but when I’m feeling a bit luxurious, I get out a jade roller and play with that to work the product in.
It’s unlike me to buy two things from a range at one time, but I really liked the feel of a few drops of the Caudalíe Vinosource-Hydra Overnight Recovery Oil mixed into the moisturiser, as well as enjoying the weight and scent of the oil when used on its own.
I then decided to go all-out pink and throw in a Caudelíe Rose de Vigne Shower Gel. I’m lazy about using body oils and lotions, but no-one ever seems to guess that when looking at me or touching me. The trick to fool people into thinking that I spend time applying rich and costly unguents to my skin post-bathing seems to be to choose good quality shower gels and soaps. Caudalíe are one of my favourite choices for shower gel.
How much did all this cost?
Remember what I said up-post, about how I consider complimentary and redeemable against purchase to be effectively the same thing? As a Caudelie express facial costs about £50, this is what I had budgeted to spend on skincare.
The three products cost:
facial oil £29.00
moisturiser £24.90
shower gel £9.00
As it was a promotional event, I also received gifts with purchase: a Caudalíe hammam towel and a Caudelíe Vinoperfect Brightening Essence. This is super-bien value!
Promotions like this make sense for brands and consumers. Had I not experienced the facial I might have gone for Caudalíe, (liking them as much as I do, and being attracted to that pink packaging), but I would not have known exactly what these products felt like on the face, and that was the particular factor that persuaded me to buy them.
How have these products worked out for me?
I have now been using my products for just over one month – somewhat haphazardly, as is my way – and am more than happy with them.
The Grape Water Gel Moisturiser absorbs fast and leaves my face feeling fresh and looking decently dewy. If I want to wear make-up on top, it performs perfectly: I haven’t noticed any flaking, caking or sliding off – even when I dash it on and then leave only the tiniest amount of time for it to sink in before whacking slap on top!
On the days when I’m either too lazy or too busy to pay any attention to my face, six drops of the Overnight Recovery Oil, especially when applied with a facial roller, is an effective boost and restores my equilibrium quickly and easily.
I knew the Rose de Vigne shower gel would be good, and it is! It plays very nicely with Chanel N°5 L’Eau too, which inspired me to retrieve all the rose fragrances from my perfume collection and alternate them, using the Caudalíe shower-gel as both an olfactory aperitif, and an aide-mémoire to switch rose perfumes every day … it’s been fun! And I feel perfectly in the pink …
Want (like me) to #BeMoreFrench every day?
You could:-
- Explore the range of beauty services offered in-store at The French Pharmacy or shop their Caudalíe range.
- Head to instagram and follow The French Facialist, and The French Pharmacy.
- Discover more about family-owned brand Caudalíe, their brand story and the various patents that make them quite unique.
- If you would like to know more about the techniques we were inspired to adopt as we watched and experienced the skilful hands of Caudalié’s Abi in action, click the link!
- It was luck that led us to the French Pharmacy just in time to take advantage of the Caudalíe promotion. Maximise your luck by signing up to newsletters of brands, stores and therapists whose work you like, so that you are notified when events and promotions are happening.
Ethical Stuff
There are no affiliate links in this post.
This post is not sponsored, and nor was it expected by either Caudalíe or The French Pharmacy.
I have no professional or personal links with Caudalíe at the time of writing.
I added Dr Marine Vincent to my contacts book on first meeting her in 2019, and we have met several times since then. I consider her an excellent source of expert opinion and professional advice, a bloody good retailer, and a pleasure to know!
