This love letter should really be made out to all the Ocinium products I have been (delicately) slapping on my face for the past 6 months, but as it stands, this section is called “product of the week” and not “group of products of the week” and, outside of being a dangerous jay-walking pedestrian, I am a goddamn stickler for the rules. As such, I am going to limit today’s sweet nothings to the Ocinium Metamorphis Multi-Vitamin Cream.

I first started using the Metamorphis Multi-Vitamin Cream last December — a great month for social calendars, bottle shops, and cheese suppliers everywhere, and a terrible time for bank accounts, livers and my poor, dehydrated skin. I’m almost at the end of my first bottle, and while I loathe goodbyes, this means my metamorphosis is almost complete. Unlike Franz Kafka’s protagonist, my transformation has not taken the form of a huge, monstrous, insect-like creature. Instead, I am becoming a glowing, more hydrated version of my former, human-like self.

Alongside retinol, this truly magic cream contains vitamin C, niacinamide, and vitamin E, all of which have helped to pull my stressed skin out of its dry little rut. The rest of the ingredient list reads as if Ocinium looked in on all my green beauty dreams and then made them a reality — there’s aloe vera, coconut oil, green tea extract, safflower seed oil, rose geranium oil, jojoba oil, and shea butter, to name a few of the more recognisable ingredients. All this natural goodness has provided the perfect respite to all the power peels and foundations I’ve been indulging in of late.

Like all my favourite products, the moisturiser is super lightweight and doesn’t make my combo skin any more shiny than it naturally is, while taking on the arduous task of keeping it thoroughly hydrated. It also reminds me of my nan’s iconic lemon tarts. Any natural product that smells like a zesty dessert my angel nan routinely makes is one that will have a place in my heart, and beauty cabinet, forever.

Words, Madeleine Woon.