Is it really so wonderful?

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This is an old review that’s been sitting in my draft for two years. So I thought, why not publish it?

Did you know that beauty brands have flagship products? Because, I had no idea. This product is such a big deal to L’Occitane, this is reportedly their number one selling product. Since it comes so highly recommended, is so expensive and I received one for free, I thought it would be a great idea to give my impressions of it so you don’t have to spend £72 just to see what all the fuss is all about.

Disclaimer, I know am not the primary target audience for the Divine Cream due to my age. But as I was given this to test on my skin as past of my staff allowance from when I worked at L’Occitane, why the hell not give it a go?

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About the Brand

Like I said in my intro, I received this product as part of my staff allowance. Each month, we’d receive the newest product so we could try it out and give our honest opinions to the customers. This was September’s allocation, and if I’m being totally honest, most of the customers weren’t interested in hearing my opinion. The women who purchased this product were much older, and one flat out told me that she really didn’t see how our experiences with the product could be compared. Awkz.

Anyway! L’Occitane is a brand founded by a one Olivier Baussan, at the age of 23 as an essential oil merchant. He started distilling Rosemary, and then branched to lavender and built the L’Occitane brand on natural essential oils. They do a lot of charity outreach work, their Shea Butter is sustainably farmed in Burkina Faso in partnership with the local people and they treat their staff and customers really freaking well. They’re the only brand in the UK that I know is really liberal with samples. That being said, I find their products massively overpriced. But when you’re buying L’Occitane, you’re not really buying the products, you’re buying the brand, the luxury and the experience of it all.

Packaging

Before I say anything about the actual cream, I just want to geek out a little bit about the packaging first. It is hands down the most beautiful tub I’ve ever had on my shelf. It really does feel like a precious item sitting there in the gold box, holding it feels really nice too as it has a weight to it that makes it feel important.  Everything about it feels well made, important and luxurious. It could come across as being a little ostentatious or tacky because there really is a lot of gold and yellow, but I think the quality of the materials of the box, the lettering and the tub itself negate that.

Ingredients

The Divine Cream is a day and a night cream which makes the hefty pricetag seem a little less heavy, except when you look at the ingredients, not really. I found that I could only use it as part of my night time routine, just because it was so thick. I have oily/combination skin and wearing the Divine cream during the day time just made my skin feel heavy, oily and generally unhappy. It felt like I’d been coated with a thin oil spray and I did not enjoy it at all. Unsurprising, as it’s got all the oils possible in there! You only need to use a small amount, I think the recommended amount is of a 5 pence piece, but I found that I need to use a even less. It comes with a little spoon to help you measure out how much you need, pictured above is how much I use on my face. I use a little more if I’m covering my face and neck area.

It also was very very fragranced, almost overwhelmingly so.

The side of the box lists all these benefits and while I was deeply skeptical of all its claims, I very interested to see if I would notice any visible difference. So does it work? Eh? Not really. As pretty as the packaging is, I don’t really rate it. Again, I’m not the target audience, and many many women came in to buy this exclusively, claiming it made their skin amazing. I’m skeptical that it really is that awesome, and more inclined to believe that it’s getting into a routine and using a moisturiser is where they saw all the changes. Yes there are some good ingredients there, but nothing to me that really justifies the price tag.

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The Divine Cream is currently £72 direct from L’occitane, but I know it can be cheaper on home shopping channels and at times in their outlet stores. If you’re really curious, I would look for sample tubs in their travel sets or gifts with purchase (they add it in often).

But really, I’d give it a huge miss because it really doesn’t do everything it says it does. You’re buying into the luxury of it and if that’s what you want, then power to you!