L'occitane- A Review

It took me forever to learn how to pronounce this! May I present L'occitane (LOX-EH-TAHN). After hearing great things about this little french company, I decided there was no better time to try them out after receiving a coupon to redeem a free hand cream plus 15% off of my purchase (coupon is no longer available). The staff at my mall was extremely helpful and after explaining everything to me and letting me sample a ton of different products, I walked away with two hand creams and a bar of exfoliating almond soap even though i'm sure I could have purchased much, much more. The store is a bit overwhelming!

I chose the original 20% shea butter hand creams because I liked the scent best and according to the staff, it was the most moisturizing. The 1oz size retails for $10 and the large 5.2oz retails for $28. While I think it is a really lovely hand cream, it is very moisturizing and it does not leave the greasy/oily residue that I despise with a passion, I don't think it is necessarily worth the price. I can say though, since the product is so thick and moisturizing, a little goes a long way and so both size tubes will last a good while so it's not quite so bad.

The good news is that if you sign up for the VIP program, you will receive coupons and invitations and that definitely makes it worth going for. The cream itself is very rich and dense with a very pleasant almost baby powder like scent that I really enjoy. I literally couldn't stop smelling my hands! The best thing about this cream is that it lasted for awhile, even after a hand washing but it never felt sticky or greasy. Overall, I would re-purchase this hand cream, especially if I had a coupon and with the winter months coming up, we'll see just how good or bad this product is.

My next purchase was the exfoliating almond soap bar. At 1.7oz the bar is quite small but I think it's because it's supposed to be a sink soap rather than a shower soap. I really don't expect it to last over five showers but I will be pleasantly surprised if it does. It retails for $5. The packaging says, "This exfoliating soap sloughs away dead cells and helps stimulating skin microcirculation." It contains real almond shell pieces so if you have an allergy, stay far far away.

The soap has a really nice, clean milky smell and made me instantly think of the oatmeal milk & honey soap that I used as a child. When they say exfoliating, they mean it! I was surprised at how rough the almond pieces were but it didn't bother me and it left my skin feeling extremely soft. This is by far the best exfoliating product that I've used to date, I've used everything from scrubs, brushes and loofahs and this definitely beats them all.

Keep in mind that these products are really luxury items and not necessarily the best thing on the planet for you because they do contain parabens but, according to L'occitane they are in very low doses.

Overall, I am so glad that I got to try out this brand! Both of the products that I purchased are lovely and I will definitely be repurchasing this soap if nothing else, the hand cream I would probably only repurchase with a coupon. To get the best bang for your buck I suggest signing up for the free VIP program so at least you will get access to some really good promotions and it won't be quite so hard on the wallet.

Both of these products and more can be purchased at L'occitane En Provence

Much love xo