A Cream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

I am obsessed with moisturiser. It’s my absolute number one desert island necessity, shortly followed by Twinings English Breakfast tea and probably a boat or something I guess.  

I’ve got very sensitive skin (although it leans more towards combination around my T-zone) which tends to get dry, so moisturisers are a super important part of my routine, so I’m going to tell you about a few of my very favourites.

First up is the Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturising Lotion, AKA the Clinique Yellow Moisturiser (A+ product nicknaming everyone; I am proud of all of us), which is £29 for 125ml on their website. Everybody loves a classic, and you can see in the picture that mine’s been very well-loved indeed. This product has been around for a long time, with only minor formula changes, and that’s because it’s just fucking great. It’s a very rich moisturiser – I only use it at night – but with a very light consistency, which is genuine witchcraft if you ask me. It disappears into my skin easily and leaves it feeling plumped and soft and lovely. It’s on the expensive side, but one or two pumps is enough to cover your whole face and it lasts for ages – I got this one for my birthday, in February- so if you splurge on it one month it won’t ruin you. Also, it’s YELLOW.

Garnier Wake Me Up (£2.99 in Boots) is part of their Moisture Match range. This one is the brightening version. It’s a medium consistency gel formula with a very slight shimmer, which I know isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s subtle and the moisturiser itself is good enough that it absorbs, rather than sits on the surface of your skin. This isn’t a product I use all the time – the shimmer means it’s been in the back of my drawer for the summer, but now that autumn is well and truly upon us (yay!) I’ve been getting it back out to try and add a little bit of light on days when I’m a bit hungover or just fancy a little more glow than usual. It’s also got a lovely, fresh, cucumbery sort of scent, which is very pleasant on mornings when I feel like I’ve died in the night (hello, Mondays), and at that price it can hardly fail to be great value-for-money.

Soap & Glory’s The Righteous Butter (£10.50 in Boots, where all Soap & Glory products are buy one get one half price) is my absolute favourite winter body butter. I love Soap & Glory in general (they love puns! WE love puns! Match made in heaven) and this was the very first product of theirs I ever tried, so it’s got a special place in my heart. The smell is incredible and it doesn’t irritate my skin unless I’m having a serious sensitivity flare-up – I was fully expecting it to be problematic as I react to a lot of products and this one is very scented, but it’s actually very gentle. It’s a gorgeous thick consistency and it lasts for ages, so although it’s a mid-range product it works out quite economically. I use it after showering, mostly on my legs, where the skin tends to get dry because of shaving, and also areas like my elbows and the back of my neck where I get extra dryness (not because of shaving. I do not shave my neck.), and it gives a really great, lasting softness. It does take a little longer to absorb than a normal moisturiser, so it's better for times when you're not in a hurry and you can spent a little while lounging around in a lovely dressing gown smelling beautiful. 

In the summer, I tend to go for a bit of a lighter body moisturiser than the Righteous Butter, but because I (tentatively) get my legs out every so often it’s still important to keep them extra soft, so I tend to go for the Vaseline Intensive Rescue Moisture Locking Body Lotion (usually £4.99 in Boots but currently £3.33; yay!). It’s much lighter in consistency than the Soap & Glory and absorbs almost instantly into the skin, so it’s great for after panic-shaving when you’ve run out of maxi skirts (everyone does that, right?!). This one is also unscented, so if you’re unlucky and you do react to the Soap & Glory one, I definitely recommend giving this a try – all Vaseline products are geared towards more sensitive skin and I’ve never had a problem with this even during my worst skin disasters.

I have saved the best til last: Nivea Soft Refreshingly Soft Moisturising Cream (£6.02 for 300ml). I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this, as I was considering saving it for a favourites post, but I just couldn’t leave it out. I’ve been using this cream for years and years and it’s my favourite moisturiser in the world ever. It’s extremely rich, but still absorbs quickly and a small amount is still light enough to use in the morning (holy fucking grail, you guys). It smells beautiful, a really clean, gentle scent, and I’ve never had any kind of reaction to it no matter how mental my skin is feeling. I cover my whole body in it after a shower – I would swim in it if I could – and it leaves my skin feeling soft for days. It’s also an excellent price and you can find it in all sorts of shops, including supermarkets, which is really useful as I can always, always get hold of it if I run out. It’s perfect. I keep sachets of it in my purse for moisturiser emergencies (I'm not sure what they are but if I have one, I'm prepared). If I had to use one moisturiser for the rest of my life, this would be the one.  

Special mentions also go to Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream, quite expensive but a lovely rich moisturiser, and Simple Kind To Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser, very gentle and super inexpensive and easy to carry about in your bag (as I did between the ages of 12 and 16).

And THERE YOU HAVE IT: my very favourite moisturisers to help keep you all baby soft all year round. If there’s any incredible ones I’ve left out please let me know; I LOVE recommendations.