Vive la Difference!

Contrary to common belief, men don’t necessarily think of shaving as just some chore they have to get done every morning. There is a great deal of care that goes into shaving. Otherwise, you end up with little toilet paper squares stuck all over your face, covering up the nicks. And that’s not too cool.

Yes, we do care about our skin. Especially when wielding a sharp blade against it. That’s why Clarins Skin Difference products are such a find. Clarins of Paris has a wide range of skincare products for men, but the most thoughtful may well be Reves d’Homme Skin Difference. Reves d’Homme (I think it means “a man’s dream”) is a special product that treats facial hair while you sleep, softening the beard whiskers for the morning shave while at the same time firming up the skin and replenishing moisture.

That last part is where most men start to glaze over and think, “too much information.” Yes, it’s true: most men don’t want to really know the nuts and bolts of skin care. We just want products that do what they promise to do. We want stuff that works.

Reves d’Homme is a cream that is applied at night, before bedtime, and according to the literature, it does all the good stuff while you’re asleep.

This makes sense, because Reves d’Homme is more than just a shaving product. Most shaving creams are applied just before shaving, so they usually stay on the skin for less than a minute before being whisked away by the razor. This means those creams —with their skin-softening and hydrating properties — don’t penetrate your skin or soften the 0.4 mm of beard growth on your face every day.

Not so with Reves d’Homme. It’s a combination “moisturizer” (a term that makes most men gag) and shaving cream. You put it on your face at night, and it stays there for five to eight hours, exfoliating and eliminating dead skin cells,  removing ingrown hairs and clearing the skin pores to allow straighter and more moderate beard growth.

Yes, that’s right: it promises to slow down beard growth. How many guys would like to hear that? We reach for our razors every single day (most of us), whether it’s the rough-and-ready pass with an electric Braun or trying to scrape yet another run out of a used Gillette blade. We apply lots and lots of shaving cream, in the hope that this will make the course smoother — no snags, no sand traps, no doglegs.  But it’s obvious that creams and blades don’t do the whole job. We might actually need something extra to prepare the skin for the morning battle.

I tried Reves d’Homme Skin Difference several days running, and at first I was skeptical. I looked at Clarins’ very scientific literature — the diagrams showing the product penetrating the pores, loosening up dead skin cells — and found myself starting to get convinced. Applying it at night, I noticed the immediate smoothness of my facial skin, but the big test would be the following morning. Ten a.m., the hairs were already there, ready for mowing. I lined up some VitaMan shaving cream, a fresh Gillette blade, and got to work. Shaving was definitely smoother, though it wasn’t that much different from a normal shave.

Then something interesting happened. I kept using Reves d’Homme, applying it the following night.  The next morning, I’m not sure, but it seemed as though my whiskers were no longer stretching out from my face at haphazard angles and lengths, but were actually lined up, standing at attention, waiting to be mowed down! This is because Reves d’Homme is a progressive product: the more you use it, the more it penetrates the skin, doing the good stuff. Those illustrations helped me get it: once Skin Difference ploughs through the dead skin cells, it penetrates the follicle,  reducing hair cells that cause whisker lengthening; then it makes its way to the hair bulb (where beard growth originates) and reduces cellular multiplication .  Hasta la vista, beard growth! All us guys really need is a good battle metaphor to understand our beauty products.

Even better, Skin Difference “impregnates” the follicle more and more each day that you use it. By Day Four, you will notice a smoother beard texture, more moderate growth, and yes, an easier shave.

It’s all proven with science. Test results show that Skin Difference’s ingredients — Keratolin (an enzyme that helps penetrate the skin), Plane tree and Palmatin (to reduce cellular growth), vitamin E, marula and avocado oils (to soften the skin) — all do the trick. Studies report 90 percent of men found shaving to be easier with Clarins Skin Difference products; 73 percent had fewer nicks and cuts; and 94 to 96 percent reported softer, more supple skin. 

The other big benefit of Clarins’ Reves d’Homme is demonstrated on the sleek little cream dispenser: a pair of red lips plastered on a smooth mug, signifying you’ll get a little more facial attention from your loved one who used to steer clear of the beard thicket each night. Hey, those French are always thinking about a little more love.

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Clarins Reves d’Homme and other Clarins Skin Difference products are available at Rustan’s.