My Favorite Skin Care of 2012

I must address my favorite skin care in 2012. Without good skin, your makeup won't look its best. It was a year of advances. I want to include whole lines of products as well as individual products - skin care that works, products that excite me. Not all of the products I am mentioning here were introduced this year, but when you find something you love, you need to stick with it.

Let's start with TATCHA, a beauty company that is inspired by ancient geisha skin-care traditions. If you haven't tried it, I think you're going to love it as much as I do.

TATCHA founder Victoria Tsai has been a lifelong seeker of beauty. Her passion for skin care began at an early age when Victoria’s mother shared traditional Asian herbal skin-care treatments, which they sold in her family’s beauty boutique. Victoria’s love of discovery has since led her to become a sought-after expert in the field, developing products and brand strategies for the world’s largest beauty companies.

Searching for a new approach to beauty, Victoria began traveling to Asia, where a chance encounter in Kyoto with a modern-day geisha changed her course. For over 300 years, Japan’s geishas have been held in awe for their enduring wisdom and breathtakingly beautiful, porcelain skin. Perfected through centuries of timeless rituals, their beauty secrets have been passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth alone. As she began to immerse herself in Japan’s culture, Victoria discovered unearthed a 200-year-old beauty manuscript. On its ancient pages, she rediscovered the geisha’s coveted daily regimen. Moved and inspired, Victoria founded TATCHA as a way to share these timeless secrets with the modern world.

Traveling back to the City of 2000 Temples (Kyoto), TATCHA works closely with teams of scientists, scholars and geisha themselves to decipher the rituals and ingredients from the sacred beauty text. TATCHA’s formulas pay homage to the icon of Eastern beauty and the brand’s own storied heritage. Now the secrets of the geisha live on through a proprietary process involving the most precious green teas, Okinawa red algae, rice bran, and other time-tested ingredients.

I have fallen in love with the Radiant Deep Brightening Serum and the Dewy Skin Mist, and now I'm testing and loving Ageless Enriching Renewal Cream and Ageless Revitalizing Eye Cream. I can't get enough of TATCHA.

I've also become a Natura Bissé devotee. Most of the products I'm using come from the Diamond and NB•CEUTICAL collections, although I love everything I've tried. During a recent event at Neiman Marcus, I restocked on my Diamond Extreme and Eye Recovery Balm. Right now, I need to go purchase more Diamond Extreme Eye. Their Pure Air Bubble, featuring the Diamond White Facial, will be returning to Neiman Marcus soon. I sure hope I can reserve a coveted space. I desperately want to try the Diamond Life Infusion serum, but at $590, I can't afford it right now.

Another line that captured my attention before 2012, but held it through the year is RéVive.  Who is the genius behind RéVive? Skin care pioneer and noted plastic surgeon Dr. Gregory Bays Brown established a research laboratory to conduct a $2 million study on wound healing. In his research, he discovered a bioengineered molecule called Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) that dramatically accelerated burn and wound healing in test subjects. The defining moment came when Dr. Brown discovered that the EGF molecule was the same molecule that regenerated aging skin. He was convinced that the only way women could get what they really wanted (the healthy skin of their youth) was at the molecular level with EGF. Dr. Brown was immediately inspired to set up a clinical laboratory within the research unit to validate his findings and to pioneer a face cream with this "youth molecule," EGF. Dr. Brown was the first doctor to apply the bioengineered version of EGF into skin care. He wanted to give women an alternative to the knife, today's overused face lift. He launched RéVive to the public in 1997.

Dr. Brown's first cosmeceutical product, the one that started the RéVive revolution and roped in my friend Carol, was RéVive Moisturizing Renewal Cream (shown above). This powerful perfecting cream, which contains EGF, gives all faces the legendary RéVive Glow - quickly. It's a remarkable moisturizer. In addition to his powerful EGF, Dr. Brown has started to incorporate peptides into his products, as they also gain a reputation as effective skin renewal ingredients. The newest product I've purchased - there are a lot of them is Peau Magnifique Les Yeux Youth Recruit, and I can't wait to see the transformation of my eye area. If it's as dramatic as the effect I saw with Peau Magnifique Youth Recruit for the face, I'm going to be delighted. These products are pricey, but worth every penny. The Intensité Volumizing Serum is a game changer.

Two other lines have made claim to my heart: Sisley and La Prairie. I don't use a complete regimen of either line, but they made products I could not live without. Sisley's Express Eye Contour Mask should be in everyone's toolkit. The new Eau Efficace Gentle Make-Up Remover is revolutionary. This gentle, sensory, high-performance and non-rinse cleansing lotion removes face and eye make-up and tones the skin in one single sweep. The dispensing system is really cool.

