Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream Pores and skin Protectant ($27) is the kind of iconic magnificence product that has stood the take a look at of time and generations. Its multipurpose system is understood to be a cure-all for dry pores and skin out of your face all the way in which all the way down to your toes, and practically a century after its inception, a tube of the stuff nonetheless reportedly sells each 30 seconds. Even when you have not tried it your self, you are seemingly acquainted with it as a staple in your mother and grandmother’s magnificence cupboards—which was precisely the case for Prince Harry, who made headlines final week after revealing that he used his mother and grandmother’s favourite facial cream to remedy frostbite on his penis.
… Plot twist, huh?!
Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream — $27.00 Store now
In case you in some way missed this internet-breaking information (… I am jealous of your algorithm), enable me to clarify. Based on a passage in his new memoir, Spare, Prince Harry returned house from a visit to the Arctic with a frostbitten “todger”—which is British for “penis,” apparently—and a pal urged he use the Eight Hour Cream to deal with it. He was already acquainted with the product as a result of his late mom, Princess Diana, used to apply it to her lips (Queen Elizabeth and Kate Middleton are additionally reportedly followers). And after going off on a really uncomfortable Freudian tangent (he says the odor made him really feel like this mom was “proper there within the room” earlier than he slathered the stuff on his nether areas, a sentiment that makes my pores and skin crawl each time I learn it), he revealed that it actually did assist together with his scenario. Go determine!
To be clear, Elizabeth Arden does not declare that the system can assist remedy frostbite—solely that it could “assist defend your pores and skin from windburn, significantly when venturing outside—so in case you are coping with frostbite in your nether areas or anyplace else, please, do not do that at house. Nevertheless, as somebody with very, very dry pores and skin, I’ve to confess that my curiosity within the product was piqued after I realized of Prince Harry’s success utilizing it to defrost his penis popsicle. So clearly—within the identify of analysis!—I needed to give it a strive.
The product
There is a lot to unpack right here, however as a result of I am a magnificence editor and never a psychologist, we will stick to the product itself and never the plain mommy points which can be revealed in Prince Harry’s description of it.
SO, let’s begin with the substances checklist—which reads like a gussied-up model of Vaseline. Petrolatum (aka petroleum jelly)—which is understood to be the “Swiss Military Knife of skincare”—is the star of the present. As a heavy occlusive, petroleum jelly creates a seal on prime of your pores and skin to lock in moisture, strengthen the pores and skin barrier, and defend in opposition to exterior aggressors—which is why so many individuals swear by it for his or her “slugging” practices. In contrast to common previous Vaseline, which is simply straight-up petrolatum, Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream pairs the highly effective occlusive with a number of different derm-beloved hero substances.
“I might suggest this product,” says Jaimie Glick, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based mostly in New York Metropolis. “Just like Vaseline, the product incorporates primarily petrolatum, a non-comedogenic that locks in moisture “It additionally incorporates lanolin, which acts as an emollient to assuage and soften dry winter pores and skin; mineral oil, which is each a strong occlusive and emollient; salicylic acid, which helps scale back the pores and skin’s pH to enhance hydration and soften the pores and skin in the course of the chilly winter months; and tocopheryl acetate, a type of vitamin E that gives antioxidant and stabilizing properties to skin-care merchandise, basically defending each the pores and skin from environmental stressors and the product itself from breakdown.”
And as for why it could have helped with Prince Harry’s frozen bits? “Lanolin is usually used as an emollient for nipple soreness and cracking in breast-feeding moms so it could even have helped cracked irritated pores and skin of the penis,” says Dr. Glick. The extra you understand!
What occurred after I tried it
It feels value sharing that the day after the royal penis information hit the web, Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream was not really easy to come back by. It was offered out on the primary two websites I attempted to purchase it on, and after I lastly discovered it on Amazon I used to be alerted that there have been solely two tubes left on the market. If this entire writer factor does not work out, Prince Harry clearly has a future in magnificence influencing.
When the product lastly arrived, I used to be… shocked. It is referred to as a “cream,” however it’s completely not even a bit of bit a cream in any respect. It is an orange-tinted (???) balm, and although “Fancy Vaseline” appears like a lazy technique to describe it, it is the one one which feels proper. The system is “fragrance-free,” nevertheless it does have a pungent, acquainted odor that took me two days to determine as “diaper rash cream.”
The primary time I attempted the Eight Hour Cream, I slathered it throughout my pores and skin very first thing as the ultimate step in my morning routine with the intention of instantly placing make-up on prime of it. Mistake. It left my pores and skin shiny and sticky—the way in which it usually takes care of slugging—and I needed to wait a half an hour for it to completely sink in. I used to be delayed and irritated about it, so the system was already going through an uphill battle for my approval inside minutes of software.
As soon as it dried, although, my frustrations had been shortly forgotten—I used to be genuinely impressed, and (for what it is value) my make-up went on simply nice. I wore the cream for 10 straight hours bopping round on a freezing, windy New York Metropolis Sunday, and my pores and skin nonetheless felt smooth and hydrated after I acquired house—there was by no means a single second of the dryness and flaking I am usually liable to on this climate. I used the cream once more earlier than mattress (this time because the final step in my PM routine, on prime of my strongest retinoid), and as soon as once more it left my pores and skin moisturized and irritation-free. Since then, I have been making use of it to my face each morning and night time and maintaining the tube in my bag in order that I can slather it on my arms, lips, and cuticles at any time when the temper strikes.
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