Interesting one this; I didn’t actually want to like it because it was £20. Not that I’m against paying £20 for a moisturiser, as you well know! (Or £50, or £100, or £150 for that matter – it all depends on how good it is and how crazy I’m feeling!)  No, the reason I baulked at the price is more because the packaging (and the cream itself) just didn’t feel like £20’s worth. It felt more like the lovechild of a bumper-tub of E45 and a Soap & Glory ‘spa’ product – both brilliant/attractive/effective enough in their own right, but not worth £20.

Then I realised that the tub contained a whopping 170g of product! That’s well over three times the amount that you would expect to get in a normal jar of cream. If it was a standard 50ml, it would cost just £5.88. Which is incredibly good value. The formula contains no parabens or artificial colourings and it’s suitable for sensitive skin. The idea is that it helps to sooth and heal distressed skin (think dry, extremely dry, irritated, itchy, etc) providing immediate relief.

It is very soothing upon application – the active ingredient in this cream is Oatmeal, and you can’t go far wrong with Oatmeal. It did absorb quite nicely into my skin but I must confess that I got rather a lot of those ‘rolly’ bits coming off all over the place, which I always find a little disconcerting. Nevertheless, it does a great job of hydrating in a gentle way and I can imagine that this might be an excellent one to try if you have very dry but sensitive skin. It’s not in the same league as Avene’s Rich Compensating Cream, but then it’s around a third of the price, ml for ml!

This hasn’t blown me away – there’s nothing outstanding about it, but it’s a nice soothing cream to have on standby as an aftersun or a night cream for overly dried-out skin. The main reason that it has made it into these pages is its price – considering that you only need a tiny bit at a time, this could last for years.

Ultra Repair Cream is £20 from Boots.