Full title: Oriflame Optimals Oxygen Boost Day/ Night Cream for Oily Skin
Brand: Oriflame
Claim to fame: Deep hydration and rejuvenation with a mattifying effect.
Cruelty-free? Used to be, but lately the cruelty-free claim seems to be absent from the back of local catalogues. Sadface.
Select Ingredients: Lingonberry, the Swedish super-antioxidant fruit. (Well, berry.) Specially formulated in this case, with 50% berry extract and 50% leaf extract, which is said to give triple the antioxidant effect.
Scent:
The scent of this is pleasant. At first I thought it a bit harsh, but it grew on me. To my nose there’s a slight difference between day and night scents. I feel like it has a citrusy undertone, but one thing I’ll never be is a sommelier and a perfumer – my nose is shit at discerning anything that’s not gasoline, propane, or cat piss.
Packaging:
The entire Oriflame Optimals facial creams series comes in glass jars. They’re sturdy, with a wider bottom, and plastic caps. The glass feels almost luxurious in your hands, and at first I really liked them. But then the combination of their heaviness, the cream-covered hands, and my glass bathroom shelf started to worry me. Seriously, this thing feels heavy. I think if I dropped it, it’d leave a crack in the sink.
But either way, I shall remain the proponent of this packaging, because glass doesn’t come into a reaction with the jar’s contents — something I’m never too sure about when it comes to plastic packaging.
Another thing about the way these creams are packaged: I loved the leaf design on the boxes. I even saved it for photographs, as you can see below, and considered just keeping them as part of my general pile of paper ephemera. I dunno man, it just speaks to me.
Also, the writing comes on stickers, but they are thin and surprisingly good quality. Usually I rip the stickers off because I get this tic where I absolutely have to pick at it. These were so even, though, they remained untouched.
Action:
So far I’ve used up two jars of day cream (light green) and one jar of night cream (darker green). It’s odd, because night cream was more to my liking. Day cream claims to be mattifying (haven’t noticed), and as a result of that it has just the slightest amount of residue that you can feel on your skin quite a while after the application. The night cream is also more hydrating (d’oh) and left my skin feeling more even.
Aside from a little bit of residue that I felt after applying day cream, these two absorb quickly, and leave the skin smooth and plump. When I worked from home, day cream provided enough hydration. However, when I started working in the office, it proved to be less effective in battling the effects of air conditioners and electrified dust.
Both creams leave skin a bit tingly after application, especially if you use a harsher toner, but I actually kinda came to like the tingles. No rash, redness, or any adverse reaction – just a slight tingly feeling, that made me go a bit like, yeah the thing’s working.
These particular two creams are formulated for oily skin of all ages. As far as moisturisers go, this one is okay. Expect no magic from it, though it’s better than many others in its price range.
tl;dr/ Would I repurchase? On the fence. Currently trying other options, but I might go back to it, because I know that it will not fail me for basic daily use. No breakouts, no reactions, happy with its scent, nicely packaged, overall satisfactory.
