little white truths

At the moment I have quite a few skincare items that I've been using for a while and need to review - including some from The Ordinary, Skinstitut and Antipodes - and this night cream is one of them.

Indeed, if I look back on 2017, it's been the year of Antipodes and Skinstitut in particular, these being affordable brands that were previously on my list to explore. I have also managed to get my hands on a good deal from The Ordinary, it's just that those products are newer to my collection so I'm using the older stuff first.

Anyhoo. This night cream. I bloody love it. It's a definite repurchase for me, I can tell you that straight out.

So, Antipodes. Back in January I went to my local Priceline at opening time when one of its 40% off skincare sales started. I had tried to buy things from the brand at the last sale, but I'd made the mistake of going in the afternoon and most of the stock had already gone. 

This time I was lucky and managed to buy over half the available range. Excessive? Yes and no. I'd been impressed with what I'd tried from Antipodes thus far and it's not the most expensive line on the market, especially when you're getting it so heavily discounted. In hindsight, I would absolutely do it again. 

This night cream is now one of my two favourite products that I've tried from the brand to date, the other being the chia serum (reviewed here). Those two are tied, and the eye cream (reviewed here) comes in third.

Antipodes claims/product details:

• A high-performance night treatment with selected premium plant oils and antioxidants 
• Native New Zealand manuka honey active 20+ draws moisture to your skin, to help bring a truly ageless visage
• Healing marigold also helps bring an ageless visage
• Vinanza® grape helps neutralise the free radical damage that can lead to premature ageing
• Fragrance: ylang ylang, jasmine and sandalwood
• Scientifically shown to enhance the production of collagen that gives skin strength and elasticity (stimulates optimal synthesis of collagen production in human fibroblast skin cells by up to 92%)
• Suited to most skin conditions, especially mature and dry
• To use: apply at night onto your face, neck and décolletage after cleansing and toning
• RRP $53 AUD for 60ml, but do shop around

Verdict

I love this stuff. I've tossed up whether to give it an HG tag but I've decided not to, purely because I only dish out those for products that stand out so far beyond their counterparts that I think they're unbeatable. This cream is definitely excellent, but I have used other fantastic creams so I'm not going to say that it runs rings around its competitors because it's not quite at that point.

It's a white cream that's reasonably thick but it's not so thick that it feels heavy or suffocating on the skin. It starts melting into my face as soon as I apply it, so I've learned to apply less than I think I need because it spreads so well once it melts.

It has a gorgeous scent that I really enjoy and I do think it smells like avocado and pear, even though the fragrance is apparently ylang ylang, jasmine and sandalwood. Yes the scent is quite strong and I don't normally like strong fragrance in my skincare, but this smells so nice and natural that I love it - and after two months of use, I'm not sick of it yet.

This is one of those creams that, while most of it does absorb, it also leaves a coating so I use it as my overnight product. To start with I was using it as my night cream and applying an oil at bedtime (four hours later), but I realised pretty quickly that the oil wasn't penetrating properly through the cream so I switched them and the combo is now working better.

Worth mentioning is that I don't think this will suit all skin types. While I personally don't find it to be too rich or heavy, I do have dry skin so I like more hydrating products and I suspect you will struggle with this if you have super oily skin. But if you're combination or normal, I do think it's worth testing this at least because it's not as heavy as other night creams I've used.

I love how cooling and soothing this feels when applied, and how comfortable my dry skin feels after use. It's like I've just given it a drink. I also find that my skin feels less dry in the morning when I use this, so I feel it has a protective element and operates as a barrier cream to seal in my other products and keep my skin feeling nourished overnight.

On the claims: I do think this has helped improve my skin's strength and elasticity because my skin feels more resilient these days, and for this reason it's been a good cream to pair with some strong active ingredients that I've introduced to my routine over the last couple of months. I also agree that it's best-suited to mature and dry skin, but I wouldn't say that it's given me an 'ageless visage' (ha); as in, I don't think it has helped me look younger - it's just improved the overall comfort and condition of my dry skin.

In sum, this is a fantastic cream and I'm really enjoying it. It's a definite repurchase for me, and I'm thrilled to have found something this lovely that I can buy easily from Priceline for around $33 AUD (when reduced). Oh! It's 60ml too, which is larger than most creams I've used - those generally being between 30ml and 50ml.

Love.