Vintage cold creams make a comeback.
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One of the oldest beauty remedies in the world hails from the city of Pergamus, where the Greek physician Galen first concocted cold cream nearly 2,000 years ago. This quaint emulsion of water and grease hardly seems up to the task of anti-aging, compared to the current crop of creams that contain NASA-calibre nano-molecules and promise DNA repair, yet cold cream has quietly reappeared at the most up-to-date beauty counters. Target carries Boots Cold Cream, which has been cozily restyled with Victorian packaging. C.O. Bigelow’s Rose Wonder Cold Cream and a new edition of Galen’s cold cream called Crème Galen Superbly Rich Cold Cream, from a folksy website called Petite Marie Organics, share the same old-fashioned apothecary vibe.
As reissues of a skin-care classic, these cold creams are suffused with the vintage charm of their ingredients. What, after all, is more poetic than the stuff cold creams are made of? Rose petals, sweet almond oil, thermal spring water, beeswax and oil of marigold — not sugar and spice but certainly everything nice.
Then there’s the appealing economics of cold creams: A jar of Pond’s costs a fraction of the price of a jar of Crème de la Mer, and a pot of the original Nivea Creme — whose venerable history dates back to 1911 — goes for around $7. “Cold creams are great for dry skin and for those with busy schedules because they’re two-in-one products,” says Shelley Rozenwald, president of the Shoppers Drug Mart beauty boutique Murale, which carries Avène Cold Cream. “They can remove makeup and provide moisture to your skin overnight. Women are often looking to simplify their skincare routines, and cold cream can help them do that.”
Read about cold creams' honesty on the next page ...
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