The Clarins Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil is one of Clarins cult product. It is, as the name would suggest, a face oil. There are 3 different oils in this range and the Blue Orchid one is dedicated to dehydrated skins.

This is what the Clarins website has to say about this product:

The oil comes in a 30mL  (1fl. Oz) glass bottle with a dropper dispenser (I looove droppers). Unsurprisingly it is a regular oil texture (that might seem like a useless remark but I’ve tested oils that felt silicon-y so I thought it was worth noting that this one is oily, olive oil kind of oily). I can’t say for sure what it smells like, I’d like to say orchids but really I’ve never smelled an orchid smelling like that so I would say the smell is patchouli but I'm not sure either. I’m not going to lie it is a kind of grandma smell, I happen to have gotten used to it and I now I quite like it.

This is the first time that really have a look at the ingredient list and though I have been using it for months and quite like it I realized that only 4 ingredients are describe safe on CosDNA and 6 are (potentially) not safe (but CosDNA can be tricky as in it does not take into account whether there is a lot or just a small quantity of one given ingredient, some essential oils appear as irritant and yes they are if used pure but are a lot less irritant used in very small quantity and mixed with other ingredients). It contains Hazelnut oil (an emollient and moisturizer) as well as Sunflower oil (an emollient that has skin repairing properties, it also has anti-inflammatory properties and is a rich source of fatty acids), it also contains a few antioxidants (amongst them blue orchid) but also contains 4 ingredients that could potentially be irritant (linalool, limonene, eugenol and patchouli essential oil) it might not mean anything since they mostly are last on the list but if you tend to have a sensitive skin that is a fact to consider, on my normal skin it is ok (but I only use two drops at the very last step of my routine) and I've not had any reaction to it. Another fact that I'm quite surprised about is that the Clarins website claims that there is rosewood in the formula, I can't find rose anything in the ingredients list (I don't have the box anymore and this information is not on the Clarins website so I used the ingredients list that can be found on beaute-test.com that seems to be the same as the one that can be found on CosDNA, maybe one of the ingredients is a derivative from rose I do not know, but yes that is that).

I like it a lot,I like to finish my skincare routine at night with an oil. I like to use light texture for my creams, serums and lotions and I much prefer using several light layers than a thick one, and I like to finish everything up with an oil to somehow seal everything in. I use two drops of this oil for my whole face and neck, I apply them on my hands,  warm the product by rubbing my hands together and the I press my hands lightly on my face. At first yes it does look oily but after about an hour a nice amount of it has been absorbed and when I wake up the day after my skin is just soft and not oily at all. Ever since I use this oil (that is the first oil I use on my face regularly (every night)) I have not had any dry patch.

I sometimes use it mixed with my face cream but I feel like this way it is not absorbed as well for some reason. I've also used it alone, wash my face, tone and 5 to 6 drops of the oil on days where I stay at home and it makes my skin super soft, I adore it.

I have once trie mixing it with my foundation (I have this one foundation that looks very dry on my skin) I mixed one drop of the oil with my usual amount of foundation it gives a much nicer looking finish for the foundation, though but the end of the day my forehead was starting to look very oily (but I did prefer this to the very dry look).

OVERALL

Pros:

*moisturizes well

*dropper makes it very clean to use

*helps with the dryness without being too oily (I wouldn't use it in the daytime though)

Cons:

*the smell might put some people off (I'm only putting it as a con for others because I like it)

*maybe not suited for sensitive skins

Note: 4/5 (just because it’s the first one I use regularly so I want to leave room in case I happen to find better later on).

Would I repurchase? I could, I won’t right now because I want to try other things but I do not reject the idea of buying it again.

Price: 42€ on Clarins.fr (57$ on the USA website) (I've been using every night for about 3 months now and as you can see in the picture I still have about all of it left, so it looks well priced to me)