I did contemplate for a short moment that I should possibly calm down on the skincare product purchasing department this year. Given that I only have one face to smear all that stuff on, I thought to… Well, anyway. It didn’t last long. Here we are.

Herbivore’s Phoenix Face Oil is something I have written about earlier. I went through a bottle last year and was much impressed. The amber-coloured oil blend is wonderful to apply in the morning – while it does not tint the skin, it does make face look fresh. As I was casually flipping though Tatler January issue I noticed their beauty editor waxing lyrical about Phoenix with the following: “A few drops and dry or mature skin feels brand new.”  

For someone who is constantly, if semi-idly, on the market for a brand new skin, I thought this to be an encouraging sign and re-purchase to be thus well justified. 

The second sign came a week or so later as I was doing a pilgrimage to Edinburgh Space NK, the first luxury cosmetics shop I ever frequented (for years without actually buying anything, alas). Propped up on the table as the first item one sees when entering the store was Prism – Natural Fruit Acid Exfoliating Glow Potion. I swiftly proceeded to make a purchase. 

I like the idea of exfoliating my skin, but cannot quite bring myself to regularly keep up with that particular part of my routine. In other words: I’m mostly too lazy to do that extra step. Therefore imagine my delight when the Prism can be blended together with Phoenix! One application of product, double the effect!

The exfoliating Prism contains 5% of natural fruit acid. I use the P&P -combination only in the evening, but were I to apply the Prism in the morning as well, I’d have pay extra attention with the SPF (which I have do in any case). 

So if you want to boost any facial oil with some (rather gentle) exfoliating effect, I recommend. Herbivore is a high-end, American all-natural skincare line that has recently been made available in Europe. Their products have all the PETA- and hopping bunny – certificates you can possibly imagine, are vegan, cruelty free and also “unnatural preservatives” -free. This means that the shelf-life or their products is up to 12 months. While Herbivore bottles and jars are generous in size, I haven’t had any problems with finishing the products in a couple of months (mainly because their products are lovely to use).  

I particularly like the Phoenix for its very high content of collagen-boosting oils and – ta-dah – sea buckthorn oil! It’s a weird berry that usually likes to grow in the (very) Northern hemisphere, and many Nordic cosmetic companies have only recently realised its extremely high – and rare- Omega 7 content could be very interesting to use in skincare as well. 

Slightly unrelated, it dawned on me today that 1999 was twenty years ago. That’s two decades, people. That’s when Genie In a Bottle was a number one hit. 

And that, dear readers, shall be the third sign that Phoenix and Prism are bottles that absolutely justify their existence my bathroom in 2019.