I was lucky enough to be selected on the trial team for this product!
The packaging is simple and elegant, with no fiddly nozzles and pumps that are prevalent with a lot of high end skincare products currently on the market. I like this because you can get every last drop of product out.
This day cream is thick and creamy in consistency, and light yellow in colour. It's scented, but I'm not a fan of the smell. It's sweet but not fresh, and for want of a better description, I'd say it has a "mature scent" which lingers and gets more intense as the product absorbs.
On application, the cream makes my skin look plump and hydrated by filling in the fine lines. It feels very rich and hydrating but also quite heavy on the face, like it never fully absorbs.
For the price point, this isn't the day cream for me. I have dry skin and this definitely helps hydrate it, but I prefer moisturizers with a gel consistency. The thick, creamy ones like the kotia cream tend to sit on top of my skin which made it feel like my make up was going to slide off my face! At the end of the day, my skin still felt hydrated but my makeup looked patchy, especially through my t-zone.
I'll be giving the remainder of this product to my lovely mum to test run. I think she'll like it for its SPF protection and elasticity.
I wasn't blown away by this product; it wasn't bad but wasn't amazing.
The packaging has been designed well, it's sleek and looks expensive and the colour and matte effect reflects that it's deer milk.
I know it's not a botanical based product so don't know why I was expected a floral smell, I guess because most day creams have an element of botanics in them. The smell wasn't unpleasant, it was subtle and I guess if it was heavily botanically scented it would probably be artificial and wouldn't reflect the natural element of the product. So this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't one of those creams that you smell and say "wow that's delicious".
The cream glided onto the skin like silk, it was smooth and felt buttery but did feel a little greasy on the skin. It felt quite heavy when applied and I waited some time for it to be absorbed before applying makeup but it didn't seem to soak in, it just sat quite greasy on the surface, so I used a powder to dry the moisture before applying makeup. This seems a little counter-intuitive as I hate to dry out a 'moisturising' day cream but it did make my skin quite shiny and greasy. It was more the consistency of a night cream - I expect a night cream to be a little heavier as no makeup is applied over the top and it's left to absorb for quite a few hours.
I did use it as night cream for a few nights and this seemed to be a lot better. On waking in the morning a lot of the cream had absorbed and just left a slight greasy layer. Is it most definitely hydrating!
Looking at the price online I feel that it is a little over-priced for the effect this cream had. If it wasn't so greasy and smelled a little more neutral it would probably be more justified.
However it does get some bonus points for the SPF as I wouldn't use a day cream without an SPF with our strong New Zealand sunshine!
All in all this day cream was not hideous, I just wouldn't go out and buy it.
Tips: It's quite greasy so apply sparingly.