This is one of the 5 15ml sized tubes of L'Occitane hand creams that I received in a 'set' for Christmas. The full size is 75ml and costs £13.50. My tube looks exactly like the 30 ml size (approx £7.50) depicted in the Dooyoo picture, the larger size has a gold lid and comes in an opaque pale rose pink plastic tube which to me doesn't look as nice as the metallic smaller sized tubes, for around the £13 mark I feel the larger size looks rather old fashioned but not in a good way, and in my opinion a bit tacky. I'd go as far as to say that if I wasn't familiar with the brand the look of the larger size could well put me off purchasing.

The company has a wonderful ethos and as I have mentioned in previous L'Occitane reviews they do not test on animals or use animal products in their ranges, (except from bees), if you'd like to find out more about L'Occitane their website gives a good overview of their history and current day ethos (http://uk.loccitane.com/FO/Content/About/)

This Rose hand cream contains shea butter which in itself if full of antioxidants and vitamins, with added vitamin E. It is "delicately perfumed with the fresh and velvety fragrance of the Grasse, Bulgarian, Moroccan and Turkish roses" (from their website). I can vouch for the fact that it has a distinct and quite strong rose fragrance, which I find pleasant and fresh and not too heavy or old fashioned. It smells authentic instantly recognisable as rose and natural not chemical. The scent lingers on the skin for some time after application, my daughter is very sensitive to smells and she doesn't like this one on initial application, although I don't think it's too heavy she does. However though the scent lingers within an hour it's down to a soft subtlety on the skin which even the youngest then quite likes.

The cream is a soft white, (I'll update this tomorrow, but it may even have a *very* subtle pink hint I just can't tell in the light of these low energy bulbs and I haven't used it in daylight yet!) and has a light almost cooling texture and it squeezes out of the screw top tube easily. It holds its shape softly until you spread it and rub it in. It sinks into the skin beautifully as do all L'Occitane's hand creams (that I have tried) with no trace of stickiness or slickness, leaving hands soft but dry to the touch so that you can do all those things hands need to do without fear of greasing anything up or loosing grip. I have to use about twice as much of this as richer creams to get the same effect, if I weren't concerned about the price I'd probably use a little less than a 10 pence piece sized amount, so the full sized tube wouldn't last me long using a few times a day.

My hands look instantly plumped and feel soothed and softened with a velvety texture. This feeling lasts for a while, but sadly not as long as the scent lasts. I don't feel that this hand cream holds up well against the richer 20% shea butter formulation, and I have to reapply more often than with some hand creams. Although I like this cream I wouldn't pay the price being asked for it as I feel other cheaper creams do the same job, and the scent while nice isn't gorgeous enough for me to buy this cream for that alone. I don't know whether the fragrance oils used in this don't agree with me but I find that my hands feel drier more quickly than with the Cherry Blossom one in the same formulation.

As seems to be no sun protection factors included in the cream, nor is it specifically designed for anti-ageing. Though some of the vitamins and minerals included in the formula are sometimes used for their anti-oxidant properties in other products and will provide the same benefits in this cream.

A lovely hand cream and a nice gift, but not one I would ever consider paying the full asking price for that for me is the main thorn with this rose.

NB This rose hand cream is not the same as L'Occitane's Dessert Rose version.