I’m grateful for 99 per cent of what I’ve inherited from my mother. Not just the little cropped sweaters she kept for me from 1982, or the diamond bracelet she lets me wear when I have to get dressed up, but also her genetic traits. In the bio lotto, I like to think I cleaned up. Her sense of humour! Her passion! Her kindness! It was a good bequest.
But then there’s the other one per cent, and it’s made of skin.
The women in my maternal clan are blessed with luscious hair, slender ankles, and not-so-delicate skin. This is our lot in life, and it’s fine. Some people have skin that’s as taut and smooth as stainless steel. And others have a complexion that bears a closer resemblance to Paleolithic ceramics. And thanks to extensive experimentation, I can more or less guarantee that all that stuff that promises a miracle? None of it works. The creams, the serums, the magic 400 USD treatments, the masks—it’s all a mirage. None of it works for the skin that must be put through 3 Instagram fillers to look pretty. Fine lines, lines that come with age, under-eye circles, some pimples here and there, some eczema outbreaks when your body is under stress and the list goes on.
So when in 2020 people started to whisper about a new face oil—in fact, “the face oil to end all face oils,” according to beauty experts—and claimed it solved all beauty issues at once, I fell into my usual posture: doubtful but wildly interested. Women I admired swore that it was better than bronzer, better than a moisturizer, better even than sex. I couldn’t accept that some cult rare face oils could do more for skin than several prescriptions and at least three other super-luxe serums had. Plus, I just don’t have skin that reacts well to oils. The details are a drag, but even the fanciest oils tend to make my skin break out. I’m really more of an acids girl.
Until last month I blocked out the noise. Hundreds of women converted, but I remained a heretic! Bottles of the stuff were passed around the office, and I ignored them. No nice oil for me! No, no! I’d rather burn my face off with stuff that smells like rot and feels like Listerine, but for your face.
But this stuff was different. A few drops of Bio Lab Exotique sink in within minutes, leave behind a subtle sheen better than tinted moisturizer and bronzer together, and make my face feel like it doesn’t need makeup, or even a particularly good night’s sleep, to look its best. It’s hard to put a price on that. I started waking up looking fresh as if my skin belonged to a girl who lives in someplace exotic and lives on organic luxury foods. Bio Lab Exotique converted