Hurrah! An SPF15 moisturiser from Lush! I wound up with this product through a series of serendipitous events. Having popped into Lush to stock up my usuals, I was hoping to snaggle a tester of Vanishing Cream, a new product billed as “low-fat moisturiser” and created for spotty herberts like me. By happy coincidence, there was a special offer on – spend £20 and get one of anything free. Anything! But there was no Vanishing Cream to be seen – it had been snapped up by other spotty herberts – so the assistant persuaded me to try a tub of Paradise Regained as my freebie, and it may well turn out to be free money well spent.

Described on the tub as “no-tox” and “reviving”, I’ve seen it billed elsewhere as “anti-aging”. This piques my BSometer, as there’s no such thing as anti-aging, plus I don’t think of myself as being old enough to “require” such a thing yet, but no matter, I’m just trying it on for size _{and I probably am old enough, let’s face it.} It also contains skin-brightening AHAs, but rather than chemically extracted ones, PR’s AHAs come from fresh green grapes, pineapple and green tea infusion. And – oh joy! – it also contains SPF15, a rarity for Lush products as finding non-animal-tested SPF is nigh-on impossible and pretty spendy.

In practice, the cream is astonishingly light on application. It sinks in economically and quickly leaving only the faintest trace of oiliness. After a couple of days’ use, my skin does seem brighter and smoother, and my existing spots seem to be healing up, though whether this is connected or not is unsure. In the last few days I’ve also started wearing foundation regularly again, so if it’s fighting against the spot-creating properties of foundation, it’s doing a very good job.

I often find with moisturisers that they work really well for a week, or a month, then start to lose their efficacy. I have a full tub of this which I reckon will last a good long while, so I’ll update later once I’ve had a longer run. The tubs are £25, which is quite an initial outlay, but if it lasts as long as I reckon it will, and continues being ace, it could well be my Holy Grail moisturiser, and as such worth the cost.

Incidentally, this product is so new that the Lush website didn’t yet have a pic and I had to filch one from eBay. Thanks, eBay seller, – please, someone, click through and buy the item so I don’t feel so bad about the picture theft.