A relatively new brand to SA, Filorga comes from Paris and has been inspired by cosmetic procedures like peels and injectables. It prides itself on its Cosmesotherapie line which makes use of a whopping 55 active ingredients including a ‘high molecular weight’ hyaluronic acid. (To be honest, I have no clue as to why the ‘molecular’ thing makes their hyaluronic acid better than other types, they didn’t go on to say why…)

To learn more about the brand itself, go check out the site, but be warned, they like to use fancy pants words like ‘biosynthetic hexapeptide’ and ‘nanospheres’. In fact, I suspect the person who wrote their copy ran it through a thesaurus so as to swap out every word for its most perplexing synonym to beat home the point that they’re a super-scientific brand developed by really, really smart people.

Despite all that, I do like their Neocica cream. It’s ingredients list* is too long to scrutinise, but it does live up to its long-winded promise:  ‘intensive reconstruction of the tissues and inhibition of severe irritation’. In essence, its a super-soothing skin treatment that also helps in speeding up your skin’s healing process.

According to Dominique, the PR peep, it’s ideal to use an an after-sun to soothe skin that’s gotten a little sunburned. However, the website likes to punt the more post-aesthetic procedure angle and tell you how it’s great to pamper your skin after any kind of laser treatment, skin peel or cosmetic injection. As I’m likely to get laser treatment for a spot of pigmentation in the next few months, I’m thrilled to have this baby in my beauty artillery. As it’s quite expensive, I’d be far more inclined to reserve it for use on my face as opposed to slathering it on my bod after a long day on the beach. Still, I’ve found yet another use for it – blitzing the evidence of a post-picking session…

Despite knowing better, if I find so much as a suggestion of a pimple on my face, I can’t leave it alone and will poke, prod and pick at the bugger until it rears its ugly head, literally. Afterwards, I’m always awash with remorse because, as a seriously pale peep, the angry red mark that ensues tends to stand out on my face like a sore thumb. I then end up having to wear either a liquid bronzer or self-tan to minimise the constrast and roll around with industrial strength concealer. All this while beating myself up for having had a good pick/dig/scratch when I know – KNOW – how it always ends so badly.

Merrily, this is the bit where Neocica steps in and helps me out. You see, I’ve taken to dabbing it onto the site of my latest squeeze the moment I’m done as I’ve noticed it goes a long way to reducing the resultant redness. It definitely doesn’t stop the mark from appearing altogether, but it does minimise the ammount of inflammation that I’m used to. Before this, I’d use The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Blemish Fade night lotion to do pretty much the same thing, but I now prefer Neocica, mostly because the latter doesn’t have a horrendous tea tree smell that, according to my boyfriend, is a a lot like pee. In fact, Neocica’s got a soft, pretty floral scent. On top of this, I also like Neocica’s lovely creme-gel texture that simply melts into your skin without you having to massage it in. Great for if you’ve had something eina like a peel (or my upcoming date with the laser) and don’t want to handle the area too much.

Want to try it? Look out for Filorga products at selected Edgars and Red Square stores as well as selected salons.

Love, love

Leigh

*Neocica’s ingredients:
Aqua (water), zea mays, biosaccharide gum-2, glycerin, sorbitol, hydroxyethyl urea, octyldodecanol, cyclopentasiloxane, sodium polyacrylate, caprylic / capric triglyceride, butylene glycol, mimosa tenuiflora extract, sodium methyl lauroyl taurate, C13-14 isoparaffin, laureth-7, laminaria ochroleuca extract, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben butylene glycol, artemia extract, hexapeptide-9, sucrose palmitate, glyceryl linoleate, prunus amygdalus dulcis (sweet almond) oil, sodium hyaluronate, tocopherol, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate, sodium acetate, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate, amino but acid, glucosamine, glucose, glucuronolactone, glucuronic acid, glutathione, 5-methyl 2′ deoxycytidine, thiamine pyrophosphate, coenzyme A, sodium flavin adenine dinucleotide, nicotinamide adénine dinucléotide , sodium nicotinamide adénine dinucléotide phosphate, sodium Uridine triphosphate, alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cystine, glutamine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, hydroxyproline, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, ornithine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, taurine, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine, valine, ascorbic acid, PABA, biotin, calcium pantothenate, folic acid, inositol, niacin, niacinamide, pyridoxal, pyridoxine, riboflavine, thiamine HCL, tocopherol phosphate, tocopheryl acetate, cobalamine, desoxyadenosine, desoxycytodine, desoxyguanosine, desoxythymidine, acrylates / C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, disodium EDTA, allantoin, sodium hydroxide, aluminium sucrose octasulfate, parfum (fragrance).