Haven’t heard of Placecol? It’s a proudly South African skin care brand that’s only sold in salons, but is now about to branch out into more accessible stores like Edgars. They’ve got products to suit every skin type, from oily to dry, as well as more specialised goodies to help take care of typical skin concerns like pigmentation.

I was given two products from their normal/combination skin range; the Cleansing Emulsion and Liposome Moisturiser, have given them a bash and thought I’d share my thoughts.
The Cleansing Emulsion (R150) is a light cleansing milk that makes use of various plant extracts. (Think soothing chamomile, yarrow, Melissa, horsetail and thyme as well as rosemary and balancing sage.) It did a nice job of removing my make-up, including mascara and didn’t sting my eyes. Still, it’s not going to make its way into my regular routine simply because I prefer a foaming wash off cleanser. Being a cream, Placecol’s cleanser leaves my skin feeling ‘dewy’ as opposed to squeaky clean, regardless of whether I wipe it off with cotton wool or splash it off with water. Still, this is just my personal preference. I know lots of women who like creamy cleansers for the very same reason I don’t.

Now let’s talk about the Liposome Moisturiser, R210, which I rather liked. It’s a nice, light lotion that left my combination skin with just enough moisture to hydrate, but not aggravate my oily T-section. Yay! Like the cleanser, it’s rather ‘Clarins’-like in that it also makes use of lots of super soothing natural ingredients like cucumber juice as well as Calendula, chamomile and cornflower extracts. It’s most interesting ingredient, however, is sericin, or ‘silk extract’. Aside from having antioxidant properties, it’s capable of penetrating your skin and creating a barrier that helps protect against moisture loss.

The only downside? It doesn’t contain a sunscreen so I only use it on days when I know I’m going to be livin’ it up in bed with the laptop. I’m not really willing to venture out and apply an SPF lotion on top of this because, as it is, I already combine my moisturisers with a retinol serum to keep le wrinklies at bay. Still, if you’re happy with layering and aren’t at the stage where you’re applying extras to fend off Father Time, this is a perfectly good daily moisturiser and a very nice base for make-up.

Want to try Placecol products yourself? You’ll find them in selected pharmacies right now as well as selected Edgars and Red Square stores across the country as of May. This is when they’ll be running a fab Placecol 4 Step Offer  for both their dry skin as well as normal/combination skin ranges. The deal? You can snap up a cleanser, toner, day and night moisturiser valued at R735 for just R535. Lekkerness…