Ole Henriksen New Products

Last week I attended a lovely event to find out all about new Ole Henriksen products from the man himself.  Ole Henriksen is a brand that I’ve often heard great things about (especially his Blemish Attack range) but never investigated further, so I jumped at the chance to find out more about the brand and what it has to offer.

The man himself, Ole Henriksen and me.

If I’m honest, at a lot of these events when you’re faced with the brand creator, it can generally feel very salesy; meaning that the brand creator will inevitably bang on about how every product in their range will do amazing things for your skin and cure all your skincare problems yet, refreshingly, Ole was nothing like that and in fact told me the products I should be avoiding (namely any mechanical exfoliators as he believes they’re really bad for troubled skin like mine) and made recommendations that didn’t centre around using every single product in his blemish range.  It was really obvious that his first priority was making sure people ended up with great skin and he would suggest whatever he believed was best without a bias towards his own brand. Consequently, I had a lot of faith in him and his recommendations which is one of the reasons I’ve started tinkering with my diet.

Having familiarised myself with some of the products in his range, I am seriously impressed.  The products are right up my street and focus on gentle resurfacing using fruit and lactic acids that, in my opinion, will always be dominate ingredients in great skincare because they are truly fantastic at giving skin a helping hand with renewal.  Regardless of the fact that I can’t use most of the products I got in my goody bag due to my current commitment to the Jan Marini routine, I am totally digging them and really looking forward to trying them out once I’m allowed to reintroduce new products again.

Power Peel Kit

Ole Henriksen Power Peel

This is a three stage kit that contains six treatments, all broken down into three sachets (so the whole kit contains 18 sachets in total).  The sachets contain the Almond Polish, Lemon Strip and Chamomile Comfort which you use in that order to give your skin a powerful exfoliation followed by a soothing treatment from the Chamomile Comfort.  I love, love, LOVE the idea of this kit and spend my days glancing longingly at it as I think it’s such a fantastic concept that I would love to play around with, but alas, I can’t use any mechanical exfoliators and I’m really not supposed to use any other products at all.

Ole Henriksen  Power Peel: Almond Polish, Lemon Strip and Chamomile Comfort.

One of the great things about this kit is the fact that it’s all natural, so there are no harsh chemicals yet I would imagine (and I kind of have an idea…see below) this would prove a very effective treatment.  You get six treatments for £30 which works out at a fiver each.

Lemon Strip Flash Peel

Ole Henriksen Lemon Strip Flash Peel.

The dominant ingredients in this are Glycolic, Lactic and Fruit acids for resurfacing, Liquorice for brightening and Algae Extract for soothing.  This jammy little treatment comes complete with an applicator brush (which I zoned in on straight away; I don’t know what it is about me and brushes) that you use to spread a thin and even layer over your face, which you then leave for 10 minutes.  However, it’s fairly gentle so for more troubled skin (like mine) you can get away with leaving it for much longer if you choose to.

Ole Henriksen Lemon Strip Flash Peel and brush.

I did a bad thing.  I was a bit naughty, and when faced with a treatment that focuses on acids complete with a brush for application, my willpower waned and I tried it.  I know I shouldn’t have but I blame the brush.  It’s pretty tingly on application (not burning but certainly if you have sensitive skin then definitely do a patch test first) but after about 30 seconds it settles down and within a few minutes you don’t even feel like you have anything on your face unless you actually touch your skin.  So I left it on for a few hours (If I’m going off the wagon I’m going off it properly) and rinsed it off to reveal fantastically smooth skin.  My spots felt calmer and my face just generally felt much more treated.  The fact that it contains ingredients in the same family as my Jan Marini products meant it was easy for me to justify its use, and this will definitely be a product I’ll be using again.  It’s priced at £35 and I’d say you’d get a good few uses out of the generously sized tub.

Celebrate the Truth Gift Set

Ole Henriksen Celebrate the Truth Gift Set.

This is a collection of some of Ole’s hero products from his Truth range and contains large sample sizes of the Truth Serum Collagen Booster, Truth Creme Advanced Hydration, Truth is in the Eyes Concentrate and Truth to go Wipes.  The Truth range focuses heavily on the benefits of Vitamin C in skincare (another ingredient that I have a lot of faith in and that also features in my Jan Marini routine) and whilst I can’t use the majority of the products in the line, I have been using the Truth is in the Eyes Concentrate which is a gentle treatment for the area around the eyes that you use before night cream.  It’s only been a few days but I love the idea of a product that gently exfoliates the eye area to aid renewal.  The kit will be out in time for Christmas and will be priced at £60.

I feel a real affinity with Ole’s products, not just because they’re sensibly formulated and pretty to look at, but also because Ole suffered from Cystic acne himself when he was younger, so he knows a lot about the problem and how it should be treated.  Plus, this man treats the skin of pretty much every A-Lister you can think of (seriously!) and lastly, they say the proof is in the pudding, so how old do you think he is?

He is SIXTY ONE years old!  They say the proof is in the pudding, so if this is what his skincare does then clearly it’s doing something right.

The Power Peel Kit and Lemon Strip are available now, and the Truth Kit arrives in November. Ole Henriksen products are available from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Feelunique.com, Lookfantastic.com and Bathandunwind.com.  I need to double-check the launch dates for the above products so I’ll update when I know.

Disclosure:  PR samples.