Wendy the Recruiter

So a couple of weeks ago Nikki Pilkington tweeted that she was looking for female, British bloggers to test and review some skincare products. I think that using bloggers to review and promote products / services is a fab idea and was up for the challenge! The idea is that you give away free samples of your product / service to people in your target market who blog. In return, they provide an honest review, links to your site and so on. The hope is that it will create a buzz, improve search engine rankings, give honest feedback from your target audience, and so on.

Now I don’t know who coined this idea, but the biggest campaign of this type that I’ve heard of personally is the Fiesta Movement. Ford basically picked 100 “Agents” to take ownership of their (not yet launched) Fiesta fox six months in exchange for their sharing their experiences (good and bad) on various social media sites. I’ve no idea what impact, if any, it has / will have on sales, but it certainly created some hype!

The biggest argument against this kind of marketing is that it’s risky and your product / service might get negative reviews, but anyone who’s tested and believes in their product shouldn’t have too much to worry about, plus it offers valuable feedback about any problems that might exist and helps you to better understand your potential target audience. Having studied Psychology (many moons ago), another aspect to consider is whether reviewers may be more inclined to be positive about the product / service because they’re, well, free! But I’m not sure I buy into that in most instances. Obviously receiving a Ford Fiesta for six months is one thing, but for most products / services you’re not talking about a huge incentive and I think that most people who partake will be honest and genuinely interested.

So onto my review…

The Review:

I was asked to undertake this trial by Nikki Pilkington for Riverbanks Clinic and agreed to partake because I’m a slave to the big name brands when it comes to skincare and cosmetics and it’s something that really interests me.

I was sent six sachets of Priori skincare goodies from Riverbanks, which were as follows:

• Gentle Facial Cleanser
• Perfection Facial Gel
• Invigorating Face and Body Scrub
• Smoothing Eye Serum
• Hand & Body Revitalizing Lotion
• Barrier Repair Complex

You can purchase them at the Riverbanks Clinic Store if you so desire.

My initial reaction was that the sachets looked smart, high-end and good quality. I thought initially that one sachet of this size for each product would probably not be enough to give a very honest review on but, it has to be said, the contents of each sachet was plenty generous and I actually got a pretty good feel of the products even from one use.

Though it was clear which part of the body everything was for, it wasn’t clear whether there was any particular order in which I should use things so, with the facial products, I went for scrub; cleanser; facial gel; repair complex and then eye serum.  

As mentioned earlier, I’m a bit of a slave to skincare products. I have pretty combination skin (oily T-zone and very dry cheeks) and used to be a Clarins devotee until a couple of years ago when I randomly developed rosacea. These days I use Liz Earle’s Cleanse & Polish with a regular and heavy slathering of SBC’s water-based Collagen Gel, which is about the only moisturiser in the history of the world that manages to keep my cheeks moisturised without giving me a vile, shiny T-zone. I’d say, from looking at the website, these products were a little bit above the price range of what I’d usually purchase, but not far off. They’d certainly be something I’d consider if I really liked them.

The Products:

I tried the Hand and Body Revitalizing Lotion first. I have to be honest; I was not very enamoured with the smell: It was slightly bitter and had an alcoholic scent to it. The texture was divine though – very silky. It glided onto my skin and was absorbed quickly without leaving a sticky or oily residue. In fact, a bit later on when I washed my hands, they still felt wonderful afterwards – powdery smooth, almost. So a VERY nice hand and body lotion… Apart from the smell!

Onto the Invigorating Face and Body Scrub. Now I’m cautious of anything that says it’s for face AND body… I’m used to having different products for each… But I concede that this could just me being brainwashed so I remained open-minded! In all honesty though, I did think it was perhaps a little harsh for my face. I mean, it was fine – I didn’t feel as though the whole top layer of skin had been taken off or anything. In fact, it did feel very clean and exfoliated afterwards, however it was a bit harsh in the application. Too grainy, if you will, though I also put a bit on my arm and it felt fine for that. The scent of this one was still nothing special, but much better than the hand lotion. A little citrusy and very inoffensive. So great for bodies but not totally sure about facial application…

The Gentle Facial Cleanser was back to the horrible smell (sadly) but also back to the divine silky texture of the hand lotion. My skin almost felt as though it didn’t need a moisturiser after using it and, with my skin, that’s really saying something! But oh the smell..!

The Perfection Facial Gel was the first sachet I really wasn’t keen on at all. Back to the alcoholic smell and, while it was fairly silky, it was just too alcoholic for my skin. It made my face tingle for ages afterwards and, when I got it on a (little) spot, it downright stung. And for a product that’s meant to be for problem/breakout skin, that just seems a bit crazy to me! It seemed to be lacking the luxuriousness of the other products and I ultimately washed it off.

The Barrier Repair Complex was really nice. The smell, again, while not as yummy as what I’ve come to expect from high-end products, was much better and we were back to the deliciously silky texture that just melted into my skin and left it feeling oh so moisturised. This stuff even made my hands feel divine just from rubbing it into my face. Really, really nice!

The Smoothing Eye Serum felt lovely to put on and had that delicious silky texture again, but it did make my eyes tingle which I was a bit wary of. It didn’t have the alcoholic smell at all and felt very light and delicate to touch, but I’m not sure… I don’t like stuff that makes my skin tingle! It did, however, do an absolutely sterling job of tightening the skin around my eyes and reducing the early morning puffiness though, so top marks for actual performance. Eye creams usually have very little affect on my eyes and this was really quite noticeable!

Summary:

On the whole, I was reasonably impressed with the products but the smell really let them down for me. And I have to say, I disliked it enough that it was a deal breaker in most cases and would put me off buying them. The best way I can describe it is like that P20 once-a-day suntan lotion stuff: An amazing product but you want to be wearing a nose plug while you’re applying it! The silky texture of most of the creams was unsurpassed though and felt so luxurious. If it weren’t for the smell, I would consider buying the hand/body lotion and the cleanser, but as they are I just couldn’t face that smell every day, sadly. I also really liked the eye serum but I’d want to find out a bit more about it before purchasing because, as I say, it did make my eyes tingle and I’m not really sure whether that’s a good or bad thing!