A surprise entry into my “favourite SPFs” category: the new Pro-Collagen Marine Cream SPF30 from Elemis. I’m a bit dithery about the original Marine Cream; I like the silky, fast-absorbing feel, but at the same time it doesn’t have quite the moisturising “oomph” that I want from a high-end cream.
And it is high-end, price-wise; I always expect it to be in the realms of fifty or sixty-ish quid, about the same as a pot of Lauder’s anti-wrinkle cream – but it’s £80 for 50ml. Twenty pounds more than Sunday Riley’s brilliant Tidal Cream, and twice as expensive as Elemis’s own Hydra-Balance Day Cream, which I think is a bit nicer than Marine.
But I don’t think that my opinion is by any means the norm – Marine Cream is hugely popular, and on virtually any consumer feedback section, be it Amazon or QVC or Makeup Alley, it has hundreds of positive reviews and five star ratings. My own mother is a big Marine Cream user because (she says, and I quote) “it’s creamy to apply but absorbs quickly. I like that it becomes a part of your skin rather than coating it and turning you into an iced bun. Also,” says Mother, “it has a gorgeous smell.” I’ve always been a bit dithery about the smell personally – you have to really, really like a scent to want it on your face.
And so weirdly, because it has exactly the same smell as the original, when it came to ...