A long while ago, I read an opinion on Ciao about L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream which inspired me to buy the product, and I was very impressed (potential for a future opinion I feel). I have bought a few other L’Occitane products when I am feeling rich and like I deserve a treat, but my most recent purchase is their Ultra Moisturising Night Care.
•• THE COMPANY •• L’Occitane is a wonderful French company that uses natural ingredients to produce some marvellous beauty products. It was created in 1976 by Olivier Baussan a native of Provence. Using the traditional method of extraction, he developed L’Occitane’s very first products based on essential oils extracted from local plants. He later went on to develop a humanitarian-partnership with African women. In the
Burkina Faso village in Africa, the native women harvest Shea nuts and are the co-producers of L’Occitane’s complete Shea Butter Collection.
L’Occitane are also famous for their ‘different’ packaging, as their products are packaged in aluminium tubes, canisters and unbreakable bottles. They look simple but trendy. They were one of the first companies to include Braille on most of their packaging so that blind and partially sighted people were not disadvantaged.
In case you haven’t already been convinced, this should do it - Kylie Minogue is apparently a fan of L’Occitane.
•• SHEA BUTTER •• Shea Butter is retrieved from the fruit of the Shea Tree found exclusively in Africa. Shea Butter moisturises, nourishes and protects extra dry and sensitive skin. Many other companies such as the Body Shop have also struck up partnerships with African villages to harvest and use Shea Butter in their products.
•• THE PRODUCT •• L’Occitane Ultra Moisturising Night Care comes in an aluminium tube (like a toothpaste tube) containing 75ml of cream. This is inside a brown cardboard box with a mainly blue label, which can obviously be recycled. The smell of the shea butter range is wonderful, but very difficult to describe. It is very rich, but not overpowering and a very clean smell – I love it. The cream contains 15% shea butter and other moisturising agents: corn, almond and honey.
When you squeeze the tube a thick white cream comes out. It spreads very easily and not much is needed. It is particularly recommended for dry and sensitive skin, which is why I bought it as this describes mine perfectly. It also claims that ‘Shea Butter and natural moisturising agents regenerate and nourish the skin optimising the repairing benefits of sleep’.
I think this is a wonderful product. It smells marvellous and is extremely moisturising as it claims. It is not particularly greasy and is absorbed well, although not too quickly, as this cream is supposed to give you all night protection. I have had no adverse reaction to it (as I have with some Garnier products), and I wake with my face feeling nice and soft. It contains no SPF being a night cream, so should not be worn during the day. It doesn’t claim to reduce wrinkles like many similar products, and I haven’t noticed mine reduce, but then I have never noticed my wrinkles reduce even using expensive products that DO claim this!
•• WHERE TO BUY IT •• I actually bought mine from Calais whilst on a day trip to France and it cost about £11.00. You can also buy it from L’Occitane’s website for £13.95 at www.loccitane.com but you will be charged £4.95 p&p, which is a bit excessive in my opinion. However, the web site is quick to load and easy to use. L’Occitane have shops at Bluewater Kent, Brighton, Cambridge, London (5 stores: Kensington High Street, Queensway, off Oxford Street, Regent Street and Kings Road) and Solihull, but they also have a limited range available in many House of Fraser Stores.•• CONCLUSION •• I recommend this product for a number of reasons. They are an ethical company (although I was unable to find anything about their animal testing policies), the product is a reasonable price compared to other night creams (e.g. double the price for Clarins and Clinique), it works well, it smells gorgeous and us ladies deserve a treat!
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The description of this product sounds wonderful. I must try some!!! I will try e-Bay.
29th_Candidate 22.04.2002 19:00
Hi Offy-- Your handy op content was hand-creamly skin-teresting and skin-formative. Where others salve, for the moist part, merely given this product superficial treatment, you handily touch on every potentially-useful "finger"-point and "finger"-tip a hand-lotion consumer could conceivably consider handy. Not only do you have a firm grip on your op-ointment, but the tactile sensitivity and lotion-devotion with which you handle your skin-fo yields an even-handed analysis of a skin-product that can, on thumb abrasions, be a rather touchy and abrasive op subject. //// QUESTION: --Was it "...difficult to get a hold of," before or after you applied it? //// You state in your review: ["They were one of the first companies to include Braille on most of their packaging so that blind and partially sighted people were not disadvantaged"] --Please don't strangle me if my callous observation rubs you the wrong way, but the company seems to overlook a potentially large subsection of their blind users, to whit: those blind people whose voracious reading habits and blistering reading pace cause them (i.e., their hands and fingetips) to become calloused and unfeeling; out of touch and insensitive. For the handicap suffered by this type of user, the company would need to determine some braille-safe packaging alternative to prevent the abrasiveness of the current packaging from becoming a liability; a digital balm waiting to blow up in their hands, no? I'm only kidding. (--and I really did enjoy reading your well-written and informative op, Offy.) Best Regards To You, --29th
Wayne10ch 22.04.2002 02:08
When you squeeze the tube a thick white cream comes out??? What did you expect to come out? *LOL* A very good op as always! Wayne :O) Oh BTW It might be an idea to have our Ciao names on a badge at the Birmingham bash otherwise no one will know who anyone is!
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