My dear friend Inke and I are potion hoarders. Inke’s favorite potions are creams, whereas for me, the weirder the product, the better. Hence my love of studying INCI lists: the stranger the ingredient, the more excited I get. This usually leads me to serums and other treatments, as they have the highest concentrations of active (and weird) ingredients.
There is also a correlation between the strangeness of the consistency or shape of a product, and the attractiveness of its concept. I am all for time-consuming skin care rituals, and products that have to be mixed. The more complicated it is, the more I love it. A third factor is scent; a strange scent will always pique my interest. And there are no bad scents in natural cosmetics, as far as I’m concerned, only three different types of scent: intoxicating, good, and strange.
This love of strange things is by no means restricted to cosmetics. I tend to be interested in people and things that are somehow unique, special, and unusual. These qualities may be hidden in very ordinary things, and I’m not so much drawn to the look of something or someone, but the feeling I get, and even tiny, almost undetectable, details.
While thinking about these strange loves of mine, I had the idea of compiling a TOP 5 list of weird and wonderful products.
May’s Clean Dirt is strange down to its very name. The ingredients are special and rarely seen in cosmetics; the scent isn’t exactly normal, either. But the strangest thing about the product is its consistency. A bottle of powder, which is mixed with water using one’s bare hands; the goop begins hissing and sizzling, suddenly transforming into a bubbly and warming mousse. I can’t help but love the concept, and its obvious effectiveness does nothing to diminish my affection for the product.
Pads packed with active ingredients – how ingenious! And unusual. It could just as well have been a fluid that one applied using a cotton ball. I love all sorts of fluids, spritzers, and mists. The same goes for bamboo pads – there’s no way I’m not into it! And as they even realized my wishes a leave-on, vitamin and fruit acid based fluid – well, let’s just say, I’ve fallen hard.
Moving on from mists and pads, we have a fluid that turns into foamy cream, once out of the bottle. The thought of sinking one’s face into fluffy whipped cream is enough to have me dancing with glee. To get the most out of this product, one should apply it using one’s fingers – not a cotton ball, as the instructions suggest. Using antioxidant rich chaga mushroom in cosmetics is such a stroke of genius that it’s no wonder folks from all the way across the pond are showing interest in Supermood and chaga mushroom foam.
The scent of the world’s best body peel has had mixed reactions. The fact that product contained sea salt and algae was enough to spark my interest while searching for a cure for my back-flakage, but its strange scent was what sealed the deal – its effectiveness is just the icing on the cake.
A leave-on collagen production boosting gel mask? Oh thank you, yes I am interested! A look at the INCI had me impatient to wash off my makeup so I could slather on a treatment whose promised results seem to be accurate, if the flawless of my skin the next morning is anything to go by.
What are some of your weird and beloved products?
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Photos Katja Kokko
Translation Katja Nikula
