Face Off: Is Creme De La Mer Cream Worth the $150 Price Tag?
I have been reading about Creme De La Mer from the time I bought my first People Magazine in the 90s. It is a ludicrously hyped product and the kind of creme I can only imagine purchasing when I win the lottery.
First of all let's get this out of the way…this stuff costs $150 an ounce. Who? I mean, who in their right mind is spending this kind of cash on a face cream? Sometimes I think this stuff is like caviar, where you only eat it to show that you can. Because…I mean, it's hard to wrap your head around this stuff. Surely it's the same old junk I can get at the drugstore.
Okay. Now that we've gotten my initial cheapskate skepticism out of the way, here is some more bad news. This stuff is produced by Estee Lauder. I don't know why, but learning this made it all feel less… special. Because I can afford Estee Lauder, and so can you probably. Where's the obscure French apothecary I liked to imagine made this stuff? But it is their "signature product," and it is made of… fermented kelp. That is right. Fermented. Kelp.
But now is where we get to the good stuff. La Mer was originally formulated by a NASA aerospace physicist. Impressive! His name is Max Kuber, and the story goes he needed something beyond what was currently available on the market to treat the severe burns he'd gotten from a chemical explosion at the lab. Th is Spider Man kind of stuff! Yes! Legend has it it took Kuber twelve years and over 6,000 formulations before the make up of La Mer was perfected. Yes, it's main ingredient is fermented marine kelp, yes, and you can watch a one-minute video about the harvesting of this kelp on the product's website HERE. Fancy! The formulation also includes lime tea extract, which said to neutralize free radicals.
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And now for a bit of a disclaimer, I don't even wear moisturizer. I mean, not real moisturizer. My skin is your classic combination skin, but most (all) moisturizers are way too heavy for my skin. They weigh me down and cause me to break out nearly instantly. I've been using ROC retinol cream as a moisturizer for over a year now and it's given me the smoothest skin I've ever had as a result, so the idea of adding a moisturizer in to what is already a pretty decent routine, especially a moisturizer as heavy-duty as La Mer, well, it was a little nerve-wracking.
The product itself has a bright, sea kind of smell, as you'd expect. It feels almost chalky to the touch, it is really quite dense. It is not smooth, it isn't light weight, and you only need a little bit to get full coverage (luckily, because the stuff is spensy!), and you do need to be prepared to work it in. Elbow grease.
But what you expect will feel like a mask actually feels like nothing! After you rub it in your skin just feels like it should feel all the time. Not like just-moisturized skin. Just like healthy skin.
I've been using it at night for a couple weeks and I'll cut to the chase already. I'm sorry to admit (because I always like to go into these things believing nothing is worth the hype or ever that much money…) but this stuff. is. AMAZING.
My skin is brighter. My pores look a million times smaller. I need barely any concealer under my eyes in the morning. Dare I say it? I'm glowing. I hate to say it. I apologize profusely.
Is it worth the hype?
Verdict: YES.
Have you used Creme De La Mer? Did you have similar results? I'd love to know!
- By Natalie Holbrook
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