Chanel Precision Hydramax Cream

...(WAD) is officially ON! And Chanel are late into the fray with their Hydramax collection that offers Evian for the dermis at champagne prices.

Hydramax is available in three varieties for different skin types - cream (dry/extra dry), cream gel (normal/oily), fluid (normal/dry). All of which carry the painful pricetag of £35 for 50ml at Boots.com. If you want their top-up Hydramax Serum, that's an extra £38 and promises to intensify ...
...cost you one at the Chanel counter, where they launch weapons of cash-extraction in under 45 seconds. And if that fails - they'll invite you to a product evening and doom you with freebies...

Which is how I ended up buying the Hydramax cream and serum - I came back from a product evening at Boots in Liverpool with a little goodie bag full of no-purchase-necessary Hydramax trial sizes: cream, serum, cleanser, toner, scrub, mask and ... more

Dehydration appears to be the new buzz-word for the skincare and cosmetics industry. Everything from the hair on your head to the nails on your toes needs to 'drink more water' which can only be done - say the alchemists of cosmetology - by smearing semi-organic fats and acids that owe more H2SO4 than H2O liberally over every part of your body. It's all twaddle, but twaddle that's resulted this time in whole ranges of creams and lotions that claim to do one job: moisturise.

For the long-term cosmetically confused, like me, who've spent years arguing the losing point across the cosmetics counter that it's all well and good having silk, elastane and extract of TARDIS in it BUT WILL IT MOISTURISE MY SKIN? They're all at it now - moisture delivery and the War Against Dehydration (WAD) is officially ON! And Chanel are late into the fray with their Hydramax collection that offers Evian for the dermis at champagne prices.

Hydramax is available in three varieties for different skin types - cream (dry/extra dry), cream gel (normal/oily), fluid (normal/dry). All of which carry the painful pricetag of £35 for 50ml at Boots.com. If you want their top-up Hydramax Serum, that's an extra £38 and promises to intensify the effects of other Hydramax products. Yep, the WAD is certainly going to cost you one at the Chanel counter, where they launch weapons of cash-extraction in under 45 seconds. And if that fails - they'll invite you to a product evening and doom you with freebies...

Which is how I ended up buying the Hydramax cream and serum - I came back from a product evening at Boots in Liverpool with a little goodie bag full of no-purchase-necessary Hydramax trial sizes: cream, serum, cleanser, toner, scrub, mask and several tiny atomisers of perfume.

I know. I'm a sucker. Goodie bags are like mafia kickbacks, once you accept one you're a made woman.

Surprisingly the trial sizes lasted about a week. They were supposed to last a day but I found I needed so little of the cream and serum to get the job done. I was pleased. I went back. I used my Advantage card and the discount vouchers in my goodie bag to get full-sizes of both the cream and serum for £20.

I know. I'm a sucker. Or not? Because that was in February 2005 and I'm still using the same two jars!

I have very dry skin which is why I decided to supplement the cream with the serum. The cream gets used every day and with the serum twice a week - I'm going to have to shell out for some more cream in the next month or so but the serum's still going strong and I have a quarter of a bottle left. Previously I was using No. 7's hydration moisturiser and getting through 2-3 jars of that every 6 months. I needed to use loads of the stuff to get my skin to absorb it and after all that it STILL left a nasty residue on my face. I don't have that problem with Chanel's Hydramax cream, even though it's thicker than No. 7's. I apply a tiny amount - about the size and thickness of two 5p pieces, and half that much when I've applied the serum. It absorbs easily with only gentle massaging required and there's no greasy residue left behind. Prolonged and careful use has caused two dramatic changes to my skin - I now don't have crater-pores and I don't suffer from painfully cracked skin on my cheekbones anymore. It's amazing stuff! The trial sizes left my skin feeling soft and pleasantly plumped up after a week, which was why I went back, expanding that useage has had a real beneficial effect for me.

Economically, paying £35 for one jar that'll last roughly a year does work out cheaper than paying £10 a month for an alternative. Even buying the full kit of cream and serum for £73 works out as better value than £120 a year in alternatives. So it is expensive for one pot, but in the long term is more economical. If it works for YOU. I can't emphasis that enough. Hydramax is a magical miracle worker on MY skin. But MY skin has broken out in blisters with Cream E45 and cracked like an arrid river bed with Nivea before now.

Also you need to get the right formulation for your skin otherwise you'll end up using more than is necessary, or worse, it'll give you gungy skin. I did both the online Precision skin selector test and gave myself over to a free consultation at the counter, the results of both determined the contents of my goodie bag which was where I really made my decision - try before you buy. Chanel products DON'T work for everyone (like Estee Lauder, Almay and Body Shop don't work for me in a raw, purple kind of way), so it's always better to get a tester pack to take home and try a couple of applications than to go in and try the tester pots. Basically if you want to try Hydramax, and have your doubts, wait until there's a product evening or ask for samples at the counter.

The product itself is light, blue-coloured and smells - to me - like an iced tropical fruit salad. Yummy! The cream has a very thick consistency whereas the cream gel is slightly thinner and cooler to the touch. The serum is syrupy and the sensation of that could be a little off-putting while the fluid is a thick cleanser-density liquid.

Well and quality packaged in a white cardboard box the cream and gel are presented in frosted plastic, square, squat pots with a black screw lid and a very useful flick-out inner lid that stops the contents from clogging the screw threads or getting stuck to the roof of the outer lid. The pots have a nice weight to them, which is surprising considering they're not made out of glass. The screw lid is also a very good fit so the chances of putting the lid on at an irregular, cross-thread, angle which will spoil the contents is extremely difficult. I'm not a fan of the plastic applicator stick that's included with the cream and cream gel, using it will make you use too much when your index finger makes for a better measuring tool. The fluid and serum are presented in a frosted bottle (also closed by a nicely weighted black screw cap) with a pump nozzle that loads from the bottom of the bottle by moving a little plastic disk upwards - like a syringe - this cuts down on nozzle blockages and wasteage.

To get the maximum effect - and benefits - from any of the Hydramax products they're best used immediately after cleansing with a facial wash or facial scrub and toner application. Getting rid of excess oils and skin cells increases the absorption rate of the cream; it doesn't really matter if you're using Chanel's cleansing products or another brand - just so long as your skin is free of build up.

One fault I can find with the Hydramax product is it's promoted as a cream you can use to 'top-up' your moisture levels throughout the day without prior cleansing. In this respect both the cream and cream gel fail completely. The cream is too rich and requires extra massaging, this does tend to leave a noticable residue which I don't get when using it directly after cleansing. The serum is the worst for a top-up with a slimy, clammy aftertouch that's not very pleasant at all. Of all the formula variations only the fluid, because it's lighter and a liquid, passes the top-up test. The question there is why keep a £35 moisture liquid in your handbag JUST for 'top-ups' when you've cleansed and applied your normal formulation in the morning and that's going to feel good for the next six hours? Pointless. If you need regular 'top-ups' adding the serum to the cleanse/tone/serum/moisturise regime'll do the trick, save you time and successfully defeat the object of 'top-ups'.

In conclusion Chanel Hydramax is a good all-rounder if you're not into using day and night creams. Using it sparingly but regularly can have some excellent, if unexpected results. One pot lasts for ages. It functions at it's best if you're using the right formulation for your skin type and already have a well established cleansing regime. Finally it's not cheap, but can work out cheap-er than its competitors in the long term.

Most of all it's Chanel. It's a girl's best friend. And if you play the reward/advantage card game astutely, you can get it for nowt. 

...less