By Chrissy Iley
I may well have a new favourite skincare range. It’s called Lucia Magnani. I was introduced to it via its Retexturing Radiance Mask. This season we’re all about the glow, radiance is the buzzword, so give me some of that I thought. This is basically a greenish mud mask which goes on very smoothly and tingles as it dries to a clay. When you take it off it reveals just exactly what it says it will do. A retextured, radiant face.
You can leave it on between 5 and 20 minutes. I like to apply masks when I’m in the middle of doing something else so, to be honest, I don’t know how long I left it on. Enough for me to scare the cat with my ghostly green face. But the result is the kind of glow that looks like it comes from the inside which it turns out is at the heart of the Lucia Magnani philosophy which combines well-being, inner beauty and a whole heap of science.
After the mud mask, I tried the Night Cream which although was luxuriously thick, it dissolved into my skin immediately and I woke up looking like I’d slept for 8 hours of peaceful sleep, not 4 with nightmares. The mask is made from therapeutic mud or Fango of Castrocaro Terme in Italy, which is enriched with super powerful antioxidants like Co Q10, Vitamin E and Alpha-lipoic acid. The mask helps regenerate and strengthen skin structure. It gives you youth, radiance and it rids the skin or internal and external pollutants such as the one that results from smoking and drinking (hello party time – goodbye looking like you’ve partied all night).
The results are extremely impressive. The brand’s research has combined explorations into wellbeing, anti-ageing, epi-genetics and biophysics of molecular vibrations. The science is thorough and the result is gorgeous.
The packaging is very Italian looking. The tops of the containers are in a classic faux tortoiseshell, the kind that you can imagine on an Italian countess dressing table. The mask costs £195 but it’s like giving yourself a 90-minute facial. When you rinse it off – you’re advised in a sponge soaked in warm water using linear movements from the centre towards the outside of the face – you feel like you are literally smoothing away lines, stress, heartache and anything toxic from your skin.
As well as the Vitamin elements, the clay itself provides a better absorption from the functional ingredients and removes impurities from the skin. It also has Dragocalm – well known for having an anti-redness effect and Crodarom Rose Crystal which strengthens and energises the skin and Gulfstream seawater which contributes to cell renewal.
I don’t normally find ingredients interesting but these ones impressed me. They stand for science meets luxury. They stand for inner and outer beauty which seems to be what this brand is all about.
Available exclusively from Harvey Nichols.