Too heavy for me, too pricey for no visible effect.

Changing my mind on this one!

Ironically for a moisturiser with SPF, this was too heavy for me during the summer. However, now that winter is on its way my skin is battling hard against the cold and the wind – and this has been perfect for keeping me less red and flaky!

I’m in two minds about this, but overall I think I just have to admit that 99% of the time it’s too heavy for my skin – at least, under makeup.

Otherwise it is a good moisturiser, much less heavy that Skin Nanny, but still with natural SPF. The scent is a bit dull, alas.

I’ll keep it for when I feel in need of a full-on skin drink, and go back to Vanishing Cream full time – heck, it’s not like Scotland’ll be seeing sun again until next May ;)

The last of the three freebies – and I worked hard for this’un!!

Given that the assistant had taken one look at me and pronounced, “Oh you wouldn’t want Skin Nanny, it’s for much older skins – it’d be far too heavy for you”, the only one still available in the shop definitely wasn’t happening. Actually, quite what I’m going to do with the tub I have…!

Paradise Regained would be much better. Alas, the shop was out, but lo – there is one tub in the other store, the last in Edinburgh!! They’d hold it for me if I wanted to head over?!

Of course, it would have just been a simple extra… what? 20 minutes on the bus?... if I hadn’t gotten on one going the wrong way. BRAIN, woman!!

Anyway. Got there in the end, did the fastest-ever basket fill (I’d been planning since Sunday!) and this stuff better be good!!

Now, does anyone want to try some Skin Nanny? ;)

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.