This $68 Face Cream Saved My Skin After Getting Laser Treatments

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This year I made a vow to start really working on my skin, a journey that would include trying new treatments and products for the first time. So I’ve experienced a lot of firsts: lasers on my face and chest, neurotoxins and fillers, as well as new kinds of ingredients and formulas. But as the saying goes, “It gets worse before it gets better”—and that’s often the case with pretty much any new skin-care treatment, as anyone who’s ever had an intense facial and broken out afterward can attest. And since embarking on my new ~skin-care journey~, I found myself repeating those words to myself like a mantra.

While I was lucky enough to not experience any major zit action after my treatments—something that has definitely happened after facials—I noticed that my skin was dry. Excuse me? What’s this? For most people, this might not come as a shock. But I usually have super-oily skin, especially in the T-zone area.

For the first time ever, my forehead was tight, dry, flaky, and a little bit red. Following treatment, I adhered to my derm’s advice, of course, which meant staying out of the sun and avoiding harsh products like retinol. I also made sure to cleanse with a gentle face wash (Solluna Feel Good Cleanser, for the curious). But even so, I needed help. My first instinct was to break out one of the heavy-duty moisturizers that my friends with dry skin swear by—but as I’m acne-prone and have large pores, the thought of using a superthick face cream made me nervous.

So I initially reached for my tried-and-true water-based moisturizer, the one I’d been using for about four years, but it sadly wasn’t strong enough to combat my flaky forehead. I’d apply the cream and it would just disappear into my skin, which would still feel tight and dry. Then I got my hands on Saint Jane Beauty Hydrating Petal Cream. Like Saint Jane’s other products, the Petal Cream contains full-flower CBD—500 mg of it, in fact.

If you’ve read anything about CBD since it began to dominate the beauty world a couple of years ago, then you might already know that one of its biggest benefits is how it can reduce inflammation—which Saint Jane’s founder, Casey Georgeson, calls its “superpower.” According to Georgeson: “It’s an adaptogen and knows how to balance deficiencies deep in the dermal layers, and it works with localized endocannabinoid receptors to calm irritation, control oil production, and deeply hydrate.”

This is especially beneficial for those with sensitive and reactive skin, she adds. Not only that, but Saint Beauty uses a combination of florals and botanicals in its products, which help boost the CBD. The Petal Cream features magnolia, honeysuckle, rosemary, and pink lotus, and each of these plants have anti-inflammatory properties of their own—not to mention other benefits, like hydration. Hi, hello, this sounds like exactly what my skin needs.

Plus, I found the luxurious packaging hard to resist. The sturdy light pink bottle is the kind that immediately makes your vanity (or my old Ikea-desk-slash-makeshift-vanity) look instantly glamorous. But the formula is what sold me. In addition to the aforementioned plant power, the moisturizer has the perfect consistency: It’s lightweight but doesn’t immediately vanish when applied. It instantly sinks into my skin and plumps it up (courtesy of the 1% pure hyaluronic acid).

After a few days those weird dry patches on my forehead finally disappeared—and have stayed away! If there are any remnants left of the cream after I apply it to my face, I’ll massage it into my hands and cuticles. (Plea to the Saint Jane powers that be: I wouldn’t mind this as a body cream.)

I’m also obsessed with the scent. I sometimes find floral fragrances to be overpowering, but this was not. It’s super-fresh, and makes me feel like I’m walking in a garden. Bottom line? It’s been weeks since my skin has recovered from my various treatments, but the Petal Cream hasn’t left my side. I’ve even brought it with me out of town instead of relying on my random, travel-sized go-tos. As loyal as I have been to my old face cream, it might finally be time to move on.