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The promise

Long office hours, a jam-packed party calendar and, maybe some sleep? For the guy that guzzles gallons of coffee and energy drinks to keep up with his busy schedule, Biotherm Homme offers a skincare solution to fight fatigue. The Energy Shot promises to moisturize and "wake up" your face at once.

How it works

A cocktail of vitamins and minerals does double duty when applied to your face. While the revitalizing benefits of vitamins B5 and E may be more obvious, ingredients such as ginseng, magnesium, copper and zinc are said to boost skin circulation and regeneration. Apparently it's Biotherm's pure thermal plankton, derived from natural micro-flora, that produces the wake-up pop.

How to use it

Apply liberally to your face in the morning (or whenever you wake up). It may be my own peculiar man habits speaking, but the Energy Shot forced me to adapt a two-palmed face-washing technique I don't usually use when moisturizing. The key to experiencing the product's promised special properties is contact with the skin around the eyes and on the forehead, so I do recommend the technique.

The bottom line

I was highly skeptical when I first heard about the Energy Shot. If coffee barely does the job sometimes, how could a moisturizer kick-start my day? Turns out, whatever those thermal plankton actually do, they do it quite well. I felt a tingling sensation around my forehead that wiped out the heavy, sleepy feeling from my eyes almost immediately. Just don't be stingy with the stuff: I found myself doing second applications during my first few tries, because it seems to take a fair amount (about a quarter-sized dab) for the tingling to really set in. And as a moisturizer? It's pretty darn good.

$35 at department stores and drugstores across Canada.





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