Sampar 3 Day Weekend

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Sampar 3 Day Weekend

With the imminent good weather and sunshine - it is coming, it HAS to be! - and me being an OCD freak about not letting ANY sun on my skin WHATSOEVER (I can’t afford the wrinkles), practically everything I put on my face has SPF.

Sampar, if you haven’t heard of them (and I certainly hadn’t until recently) are a French skincare company. They're available in the mid range end of the French department stores, and they cater for pretty much everything with their range, which is so typically French, it’s not even funny. Bust crème anyone?

Sampar’s 3 Day Weekend is the best selling product in their range in this country. The 3 Day Week End Creme is designed to provide the skin with the utmost protection from ‘urban’ and UV damage by acting as a sort of shield for the skin cells, to protect them at that level. It also works with your natural melanin production to boost that, and thus protect from the harmful (ageing) rays of the sun. Or UVA to you and me.

So this product was a challenge for me, but I have heard the ‘science’ before from another French skincare range which is INCREDIBLE so this product definitely appealed. Despite using a high SPF normally, my face is the normally first part of my body to tan. Years and years of avoiding sunbathing have rendered my trunk pasty white, and no amount of lounging in the sun will alter that sadly. But hey, from time to time I receive that oh so British compliment of ‘oh, you’ve caught the sun a little on your face ‘ so the promise of ‘increased melanin production after just one week of use’ and ‘a natural hint of a tan’ was a bit of a draw for me. Especially as we hadn’t really had that much sunshine.

Well three weeks odd into using this, I have yet to notice this melanin production increase.

My face is still the same colour it ever was. A light shade of blue. The panic of having to leave the house without a conventional SPF on frankly sends me into a bit of spin, and is beginning to make me question the efficacy of this particular product.

Whilst brands like Instituit Esthederm (similar principle, albeit slightly pricier) which I have used previously, and therefore I know they work, this one has left me a little cold. I am also slightly concerned at the sheer quantity needed to cover, as they recommend, the face, and neck, and top part of chest, as t is only a 50ml pot.

On the plus side, it smells rather nice, doesn’t leave my skin feeling it needs more moisturiser (I have extremely dry skin) and is a light texture. Sadly, I don’t think I shall ever truly know if I am receiving the maximum benefits of this cream, particularly in regards to sun protection, but it has made me curious as to the rest of the range.

Sampar 3 Day Weekend, available at Marks & Spencer Beauty. £34

http://www.marksandspencer.com/sampar-3-day-weekend-50ml/p/p22253483