Let's Get This Party Started!

Day 1: Chanel Sublimage Essential Regenerating Fluid
Review by Annie

It is time for the 40 Days and 40 Nights project. This year we are tackling skincare. We plan to share our holy grail finds, product disasters and successful skin care regimens.

I have decided to start the project off with a bang and review a new luxe skincare product. Chanel Sublimage is a high end skin care option within the brand. The science and prices are at a fairly high level. Sublime Essential Regenerating Fluid is a gossamer light cream that is powered by Planifolia PFA, a natural anti-aging ingredient that "pinpoints wrinkles, loss of firmness, evenness of complexion, radiance and moisture."

It delivers on each and every promise. My laugh lines have less depth. My forehead creases seem on the mend. My skintone is brighter with less issues. I have been wearing the cream day and night. It works very well under makeup.

Chanel researchers were inspired by the women in northern Madagascar. These women used a face mask made with fresh vanilla pods. Their skin had to be "perfection" to turn the heads of Chanel skincare scientists. After much research and testing, the Chanel team discovered that the "juice" of the Vanilla Planifolia pods offer unique regenerating properties. The pods contain the highest known concentration of the active anti-ageing molecules, polyketones.
You know how much I adore polymers!

Chanel is known for growing their own jasmine fields and cultivating specific rose breeds. For their skincare, they have created an agronomic prototype, a shader, that mimics the soft shade of the Sambirano forest. The shader is a sanctuary for the vanilla plants. To say the plants are spoiled is a vast understatement.
These plants are treated like kings. They are hand reared and hovered over.

The shader conditions boast a high level of humidity, warmth and light shade. This is needed for the growth of Vanilla Planifolia vines. It takes seven months for the plant to produce the 14 cm long vanilla pod. The plants are pollinated by hand with a splinter of wood. Harvesting takes two to three weeks. The pods are hand picked and sorted on mats. They are cut into small pieces like chives. The extraction takes place next to the shader system. Gentle extraction is followed by concentration, then a final process using steam to obtain the juice. The juice is a honey color. The final process takes in the Chanel laboratories in France. The process is called polyfractioning. Once isolated, the raw ingredient identified in Vanilla Planifolia undergoes 12 fractionating steps to create the juice.

This liquid gold is the "not so secret" ingredient to all the Sublimage line. It spoils your skin because that is all it knows how to do.
It was born that way. The ingredient has been coddled to the point of ridiculousness.

The price is $295.00 and is quite high by the standards of the average beauty junkie. However, the care of the ingredients, the science behind the extraction and the results make it worth the hefty price tag. It is simply heaven in a jar that has managed to change the condition of my skin. The Sublimage Essential Regenerating Fluid is available at select department stores and www.chanel.com in February 2010.

Disclosure: A press sample of this product was provided by Chanel Cosmetics.
Photo Credit: Blogdorf Gooodman
Graphic: Melanie Parker/Veronica Lake in I Married A Witch.