Last month something highly unusual happened: I temporarily ditched my 11-step routine in favor of three Kate Somerville products—and SPF. In my longtime quest to achieve skin that emits a luminous, radiant glass glow, I’m aware that I can sometimes go a teeny bit overboard. I'm talking about the weeks where I use one too many resurfacing masks at the same time or get heavy-handed with the retinol. I always know that this is a bad idea—I’ve had a case of mild rosacea for years—but often do it anyway.
Like clockwork, I recently overdid it on the exfoliants. I had been spared a full flare-up, but dry patches were creeping up around my nose and cheeks, and my face felt tight in a bad way. The only good news was I had clearly found a golden opportunity to put Kate Somerville’s new DeliKate range to the test.
DeliKate is a three-step recovery system for stressed, sensitized skin. “When my clients have a compromised skin barrier, I always recommend they pause on any actives like retinol and acids,” says Somerville. “You really need to feed your skin and focus on rebuilding your barrier.” To accomplish this, she created three products that use ceramides and other soothing ingredients to take down redness immediately and strengthen the lipid barrier. Somerville told me the results would show right away and continue to build up over the course of a week. Not to brag, but I had successfully transformed myself into the perfect subject to test that claim.
The lavender-and-white DeliKate regimen begins with the Soothing Cleanser. The formula is so gentle it’s impossible to over-cleanse or strip your skin, yet it’s still effective at clearing pores of makeup and grime. I also love the Recovery Serum (step 2), a translucent gel packed with ceramides, peptides, and omegas that feels as if it’s flooding my skin with moisture. But my personal hero of the line is the Kate Somerville DeliKate Recovery Cream, a moisturizer that made my former dry patches feel as soft as a baby’s butt overnight.
DeliKate Recovery Cream has the type of thick, dense texture I usually try to avoid in my daytime moisturizers. I don’t mind it in this case because, like magic, it melts immediately upon contact, making it equally comfortable to wear morning and night. To apply, I scoop up a pea-size amount, which is plenty to cover my entire face. The calming cream is formulated with reparative peptides and three essential ceramides that lock in moisture and prevent further hydration loss. Anti-inflammatories like Tasmania fruit extract, gingerroot, and green tea combat irritation, while shea butter gives the cream its buttery texture and provides an instant softening effect. There’s no detectable scent, which is something I always appreciate in a product geared toward sensitive skin. In fact, the whole line is free from fragrance, as well as parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and mineral oils.
The first time I used the cream, I was legitimately shocked at how much softer my face felt afterward, a result that lasted the entire day. Just as Somerville promised, it took less than a week of daily use for my skin to regain its former bounce and glow. I’ve since brought my skin back to its healthiest state, leaving me free to once again experiment with everything sitting in my to-test pile (it’s for work purposes, don’t judge me). Besides, I know that the next time I inevitably go overboard, DeliKate will be right there to save my skin.
Sarah Wu is a writer in Berlin. Follow her on Instagram @say.wu.
