little white truths

We received this Garnier face cream in a recent edit of The Parcel, and I wasn't excited to see it because Garnier skincare doesn't work for me as a general rule (aside from the micellar water) and I've also received so many face creams in sub boxes recently that I really didn't need another one.

Still, I gave it a go because I'm always prepared to be proven wrong, but unfortunately I wasn't in this case and it's not just that this doesn't work for me, it's so bad that I'm going to do something I so rarely do: I'm going to stop using it on my face and instead either throw it out or use it on my body because I wouldn't even give it to anyone. More on why below.

• Wake up de-tired and stay healthy-glowing from morning 'till evening
• The first de-tiring cream that irons out the most visible signs of fatigue for a visibly younger, healthy-looking skin all day long
• Even if life is tiring, your skin stays radiant, de-tired and glows with health
• Instant ultra-smoothing, de-tiring effect 
• Wrinkles and fine lines are 'optically blurred'
• Skin is firmer and replumped, hydrated for 24h
• To use: begin with two pea-sized amounts and apply generously all over your face; pat into the skin with your fingertips to allow cream to penetrate; for best results, use after cleansing
• RRP $19.95 AUD for 50ml, but do shop around

You may remember that I recently reviewed Gariner's Miracle Sleeping Cream (see here), which is from the same line as this product - and while I didn't love it, it was passable enough that I used it until it was all gone.

Unfortunately I can't say the same for this cream: it's so bad and does so little for my skin that I'm going to stop using it on my face because life's too short and I reckon skin's too important for products that just don't hit the mark.

It's a thick, cream-coloured product that smells strongly of alcohol to me (champagne and orange?), and from memory the night cream did too - so I'd definitely test these first if you're sensitive to fragrance because these don't smell like something you really want to put on your face.

The product feels super thick to the touch, and when I start to rub it in, I'm immediately aware of a grittiness to the texture that feels like powder, and indeed the product looks matte and powdery on the face when applied. 

Maybe it's just me, but if you're marketing something that's called 'wake up' and claims to make skin look 'healthy-glowing' and 'radiant', then it shouldn't be matte - it should be something that offers a nice dewy glow. Dewy skin looks glowing and youthful; matte skin can look old and tired, or at least that's how this cream makes me look. Not what I want at all!

Also, the damn stuff doesn't absorb properly so it sits on top of my skin and leaves me feeling dry because moisture isn't being delivered where I need it. The other problem with this, of course, is that it doesn't make for a good day cream because my face winds up coated and my primer and foundation 'ball up' when applied over the top. 

Indeed, even when I use this at night and don't put anything over it, if I run my hands over my face (even an hour after application), I get that pilling effect and bits of the product flake off. Perhaps this mightn't matter if I wasn't using an overnight treatment, but I am so it does because I want that overnight treatment to absorb, and this product doesn't allow it to do that (which I know for sure because my night treatment normally tingles a little but it doesn't when applied over this because my skin is too coated for it to penetrate).

So for me, this doesn't work for day use or night use, and it interferes with my other products. On top of that, it offers nothing beneficial to my skin and, as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't meet any of its claims. Honestly, it's the worst cream I've ever used and for this reason I've given it a 'disappointing products' tag and I'll probably banish it to the body cream section for use on my legs, since they can tolerate just about anything and I don't like product waste.

Blurgh. Double blurgh. I wouldn't go near this again with the proverbial barge pole.

Do let me know if you've tried the product and what you think of it if so. I'm keen to hear whether anyone has had any luck with it.