REVIEW! | Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

A few weeks ago, I was experiencing severely dry skin on my face when the temps dipped into the "Super Freezing Zone" (which, for Atlanta, is anything under 50 degrees).  I was browsing the beauty aisles of my local Target with my mom one Sunday when I spotted the Boots display.  After perusing the numerous night cream options, I settled on the Protect & Perfect Night Cream because it was described as a "rich moisturizing cream to help restore the skin overnight."  BINGO! - that's exactly what I needed to combat the flaky wasteland I had going on.

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream contains some of the same ingredients found in Boots' wildly popular Protect & Perfect Beauty Serum.  It's a creamy moisturizer that leaves your skin feeling smooth and hydrated before bed.  It takes longer to soak into my skin than my regular night moisturizer (CeraVe Facial Moisturizing Lotion PM), which is to be expected since it's a rich cream.

One thing I didn't expect?  The scent.  It reminds me a bit of Snuggle fabric softener and...cucumber sandwiches?  I know how crazy that sounds, but there's a definitely a savory note in the fragrance that's kind of bread-like when it dries down on my skin.  Fragrance smells differently on everyone, and unfortunately, on me this smells like lunch at a deli with freshly washed tablecloths!

Scent is such a personal thing; you may smell a fragrance on your friend and love it, but hate the way it smells on you.  Plenty of people think this night cream smells beautiful, and on them, it probably does.  It just doesn't react well with my personal pH balance.

More important than it's scent, does it work?  Does it restore hydration to your parched skin overnight? Yes, and it does that very well.

My skin has been much oilier than usual during the day in the 2 weeks that I've been using this product.  I use the cream only at night, and after washing my face in the morning and applying my usual a.m. moisturizer, my skin looks happy, hydrated, and flake-free.  However, a few hours after applying makeup, my t-zone is very oily. Even after blotting papers and a fresh layer of powder, my face (not just the t-zone) is oily again only a few hours later.  It's taking me back to high school when my skin was so oily it could've used a mid-day wash!  I can typically go until around 3:00 p.m. without needing to tamp down my t-zone shine with powder.  Since using this night cream, I've had to use blotting papers and powder 3-4 times a day to keep the shine in check.

This moisturizer contains Vitamins A and C, as well as peptides, but the jar packaging means these beneficial ingredients will lose potency quickly.  This product would be so much better if it were in a tube or pump so the ingredients wouldn't degrade from being exposed to air and bacteria from dipping your fingers into it.

Everyone's skin is different, and even though this cream wasn't a slam dunk for me, there are plenty of people that it could work really well for.  I think if your skin is very dry or you live in a colder climate with less humidity, this night cream could make you very happy.

While it did relieve my parched skin problems, it just made my face too oily.  The jar packaging and strong fragrance could be a deal-breaker for some.

Cost: $19.99 MSRP
Where to Buy: Drugstore.com, Target

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream

Boots No. 7 Protect & Perfect Night Cream