Welcome to our annual skincare awards, guys! It was a lengthy, at-times difficult process, but we managed to whittle all the best skincare products we’ve been using this year down year to five. These are the true desert-island skincare products. The ones we keep re-purchasing, find ourselves gushing to our best friends about, and wouldn’t be afraid to take back home to meet the parents.

Where does your mind go when you hear the word “Chanel”? Mine goes to Coco Chanel’s stand-up advice: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” On occasion, I’ll toss her counsel out the window and go full maximalist on the world, but oftentimes, it’s the gentle encouragement I need to turn an outfit from très tragedy to très chic.

I’m not the only one enrolled in the school of CC. The skin experts at Chanel have also been following their founder’s sage advice recently, if La Solution 10 de Chanel is anything to go by. Boasting only ten ingredients, the cream is a lesson in less is more. In honour of both their impressive ability to whittle down the ingredient list to ten and their victorious outcome in THE FILE’s Skincare Awards (pretttyyyy much a Nobel Peace Prize, TBH), here are ten reasons why La Solution 10 de Chanel is our favourite:

1. Melanie Grant stocks it in her clinic. If Coco Chanel is the grandmother of fashion, then Melanie is the wise, cool older cousin of beauty. When she speaks, we listen. When she stocks a product in her practise, we lather it lovingly on our faces. Ily, Melanie!

2. The price point is on the higher end of the scale, but hand-on-heart, it is fair. For a number of reasons, as detailed below:

3. It was formulated with sensitive skin in mind. Can I get a “Hallelujah” from all my red-faced sisters? It’s as satisfying to sensitive skin as aloe vera is to a summer’s day burn: Very.

4. The ingredient list almost reads like a superfood smoothie from your favourite organic café. Aqua, vegetal squalane, silver needle tea extract (antioxidant), and shea butter (moisturising) are all key ingredients.

5. The cream doesn’t contain fragrance, so not only can you kiss your irritated skin goodbye, but overbearing scents, too. Bisous all round!

6. Personally, my skin ate it up like a drunk person does a McChicken burger at 2am — with urgency, and with heart eyes. Outside of being sensitive, my skin is partial to the occasional blemish, and I have consistently been told that my skin is dehydrated, despite my best efforts to feed it H2O. La Solution 10 is pretty much the topical equivalent of sculling two litres of alkaline water for my skin.

7. In true Chanel style, the packaging is both minimal and classy AF. Your shelves are guaranteed to cry little tears of joy if you decide to grace them with its presence

8. I feel compelled to use the words “game-changer” when it comes to describing La Solution 10, despite my regular aversion to the blanket term. I’m pretty stubborn when it comes to language — even if my distaste for certain words follows no rational pattern — so you know it’s good.

9. While it’s incredibly moisturising, La Solution 10 won’t leave any greasy residue on your face, and is EXCELLENT under makeup

10. Did I mention Melanie Grant stocks it at her clinic?

There you have it, folks. You may have 99 problems, but thanks to La Solution 10 de Chanel, your skin ain’t one. Buy it here.

Words, Madeleine Woon. Photography, Blair Gauld.