So, last night and my final event for 2009. A vast number of us braved the torrential rain of biblical proportions and headed over to Dermalogica’s flagship Kensington store. As well as catering for drop-ins, there are regular workshops held here and the seasonal focus of our event was party skin: how to prepare for the upcoming social onslaught and repairing damage afterwards. The first of many lessons: prevention is better than cure; if you go to bed still caked in mascara, bed bugs (who can’t get enough of the stuff) will come and chew your eyelashes off. The second: caffeine is as good for your appearance as ten rounds with Mike Tyson after he’s just found out it was you that pilfered all his dough. For every cup, you need an additional four glasses of water to the daily requirement that you should be already be necking.

The next discovery for me personally was that the skin adorning my face is as sensitive and fragile as my ego: within 15 minutes I looked like I had been using a Sellafield skin mask and I could’ve lit the whole street. The delightful, and extremely well-informed, Monique led us through the ideal routine for preparing our faces for forthcoming opulence using their exquisite array of products – all free of alcohol, perfumes and animal derivatives – correctly: the lotions and scrubs and sprays need to be used gently, sparingly and thus more effectively and if you’re dabbing around the eye area, the skin here is particularly light and fragile so excessive rubbing will have you looking like a Panda after a bar brawl. Also, folks (I am revelling in this fountain of knowledge I tapped into) if your eyes do suffer from dark circles of doom, it may well be genetic. Of the 10% skin genes that are passed on, this is one of the areas; so basically, blame your parents.

Monique says: “This is how we do it.”

So after much rubbing, scrubbing and tapping and passing through phases of creamy, powdery and bubbly white right through to Tango orange and then to the healthy glow emanating from every corner of the room, we returned to our trays of treatments and moved on to coping with the morning after and ways of ameliorating the aftermath of the night before, especially if you’ve dozed off covered in make-up. Much was discussed and Monique shared further insights into remedies.

It was much, much more fun than this! Honest, guv.

Then we congregated in the main foyer for some skin mapping and breaking down our facial zones. After a close-up inspection, the specialists here will pretty much know everything about you and what you’ve been doing. Much like slicing open a grand old oak tree and deciphering its history. What is great about Dermalogica’s team is immediately after that crestfallen moment when they accurately diagnose the problem, they provide a simple, workable solution. If what they offer at first strikes you as a tad pricey do consider how sparingly this stuff should be used and that it actually last ages; there’s the valuable contribution it makes to keeping one looking young and vibrant and that, furthermore, this is a professional standard of skincare which can be tailored – after a relatively short consultation – to your skin type and condition; It’s not a case of plucking one of the shelf and hoping for the best.

The Hinchcliffes get a spritzing.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to squeeze everything in, but you can just pop by if you’re in the area or look online for the next opportunity to attend one of their captivating workshops. We also found the time to frown upon sun beds (drinking coffee on a sun bed is a double no-no), learn that some facial breakouts may be down to stress (in particular around the jaw and neck areas) and also us fellas bagged some time to enquire about the range of products that they offer for men, and some pre and post-shaving treatments to help ease that real trial, which comes with being a man.

Men. Browsing.

Props to Tikichris for the photographs.