Weleda Skin Food - Skin Lifesaver

I haven't always had dry skin. It was ridiculously oily when I was a teenager, but when I hit 18 my oil glands packed their bags and didn't even leave a goodbye note. It was completely unexpected - I hadn't been sick, I hadn't changed my routine, I hadn't moved to a different climate. And I had no idea how to cope with it. I spent the next eight years trying to find products that would fix the problem. I ran the gambit from rosehip oil poured from a glass jug in my local health food store to Crème de la Mer. No real success.

As I got older, the dryness got steadily worse and I started to get outbreaks of eczema all over my face, particularly on my eyelids and around my mouth. Anyone who's had this knows how much it hurts, and how much it affects your self esteem. And when I moved into a job with an air-conditioned office in 2019, things got even worse. My ID photo from my third day looks horrible because I literally couldn't move my mouth into a genuine smile.

I bought my first tube of Weleda Skin Food around June of 2020, after coming across it in an old Into the Gloss post. New Zealand had just moved to Level 1 of our Covid-19 alert system, I was back in the office, and after the stress of lockdown, my skin was not happy.

I think I missed the obvious for so long, given that Weleda is sold in almost every pharmacy here, because Skin Food is a very boring looking product. Plain green tube, plain white font, matching box. 

It doesn't even really advertise itself as a specialised face product: I mean, the tagline on the tube is Rich, intensive skin care | For Face or Body (I can feel my irritation rising at that capitalisation as I type). Even the words "rich" and "intensive" didn't catch my eye, because words like that have been applied to products that I'd call a light lotion at best, like this horrible product, which has the words "rich" and "nourishing" in its name and it left my legs feeling just as dry and itchy as before: 

But the thing is, Skin Food is the best moisturiser I've ever used. Hands down. In the nine months I've been using it, my skin has been transformed. I used to have to reapply moisturiser multiple times throughout the day; now I only need to use it morning and night. I reckon it's actually helped to heal my moisture barrier, although I have no actual scientific knowledge to back that up. I no longer get eczema on my face at all. My fine lines are less noticeable because my skin isn't so dry. My skin feels comfortable, not tight or itchy, and I don't feel any stinging on my face when I move between office and street. 

I've saved money as well. Prior to trying Skin Food, I'd used a solid moisturiser bar from a local NZ brand for about a year on and off, and I'd had to buy a $NZD45 box every two months or so. If I'd kept with this brand, I would have already spent $90 by this month in 2021. I repurchase Skin Food at about the same rate, because even though I use it less often, it comes in a smaller size. At $NZD22.90 a tube, and having bought two tubes so far this year, I've spent $45.80. That's only just a hair above a 50% saving! 

I've even seen a reduction in acne. Even though I have horribly dry skin, I've always been acne-prone. Since I've been using Skin Food, I've noticed that my acne has almost disappeared. And I don't think this is due to getting older, because not too long ago I ran out of it and didn't get to the shop for about a week, so I had to use an old moisturiser I had hanging around from another brand, and I ended up with some lovely pimples around my mouth and on my forehead! 

I can't overstate the change that finding this product has had on my life. I don't have eczema anymore, I'm spending way less money, my acne is basically gone, and most importantly, my face doesn't hurt when I move it.