Beauty Clinic: Affordable skincare, please?

Q. I would like to find a good quality face cream for dry skin that costs, at most, £12 to £15. I prefer products that are as natural as possible. Does such a thing exist? A. We are very happy to say it does in the shape of Nivea, a household favourite brand for well over a century. The original Nivea crème, produced in Germany by pharmacist Carl Paul Beiersdorf, was first packaged in the iconic blue tin in 1925 and became a global best seller.

Since then, the range has grown and key among the skincare lines is Nivea Visage, which includes the Pure & Natural seven-product capsule collection. This includes Nivea Pure & Natural Day Cream, which comes in a version for Dry/Sensitive skin (also Normal/Combination), and costs around £4.99 for 50ml.

One happy devotee, who says this is her ‘favourite ever moisturiser’ commented that in a television programme where the Day Cream was compared with other, mostly much more expensive, moisturiser, this came out top for moisturisation. (We haven’t seen the programme so can’t confirm this.)

Apparently another fan is the Duchess of Cambridge who was spotted buying it hours before appearing at a gala charity dinner, in fact their first public engagement as a married couple.

For bedtime, Pure & Natural Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream comes in at £7.99 for 50ml, so for your budget you could buy both. (Do look for special offers; currently the products are greatly discounted on www.superdrug.com.)

The Pure & Natural range contains 95 per cent ingredients of natural origin and excludes most synthetic chemicals parabens, silicones, colourants and mineral oils.