This article is dedicated to Dominique, a globe-trotting reader that I had the immense pleasure to meet in real life in Rome. She asked me what I could recommend her as an anti-aging cream. She travels a lot and doesn’t necessarily have the time to take care of her skin.
Difficult question. The basic routine is: clean – moisturize – protect. But for travelers or lazy women who don’t have room or time for a complete beauty routine, you need a cream that can moisturize, repair – but can be used for the face, décolleté, hands and body.
Such a cream exists, and it costs only 9€, it is Intense Youth Complex Hand Cream from The Chemistry Brand (a brand of DECIEM). It also has another name: Pro-Repair Skincare for Hands
It is the best anti-aging cream for travelers OR lazy women.
I know, I know, I’m going to be asked why I recommend a hand cream.
In fact, the big boss of DECIEM, the umbrella company of The Chemistry Brand, had a non-competition clause for 3 years, prohibiting him from creating facial cosmetics. So he created products for hands and body. The success was immediate: out of stock, users see the wrinkles disappear on their hands and apply the cream directly to the face for an anti-aging effect that is still WOW. This highly moisturizing cream isn’t comedogenic, so you can apply it everywhere, like all The Chemistry Brand products.
The Promise
The cream simultaneously targets 8 signs of skin aging. This extraordinary concentration of 19.5% of active agents improves the appearance of firmness, elasticity, density, uniformity, radiance, texture, softness and hydration. And all this in 10 days. And for 9€ (Deciem link)
Why is it so effective?
For an anti-aging effect, several methods can be used, but the most popular are:
(1) hydration, a hydrated skin immediately appears less wrinkled because it is plumped (2) boosting the production of collagen, which is produced less and less with age (3) facial massage to tighten the skin(4) a facial massage to tighten the skin
Let’s look at the list of ingredients.
Ingredients : Aqua (Water), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Propanediol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Cetyl Alcohol, Plukenetia Volubilis Seed Oil, Copper Lysinate/Prolinate, Plantago Lanceolata Leaf Extract, Methylglucoside Phosphate, Proline, Alanine, Serine, Pseudoalteromonas Ferment Extract, Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract, Tocopherol, Betaine, Cellulose, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Polyacrylate, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Sorbate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Perfume (Fragrance), Limonene, Linalool.
Already, for a cream conceived at the base for the hands, there is no dimethicone, it is very rare for a cream of this type.
- Then it contains Copper Lysinate/Prolinat 1%, copper peptides. This form is cheaper than COPPER TRI-PEPTIDE 1 (GHK-CU) found in high concentration in a much more expensive product still at Deciem, the famous NIOD CAIS 2 which I can’t live without, but it has been shown that compared to collagen injections, Copper Lysinate/Prolinat delivers better results than injections: wrinkles are 15% less deep in 15 days.
- Plantago Lanceolata Leaf Extract 2%: is able to reduce spots in only 2 months
- Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp 2% comes from a fungus, 400 times more moisturizing than hyaluronic acid.
- Pseudoalteromonas Ferment Extract 5%: extract of fermented algae, to increase skin moisture by +11% in 12 hours, +21% in 24 hours and +32% in 30 days.
- Sacha Inchi Oil 2% & Maize Propanediol 7.5%: I don’t know what it is, but according to the brand, they form a protective barrier, to seal in moisture. It must be occlusives then.
So the product alone is composed of 19.5% active ingredients for a ridiculously low price: 9€ for 30ml or 20€ for 100ml (DECIEM link, Lookfantastic link)
My Opinion
My hands have no signs of aging so the only thing I can see and approve of is its extraordinary moisturizing power. The skin on my hands tugs more easily than the skin on my face, so to test whether a product is moisturizing or not, I test on my hands first, and if it continues to be uncomfortable, I know the cream isn’t moisturizing enough. With this cream, very little product is enough to keep my hands moisturized for hours.
Update December 2020: after several months of use on my hands but also on my body and feet, I can affirm that my hands, although without defect at the base, have gained a few years. I can see it by comparing with the pictures below, it’s crazy! My crocodile skin heels have regained all the suppleness and soft skin, it’s the case for the body too, the moisturizing and repairing power of this cream is incredible.
before application 
after application
I haven’t tested it on my face yet because I have to finish my current products first, but I plan to use it this winter when I finish my summer cream. Update: Because of the smell, I don’t feel like putting it on my face. Too bad.
The –
- a little chemical smell (some like it a lot)
- packaging always imperfect, like all products at DECIEM. The tube is sold half-empty, because they aren’t able to create a tube of exactly 30ml, and throw a bullshit like this: it takes a bit of air in the tube to make the product come out. All the products are correctly weighed before sale, so you’ll really get 30ml of product, but delivered in a 50ml tube whatsoever. Normal.
- a lot of people complain about the 240ml format because when you reach 50% of the bottle, the pump doesn’t work anymore, so I recommend you to buy just the 30ml format or the 100ml format (DECIEM link, Lookfantastic link)
- very easy to find in Europe, North America, Oceania… but harder to find elsewhere
There you go, I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have more time, more space in your bag and prefer to have a more complete routine during your trip around the world or your travels, I have already made an article + a video on this subject, here
