About Me

Sunday, February 9, 2014

I bought a $100 moisturizer


I have been wanting to write this post for a while now but wanted to be fair and give myself enough time to use the product before reviewing. And now it's finally that time -- and I have a lot to say, so bear with me. It's been about two months since I bought Tata Harper's Repairative Moisturizer for a whopping $100. To be honest, I only paid $80 since they were having a limited time 20% off sale and I jumped on the opportunity. But still, $80 is a hefty price to pay for a 1.7oz bottle of cream. And the overall verdict: worth every penny, if it won't break your budget.

I had never heard about Tata Harper before I had a facial at the spa at the Four Seasons here in Santa Barbara. The esthetician explained to me how her products are 100% free of chemicals and synthetic products, and how Tata Harper created the line after her father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and his doctor highly recommended eliminating harmful chemicals from his products. I was literally stunned after the facial when I looked in the mirror and saw dewy, glowing skin, free from the redness and blotchiness that I always have after a facial. I immediately thought, "I'm going to buy every single product she used on my way out of here," then when I saw the price of most of those items was over $50, I changed my mind.

A few weeks later I changed my mind again when I saw Tata Harper's 20% off promotion. Another plus of buying directly from their website is that they include 3 free samples with every order, and shipping is free on all orders over $40. I'm also loving all of the samples I've gotten, but I'll save my reviews of those for another post. :)

The Repairative Moisturizer is Tata's dry skin moisturizer, and after using it morning and night for about a week I started noticing a difference. My dry patches and flakes started to disappear. I should also note that while my breakouts have not disappeared completely, I have fewer, smaller pimples than I've had in the past. The moisturizer has a light, silky consistency that absorbs into the skin easily, and it has a pleasant but strong floral scent.  It lacks SPF which is probably my main complaint, as I have to layer my SPF over it in the mornings and it doesn't mesh flawlessly with the moisturizer. As far as packaging goes, it comes in a light green glass bottle that is beautiful and I definitely plan on reusing it after I use up the product.

This past week, as part of my ongoing efforts to use up the beauty products I have before buying new ones, I started using my old morning combo of Philosophy's Hope in a Tinted Moisturizer with Weleda's Soothing Almond Lotion to create a more moisturizing tinted moisturizer. After a few days of using this combo the dryness started creeping back in. There hasn't been any changes in weather during this time, so I think it's safe to say it's likely the lack of my Tata Harper. I made the heartwrenching decision to dump the Philosophy and go back to using Tata twice a day. 

As much as I love this product, I don't think I will stop looking for something somewhat comparable that costs less than half as much. $100 is nothing to sneeze at. It's almost a cell phone bill or 2 Anthropologie sale tops. It's a vet visit for Dexter. Maybe someday spending $100 on a cream won't seem selfish and wasteful, but not today.