All products on this page have been selected by the editorial team, however Stylist may make commission on some products purchased through affiliate links in this article
Nearly 10 years after I first started using it, this forgotten beauty favourite has found its way back into my morning routine – and my skin has never looked better.
There are certain beauty products that become so firmly embedded in your routine that you assume you’ll use them forever. Then, somehow, they disappear. A new product goes viral, and before you know it, your tried-and-tested favourite that you once used religiously has been relegated to the back of a drawer… or forgotten about entirely.
For me, that product is Elizabeth Arden’s Prevage City Smart. I first started using it almost 10 years ago, not long after it launched. At the time, I was working in London and liked the idea of a product that combined my daily SPF with something designed specifically for city life. Alongside SPF50 protection, Prevage City Smart is formulated with anti-pollution technology designed to create an invisible barrier on the skin and help protect it from environmental pollutants.
But, somewhere along the way, I stopped using it. Probably because I simply ran out and replaced it with another primer or skin base – but recently, it found its way back into my make-up bag, and I remembered just why I loved it so much.
Sitting somewhere between skincare, sun protection and a complexion product, this multi-tasking daily shield offers SPF50 protection alongside antioxidant and anti-pollution technology to help protect skin against environmental aggressors. The lightweight formula also contains hydrating ingredients to help keep skin feeling soft and plump, while its sheer universal tint subtly softens and blurs without providing obvious coverage.
The real confirmation came when I wore it to a work dinner recently. The room was filled with more than 20 beauty journalists – in other words, people who spend their working lives looking at, testing and talking about skincare and make-up – and throughout the evening, people kept asking me what I’d used on my skin. Considering beauty editors are a fairly difficult crowd to impress when it comes to complexion products, I took that as quite the endorsement.
And I think that’s where Prevage City Smart still really excels, almost 10 years after it first launched. The tint it isn’t designed to conceal a spot or replace foundation. Instead, it acts as a blurring agent – softening the appearance of everything, taking down any red or blotchiness and leaving behind the kind of healthy, glowy finish that makes you look as though you’re having a particularly good skin day.
Better still, it’s doing so much more behind the scenes than making my complexion look nice. With SPF50 alongside its anti-pollution technology, I’m protecting my skin from UV rays and environmental aggressors at the same time. For something that makes such an immediate difference to how my skin looks while ticking off my daily sun protection, I’m slightly baffled that I ever stopped using it.
Images: Stylist; courtesy of brand
Topics
save for later
share this article