The Day Cream

Fig leaf from Batroun, almond from Aley.

Water, sweet almond oil, fig leaf extract, shea butter, glycerin, squalane, vitamin E.

1. Aquawater

   Water. It is first on a list because there is more of it than anything else, which is true of almost every cream ever made.

2. Prunus amygdalus dulcis oilsweet almond, Aley

   A soft, unfussy oil pressed from almonds grown on the terraces above Aley. It sits on the skin rather than sinking straight through it, which is why it is the base of eleven of the twelve.

3. Ficus carica leaf extractfig leaf, Batroun

   Infused, not extracted: the leaves sit in oil rather than being boiled in solvent. It is in the two things you wear in daylight.

4. Glycerinvegetable

   Glycerin, from plants. It pulls water out of the air and holds it against the skin. One of the two or three things in skincare that simply works.

5. Cetearyl alcohola fatty alcohol, not drying

   Cetearyl alcohol. It shares a word with the alcohol that dries skin out and behaves like the opposite: it is what gives a cream its body.

6. Squalanefrom olives

   Squalane. An oil your own skin already makes, in a form that does not go off.

7. Panthenolprovitamin B5

   Panthenol. It settles skin that has been irritated, which is why it is in the eye cream and the day cream rather than the cleansers.

8. Sodium benzoate, potassium sorbateto keep it

   Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. Anything with water in it grows things without a preservative, and a mouldy cream is worse for your skin than any preservative ever was.

Tap any line to read what it does. If one still means nothing to you, ask us and we will tell you why it is in there.

1. A hazelnut over the face in the morning, after the serum.
2. Give it a minute before the SPF.
3. Under makeup without pilling. That is what the squalane is for.

• Fig leafBatrouninfused, not extracted; the two day products
• AlmondAleycold-pressed, the base oil in eleven of the twelve