Swiss ice, baby

Up in the Swiss Alps, everyone must have a glow — with so much light reflecting for every tiny bit of ice, the lighting has to be Instagram worthy, no filter necessary. However, as in every harsh environment that’s worthy having for a background — a sunny beach where you drown in UV rays, an iconic urban intersection where free radicals are as thick as the traffic — a landscape of sheer ice crystals makes it difficult for organisms to survive.

La Prairie, with a heritage and legacy deeply rooted in Switzerland for over three decades, harnessed the survivalist instinct of two resilient Swiss plants and algae into their latest innovation, the Swiss Ice Crystal Complex. The patent-pending complex transfers the strength of survivor plants and algae to the skin, allowing it to become more resilient to the extremes of daily life.

With the season of stress upon us, our skincare takes a backseat to panic shopping, cooking and decorating, meeting friends and taking things — even stress — to the excess. Since I’ve returned from a trip to 0-degree Korea, my skin has been acting up; it’s become dull and flaky. I hate to admit it, but it makes me look older.

According to La Prairie, what skin needs in order to counteract an accelerated pace of stressed-induced aging is to fortify itself and become more resilient against what ages us the most — climate extremes, pollution, constant travel, lack of sleep, and anxiety.  Check, check, check. The brand created the Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Cream and Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil, both featuring the patent-pending Swiss Ice Crystal Complex, to address these concerns, calling it “extreme skincare at its best,” and leveraging on nature’s survivalist secrets to help skin kickass in the face of stress.

Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Cream

One would think a lavishly hydrating cream like this one is not ideal for this climate, but if it helps skin adapt, shouldn’t it be able to adapt to skin, too? Indeed, it does. The modern formulation — an oil-in-water gel-cream — feels rich but immediately penetrates and turns skin to silk as it revitalizes the complexion and works to fortify your skin’s resilience to life’s increasing aging assaults.  The result is an ageless appearance.  It contains the youth-preserving Swiss Ice Crystal Complex and the anti-aging powers of Tissue Guidance Matrix, and two plant cell extracts based on stem cell technology to assist with skin renewal. It also contains hyaluronic acid to deeply moisturize, and photo-reflecting agents to give skin a glow.

Dr. Daniel Stangl, La Prairie’s director of innovation and an active mountaineer, says, “With Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Cream, we’ve created a deeply moisturizing, age-delaying cream that excels at fortifying your skin’s resilience to life’s daily aging assaults.”

P.S. It also turns out to be an excellent recovery cream for stressed skin that has just undergone a dermatological treatment, or was recently subjected to extreme climates or excess travelling.

Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil

For everyday nourishment, La Prairie’s CellularSwiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil does the trick. A hydrating, nurturing dry oil that becomes one with your skin upon application, the product contains a blend of pure oils and age-delaying extracts as well as new Swiss Ice Crystal Complex, the sheer, weightless dry oil strengthens and fortifies your skin to prevent moisture loss and keep skin supple, emitting a non-oily, natural, healthy glow.

What are the advantages of using dry oil? For starters, oils help create a seal which locks in moisture on skin. In addition, the youth-preserving Swiss Ice Crystal Complex helps provide potent anti-oxidant protection. It strengthens the skin, restores and nurtures. Science has also proven that lightweight oils moisturize the skin really well, putting to rest outdated fears related to using oils on the face.

Dr. Stangl says, “A drop of Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil each day is the remedy to your complexion issues.  It’s incredibly effective in strengthening the skin’s natural moisture barrier while also soothing and nurturing skin.”

We don’t need to go to the Swiss Alps to experience skin-assaulting climate — we have a fair share of stresses right here in our little tropical paradise. Everywhere in the world, only the fittest survive, and thanks to La Prairie, surviving the holidays or any kind of stress also means glowing, youthful, close-up-worthy skin.

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La Prairie Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Cream and Cellular Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil will be available in February 2014 at Rustan’s.