Yves Rocher is a 50-year-old botanical beauty company who grow the ingredients, manufacture the products and distribute them – quite unusual for a company I think. I have heard of the brand before, I think from being in Germany perhaps, but they are now getting bigger in the UK.

They kindly send me a couple of their moisturising products to try out.

Expert Firming Balm

This really lovely 150ml plastic tub contains a thick, really thick, cream that is designed to leave your skin feeling toned, soft and supple. It comes with a sealed foil lid which when you remove it reveals a pretty solid white cream. I mean solid too – I put my finger really gently into it and made no impression without quite a lot of pressure. I read somewhere a little while ago. before I received the cream, that it reminds that person of cottage cheese (sorry, I’d quote you properly if I could find your review again!), and I can see why they say that.

Yves Rocher recommend that you use this cream twice a day for a month and that if you do that you will really see great benefits. Well I didn’t do that. This blogger is not very good at looking after her skin, which probably explains the state it’s in. I used it most days for about a month, in the evenings before bed. I used on my legs and arms mainly. Despite being thick it does go a long way and rubbed in easily.

It has a lovely fragrance that didn’t linger too long – important when you’re using something and then going to sleep, I don’t want a perfume headache or anything. It smells of shea butter, there was a touch of sun cream flavour about it somehow, but not an unpleasant note at all.

Whether it firmed my skin, well I reckon I probably failed the test because I didn’t use it daily, but I didn’t notice my skin being more toned. I did, though, notice my legs were smoother and nicer to touch, so it did have some effect for sure. No miracle cream, but nice to use.

It comes in at £12.50 for 150ml.

Repair Lotion

Have you got dry elbows and knees? Other problem patches? The second cream I tested from Yves Rocher was their Repair Lotion for Extra Dry Skin – and boy did I need this! I know we’re in the middle of the wettest summer for ever and ever, but my skin still gets dry, especially my hands. So this looked like it was going to be perfect.

Like I mentioned above, I’m really bad at looking after my skin, but I have got a little habituated with this product, I enjoy using it on my hands and feet. It’s a fairly thick but fluid cream in a tube (not as thick as the firming balm) that soaks into the skin easily. And the smell is lovely, really nice, and it is soft and gentle.

My elbows really liked this, and what I have left is now sat on my desk at work to use as hand cream because I find the scent really pleasant and the cream non-greasy enough to use on my hands and then type away on my keyboard. When it runs out I will be very tempted to buy some more, it’s the nicest cream like this I’ve tried for a long time. I’m not sure if I’ll ever turn into someone who can moisturise regularly, but this certainly makes me want to more often.

The cost is £9.50 for 150ml.