Dior HydrAction Deep Hydration Rich Creme

I'm reviewing the Dior HydrAction Deep Hydration Rich Creme today. It retails for $54.00 for 1.7 oz. You can find it at most department stores that carry Dior skincare like Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom, as well as Sephora.

This product is formulated for dry skin and claims to improve your skin's ability to replenish and retain moisture by "creating an invisible veil that limits water evaporation on the skin's surface" and an "in-depth action on irrigation." The little pamphlet it comes with uses a lot of complicated terminology to explain this moisturizer. I'm just going to type some of it up here for you...

"- Instantly, your skin looks beautifully radiant. The revolutionary Aquacapt complex increases and reinforces the impalpable invisible water reserves at the surface of the epidermis. Skin is immediately fresh and moisturized.
- In the long term, your skin is more supple, lastingly comfortable. Aquaporin technology contributes to a cutaneous irrigation system which helps promote better water circulation between cells. It improves water movement allowing the deep reserves to move towards the skin's upper layers for extreme and long lasting comfort."

I'm assuming that Dior means to say this moisturizer has two purposes--to trap water and hydrate the skin's outer surface, and also improve the skin's ability to retain moisture....but by moving water from inside your body to the surface of your skin? I don't think any moisturizer is capable of doing that...sounds quite gimmicky.

This moisturizer comes in a huge oval glass jar with a plastic cap. It is very bulky and heavy. I don't like the cap that much, and it doesn't always twist back on properly because of the shape. I would probably like this better if it were in a round jar, but Dior's oval packaging is their signature, so I don't see this changing anytime soon.

This moisturizer is not that heavy, considering it's a cream. It smells absolutely amazing, very much like rose petals. The texture of the cream is very creamy and well blended. A little moisturizer goes on a long way and it spreads very nicely. If you dot a pea size on each section of your face and blend it in, it will absorb very quickly. The cream feels extremely luxurious and comforting when applying it to your skin, and it smells so wonderful that I feel like I'm pampering my skin in a fluffy blanket of moisture, haha.

I've been using this as a day and night cream. At night, I like my moisturizer to be a little thicker, so I apply a thin layer first and wait for it to completely absorb. Then, I apply another layer of the cream so I can feel it actually sitting on my skin. I apply it twice because I've noticed that in the morning, when I wake up, all the moisturizer has been absorbed into my face (or maybe mysteriously rubbed off in the night), and my surface skin actually feels dry and unsmooth. When I rinse my face in the morning, I can feel remnants of it being washed off, but I don't like how it doesn't keep my skin fully hydrated and plump during my 8 hours (or less) of sleep.

I've been using this for about a month. I originally bought this cream because I was having trouble with dryness and I saw this cream had really great reviews on Sephora, Makeup Alley, and other places on the internet. As I get older, my skin gets drier and is prone to a lot of little flakes. I have been hunting for a moisturizer that isn't too thick, but will still get rid of the flakes, since we're moving into the summer season soon. I don't think this moisturizer got rid of my flakes at all. If anything, I have to credit my other products like the Laura Mercier Face Polish for getting rid of my dry patches and flakes. I also don't notice any long term benefits occuring with this moisturizer. My skin doesn't look any more radiant or glowy, like it did with the Bare Escentuals RareMinerals Purely Nourishing Facial Moisturizer. The Dior HydrAction Deep Hydration Rich Creme doesn't seem to help my skin's ability to "retain moisture" either.

I have to be one of the few naysayers and say I believe this product is only intended for people who want an "instant quenching" effect, because this cream really does feel so nice when you're putting it on, and I do experience a little bit of plumping. So I do agree with the first bullet point I copied from the product description. However, the second bullet I disagree with, because there are no palpable long term benefits. My skin isn't getting firmer, it's not feeling increasingly hydrated all the time, and it doesn't look more radiant. I wouldn't buy this moisturizer unless you're someone looking for a cream to use as a temporary mask for sunburns, windburns, sensitivity, and things like that. I also would not recommend using this around the eyes. It does sting my eye and I teared quite a bit when I tried to double it up as an eye cream. I think this product would better suit people with actually oily to oily combination type skin, despite it's dry skin type labeling. This product also doesn't have any ingredients listed on the box or anywhere online...I wonder if it contains any beneficial ingredients at all?

Ultimately, I'm going to be returning this cream, because it's really not worth the money for what I'm looking for. I'll look into some other moisturizers and hopefully find something that works much better.