The French take beauty and pleasure very seriously with words like ‘flaneur’, ‘gourmand’ and my favourite 'sensorialité', six syllables on the importance of appealing to the senses.
German, on the other hand, is the language of “schadenfreude” (delighting in the misery of others) and kummerspeck (the weight you gain when you're unhappy) -- depressing but accurate reflections of the human condition.
It’s ironic then, that German skincare company Weleda created the best skin cream ever, one that positively vibrates with sensorialité.
In its Teutonic, no-nonsense packaging (that green tube has none of the retro nerdo-chic of French pharmacy beauty brands), Skin Food is the moisturizer we all need. It’s loaded with shea butter, beeswax, lanolin and rosemary, camomile and calendula extracts, with a lightly herbal orange, lavender and vanilla signature scent that belies its synthetic-free “clean beauty” bona fides.
Use it when your skin is screaming at you from tightness and seasonal discomfort (thanks for nothing, central heating) or as a spot treatment on dry and flaky bits. It creates a dewy base for foundation or, if you’re feeling outdoorsily European, protects your skin from getting chapped when you ski.
Makeup artists even dab Skin Food on cheekbones as a highlighter, which is the cool-girl version of using Vaseline as gloss when you’re a tween because your mother forbids you to wear makeup.
After 93 years as a lone wolf, Skin Food has a family: Light Nourishing Cream for when your skin is only mildly complaining (perfect as hand cream), Body Butter to wrap your entire self in and Lip Butter to counter nature’s miserable, wintery attempts to suck all the moisture out of you while winds aim to knock you over.
Sigh. Winter.