Post-recession skincare

I am not a beauty product devotee. (For a great blog by someone who is, visit Closet of Style.) I’m not immune to great packaging and branding, though. For many years I seriously loved Kiehl’s, the no-frills-yet-pricy, European-seeming skin-care brand. (Its history actually reaches back to Kiehl Pharmacy, in New York, circa 1850.)

But I digress.

With the recession, I switched to, yes, drugstore brands for most skincare stuff (I’ve never been able to break the habit with makeup). So maybe it’s a sign of the times that I’ve recently fallen in love with a super-rich moisturizer called, foolishly, Skin Nanny, from Lush, which definitely doesn’t have a drugstore price tag.

Then this weekend I saw something, I thought in the Times, that really got my interest: Midnight Recovery Concentrate, from Kiehl’s.

Love the blue bottle, love the eye dropper in the bottle’s lid, love the name.

Love the product.

As the saleswoman told me, I really needed just two drops, one for each side of my face. Because it’s winter and my skin is dry and, well, aging, I then layered the Skin Nanny on top, as the saleswoman suggested I could do if I had very dry skin.

No miracles — I’m still not 25 anymore — but several hours later, even with makeup on, my skin still feels moist and supple.

Let’s hope the economy really is on the upswing, because I’m not sure there’s any going back.