LCN Guava Summer Hand Cream review

LCN recently launched two summer-themed hand creams, in Acai Berry (that's the new antioxidant-packed super berry from the Brazilian rainforest, if you haven't heard of it yet) and Guava varieties. They kindly sent me the Guava one to try out.

It comes in a small 50ml tube, which is perfect for keeping in your hand bag or your desk drawer at work. The plain white packaging with just a green leaf on the front is quite bland and boring, so when I squeezed a bit out on to my hand and saw that it was also white, I was a bit disappointed at the blandness.

Then the fabulous tropical scent hit my nostrils - wow ! It's a potent, summery, fruity fragrance that's really energising and mood-lifting. I have eaten guava in the past but can't really tell you what it smells like so the fragrance reminds me a bit of mango or tropical Starburst sweets ! It's refreshing, invigorating and instantly makes you feel smiley.

I rubbed it into my hands, where it was quickly absorbed, but still had a bit too much left over so I rubbed it into the skin on my arms up to the elbows. It left my skin feeling moisturised and nicely fragranced so I'll be taking this on holiday with us as a multi-purpose hand and body cream this summer. I initially thought it was going to fail the hand wash test (ie can I just go straight on to typing my review after application or do I have to go and wash my hands because of an overly greasy or sticky residue ?) but after just a few moments, it was totally absorbed into the skin with no unpleasant film.

Guava is exceptionally rich in vitamins, with a vitamin C content six times as high as that of an orange, so the fact that this hand cream contains guava extract has to be a good thing for your skin. Other lovely-sounding ingredients include soybean oil and psidium guajava leaf extract, although there a few slightly less reassuring things on the list that I've never heard of like methylisothiazolinone, tetrasodium iminodisuccinate and alkyl acrylate crosspolymer - in my experience, when they contain that many letters they're not entirely natural !

It's a lovely, fruity, nourishing cream that is perfect for the summer but that I would also use all year round because I love the summery, fruity fragrance so it's a shame it's a limited edition product.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £9.15

for more information : http://www.beautyconcepts.co.uk/direct/hands/details.asp?ProductItemID=4836&DirItemID=57

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