I recently inherited a large bag of assorted cosmetics and make-up items from a very good friend of mine, all of which were completely unused and most were still sealed. Within this 'lucky dip' of treats was a couple of items from pretty expensive or 'high-end' ranges of cosmetics such as Clinique, Clarins and Yves Saint Laurent. Now, I'm not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth, and am always keen to try out different items and cosmetics, so of course the goody bag was received very gratefully!

In amongst the bag of goodies was a product from the Clarins range of cosmetics, namely the 'Clarins Gentle Night Cream'. I understand that this product is only available to buy in one size of tub, which is a 50ml tub. The product that my friend had passed on to me was actually a smaller version, a trial sized tub of the product which was in a neatly-sized little 15ml pot of cream. I believe that this size of the product is only available as a free gift from Clarins when you purchase other items.

The packaging for the Gentle Night Cream consists of a plastic tub that is white, with the name of the product printed on the front in red print. There is a peach-coloured lid on top of the tub and the product 's packaging looks similar to that of the larger-sized version, although the trial size (15ml) tub that I have doesn't have any product information on it, nor are there any directions about sensitivity or application. This tends to be the case with trial-sized cosmetics and make-up in my experience.

The cream itself is an off-white colour and first impressions were mainly good; the cream looks to be of a fairly thick, almost 'fluffy' consistency and it looks to have a sort of glossy sheen to it. When I first smelled the cream, I was slightly disappointed to note that it's not an unfragranced night-time cream, which is my personal preference, but I was also relieved to notice that the fragrance the night cream has is not at all over-powering or sickly.

Using the Clarins Night Cream on my face was effortless and without fuss, which is really what I am looking for in a night-cream product as it is used at bedtime! The consistency of the cream is actually quite luxurious in my opinion, and my initial assumption that the cream was quite thick and sort of 'fluffy' was absolutely spot on. I find that this cream is one of the smoothest and thickest night cream products that I have ever come across and smoothing it over my face takes only a second or two thanks to its luxuriously thick consistency.

I found that the scent of the cream was evident whilst I was applying the cream to my face, and I found that the fragrance was noticeable to me for a short time after the product had been applied, but I didn't find that the fragrance was overly intrusive or over-bearing at all. I find the scent is quite difficult to describe, but it smells to me like a sort of generic 'body cream' type smell, or similar perhaps to a sun-care or after sun type product. It is sort of soapy and slightly clinical, but not flowery or perfume-like.

Once the cream had been applied, I found that it was absorbed relatively easily and I didn't need to keep rubbing the cream into my skin. That said however, I did feel that the cream felt quite 'heavy' on my skin, and I felt that there was a sort of greasy residue left on my face. I also felt that the greasy residue was still evident on my skin when I got up the following morning and my face had a sort of oily look to it which is most definitely a negative point for yours truly! To be fair, my skin is quite troublesome and I do tend to be prone to oily patches and the occasion outbreak of spots, and perhaps somebody with a more 'normal' skin type would find this cream suited them perfectly. For me however, it felt slightly 'harsh' to use on my troublesome skin and the oily-feeling (and oily look) that it left me with were off-putting to me.

The plus points of this particular night cream were certainly noticeable, and credit is most certainly due in terms of the moisturisation properties of this Clarins cream. I found that my skin was almost 'baby soft' after only two days of using the product and I could not fault it's softening or moisturising qualities at all. Furthermore, the dry skin that plagues my forehead seemed to finally have its thirst quenched by this Night Cream, which is another massive plus point for me of course. Unfortunately though, I feel that both of these positive points are not enough for me to justify buying the full-sized tub of the Clarins Gentle Night Cream, and I actually think the product is fairly over-priced. I have achieved similar results from products costing around £10 and so I do think that this particular product is one where the consumer is paying a bit more for the pretty packaging and the upmarket brand.

Overall, I would only rate the product two stars out of five. I wouldn't buy the full-sized version and can't really recommend it too highly. It is vastly over-priced, and in my opinion you are paying for the upmarket brand name and not a high quality product.

There is a whole range of cosmetics and make-up products available from the Clarins range and you can find some of this range online at www.boots.com, or in-store in larger branches of Boots, as well as in larger department stores. As at October 2011, the price for the 50ml tub of Clarins Gentle Night Cream is £38.50 in Boots.