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Skin So Sothys: The Nature and Well-Being products from Sothys promise to firm, tighten, exfoliate and soften.

Crémè Fresh

Sothys' skin care is peaches and cream without the calories

By Dara Colwell

It can look good, smell good and feel good, but if it doesn't work, you won't find it in the Sothys skin-care line, cherie! Popular among professional estheticians (the big 50-cent word for skin-care specialists), Parisians and domestic salon-hoppers, Sothys products offer intensive skin care with none of that sticky stuff. Beginning with its first line, launched in 1946 by medical biologist Dr. Hotz, Sothys has always tinkered with science and beauty, bringing research straight to the makeup counter.

Sothys' current Nature and Well-Being line firms, tightens, exfoliates and softens the skin. Whether you're slapping it on here or rubbing it in there, the peach-colored line makes skin smooth--admirers will stroke it sans coaxing.

Start off with Total Firming Crème, or Straffungscreme--all Sothys products come with four different languages embossed on the sides, which makes for a nifty lesson in translation. The cream tightens and firms, creating skin that's more elastic. "Rub it on your thighs, buttocks, stomach or arms!" the box reads. Unfortunately, reading directions has never been my forte and I mistakenly spread it on my face. While I didn't walk out of the office with a shrunken apple head, I'd recommend putting it where you're supposed to ... it does firm.

Second, try Cryogel for Heavy Legs. A concoction of witch hazel, horse-chestnut, rosemary, menthol and camphor, Cryogel may smell like Vicks nasal spray, but the sea-green spread stimulates blood circulation and soothes heavy, tired legs and feet. It also absorbs quickly, doesn't stain and makes you feel ready to run a marathon--even without shoes.

Then try Marine Optislimming Gel with caffeine, nicotinate of vitamin E and other odd-sounding chemicals that tell that "orange-peel" skin where to go. The gel hydrates and relaxes the skin, has a pleasant fragrance and naturally migrates toward thighs and buttocks.

Finally, combine Soft Peeling exfoliation cream and Softening Bath Oil with Mandarin spirits and tell Calgon to take a vacation. The cream contains tiny exfoliating beads in a peachy, foamy soap that feels glorious. The bath oil smells like the dessert and goes on silky smooth. You'll rise from the tub in good spirits, with a delicate mandarin aroma lingering in the air behind you. Leave scrubbing the bath to your roommate and head out on a date--you're well worth nibbling now.

Sothys products can be found online at www.sothys-usa.com or at Dorota's European Skin Care on Geary and Professional Skin Care on Noriega. The products are also used in various spa treatments available at Spa Silvarado in Napa and Spa Radiance in San Francisco.

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From the April 3, 2000 issue of the Metropolitan.

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