Formulated with deeply cleansing plant-based saponins, Eau Efficace removes surface impurities and traces of pollution accumulated during the day, and helps preserve the skin's natural radiance. Applied with a cotton pad, it effectively removes face and eye make-up, even long lasting, leaving the skin clean and matte, and the complexion fresh and glowing. I love it.

I've got an upcoming feature coming for a new La Prairie product, Cellular Power Serum, so I'm going to hold off here. Just know that I am smitten. I like the slogan too.  "Never look your age again."

La Mer's The Moisturizing Soft Cream, a 2012 introduction, is fabulous. Luxuriously light, this formula delivers miraculous benefits - the same benefits as the original cream, but much easier to apply. It penetrates deeply to replenish moisture and strengthen skin. Renewed and energized, my skin looks youthfully radiant when I use it. I highly recommend it. If you are addicted to the original Crème de la Mer, give this one a try. It has some advances, including a new delivery system, that should please you.

Kate Somerville's new DermalQuench Liquid Lift Advanced Wrinkle Treatment is the product I nominated to New Beauty as the "Skin Care Advance of 2012." Kate took her DERMAL QUENCH Oxygen Treatment, delivered in spas or in special events at Kate Somerville counters and canned it. She gave us a treatment we could use at home. It was genius. I don't think you can find a better instant lift. Check out the fall issue to see what I had to say.

When I had my first DermalQuench Oxygen Treatment at Neiman Marcus, I experienced instant, unbelievable results. When my hour-long treatment was finished, I looked as if I had stepped out of a time capsule into a face that I had about five years ago. It was amazing. My face had a glow, and it had "lost" all the fine lines. Even my nasolabial folds (smile lines around the mouth) weren't as deep. My skin was plumped, youthful, and pretty. I'm thrilled to be able to come close to those results at home.

Two Le Métier de Beauté skin care products I can't live without are Rejuvenating Anti-Aging Night Crème with Syntoc Actif + Power4 Anti-Aging Complexe and Replenishing Daily Solution with Syntoc Actif + Moisture Rich Complexe. As pricey as some of my other must-haves, these products are amazing. They were introduced in 2011. Le Métier de Beauté has made the only products containing retinol that I can use. Plus they work as promised. The company's new CHEM60 Pro-Peel & Glow10ai Mask Set, which finally made its way to counters in 2012, is showing great promise.

I cannot close this feature without naming two new-ish products (2011) that have become staples in my skin care: Perricone MD Acyl-Glutathione for the face and Acyl-Glutathione Eye Lid Serum. I will not go without the eye lid serum - ever.  Well, unless Dr. Perricone introduces a new, improved version.

I am also testing a new 2012 line, VENeffect Skin Care, courtesy of generous samples (I simply cannot afford to purchase everything!). So far, it appears to be excellent. A little-known scientific phenomenon, virtually unexplored by the beauty industry, is now being shared with a breakthrough skin-care line developed by women, for women. Rebecca Booth, MD, a nationally recognized gynecologist and hormonal wellness expert, and Cecil Booth, her sister and a 20-year beauty industry veteran, share a mission to enlighten women about the relationship between beauty and hormones. They have spent the past seven years developing a line of skin-care products that reverse the physical signs of hormonal aging and restore a healthy, desirable female glow.

The sisters discovered their solution in the plant world. VENeffect gets its potency from 100% natural phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant-based “mimics” of human estrogen that safely and effectively bind to the receptors in the skin, preserving and restoring collagen, dramatically increasing elasticity and reversing the signs of hormonal aging. Dr. Booth explained, "The small molecular size of phytoestrogens allows them to easily penetrate facial skin and bind with estrogen receptors in the dermis and epidermis." Unlike anti-aging products that are designed to exfoliate dead skin (for example, retinol), VENeffect restores the vital effect of collagen to dramatically improve the glow of healthy skin.

VENeffect products are formulated with additional ingredients that offer anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties to provide the best in modern skin care. Five new VENeffect products are available: two moisturizers, one for day with SPF xx and one for night, along with eye and lip treatments. The prices range from $85 to $185.

There you have it. Wondering how I can use all these products? With few exceptions, I alternate, trying to reap the benefits offered by each. It seems to work nicely.

Photo at top courtesy of the Huffington Post; other photos courtesy of the brands