Adorable scent, minimal shimmer (L'Occitaine Cherry Blossom Shimmering Lotion)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	L'Occitaine Cherry Blossom Shimmering Lotion
Date:	23/09/08 (239 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells gorgeous, leaves skin soft and moisturised

Disadvantages: Not much shimmer, quite pricey

I bought a selection of L'Occitane products from QVC, and as I mentioned in a previous review of L'Occitane's Cherry Blossom Bath Pebbles, I have fallen head over heels in love with the Cherry Blossom scent.

One of the products I received from the Cherry Blossom range was the shimmering body lotion. I usually use a shimmery body lotion I received in a Christmas gift set from Next, when I go out, and although it gives a lovely shimmer to the skin, I am not so keen on it's scent. When I received this one, I was really pleased, as it is a scent I adore and promised to leave an 'iridescent veil' on my skin.

L'Occitane are a French company, who source most of their ingredients from Provence. They don't test their products on animals, neither do they use animal products - except for beehive products, like honey or royal jelly. Their cherry blossom products contain an extract of Luberon cherry which has hydrating and softening effects on the skin. This particular product is also enriched with Shea butter (fairly traded, of course) which is well known for it's moisturising properties.

The lotion comes in a clear bottle (always good, as I like to know how much I have left) and has a silver lid. My bottle is a smaller travel sized one, so is a little different to the one pictured, but I've seen the full sized bottle in the shops and it is a very unusual shape. It might look on the picture as though it is a square bottle photographed at an angle, but in fact, the back is flat, and the front is angled, which gives you the impression it is standing at angle.

The cherry blossom fragrance is gorgeous. I know obviously fragrance is quite a personal thing, and this will not be to everybody's taste, but I love it. It's very floral and feminine - a fresh, sweet scent, that is quite subtle, but absolutely adorable. There is something about the scent I find a little old-fashioned, I think it reminds me of something (although I've no idea what) from my childhood, but even so, I think it's a scent which would be suitable for most age groups, and in fact the cherry blossom fragrance, is L'Occitane's best selling Eau de Toilette.

The lotion is pale pink in colour and contains tiny silver particles of shimmer. On a recent night out, I decided to apply this to my arms and a little bit on my décolleté area to give my skin that 'iridescent veil' that was mentioned on the back of the bottle!

I found that a medium amount of the lotion is required - by that I mean you can't get away with a tiny amount, but neither do you have to slap loads on to cover a small area of skin. Despite containing Shea butter, which in the past I have found to make lotions quite thick and heavy, this lotion actually felt quite light on my skin and was absorbed quickly, which was great as I was in a rush when I used it!

The results I got, were not entirely what I expected. I knew from having seen this being demonstrated on QVC when I bought it, that it was not going to give me an over-the-top shimmery look - for example I was not going to look like I had been assaulted by a Christmas tree- but I felt that there was very little shimmer there - certainly not this 'iridescent veil' they were promising. A closer look, revealed that if I twisted my arm slightly, I could see that there were a couple of shimmery particles on my skin, but I think it would be better if the shimmer was slightly more intense- it doesn't need to be over-the-top, but I'm not really sure how they can get away with calling this a shimmer lotion as there is barely any shimmer in it!

During the writing of this review, I applied a little of the lotion to my left arm. Now, if I compare both arms, the left one ( to which I applied the lotion) does look a little brighter and healthier than the right, but still not particularly shimmery at all.

As a moisturiser, this does work quite well, it left my skin feeling soft and moisturised, and as I said, absorbed really quickly, leaving no sticky film on the skin.

The scent of the cherry blossom is fairly subtle, but even so, I found that a couple of hours after applying this, the scent seemed to have faded completely, which I was really disappointed with, as I love it so much.

A 250ml bottle of this lotion will set you back around £16.50. To me, that is a lot of money for a body lotion, especially considering it did not really give me the results I had expected. It can be purchased from www.loccitane.co.uk or it is also sold in Fenwick's.

Overall, I was a little disappointed in this product. For the price, I was expecting something fantastic, but unfortunately, didn't get it. The scent is absolutely gorgeous, but it's disappointing that it doesn't seem to stay on the skin very long, and delivered very little shimmer. On a more positive note, it did leave my skin feeling nice and soft, and like I mentioned it did seem to make my skin look a little brighter, but even so, I don't think I will be purchasing the full sized bottle.

Summary: Not the best L'Occitane product I've tried