Review: Simple Vital Vitamin Night Cream

Simple is a brand I just keep on returning to whenever I'm in need of something that's cheap, but that I know will be good for my skin. There's just something about their products that works brilliantly with my skin type each and every time and this night cream is no different.

It comes in a lightweight plastic tub which while it's not particularly luxurious, isn't exactly cheap looking either.
My worries with night creams are that they're usually a tad too heavy and I find myself waking up in the morning with greasy face, but this one is surprisingly light for a night time moisturiser.

I'd even go as far as saying it's a touch too light in winter on my combination skin, but during the rest of the year it's absolutely perfect. If my skin's feeling a bit drier I'd either switch to a different moisturiser, or simply use a more nourishing serum underneath.

It doesn't perform any miracles on the skin, but it makes me wake up to a fresh face with soft skin that doesn't feel sticky or heavy and I just know that I'll keep going back to this, because it's affordable and delivers solid results.

Even though it's marketed for sensitive skin I know that many people with that skin type struggle with Simple products, but I've also read great reviews from others. If you do find that you tend to get adverse reactions from a lot of skincare products it's maybe best to test this one out first.
But for anyone without sensitivities, particularly for those with oily, normal or combination skin, I couldn't recommend this more.

Simple Vital Vitamin Night Cream is available at Boots for £5.99

Good Things Dream Cream Review

This was the very first item I purchased from "Good Things" and I wish I could give you some fancy reason as to why I picked it up, but the truth is I needed a night cream and this had pretty packaging while not costing a fortune. Yes, that's really all there was to it.

Zum ersten Mal habe ich etwas von "Good Things" gekauft und ich würde euch gerne einen tollen Grund dafür geben, aber in Wahrheit brauchte ich einfach eine Nachtcreme und diese hatte eine schöne Verpackung ohne aber ein Vermögen zu kosten. Und das war es dann auch.

This cream comes housed in a plastic pot, which I know is a bit of an issue for some people who prefer more hygienic pumps or squeezy tubes. The upside of a pot however, is that you can get every last scrap of cream out of it without having to resort to chopping up the packaging. The drawings look very pretty, but in my opinion the white plastic and the poorly placed stickers make this look a tad cheap and it's not something I'd want to show off on my dressing table.

Die Creme kommt in einem Plastiktiegel, was für manche, die einen Pumpflakon oder eine Tube bevorzugen, ja ein kleines Hygieneproblem darstellen kann. Das Gute an so einem Tiegel ist aber, dass man jeden letzten Tropfen rausbekommt ohne die Verpackung zersägen zu müssen. Die Zeichnungen auf der Verpackung sehen zwar hübsch aus, doch meiner Meinung nach wirken das weiße Plastik und die schräg aufgeklebten Sticker etwas billig und ich würde so etwas nicht gerne auf meinem Schminktisch zur Schau stellen.

To be completely honest with you, this is a bit of a tough one for me to review. I've used it every night for a couple of weeks and I can't say that it performed any miracles, but on the upside it didn't break me out either. Please bear in mind that I have fairly normal skin which tends to react more to outside influences and lifestyle choices rather than cosmetic products. So, having said that, all I can really tell you about is how it felt on my skin directly after application and hopefully you'll find that informative enough to form an opinion. Everyone's skin is different after all!

Um ganz ehrlich zu sein, ist es etwas schwierig für mich, diese Creme zu bewerten. Ich habe sie ein paar Wochen lang jeden Abend aufgetragen und sie hat keine Wunder bewirkt, aber auch keine Pickel oder Irritationen ausgelöst. Bitte vergesst nicht, dass ich recht normale Haut habe, die eher auf äußere Einwirkungen und Lifestyleveränderungen reagiert als auf kosmetische Produkte. Alles, wovon ich also berichten kann, ist sich die Creme nach dem Auftragen auf meiner Haut angefühlt hat und hoffentlich hilft euch das, euch eine eigene Meinung zu bilden. Jeder hat schließlich andere Hautbedürfnisse.

Good Things say that this is a "light but nourishing" cream and I somewhat agree with that statement. It feels light and spreads easily, but it's most definitely a typical cream in texture. It takes quite a long time to sink into my skin and does leave a bit of a film on my face, but as it's a night cream that's still acceptable. By the time I wake up in the morning there's no residue left on my skin.
Very oily skin types may want to give this a miss, as it could be just a tad too rich, whereas dry and combination skin types should handle it fairly well. Very dry skin would probably need more moisture from a night cream than this can offer.

Good Things sagen, dass dies eine "leichte aber reichhaltige" Creme ist und im Prinzip würde ich dem zustimmen. Sie fühlt sich relativ leicht an lässt sich gut verteilen, ist von der Konsistenz her aber definitiv eine typische Creme. Sie braucht recht lange, um richtig einzuziehen und hinterlässt eine Art Film auf meinem Gesicht. Da es sich aber um eine Nachtpflege handelt, finde ich das akzeptabel, denn wenn ich morgens aufstehe, ist alles schön eingezogen.
Für sehr ölige Hauttypen ist sie nicht geeignet, denn für die ist sie doch etwas zu reichhaltig. Trockene und Mischhaut sollte hingegen gut mit dieser Creme zurechtkommen. Extrem trockene Haut würde wahrscheinlich mehr Feuchtigkeit benötigen, als dieses Produkt zu bieten hat.

