Lancome Secret de Vie

I got this super cute (and tiny, 5 mL) jar of Lancome Secret de Vie from a GWP a while ago but never had the urge to try it. I think I was subconsciously refraining from trying it, actually. Absurdly expensive things, in this case a skin care cream that costs $250-425, are kind of repulsive to me. No, no, not because they actually are repulsive, but because the luxury and the so-called "prestige" their manufacturers are trying to attach to them via such ridiculous pricing are repulsive. Can you tell I have no taste (or patience) for luxury?

***Picture from Lancome USA.

And then after a while I thought, here I have a chance to see whether this "luxury" item truly lives up to its price and I am reluctant because of my own narrow-mindedness. So I finally tried it, and I am very happy to report that I was right. Ha. Lancome Secret de Vie is a nice face cream, but it's absolutely not $250-425 nice. And even if it was, I have accepted the fact that I am not immortal, nor am I somehow so special that time will stop for me and my skin. But for the rest of my short human years, I will happily try out other skincare and cosmetic products that don't have an outrageous price tag attaching to an equally outlandish claim that is the secret of life. Lancome, stop being so pretentious. It makes you look bad.

Anyway, sorry for my hypocritical rants. I got to try this stuff for free, after all, and yet I'm still complaining. As I said above, Secret de Vie is a nice cream. It has a thick and creamy texture yet goes on light and absorbs instantly and left my skin feeling velvety smooth. A little goes a long way as I've been using this 5 mL tiny jar for over a month now and I still have half a jar to go. It is very heavily fragranced however, and even though I like the scent I still think it's way too strong sometimes. And after using it for over a month I didn't notice any changes in my skin. It's a very nice moisturizer and that's that.

I've use Secret de Vie over The Body Shop Vitamin E Hydrating Toner as well as Aveda All Sensitive Toner and it went well with both, didn't cause stickiness or excess oil or sheen. Underneath my sunscreen though, I must say it held up better around my eye area with The Body Shop toner than with the Aveda one. I'm still experimenting trial and error to make sure I didn't unfairly blamed the Aveda toner. There are too many layers when it comes to applying skincare and makeup so the process of elimination takes longer than I want it to.

So there, if that sounds like the secret of life to you then spend that money. I think I'm going to save mine.