Nivea Pure & Natural moisturising day cream (for normal to combination skin) review

    Ok so I kind-of-accidentally skipped uploading anything last thursday, my excuse is my brain was fried from heat and fanfiction and what I had prepared just wasn't ready. So heres Tuesdays reviews up early! (actually last thursdays shut up)

    I bought this cream almost on a whim, unlike 99% of my skincare and makeup purchases, because I was going on a trip and I needed a moisturiser stat. I didn’t particularly like the look of any of the other moisturisers on sale (because even in a hurry I never pay full price -_-), and I’d been meaning to try out the new Pure & Naturals line anyway. 

    Incidentally this isn’t a good moisturiser to pack for travel in the sense that it’s packaged in a glass jar of decent weight, but since I was far from the weight limit it didn’t matter for me. And one could argue that in such sturdy packaging, at least it’s not going to crack and leak all over your other toiletries. The lid is made of a frosted plastic that provides a good grip, and it’s a twist top so it won’t pop open either. The box claims that all the packaging is recyclable so I assume the plastic lid is recyclable, which is good but it does irk me that the ingredients aren’t printed on the jar itself just the box. Also, I know some people find jar packaging unsanitary, but I don’t care too much about that kind of thing, I mean I’d PREFER a pump bottle or something but I’m not that bothered.

    The main reason I was interested in the new Nivea Pure & Natural range was the organic and “natural origin” leaning of the marketing. Ridiculous marketing of “natural” equates to ‘good for you’ aside (what is “Bio Argan oil”? Is there a ‘non-bio’ Argan oil? and 98% of natural origin? Everything on this planet could be construed as being of “natural origin”), I was hoping to get more organic, and sustainably sourced products at more affordable prices. According to the packaging here, this product contains organically grown Aloe vera and Argan oil, so any other ingredients, though ‘of natural origin’ (which I think might mean ‘of plant origin’, but really there’s no legal definition as far as I’m aware so it could just be straight up bull), are not necessarily organically nor sustainably grown. On the plus side, there are no mineral oils, silicones or colourants so if you’re skin gets irritated by these ingredients you can rest easy. It does contain ‘parfum’ as the last ingredient so unless you’re very sensitive to fragrances, this product shouldn’t irritate your skin.

    In the ingredients list, glycerin is the second ingredient on the list and is therefore present in quite large amounts, which might explain the similarly high volume of alcohol denat. (denatured).  Glycerin is a humectant but it’s also viscous and sticky, so I suspect part of the reason for the high volume of alcohol is to keep the texture of the cream light (however I am not a cosmecutical scientist so this is really an educated guess). The hydrogenated vegetable oil (6^th ingredient) seems higher than normal, but that’s just a personal observation. The ingredients that the product is marketed on though, are a bit lower down, coming in at 13^th (Argan oil) and 14^th (Aloe barbadensis leaf juice), just above the generally recognised 15^th ingredient cut off mark. Technically this suggests that they can still have some effect, but I’ve seen aloe juice at higher concentrations than 14^th in products that felt more moisturising (or at least didn’t leave any residue), so I feel like the aloe juice is mainly window dressing here, and doesn’t actually do anything significant. I’d say the main ‘moisturising’ ingredient in this cream is the glycerin.

 

ingredients list (edited because out of focus)

    Onto the product itself, it’s a soft rich cream, not liquid-y at all, and straight-up white. It feels quite light on the skin and I feel like it does provide hydration, but not enough for dry patches so if you have dry skin this product isn’t going to be enough. You could use it as more of a final seal in product though because, fortunately or unfortunately, it doesn’t completely absorb into my skin and leaves a slight residue behind. It’s weird because it doesn’t feel bad; it basically just feels like you just put moisturiser on, like you only notice when you touch your face. This consistency is preferable for normal to combination skin, however if you have combination oily skin, this might add to the shine.

    This product doesn’t feel greasy at all when you put it on and the residue is only slightly greasy feeling, so if you don’t mind that this product will work fine for you. I personally can’t stand any kind of residue, so I would definitely not repurchase this product, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad moisturiser either. When I used this cream as a night cream, I didn’t really notice the faintly shiny residue but when I used it as a day cream it was more noticeable. I used this moisturiser on and off from July onwards and finished it mid December so if you used this moisturiser regularly it would probably last you 3 months, especially since you don’t need a lot each time.

    In conclusion, an ok moisturiser, feels nice on but isn’t an intensive moisturiser despite leaving a slightly shiny residue on your skin. If you want to try this day cream but can’t stand jar packaging, just get a tiny spatula thing from Daiso or some other dollar store.

Effectiveness: 6/10

Feel: 7/10

Formulation: 5/10

Organic production/sustainability of product: 1/5 (because you can’t really be badly organic, most products just aren’t sustainably sourced etc. so that would be a 0)

Packaging: 6/10