Unfortunately, there's one negative that I just have to tell you about and that's the smell. The cream contains fig and avocado extracts and it smells... well, exactly how you would imagine fig and avocado to smell. First the sweet fig draws you in like some kind of deadly flesh-eating tropical flower and then you get hit by the avocado. It's just one sickly and in my opinion utterly disgusting mixture and to add insult to injury it doesn't just vanish once it's on your face, but lingers and sits there all around your nose.
Now, I wouldn't describe myself as overly sensitive to scents, but this nauseating smell is what's going to keep me from ever buying this again. If you think about purchasing this I would definitely recommend giving it a sniff first and if your stomach can tolerate the smell you may well have found yourself a pretty good night cream!

Leider gibt es einen Nachteil, von dem ich euch berichten muss und das ist der Geruch. Diese Creme enthält Feigen- und Avocadoextrakte und sie riecht... nun, genauso, wie man sich Feige und Avocado zusammen vorstellen würde. Erst zieht einen der süße Feigenduft an, wie irgendein tödliches, fleischfressendes Tropengewächs und dann wird man von der Avocado erschlagen. Es ist eine ekelhaft süße Mischung, die meiner Meinung nach nur Übelkeit hervorruft. Um jetzt noch Salz in die Wunde zu streuen, verfliegt der Geruch auch nicht so schnell, sobald er aufgetragen wurde, sondern hängt noch lange in der Nase.
Ich würde von mir nicht behaupten, dass ich sehr sensibel bin, was Gerüche angeht, aber der ekelerregende Geruch hiervon wird mich davon abhalten, diese Creme je wieder zu kaufen. Wenn ihr daran denkt, euch dieses Produkt anzuschaffen, dann würde ich euch raten, erst mal dran zu schnuppern und wenn euer Magen den Gestank ertragen kann, habt ihr möglicherweise eine recht gute Nachtpflege gefunden!

A 50ml pot of this retails at £8.99.

Ein 50ml Tiegel kostet £8.99. In Deutschland habe ich Good Things noch nicht gesehen; bitte lasst mich in den Kommentaren wissen, wenn ihr Ahnung davon hat, wo man Produkte dieser Firma kaufen kann!

Lacura Q10 - or the not so miraculous £1-miracle-cream

I've been mixing up my skincare routine quite a bit lately, so there will be quite a few reviews coming on how I got along with all of my new products. Some of them worked really well, some not so much.

I first heard about these when I first started trying to save some money back in June. I only started using them recently, however, as the Clinique moisturiser I'd been using before that didn't want to end and I also received some samples after that which I wanted to use up first.
These cost £1 each and are from Aldi - not a shop I'd usually consider for my beauty needs, but I'd heard so many rave reviews about them I just had to give it a go. After all, the worst-case scenario would be that £2 went down the drain - so what?

Among the amazing things that I read about this cream was how well it fared in blind tests among much more high-end products and that it was the only anti-ageing cream that is scientifically proven to work. I'd like to point out that I don't know how accurate those reports are, but they sure sparked my interest.

The packaging is nice enough - they both come in glass pots which look pretty on my dressing table and also give it a more expensive appearance. I like that the lids are different colours, so I could see from the top which one to use for day and which one to use for night.

Lacura Q10 Day Cream

The textures of the two creams vary heavily. The day cream has a nice light, but still creamy texture. It feels moisturising, but not greasy and sinks quickly into the skin.

Lacura Q10 Night Cream

As you can see from the picture the night cream was a little bit... different. The texture reminded me of butter, but not in a good way. I had to really dig into the pot to get any product on my finger as opposed to a greasy film. It left my skin really sticky and horrible, but then night creams are supposed to be a bit richer, so if your skin is dry to very dry you might be alright.

I am aware that this cream is not really meant for my skin type. Though it doesn't really say what skin this IS meant for, I wasn't expecting any wrinkle reduction at the age of 22. I usually have normal to combination skin with the odd dry or oily day thrown in for good measure if my skin's feeling rebellious. Nevertheless, I've used anti-ageing products before and they usually did a nice job of keeping my skin hydrated and soft.
These, however, broke me out severely. My skin became quite odd - it was not oily, but it just felt kind of sticky, like the surface of a rubber ball. I really, really wanted to like this because of the amazing price tag, so I kept on using it in the hope that my skin would get used to it, or that it would work better in the winter. But no, the spots kept coming and the plasticky feeling on my face stayed.
After a while I stopped using the night cream and the spots improved a little bit, but still wouldn't go away completely. When I finally chucked the day cream as well, I had clear skin within three days.

It might work on more mature or very dry skin types - some people do love this after all. I wouldn't recommend it for normal, oily, or even slightly dry skin, as it is just way too rich and greasy. For £1 each, however, it's still worth trying - at worst you can do what I did and chuck it in the bin after a few uses without any hard feelings.