I Tried the Prince Harry Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream

Elizabeth Arden’s Eight-Hour Cream Pores and skin Protectant ($27) is the kind of iconic magnificence product that has stood the check of time and generations. Its multipurpose components is understood to be a cure-all for dry pores and skin out of your face all the best way all the way down to your ft, and almost a century after its inception, a tube of the stuff nonetheless reportedly sells each 30 seconds. Even when you have not tried it your self, you are doubtless aware of it as a staple in your mother and grandmother’s magnificence cupboards—which was precisely the case for Prince Harry, who made headlines final week after revealing that he used his mother and grandmother’s favourite facial cream to remedy frostbite on his penis.

… Plot twist, huh?!

If you happen to someway missed this internet-breaking information (… I am jealous of your algorithm), permit me to clarify. In accordance with a passage in his new memoir, Spare, Prince Harry returned residence from a visit to the Arctic with a frostbitten “todger”—which is British for “penis,” apparently—and a pal advised he use the Eight Hour Cream to deal with it. He was already aware of the product as a result of his late mom, Princess Diana, used to apply it to her lips (Queen Elizabeth and Kate Middleton are additionally reportedly followers). And after going off on a really uncomfortable Freudian tangent (he says the odor made him really feel like this mom was “proper there within the room” earlier than he slathered the stuff on his nether areas, a sentiment that makes my pores and skin crawl each time I learn it), he revealed that it actually did assist along with his state of affairs. Go determine!

To be clear, Elizabeth Arden would not declare that the components can assist remedy frostbite—solely that it might “assist shield your pores and skin from windburn, notably when venturing outside—so if you’re coping with frostbite in your nether areas or wherever else, please, do not do that at residence. Nevertheless, as somebody with very, very dry pores and skin, I’ve to confess that my curiosity within the product was piqued once I discovered of Prince Harry’s success utilizing it to defrost his penis popsicle. So clearly—within the title of analysis!—I needed to give it a attempt.

The product

There is a lot to unpack right here, however as a result of I am a magnificence editor and never a psychologist, we will persist with the product itself and never the plain mommy points which might be revealed in Prince Harry’s description of it.

Associated Tales

SO, let’s begin with the elements listing—which reads like a gussied-up model of Vaseline. Petrolatum (aka petroleum jelly)—which is understood to be the “Swiss Military Knife of skincare“—is the star of the present. As a heavy occlusive, petroleum jelly creates a seal on prime of your pores and skin to lock in moisture, strengthen the pores and skin barrier, and shield in opposition to exterior aggressors—which is why so many individuals swear by it for his or her “slugging” practices. Not like common outdated Vaseline, which is simply straight-up petrolatum, Elizabeth Arden’s 8-Hour Cream pairs the highly effective occlusive with salicylic acid (to clear gunk out of pores), vitamin E (to appease and heal pores and skin) and lanolin (a wool-derived moisturizer which will trigger irritation in sure pores and skin varieties).

What occurred once I tried it

It feels value sharing that the day after the royal penis information hit the Web, Elizabeth Arden’s Eight-Hour Cream was not really easy to return by. It was offered out on the primary two websites I attempted to purchase it on, and once I lastly discovered it on Amazon I used to be alerted that there have been solely two tubes left on the market.  If this complete writer factor would not work out, Prince Harry clearly has a future in magnificence influencing.

When the product lastly arrived, I used to be… stunned. It is known as a “cream,” however it’s completely not even somewhat bit a cream in any respect. It is an orange-tinted (???) balm, and although “Fancy Vaseline” seems like a lazy option to describe it, it is the one one which feels proper. The components is “fragrance-free,” nevertheless it does have a pungent, acquainted odor that took me two days to establish as “diaper rash cream.”

The primary time I attempted the Eight Hour Cream, I slathered it throughout my pores and skin very first thing as the ultimate step in my morning routine with the intention of instantly placing make-up on prime of it. Mistake. It left my pores and skin shiny and sticky—the best way it usually takes care of slugging—and I needed to wait a half an hour for it to totally sink in. I used to be not on time and irritated about it, so the components was already going through an uphill battle for my approval inside minutes of software.

As soon as it dried, although, my frustrations had been shortly forgotten—I used to be genuinely impressed, and (for what it is value) my make-up went on simply fantastic. I wore the cream for 10 straight hours bopping round on a freezing, windy New York Metropolis Sunday, and my pores and skin nonetheless felt mushy and hydrated once I received residence—there was by no means a single second of the dryness and flaking I am usually liable to on this climate.  I used the cream once more earlier than mattress (this time because the final step in my PM routine, on prime of my strongest retinoid), and as soon as once more it left my pores and skin moisturized and irritation-free. Since then, I have been making use of it to my face each morning and evening and retaining the tube in my bag in order that I can slather it on my fingers, lips, and cuticles at any time when the temper strikes.

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